What to say when you make an English mistake

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them

the first question this week comes from

Lido on high laDawn

Ladon says hi I’m studying in Finland in

English however I don’t really have a

lot of chances to speak in English so my

speaking skill is still my weak point I

see there are a lot of ways to practice

English on the internet for self-study

but they’re too much for me to afford

for just a private teacher online what

should I do to improve my advanced level

speaking skills as I’m studying business

Thanks mmm tough question I would

suggest maybe if you’re at an advanced

level that you don’t focus so much on

studying like English like maybe don’t

focus so much on trying to find

specifically an English lesson but try

to spend more time focusing on those

skills so by that I mean look for groups

that practise speaking so there’s a

really famous international speaking

practice group called Toastmasters you

might check that out they have community

groups that you can join so the purpose

of these groups and other similar groups

is to improve your speaking skills and

like to improve your presentation skills

and leadership skills so when you go to

one of these groups the other people in

the group will give you feedback like

how can you improve so if you can share

your goal with the other people in that

group they can help you give you advice

on like pronunciation maybe the

vocabulary words you should be using

something you can do to make your

presentation better and so on so

something like that if you’re at an

advanced level might be a little bit

better than trying to find just English

classes so you can actually start to use

the words and pick up new words that are

specific for your goal so I would

suggest perhaps if it’s difficult to

find like some kind of teacher

specifically for what you’re looking for

see if you can find a group that’s

focused on business or like unpress

tation related skills so I hope that

this is helpful for you thanks for the

question and good luck building your

speaking skills okay

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from harsh me hi harsh

knee harsh knee says if somebody asks me

a question in English I can speak

English without thinking but while doing

this I make lots of mistakes with

grammar I say he instead of she or she

instead of he while speaking how do I

overcome this problem mmm okay I think

you’ve already done the difficult part

which is realizing you made a mistake so

you can catch yourself you notice the

mistake I would suggest they like to

practice making the correct choice when

you’re speaking is when soon as you

realize you make a mistake you say out

loud the correct sentence so this can be

in the conversation you can correct

yourself in the conversation which is

actually quite normal native speakers do

this all the time or if you realize

after the conversation just say it

quietly to yourself out loud so I would

suggest actually saying it out loud like

getting your mouth and your body used to

making the sounds and like the correct

way to say the thing you said

incorrectly before so if for example

you’re like I saw Risa today he are

sorry I mean she was walking into the

office so that’s a very common way that

native speakers correct themselves to go

sorry

no she something like that during the

conversation is perfectly normal for

native speakers and for learners so if

you realize your mistake in the

conversation you can do it during the

conversation fix it if you realize after

the conversation you can think to

yourself I should have said she in that

situation oops she was walking into the

office so that’s fine to do too so I

think the hardest thing is to be able to

catch your mistake so maybe you already

have that part okay but just keep paying

attention to yourself and think back on

your conversation so remember your

conversations and what you said and

maybe how you could have said it

differently so I hope

this tip helps you to overcome these

little grammatical issues in your speech

thanks very much for this question and

good luck with your continued studies

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from on hell

McNamara hi on hell on hell says hi

Alicia and team could you please explain

the meaning and the uses of the word

hull Thanks

okay sure so there’s the basic meaning

which is in the dictionary so the verb

to halt means to carry something or like

to pull something or like to bring

something but we use it for like really

heavy things or stuff that’s hard to

pull or hard to take or we use it for

things like when we have a lot of

something so if you imagine like moving

from a house to another house and you

have a lot of stuff you can say I hauled

all my stuff to my new house so we use

it for large quantities of things or

like really heavy things things that are

difficult to pull or drag so another

example is like I hauled all my

paperwork to the City office this

morning the car broke down so we hauled

at home with a tow truck so this is one

use of haul you’ll also hear haul used

for people when we have to do something

by force like we have to be this like

strong with somebody and we have to

force them to do something you might

hear haul used in this case it’s used

oftentimes when someone is in trouble as

like with parents and kids or like with

police and criminals that kind of thing

so for example the suspect was hauled

into the police station or my parents

hauled me out of bed every morning when

I was a kid so again we have that image

of like bringing or carrying something

that’s difficult to move or it’s really

heavy so we use haul to do that okay so

let’s move on though to a noun

use of the word haul when we use haul as

a noun it’s often used to talk about

someone’s shopping from that day like

they went out to a mall or something and

they bought a lot of stuff and they want

to share it often like

a photo and post it to like Instagram or

Twitter or something Facebook and they

write check out my haul or look at

today’s haul or this is today’s haul so

my haul is the stuff that I bought that

day all this stuff so it’s usually

something someone’s excited about like

check out this haul from the make up

store or I want to share my haul from

the video game store whatever that might

be like they’ve got a collection of

things there are a few exciting things

