Hacks to Improve Your 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 Ali all

Harvey hi Ali Ali says hi Alicia I saw

your channel on YouTube and I like your

videos but I don’t know which playlist I

should start from and what playlist I

should watch second thanks for helping

sure so depending on your level I would

recommend different video series if you

are a beginner I would recommend

starting with the English in three

minutes series so these are short videos

about three minutes long and they teach

you basic phrases that you can use like

hi how are you where are you from and so

on like talking about your hobbies so if

you’re a beginner I recommend starting

with this playlist the English in three

minutes playlist then after you finished

that playlist I recommend checking some

of the whiteboard videos that are on the

channel so some of these have like

really good basic grammar introductions

so to start with I would suggest the

simple present tense simple past tense

the present perfect tense video I would

also recommend you start looking at some

of the other grammar related videos on

the channel so some of the whiteboard

videos are kind of vocabulary points or

maybe they’re about specific situations

I would suggest you focus on the grammar

related videos first because they can

give you kind of a base to build the

rest of your studies on so focus in on

your grammar videos first after that I

would suggest you move to maybe some top

words videos so the top word series is

vocabulary based in every video we

introduce ten different vocabulary words

about one theme so you can pull those

vocabulary words out and study them in

the example sentences in the video but

you can also use those key words to make

your own sin

tenses so I think it would be maybe a

fun way to study to use those new

vocabulary words with the grammar you

learned from the whiteboard videos so

you can start making really simple

sentences this way so keep focusing in

on those grammar lessons and build your

vocabulary with some of the top words

lessons may be a good place to start

with the top words lessons is to choose

a video that’s related to something

you’re interested in so if you have a

hobby or if there’s something about your

work or your studies that you’re

interested in you want to know more

about you could choose a top words video

about that topic so that might help you

get some example sentences and new

vocabulary words if you feel comfortable

with the top words videos and they’re

pretty easy or you feel ready to

challenge yourself then you could try to

check out the English topics videos so

those are kind of like slower paced

everyday conversations that Michael and

I or Davie and I had and we usually talk

about a culture point or like a learning

point or every once in a while we just

kind of enjoy a typical conversation too

so that can be a really nice

introduction to more natural styles of

conversation other things you could do

of course you can check out the stuff

that we have on the website too so

there’s other stuff there to help you

train your grammar to help you build

your vocabulary to help with

memorization and so on so that would be

kind of my course so again I started

from beginner level so if you’re a

little past beginner maybe you can start

with some whiteboard lessons and some

top words lessons if you’re very

comfortable with that maybe you can look

at the English topic series and of

course this series ask Alicia this is a

little bit more high-level so I hope

that this helps you and good luck using

our videos to study thank you very much

for watching okay let’s move on to your

next question next question this week

comes from Jamal Rana

Snell Jo Miranda hi Johanna Johanna says

hi Alicia how do i improve my English

grammar okay to improve your grammar

make sure first you actually use the

grammar so an issue that I see with men

students is they use the textbook or

they use their textbook like as their

only method of practice so I’ve seen

lots of students who can complete

textbook exercises perfectly they’re

really really good at filling in the

blank or maybe changing a sentence to

make a specific grammar point but when

they try to create using that grammar

they create a new sentence or create a

new question it’s really difficult for

them so try to separate yourself from

using only your textbook or from just

those fill-in-the-blank exercises and

try to build your own sentences on your

own so it’ll seem challenging at first

but you’ll have to progress by making

something new that’s uniquely yours so

that’s one the second point here is when

you learn a new grammar point just start

by making a very simple sentence with

that grammar point that’s fine

so if you learn to make a simple past

tense statement for example you can

begin with very simple simple past tense

statements to start so if you know this

word like work the verb work and you

just practice changing that to past

tense like worked you’ve made a simple

past tense verb so then add that with

some other information like he worked

she was a different verb walk turns into

walked so she walked then practice

making like irregular conjugations so

like he eats becomes he ate for example

so start with these very small points so

if you learn a more advanced grammar

point you can do the same thing just

continue to try to use that grammar

point to create something on your own

also don’t forget to create questions

I noticed lots of students focus on

giving statements like they’re always

replying to a question replying to the

teachers question or replying to

something that they’ve read on the

Internet

try to make your own questions as well

so that’s key for conversation asking

other pupil questions so don’t forget to

practice your question making skills to

when you feel comfortable then you can

start making simple sentences about your

day for example I ate breakfast I worked

I studied then as you learn more

grammar you can add more information

like where with whom what time for

example I ate breakfast at home with my

family at 8 a.m. so it’s just one

sentence but that one sentence includes

