Basic Questions and Expressions to Discuss in English

all right hi everybody welcome back to

our weekly

live stream my name is alicia and today

we are going to talk about

basic discussion questions and

expressions

i’ve made today’s lesson to help you

have better like debates to have better

discussions

in today’s lesson we’re going to focus

on

one uh how to make more specific

questions so instead of just asking

simple questions

like what or why and so on

i’m going to talk about some some

grammar points

and some patterns you can use to

make more specific questions so to

hopefully make your discussions a little

bit better

that would be part one and then i’m also

going to talk

about uh some patterns you can use

to support your ideas it should be a

good lesson i’ll end with some

frequently asked questions from

you so as you joined please say hello in

the chat i see many of you there on

youtube now hi everybody on youtube uh

anthony yamaleth hi luciano mta hello

victarion hi

i’m dad hello david velasquez hi

everybody thank you very much for

joining us

i am broadcasting from my home again

this week so today we are going to use

the small white boards again

hopefully facebook will join us shortly

while we wait

a couple of announcements while we wait

for other learners to join today’s live

lesson

first this banner at the bottom of the

screen it says get your guide to learn

english

at home our team put together our team

made a

52-page workbook a pdf workbook

you can use together with a free

beginner level course on our website you

can download everything for free

check the link below the video on

youtube or above the video if you are

watching this

on facebook you can get everything uh

with your name and

email address so that’s a beginner level

course our team put together uh

that’s going through this summer so

check it out if you have not already

uh it should be a good kind of resource

for you to study at this time

okay so that’s part one uh part two

thing that i want to talk about is as

always if you have questions

for me that are different from today’s

topic if you have

something that you want that you’ve

always wondered about a grammar point or

if you find a weird like vocabulary

word and you want to know the difference

you can send them to me

for this series this is our weekly

series called

ask alicia you can send me your

questions and i will maybe

answer them so this uh you can submit

your questions to

englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia so you can search the

