Difference between USED TO and USED FOR Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them

maybe first question this week comes

from Pullum hypu alum who alum says hi

Alicia I would like to know the

differences between the verb to be and

to become for example which one is

correct I want to be a teacher or I want

to become a teacher

thanks both of these are correct

actually so in this case to be and

become have the same meaning but become

tends to sound more formal like if you

say I want to become a teacher

it sounds a bit more formal than saying

I want to be a teacher it’s also easier

to say I want to be a teacher so you can

use them in the same way when you’re

talking about becoming something else or

when you’re talking about something

turning into something else I want to be

can be used in more casual expressions

another example would be like I want to

be rich someday or I want to become rich

someday so I want to be rich sounds more

casual it’s more commonly used than I

want to become rich but they communicate

the same idea so I hope that this helps

you thanks very much for the question

okay let’s go on to your next question

next question comes from Israel Diaz hi

Israel Israel says what’s the difference

between used to or used to and used for

okay well it kind of depends on your

sentence so used to or used to like I

said that when I read the question so

depending on the sentence this word or

this phrase rather can take different

meanings so used to can mean something

that you did in the past like I used to

play golf or I used to eat pancakes for

breakfast every morning or I used to go

to the forest to go hiking with my

family every summer I used to do

something that refers to a past activity

that’s no longer true used to however

talks about the purpose of something so

like this phone is used to make calls or

like this camera is used to record video

so we use used to before a verb so this

thing is used to do that so that’s

talking about the purpose of something

then used for is similar it’s also

talking about purpose but we’re

following the expression with a noun

instead of a verb so like this phone is

used for phone calls this camera is used

for videos so we’re following the

expression with a noun instead of a verb

so depending on the sentence used to or

used to they’re spelled the same will be

read differently and it will have

different grammatical functions used to

and used for have the same purpose but

we have to make slight changes to our

grammar after that expression so I hope

that this helps you understand the

differences thanks very much for the

question

ok let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from dong Fang again

hi dong Fang dong Kong says as hi Alicia

I’m an English Learner from China what

does it mean when someone says I’m not

practicing the law anymore I heard this

sentence in one of my favorite drama is

called better call Saul I understand the

sentence but I’m a little confused about

the word practice here is this a common

use yeah this is a really nice question

great catch so practice is a very

special verb that we use in certain jobs

certain professions so commonly this is

doctors and lawyers that use this word

so they use the word practice before

their field of expertise and it just

means do or to be active in their

practice so in this case and better call

Saul it’s practicing law or I’m not

practicing law that means I’m not

actively doing like legal work right now

I’m not active as a lawyer right now a

doctor could say like I’ve been

practicing medicine

six years that means I’ve been active as

a doctor for six years so practice here

does not mean like practicing doing

something it means actively

participating in that job so again this

is very specific for a couple of

different jobs like lawyers and doctors

so very specific word nice catch and

thank you so much for this question hope

that helps you okay let’s move on to

your next question next question comes

from silver way high against silver way

silver way says hi Alicia

what does I’m blown away mean oh yeah

okay I’m blown away can mean I’m

surprised or like I’m shocked so it’s

kind of it tends to be more of like a

positive expression like I’m blown away

by all the questions you guys send or

like I was blown away by how good that

dinner was or like I was blown away when

I saw that my best friend had decided to

get a mohawk so it’s like something is

surprising or shocking or both maybe and

you can actually use it for negative

situations as well you can also use this

in past tense like well that blew me

away that movie blew me away so it just

means shock surprised if something bad

happens like someone is really rude you

could say like wow that person just blew

me away

or like I was so surprised at how rude

that person was so I hope that that

helps you understand the phrase to be

blown away thanks very much for the

question all right let’s move on to your

next question next question comes from

Pruthvi johnny hype Ruthie Pruthvi says

hi Alicia what is the difference between

lot of and plethora of plethora is kind

of a formal and rarely used word so a

plethora of something means lots and

lots of something yes but we tend to use

it for like extravagant situations so

like for example the researchers

discovered a plethora of treasures in

the Egyptian King’s tomb we really don’t

use this so much in everyday speech it

sounds too formal

in most cases but again if you’re

talking about something that’s like

really kind of big and extravagant you

might use the word plethora to describe

that a plethora of something so I hope

that this helps you understand the word

plethora thanks very much for the

question

so that’s everything that I have for

this week thanks as always for sending

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for some other things that can help you

with your English Studies thanks very

much for watching this week’s episode of

ask Alicia and I will see you again next

week bye bye using the movie the three

amigos Steve Martin yeah do you remember

a plethora of pinatas there’s a whole

scene there where they talk about

they’re talking about a party that’s

coming up and they’re like did you get

the pinatas for the party and they’re

like see see then and then they’re like

how many pinatas did you get would you

say that you got a plethora of pinatas

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