Whats the Difference between AMONG and BETWEEN Basic English Grammar
wanna speak real English from your first
lesson sign up for your free lifetime
account at English class 101.com
hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and I answer them
maybe first question this week comes
from chin hi chin chin says hi Alicia
what is the difference between prior to
something and before something Thanks
generally prior to something sounds more
formal than before something so for
example I met the director prior to the
conference and I met the director before
the conference so before the conference
sounds much more casual sounds much more
conversational than prior to the
conference prior to sounds much more
businesslike we might see this in
written documents like contracts or
agreements that kind of thing you might
also see it in like formal business
notes like meeting minutes that kind of
thing but they have the same meaning
just slightly different feels so I hope
that this helps you thanks for the
question let’s move on to your next
question next question comes from
Yoshitaka horikoshi hi again yes taka
Yoshitaka says hi Alicia I watched the
movie Zootopia I have a question what is
the difference in nuance between give in
and give up yeah a nice question to give
in means to finally agree to something
so we use this in situations where
someone has like asked us for something
many many times or like we are pushed or
like pressured to do something so even
if there’s not a request if we have like
a strong feeling like a craving for
something or a strong desire to do
something and we finally decide to do it
or we finally agree to something someone
has been asking of us we can use give in
to describe that I gave in and bought my
kids a dog don’t give in to your
late-night cravings for food so you’ll
notice in these examples especially in
the first example we don’t talk about
how someone has been asking us for
something for a long time just choosing
to use the phrasal verb give in shows
that there has been like repeated
requests
in the past so give in has this meaning
of to finally agree to something to give
up however means to finally quit
something to finally stop doing
something there are actually two ways to
use to give up so we use to give up with
to give up on and just to give up
so some examples I gave up on my blog
and started gardening this year I want
to give up smoking okay so we see these
two patterns to give up on something and
just to give up something so when we
give up on something it’s usually
something we had like an expectation for
in my example sentence it was I gave up
on my blog in this case like I had some
kind of expectation I wanted my blog to
be great there I wanted to make
something interesting but I couldn’t or
I decided to stop after a long period of
trying without this on though like I
gave up smoking or I want to give up
smoking it means I want to stop that
thing and it’s usually for like a bad
habit or something that’s kind of
unhealthy for us so I like to give up
junk food or to give up drinking or like
in my example to give up smoking so
these are things that maybe we do as bad
habits and we want to stop so to give up
something or to give up on something is
to finally quit something after a long
time to give in however refers to
finally agreeing to something so there
are very subtle but important
differences between these two phrasal
verbs so I hope that that helps you
thanks very much for the question let’s
move on to your next question next
question comes from Ari hi Ari ari says
how can we use though at the beginning
of a sentence does it have the same
meaning as when it’s at the end of a
sentence yes the meaning is the same
let’s compare with a few examples though
he had no money he went shoe shopping
he went shoe shopping though he had no
money he had no money he went shoe
shopping though ok so the first two
examples here are quite formal sounding
especially the first one so starting
with the word though at the beginning of
the sentence
sounds quite formal though he had no
money he went shoe shopping
this is probably a sentence we would not
use in everyday conversation it sounds
very polite very formal the second
sentence using though to connect these
two ideas at the middle sounds a little
bit more casual but still has a polite
feel in general though does sound a bit
more polite so in the last example
sentence we see though at the end of a
sentence so this is a very common
position for though in everyday speech
you may also see though shortened to th0
especially in like texts and like social
media posts so people put tho in this
position a lot for very casual
expressions so to answer your question
the meaning remains the same it has the
same function it just sounds a little
bit more casual to put it at the end of
a sentence I hope that this helps you
thanks very much for the question
ok let’s move on to your next question
next question comes from Asif Mahmud hi
us if Asif says what is the difference
between among and between for example
according to your video the difference
between look watch and see the sentence
is correct but how ok so yes we can use
between for more than two objects but
the object should belong to the same
category so in that example in the video
title example look watch and see those
are three verbs and they all have like
similar meanings so those verbs together
form kind of like a category we can
understand that they’re somehow similar
or somehow related if though I decided
to make a statement or make a sentence
like what’s the difference between cat
singing and luxury it’s like what those
things they don’t belong to any category
their words yes but they’re not verbs
they’re not mounds they’re not
adjectives they don’t seem to have any
relationship it would sound really
strange so we use difference between
when we’re talking about things that
kind of belong to the same group or the
same category and we use between when we
list those things individually so in the
video example we list
look watch and see so we know each item
that we’re going to talk about there we
use among in more formal situations and
we use it when we’re talking about like
one individual like one person or one
object that’s inside or like in a
situation where they’re surrounded by
many other objects that are all the same
so for example a great one would be like
we walked among the trees so in that
example there are lots and lots of trees
and we are different we as people in
this situation are walking among them so
there’s something different that’s like
inside this kind of homogeneous which
means everything is the same condition
so here you’ll also notice that with
among we’re using an uncountable noun in
the plural form we’re not talking about
individual trees we’re using trees there
so it’s kind of like one group of things
we’re not focusing on the individuals
necessarily there are many individuals
yes but we want to focus on the group
let’s look at one more example please
choose from among these options so here
we see options in the plural form so
that means there are many different
options and we want to express rather
formally that there are many different
things for someone to choose from so
when we use among keep in mind it’s used
with formal situations more formal
situations kind of polite ER speech we
use it with uncountable nouns and we
tend to refer to like a group of things
so something that we can understand us
being in a group when we’re using
between we’re talking about things that
belong to the same category and we want
to focus on the individual parts of
those things in the category so I hope
that this helps answer your question
there will also be a whiteboard video
about the differences between among and
amid and between out on the channel soon
so please keep an eye out for that
thanks very much for your question okay
let’s move along to the next question
next question comes from Jenna d hi
Jenna D Jenna G says is there a
difference between because of and due to
in meaning
usage would you please explain yeah
because of can sound a bit rougher
especially if you’re saying because of
you so for example we lost the game
because of you or because of you were
late to the airport so that can sound
really aggressive
so because of sometimes sounds quite
rough so we might use it very carefully
in interpersonal situations like when
we’re talking to other people and like
blaming someone for something it can
sound aggressive do - on the other hand
sounds much more polite it sounds more
like a statement of fact so for example
due to rain today’s event has been
cancelled our success was due to our
team’s hard work
so due to sounds more like a positive
version of because of so because of can
have this kind of rough feel so if
you’re ever not sure you can say due to
there’s another expression which is
thanks to as well so thanks to expresses
your appreciation if you want to see a
few more example sentences and some
other ways to use these expressions you
can check out the because of vs. thanks
to video that’s on the YouTube channel
as well so I hope that this helps answer
your question thanks very much for
sending it ok that’s everything that I
have for this week so thank you as
always for sending your questions
remember you can send them to me at
English class 101.com / ask - alicia of
course if you liked this week’s video
please don’t forget to give it a thumbs
up subscribe to our channel if you
haven’t already and check us out at
English class 101.com
for some other things that can help you
with your English Studies thanks very
much for watching this week’s episode of
ask Alisha and I will see you again soon
bye bye
want to speed up your language learning
take your very first lesson with us
you’ll start speaking in minutes and
master real conversations sign up for
your free lifetime account just click
the link in the description