english class 101 youtube channel

to find these videos or just do a google

search as well

and send me your question that would be

awesome so please do that

okay i see many people are on the chat

in the chat now rather

uh so i’m going to take away this

promotional picture

okay i have a facebook you are over here

i’m checking you on my phone today

uh so hi everybody on facebook sean and

orzallon hi

elbert hi uh welcome everybody thanks

very much for joining us

uh my name is alicia and we are going to

begin now

so let’s uh look at today’s lesson

boards if you missed it

today’s lesson topic is basic discussion

questions and expressions let’s take a

look

at today’s lesson flow i’m going to slow

down a little bit

now today’s lesson flow looks like

this three parts in today’s lesson

first i’m going to talk about how to

make

specific questions i know this is very

small so i’m going to read everything

and we’ll go through the points one by

one then

we’re going to talk about a few patterns

to

support your ideas that’ll be part two

finally part three for today is an faq

so these are questions i get from

you uh that are about today’s topic

we’ll cover

some preposition points um and i’ll also

talk about a couple questions like

what’s the difference questions today

okay

so let’s get started i see everything is

good on facebook everything is good on

youtube

everybody’s ready fantastic let’s begin

then

i’m going to start with part one then

how to make

specific questions specific so

specific uh by specific

uh my example for this week like instead

of when you’re in a discussion

and you have a question and maybe when

you’re learning

you say like what or why like you use a

very

basic question word or a basic question

phrase like these

who or what or where when

why how how long how much how many these

are like the basic question words we use

to create our questions in today’s

lesson

i want to look at some i’m going to

focus on

three key grammar patterns

and look at how we can use those grammar

patterns

to make more specific clear questions

to improve your conversation skills so i

see i see your comments all the time

like how do i improve my

speaking skills how do i have a better

conversation

and one of the important things to

consider

is your question making skills i know

that in our lessons

often we just listen to our teacher and

we respond we just we learn to respond

but we need to make questions naturally

as well

so that’s what i’m going to focus on so

for you

watching live and even if you’re not

watching live your homework

during this lesson is to send your

practice questions

as comments send your so send it in the

chat if you’re watching live

or write it as a comment uh if you’re

watching this

not live so uh let’s practice making

questions

for this week okay so let’s begin

i have three key patterns i want to talk

about

in today’s lesson each pattern

begins with question word question word

question word question word so

the pattern the key pattern is in blue

the explanation is in red and the

example is in black

and i hope you send me lots of your

examples live today

so question word each pattern today will

begin

with one of these question words so you

can choose these

choose this to start your question then

let’s look

at these three patterns and the

differences between them

first when we use a question word

plus a present tense

structure so that means we use a verb in

the present

tense we use for example something like

do or maybe b something like that

when we use a present tense structure

after our question word it creates a

question

about a current regular action

or a current schedule so

for example when do you

usually have meetings when do you

usually have meetings so in this

situation in this example

i begin with a question word and then my

present

tense structure so present tense here is

do

do another good hint is usually this is

asking about a regular

action when do you usually have meetings

or a question like why do

you say that why do you say

that so these questions with present

tense structures after the question word

are about

regular actions or current schedules so

that means when you ask these questions

you’re asking about like facts something

that is true

now or something that is always true

that’s what we use

these question patterns to do okay

so some examples are coming in fantastic

uh rondell

ron sorry ron dinelli i think on youtube

sorry if i said that wrong says how far

away

how far away are you from new york great

very nice

uh ooh abdullah on facebook has one that

we’re going to talk about later how long

have you been a pilot a perfect tent

structure

very nice job very nice job okay um

okay i’m checking for your example

sentences or your example questions live

let’s go to the second pattern for today

so the first pattern here covers these

present

tense structures yeah now let’s compare

this

to a question word plus a past tense

structure so when we use a question word

like who what where when why

these words plus a past tense structure

so that means something a phrase that

has a verb in the past

tense it’s creating that creates a

question

about a past action so something

that is complete something that is

finished

so this is a very important difference

between

this one this is a current situation or

a fact

this is a past situation something that

is done something that is finished

over for example where did you

hear the news where did you hear the

news

so some of you might say like why why is

this past here is

not past tense this verb right here

did so do present tense did past tense

your helping verb changes to past tense

here this creates past

tense so this is a question

about a past action so not where do you

hear the news

but where did you hear the news another

example

why did you say that why did you say

that

so this question you’ll notice is just

the past tense version of this one

what’s the difference i will talk about

this i will give you the answer in part

three

today because it takes a little time i

want to compare

okay all right some examples are coming

and then

of the first one the present tense

example

