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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 Nick hi

Nick Nick says hi Alicia

what does to roll mean in this context

sugar was rare too if you could offer

guests a feast

featuring spices sugar and vegetables

from the new world you were rolling is

it about madness or poverty oh yeah

great question

so to roll or like to be rolling means

to have a lot of money so the image here

is that you have so much money that you

can roll your body around in the money

like you are so rich you could roll in

it so like we will sometimes say he’s

rolling or she’s rolling or they’re

rolling which means they’re rolling in

money she inherited a lot of money from

her family she’s rolling

they bought a huge house last year and

this summer they bought a yacht they

must be rolling in dough okay so I hope

that this helps you understand the word

roll thanks very much for the question

all right let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from give

or Gauss Tia and I give org give org

says what’s the difference between gonna

and gada and where should I use them

okay gonna is the short form of going to

I’m gonna go to the store he’s gonna

leave early we’re gonna watch a movie

gotta is the short form of got to which

means have to so like I have got to

means I have to do something but native

speakers will often drop the the have

part the contracted form of half in

speech so we’re supposed to say I’ve

gotta which is the contracted form of I

have got to but we often drop the sound

in quick speech so it sounds like I

gotta or we gotta we do however keep it

when the subject is he or she or it’s

because it’s easy to say quickly so some

examples I got a go

he’s got to leave we got to work so

because gonna is like the reduced form

of going to we use it to talk about

upcoming plans and because gotta is like

the reduced form of got to meaning have

to we use gotta to talk about upcoming

responsibilities so I hope that this

helps you understand the difference

between the two thanks very much for the

question okay let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from Benny

hi Benny Benny says hi Alicia could you

please tell me which forms are correct

hey I learned English in the morning B

I’ve learned English in the morning C

I’ve been learning in the morning D I

was learning in the morning to a we will

be eating dinner when he arrives B we

will be eating dinner when he arrived

okay I’m gonna stop here for your

question because it’s quite long so

before I talk about my responses to

these I also want to say that I’m going

to use the word study the verb study

instead of learn to answer this question

so you’ve used learn in your example

sentences but we use the word learn when

we have finished learning something so

like I learned how to use a computer or

I learned how to do something we’re

finished with that so for that reason

I’m going to use study instead of your

original learn here so study sounds more

natural so with that in mind the correct

answers are the correct sentences here

our sentences a and D B and C both use

forms of the present perfect tense

sentence B uses just kind of a regular

present perfect so I have studied in the

morning that sounds strange because

we’re using a specific point in time in

the morning plus present perfect tense

and we don’t use those two together

really so we use present perfect tense

when we want to talk about general life

experience so we could say for example

like yeah I’ve studied English before so

before just means sometime before now so

sometime in the past yeah I’ve studied

English before so that’s okay

but we would not use in the morning a

specific time the second sentence see

there is also strange even though we’re

using the continuous form the present

perfect continuous form because it’s

like something that is continuing yes

but we have it at a specific point in

time so like I’ve been studying in the

morning we use the present perfect

continuous with like for and since to

talk about the time when an action

started we talk about the specific point

when the action started so in this case

you’re talking about an action that is

finished it’s done

so it sounds strange to use in the

morning and it’s grammatically incorrect

you could say I’ve been studying since

10:00 this morning or I’ve been studying

for three hours this morning those are

fine when you want to talk about a

duration of time and you want to talk

about the point in time where you

started that thing so only sentence a

and sentence D are correct you could

change sentence B and sentence C but you

would change the meaning a little bit

onto your second question then this is a

quick answer the correct one is he

arrives he arrives this is because

arrive is connected to he so when you’re

using he or she or it you need to use

arrives so when you’re using I you or we

there is no change to the verb so he

arrives she arrives it arrives I you we

arrive so I hope that that helps you you

had one more question

which was this Michael said yeah that

was a new one for me as well I hope I

don’t have to do that again can I use

this instead of that um and really the

answer is it depends on the situation so

if in this case Michael is gesturing and

pointing to something like ah that was a

new one for me or this was a new one for

me I hope I don’t have to do this again

and we can clearly see what’s this then

it’s okay to use this here if it’s just

general and he’s not gesturing or

anything to clearly show us what this or

that is it sounds more natural to use

that so the answer is it depends

but if you can clearly show the other

person what you’re talking about sure

you can use this especially when you’re

gesturing you’re pointing at something

so I hope that this helps you thanks

very much for all your questions alright

let’s move on to the next question next

question comes from mohamed abdel hakim

hi mohamed mohamed says are you using me

from my brain what does this mean you

mentioned this in 100 phrases every

english beginner must know yeah okay I

was making a small joke here actually so

there’s a really common like complaint

or a really common problem that you

sometimes hear in couples who are in

romantic relationships so if one person

or maybe both people I don’t know

has just a really strong physical

attraction to somebody what there might

be a complaint where someone says like

are you using me for my body this is a

common complaint in a relationship where

a person thinks it’s only physical this

person only cares about my physical

appearance they say are you using me for

my body so I was making a joke in that

one and saying are you using me for my

brain to suggest that someone could just

be interested in like the things that I

think so it’s not actually like a joke I

was just making a twist on a common

complaint I can’t quite remember but I

feel like in that video I was maybe

talking about like relationships or

something similar but I wanted to twist

the joke a little bit to make it about

like knowledge I don’t know so it’s not

actually funny I was just twisting a

very common complaint so I hope that

this helps you thanks for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from silver way high

again silver way silver way says hi

Alicia I want to ask about the

expression things couldn’t be better

does this mean in the past or can I use

it to mean for the time being like in

the present yeah this is a present tense

expression so when you say things

couldn’t be better it means right now

it’s not possible for my life to be

better so that means things are great so

yes couldn’t is being used here but it

means things now could not be

better it’s not possible for things to

be better so for example like hey how

are things

Oh could it be better work is going

great and I have a vacation coming up

soon or hey how’s the family

could it be better everyone’s happy and

healthy so that means like it’s not

possible to improve more it’s not

possible for things to be better so we

say couldn’t be better now that’s a

present tense expression thanks very

much for the question hope that that

helps all right that’s everything that I

have for this week thank you as always

for sending your questions remember you

can send them to me at English class

101.com slash ask - Alicia of course if

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other things that can help you with your

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thanks very much for watching this

week’s episode of ask Alisha and I will

see you again next week bye bye want to

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