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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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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