uh some of you let’s see where do you

come from good or more naturally

ask where are you from where are you

from

fernanda says what did you do last

weekend

last weekend what did you do last

weekend is the question

um some other good examples are

ah so some of you are asking oh oh i see

when

do you start teaching english so that’s

a question about a schedule

so when do you start teaching english

could mean at

10 pm eastern standard time uh every

wednesday

for example so that’s a question about

your current schedule

you can make it past tense too when did

you start

teaching english 10 years ago 15 years

ago and so on

some other good examples are coming in

rosen says how did you do that

good good good uh on facebook

brain hello brain my hair hi says where

did you

saw her when you make these questions

so a quick grammar review for your past

tense questions

where did is great you this verb right

here does not change

so the kind of the verb that gives you

the action

the verb that gives you the key

information this verb does not change to

past tense so where

did you see her where did you see her

okay other questions gizlan on facebook

says who ate my pizza

very good question a very important

question who ate

my pizza good gerson says where did you

study english

very nice very nice uh mahera says when

did you

go to school so for many of you many of

you

are using a past tense verb here

this verb does not need to be past tense

so maybe i’ll put a link

in the youtube description to simple

past tense i made a video about simple

past

tense grammar it might be good to review

question making there

okay let’s go to the last pattern i want

to talk about the last

question making pattern some of you are

already practicing this

question word plus a perfect tense

structure so perfect

tense everybody those perfect tense is

have have plus your verb in the past

participle form yeah

so some of you have already said when um

or what there was an example that came

in earlier that uses perfect tense i

have some here

so what is this what does this question

create this makes a question

about your life experience and

it may be a continuing experience

depending on the continuous or the

progressive use here

for example what have you been up to

what have you been up to this is a

casual way to say

what did you do recently but more

natural

or where have you been working

where have you been working so this part

ing

this is the progressive form this is a

question about something that started in

the past

and continues to the present

so again these create questions about

life

experience but the key difference so

some people are like well what’s the

difference why should i use

perfect tense i want to know about

someone’s past experience shouldn’t i

just use

past tense the difference here

past tense is about a completed action

usually at a specific point in time

in the past so for example this morning

or yesterday we want to know about a

completed action

in the past with this though

we don’t care or it’s not so important

to know

when the action happened we just want to

ask about the experience

or we want to ask about something that

started

in the past and is still continuing so

that’s the difference between these two

question patterns

okay i’m going to check your questions

now um

on facebook says why do you like to

teach

english why do you like to teach english

um cristiano where have you lived

so when you make a perfect tense pattern

make sure to use the past participle

form of the verb so i’m not talking

today about these specific grammar

points

i’m just comparing the question making

so i’ll put some links in the youtube

description

after this lesson so you can review for

this week uh misty says have you taken

your breakfast on youtube

a good point uh in american english we

do not use the verb

take for meals uh we use we use

we it for take a break so you might hear

it

in take lunch which means take a lunch

break

but when we talk about eating a meal we

use eat

have you eaten breakfast

some other examples uh where did you

learn japanese oh

from school and books and media all over

the place

okay how long have you been living in

place yeah lots of you are sending this

one

good good good nice nice examples um

where have you been learning english

good nice questions where have you been

eating lunch okay that’s a good question

for your co-workers very nice very nice

ah naheed on facebook good question a

good example

naheed says where have you been last

night so the reason

changed that question not where have you

been but

where did you go or where were you

last night why because last night

is a like a specific point in time in

the past

we’re not asking about a life experience

we don’t care

with these we don’t really care when it

happened so please make that a past

tense question where were you

last night where were you last night

okay

that is everything for part one how to

make specific questions

this was the heavy part of today’s

lesson so the rest

of today’s lesson will be ah not so

heavy okay

good so i’ll take one quick break there

very nice

example sentences everybody if you are

just joining today’s lesson

is about basic discussion questions and

expressions i just finished part one we

talked about

different question patterns we can use

to make

more specific questions okay so

uh real quick too before uh before i

move to part

two if you missed it there is this

banner at the bottom of the screen

our team made a 52-page pdf

workbook you can download for free to

use together

with a beginner level course on our

website at englishclass101.com

so check it out if you are looking for

some ways to practice

uh especially at this time you can take

a look at that

you need your name and an email address

to create an account

and then it is free to use free to

download so check it out

uh from the link below the video on

youtube or above the video if you are

watching

on facebook okay let’s go

to today’s lesson boards again if you

want to take a picture

do it now so today uh

i’m going to cover these points we just

finished how to make specific questions

