English Comparisons LOOKS LIKE vs SEEMS

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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 comes from silver

way again hi again silver way silver way

says hi Alicia could you please tell me

the meaning of the word you use so much

in your lessons nuance does it mean

difference or something else oh yeah

sure so nuance means small difference or

for like vocabulary for language

learning it means like suggested meaning

so another way to think about nuance is

like like it’s a color so if we imagine

the color red we can understand what red

means but inside Reb there are many

different types of red right so we can

imagine a nuance is like one of those

types of red it’s like one way of

understanding something so a sentence

like I’m not interested in him or I’m

not interested in her this means like

interest yes we see interest in that

word but the nuance of this phrase the

feeling of this phrase is like romantic

interest I’m not romantically interested

in him I’m not romantically interested

in her so that’s an example of nuance so

we understand like the category interest

but the nuance the small difference in

meaning is about like romantic like

relationships in this case so yes nuance

means small difference in meaning for

this channel it can also mean small

difference in flavor in food for example

or like small differences in facial

expressions so another example sentence

might be we can communicate nuances

through our body language and facial

expressions so nuance means small

difference in meaning I hope that that

helps you and yes that word gets used a

lot on this channel thanks very much for

the question let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from Agins

Ilan diagon’s again said hi Alicia can

you explain the difference between seems

looks like yeah sure let’s start with

looks like there are actually two

patterns for it looks like I want to

talk about this

a looks like B pattern first we use this

when we want to talk about something

that has a similar or the same

appearance as something else a looks

like B so like that cloud looks like a

rabbit your brother looks like a mouse

so these patterns mean that thing a or

person a has a similar appearance to

thing B or person B so that’s the first

meaning of looks like the first way we

use it the second way that we use looks

like is to talk about guesses that we

make based on visual information so

information we get with our eyes so when

we can see something and make a guess

about it we can use looks like for

example it looks like it’s gonna rain or

it looks like your dog is pretty hungry

so we can see something that gives us

information about what might happen next

or we can make a guess about the

situation using something we can see

okay so with that in mind let’s continue

to seems we use seems yes to make

guesses sure just like what looks like

the second meaning of looks like but we

use seams for things that we cannot

quickly check we cannot quickly confirm

his new girlfriend seems nice

are you okay you seem really tired today

so you can use seams for guesses that

you make based on things you can see yes

but I think it sounds more natural to

use looks like in those cases so it

seems is used for stuff that we can’t

quickly check but maybe we don’t get

that information based just on stuff we

can see so I hope that this helps you

thanks very much for the question all

right let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from Felipe

yucca mozi again - ep

Felipe says could you explain the

pronunciation differences between the

following words one then and van and -

sure

and sure okay sure so let’s start with

the first pair of words then and van

then van so maybe it’s a little easier

to hear when speaking slowly the

difference is then van but actually

another good way that you can kind of

discover which word is being used is to

consider the way the word is used in the

sentence so it’s not the native speakers

are listening to each word separately

we’re listening to the whole sentence so

we’re not just paying attention to one

sound but we’re thinking of the way the

sentence is made so you’ll see van used

a lot in comparative sentence structures

examples I like dark colors more than

light colors we should buy more drinks

and snacks she said your dessert was

better than all the others so you can

see here that all of these sentences use

a comparison we’re saying something is

better than something else so we know

that van is being used there but even

though we’re saying it really quickly

and it sounds like then we understand

the correct spelling because of the

grammatical structure of the sentence

let’s compare this to how then is used I

have to go to the office this morning

then I’m going to the airport we saw a

movie then ate dinner he broke up with

his girlfriend last week he seemed

pretty sad since then okay so you can

see that these are not comparative

sentences the first two examples are

like sequence examples so one thing

happened another thing happened after

that so we use then to show that in the

last example sentence we’re using then

to refer to a period of time

so you’ll notice then that like the

positioning of the words the grammatical

function of the words these are

different so again you can listen rather

to the whole structure like the way the

sentence is made instead of focusing

just on those sounds than and then

regarding your second question about

Shore and sure these have different

sounds in American English though they

could have very similar sounds in

British

English again just listen for the ways

these words are used sure is a word that

would probably be used when talking

about the beach or someplace near a body

of water

sure is used to express agreement or to

ask a question like are you sure sure so

think about the ways these words are

used not just their individual

pronunciations I hope that this helps

you thanks for the question okay let’s

move on to your next question next

question comes from Diana hi Diana Diana

says hi Alicia could you explain the

subjunctive mood oh yeah subjunctive

mood is a pretty big topic actually to

speak about it quite generally we use

subjunctive mood to talk about like

unreal situation so like wishes

possibilities suggestions like making

demands also an important point to note

is that the subjunctive mood is not a

tense it’s not a tense it’s rather like

kind of a a way of communicating unreal

information it’s sort of like it follows

its own grammatical rules so let’s look

at a few examples in the subjunctive

mood I wish I were there to celebrate

your birthday with you if I were you I

would look for a new job

we demand he give us a refund so in each

of these example sentences the

subjunctive mood is used to communicate

something that’s not real so we see a

wish in the first example sentence an

unreal situation in the second one we’re

seeing like a piece of advice for an

unreal situation and the third one is a

request or a demand this is considered

unreal because the demand like the thing

being requested or demanded has not

happened yet or it may not happen so

subjunctive mood is not so commonly used

actually because it is kind of difficult

to use for many people it has like its

own grammatical rules which you can see

a good example of in the third example

sentence here like we demand he give us

a refund like there in most sentences we

would be required to conjugate the

• gives like he gives something but when

we’re using the subjunctive mood it

takes on this kind of grammar he give us

a refund so it is kind of tricky it is a

bit complex the subjunctive I would

suggest if you’re interested in learning

more about the subjunctive and how to

make statements like this start by

learning a few of the common patterns so

by that I mean like the if I were or I

wish I were so those are the first two

example sentences here those are some

great patterns that you can use to start

making subjunctive mood sentences other

things can get a little bit trickier

getting into like some future perfect

tense statements in the subjunctive mood

but maybe I can make a whiteboard video

or two about that in the future so I

hope that this gives you kind of an

introduction to the subjunctive mood

thanks very much for the question all

right let’s move on to the next question

next question comes from Raja hot

kanhaiya’s hot water hot says hi Alicia

what is the meaning of the word gee-whiz

and how can we use it in our everyday

life situations sure so a g-wiz is an

old-fashioned word that means wow cool

amazing but it’s very old-fashioned it

sounds like something people said in

like the 1950s in the US we really don’t

use this word now it’s something we

would only use if we want to sound

sarcastic or if we want to make a joke

so if you use this now you’re probably

going to sound sarcastic like a raise

gee whiz thanks free tickets to

Disneyland gee whiz like it just sounds

really silly it sounds silly even giving

these example sentences so I wouldn’t

really recommend using this in everyday

life these days just because it does

sound old-fashioned and it sounds more

like a joke but it really means Wow or

amazing or cool so I hope that that

helps you thanks for the question okay

that’s everything that I have for you

for this week thanks as always for

watching of course if you want to send

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/ ask - Alicia also if you liked the

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already thanks very much for watching

this week’s episode of ask Alisha and I

will see you again next week bye bye

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