a lot of information so think about how

to do this as you study grammar and as

you see more and more example sentences

that use more and more complex ways of

speaking ok so those are three tips that

I hope help you as you try to improve

your grammar thanks very much for this

question ok let’s move along to your

next question next question comes from

Sadat hi Sadat so dad says hello I need

some advice to master phrasal verbs in

English idiomatic expressions yeah this

is a tough question for phrasal verbs

let’s begin there I would suggest you

choose a verb choose a verb to focus on

like the verb by for example and study

in small groups the phrasal verbs that

use the verb by if you try to study all

the phrasal verbs in one like study

session it can be really overwhelming

and tough and because the meanings often

seem similar you can get confused so I

would recommend you try just like a

group of 5 maybe 10 max start with

something like that and then study those

until you feel comfortable with them so

some verbs have a lot of phrasal verbs

like run for example I think that’s the

verb that has the most additional

meanings associated with it but choose

like five maybe ten phrasal verbs to

start with get comfortable with those

and then try to study more when you feel

comfortable with that verb and all the

phrasal verbs associated with it then

maybe consider moving on to another verb

so if you use the study method and you

find some other verbs some other phrasal

verb that you don’t know you might be

able to guess what it means so for

example if you study some phrasal verbs

that use by and you know by into by out

and by up then maybe you have at least a

little bit of an idea what buy-back

means if you see it in text so it can

help you make a guess even if you don’t

know exactly what that means so the

other part of your question is about

idioms

matic expressions these can be tough

because sometimes we don’t identify an

expression as an idiom I would say to

begin with you can start by studying a

couple lists of common idioms that we

have in English we have some videos on

the channel about common English idioms

so you can start there other things you

can do are just google lists of idioms

that way you can find things that people

use a lot and it can be really helpful

once you’ve studied these lists you can

kind of think of using Google as like a

phrase search engine this is something

that I do actually with Japanese

expressions too what you can do is if

you find a new phrase that like you try

to search for the individual words in

your dictionary and it doesn’t quite

make sense

try using quotation marks around that

phrase in Google and you might find that

it’s actually an English idiom so if you

add like English idiom to your search

keywords you might find a new idiom this

way so think about these kinds of

existing lists and existing tools that

you can use that will help you study

so idioms and phrasal verbs these are

both things that take time and practice

to master but I hope that these tips

help you in your studies a little bit

thanks very much for the question

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from Natalia hi Natalia

Natalia says how do I start reading

books in English I’ve done it before but

it’s very hard okay first I would say

choose a book that’s correct for your

level in my case I aim for books that

are about 70% understandable so that

means if I’m trying to read the book and

I have to stop to find a new word like

10 times a page the book is too

difficult for me if I have to stop maybe

three or four times a page max then that

seems to be about right for me after I

choose a book that I think is pretty

good for my level I first just try to

read through the book without using a

dictionary so I do this for a couple

reasons

one I’m trying to find like the themes

of the book what are the keywords what

are the themes what’s the way that the

author writes so I’m looking for those

things - I’m looking for the things that

are difficult for me to understand am I

having a hard time with grammar am I

having a hard time with vocabulary

am I missing like some history or

cultural points so what is difficult for

me so I read through the book that one

time if I don’t get everything that’s

okay I don’t use the dictionary then

what I do is I go back to the beginning

of the book and very slowly like page by

page or maybe section by section chapter

by chapter then I start to identify the

points that I couldn’t understand and

that I can’t understand the second time

around so in my case I’m like super

detailed about it so I’ll highlight the

word in the book write it down in a

notebook look it up in my dictionary

write that down as well I’ll spend my

time like covering a couple of pages in

my study session and when I know all the

words that I didn’t know then I’ll go

back at the end of my study session and

reread the page that I couldn’t read

before so I couldn’t read it completely

at the beginning of my study session but

at the end of my study session I can

read it completely so it takes time for

sure but then I’ll review that maybe a

couple days later and try to remember

and refresh those words in my head so

that’s a really slow process for me but

in my case that really helps me when I’m

reading it helps me to remember the

words as well refreshing this way but

again I think it’s really really

important to choose a book that’s

appropriate for your level if you choose

a book that’s too difficult you’re going

to feel discouraged and you won’t want

to continue so I would recommend you

choose a book that’s interesting to you

the topic is interesting to you and also

something that’s just a little bit

challenging so this has really helped me

maybe it will help you alright

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

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for some other things that can help you

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much for watching this week’s episode of

ask Alicia and I will see you again next

week bye bye

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