they want to share if they say check out

my haul or today’s haul again this can

have a negative meaning when it’s used

to talk about like criminal activity

like when it’s talking about like drugs

for example like the police recovered a

haul of drugs or like the FBI found a

haul of stolen data so haul can be used

to mean a lot of something in this case

negatively but in everyday like social

media terms we see it used to talk about

people’s shopping for the day something

they’re excited about so the last use of

haul is in an expression like it’s a

long haul home or we have a long haul

today so we use this as we’re like

starting a journey so maybe we have a

long way to travel home or we have to

take a long time to get to a destination

we can describe that as a haul so again

another common theme here with this verb

or with this noun is that something is

difficult like it’s hard to carry or it

feels heavy so it’s like when we say I

have a long haul home it’s like I have a

long journey home a long way to get home

it’s going to be difficult so these are

quite a few ways that we use haul as

both a noun and as a verb so I hope that

this helps your understanding of this

word thanks very much for the question

ok let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from a funny hi

Akane Akane says hi Alicia if I have a

plan in the future should I use will or

be going to ok if you already have the

plan use going to it’s more natural to

use will if you make your decision in

the

like right now here in the conversation

you decide so if for example your plan

is to have dinner with your friends this

weekend and you know this as you begin

the conversation you can say I’m going

to have dinner with my friends this

weekend if you say I will have dinner

with my friends this weekend it sounds

really unnatural again because will is

used more for things we decide in the

moment you’ve come into the conversation

with this plan I’m going to have dinner

with my friends this weekend so please

use going to in that case so a situation

where it would sound more natural to use

will is like if you arrive at the

restaurant sit down open the menu and

the waitstaff says something like what

can I get you and you reply I’ll have

the salad please so in that case aisle I

will sounds very natural if you say I’m

going to have the salad it sounds kind

of like you had that plan when you

walked into the restaurant so that’s

probably a situation where will is going

to sound more natural so keep this in

mind like did I just make the decision

did I have the decision in my mind

before the conversation so if you’re

just now deciding maybe will is better

so I hope that this helps you understand

the differences between will and going

to for some more points and some example

sentences please have a look at the

video on our channel about will and

going to thanks very much for this

question okay let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from Rajesh

Khanna hi Rajesh

Rajesh says how do we use because of

since and since then in sentences these

are frequently used by native speakers

okay let’s look at because and because

of first so we use because or because of

at the beginning of a sentence or in the

middle of a sentence to express a reason

for something so when we use because or

because of we follow it with a simple

noun or we can follow it with like a

whole phrase that’s fine too so your

reason can be just like one word like

because of rain today’s event has been

canceled

or because of you we were late for the

meeting so those are very simple

expressions after because of so because

of rain or because of you let’s compare

this though with since since so we use

since also to describe a reason for

something and like because since can be

used at the beginning of a sentence or

it can be used in the middle of a

sentence

however unlike because or because of we

can’t follow since with just a simple

noun we can’t say like since you or

since rain we have to use a full phrase

so for example since it rained today’s

event has been canceled or since you

were late getting here now we’re late

for the meeting so we need to have like

a whole phrase with since we can’t just

use because plus noun like we can’t

follow that same pattern with since also

I would say that for the differences in

formality here since is going to sound a

little bit more formal than because so

in everyday speech we use because a lot

more often than we use since positioning

is really up to you if the reason is

very important to you you can place the

reason at the beginning of the sentence

and start your sentence with because or

since if the result is a little more

important you can put the result at the

beginning of the sentence and then

finish it with your reason so for

example today’s event has been cancelled

because of rain or today’s event has

been cancelled since it rained lastly

let’s talk about since then since then

so since then means from that time

period up to now so let’s look at an

example sentence for example I graduated

from college in 2015 since then I’ve

worked at ABC company so since then

refers to the time period or rather the

point in time mentioned in the previous

sentence so here I graduated from

college in 2015 since then so since then

means since 2015 from the point at 2015

until this conversation I’ve worked at

ABC

company so since then describes that

period of time from that point in the

previous sentence to now one more

example of this I finished work at 6:00

today since then I’ve been sitting on

the couch watching Netflix so here the

time referred to by since then is 6:00

p.m. I finished work at 6:00 p.m. today

since then since that time from that

point in time until this conversation

I’ve been sitting on the couch watching

Netflix so we do not use since then to

introduce a reason as we do with because

or because of or since rather since then

is referring to a point in the past

relative to now so please keep this in

mind when you are choosing between these

words I hope that this explanation was

helpful for you thanks very much for the

question ok that is 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 / ask - Alicia of course if you

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thanks very much for watching this

week’s episode of ask Alicia and I will

see you again next week

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