now we’re going to talk about how to

support your ideas

i chose a few patterns to cover

and we’ll finish today with faq

frequently asked

questions or questions you ask me a lot

about this topic so let’s get to part

two also if you have not please make

sure to like and share this video so

that other learners can find

today’s lesson okay so let’s continue to

part two

how to support your ideas how to support

your ideas

i chose a few patterns a few basic

patterns

i want to compare them and again uh

please send me your example sentences in

the chat i will check them

as best i can live and send them

as comments later too so you can

practice okay

so let’s go to the first one

first how to support oh before i begin

how to support your ideas this means how

to

um like support your opinion so when

you’re having a discussion

and you share your idea you share an

opinion

it’s often a good idea to give a reason

for your opinion each pattern

will introduce a way to support your

opinion to support your idea

so the first pattern is

i say or i said that because

so again there’s this present tense past

tense thing we can use both

grammatically both are correct a key

point here

say we use for something we often say

said we use for something in the past

like i

said it one time that’s the difference

so both are correct

sometimes you ask me this question

what’s the difference we’ll cover it

again later

okay so for example i say that because

our data

shows the information is correct once

more

i say that because our data shows the

information

is correct so what’s that in this

sentence

this that refers to

your previous sentence so for example in

a discussion

if i say like our company’s sales

improved last month something like that

and then

the next sentence i might say i say

that because our data shows so

that refers to the previous sentence you

might also hear people say

this too uh because

so this right here this is important

because

so here with this word you’re

introducing

the reason you believe the previous

sentence

i say that because so

this information will change you need to

decide

this on this information this end part

of the sentence

i say that because our data shows the

information is correct

or i say that because i heard it on the

news last week

or i say that because a textbook that i

read

told me so okay

uh good good good mta says i say that

because you’ve got to learn about

english good good good

lucy says i say that because he’s so bad

okay

very interesting questions very

interesting questions

uh av insight says i say that because

don’t forget your because this is

introducing your reason

yeah i say that uh i lost it uh uh uh i

say that because our machine data

shows the information is correct good

good good nice examples

on facebook i don’t see any examples yet

but many people are saying hello and

hola so hi

okay let’s go to the second pattern

someone told me

someone told me key point here told

told past tense past tense this is a

key takeaway point uh especially for

beginners

if you’re a beginner watching please

please please remember

this told past tense a very common

mistake i hear

uh from learners they use tell someone

tell me

she tell me please don’t forget to make

this

past tense someone gave me some

information in the past

someone told me so

a client told me about

some recent changes in their company

so usually you’ll see about after this

you might also see

of i suppose but generally you’ll see

about

in this pattern so another common

mistake

i see with this is that learners will

choose a different verb

sorry learners will choose a different

verb here like

someone said me what’s the difference

between

tell and say and all these things i have

a video about it i’ll put that in the

links

after this too you have lots of things

to check after this lesson

what’s the difference say we use say to

report someone’s

speech when you receive information

use told me told me

you may also hear said to

me said to me this though

tell the use of tell sounds more like

one-way communication

so like your boss or your teacher giving

you some information

use the verb tell to talk about that

some examples are coming in fantastic

alex says she told me about her new

job on facebook um

no oh i’m sorry no hello kai

sorry if i said that wrong says i said

that because she is a good teacher

good good good um albert says someone

told me about the new laws fantastic

cesar says my boss told me about the new

project nice

nice nice uh ooh

a nice passive example eg michael says i

was

told by the manager great great so you

can make

passive structures too fantastic okay

someone is another pizza question you

guys have lots of pizza questions today

uh fernanda says he told me about this

class tonight very nice

emily has a great question how do i

support ideas when i’m

writing great question for today yeah

i’m focusing on

discussion discussion type questions um

for writing if you need to support your

ideas in writing

you can remove like in this pattern you

can remove this part right here

so this part it depends sorry it’s hard

to do

our data shows the information is

correct

generally you can be very direct in your

writing you don’t need to say

i think or i feel if you’re writing like

a paper for your school

you can just uh put directly like

the opinion here without using i say or

i said that kind of thing

you can also use like uh we found

if you’re talking about research maybe

that’s a good topic for a future

live stream actually like uh some

writing points so

thanks for that question emily i’ll

think i’ll try to make a lesson about

that in the future

okay uh someone told me you had a

boyfriend someone told me you have a

girlfriend okay good good

that’s funny nice example sentences uh

oh

semhar says my manager told me i am prom

uh promoted promoted to assistant

fantastic okay you guys have

great great nice examples uh let’s go to

the last two because time is running out

this next one

uh is about reporting your sources how

to report your sources

so for this i have a very common one

i heard on the news

that i have that in parentheses because

sometimes people include it sometimes

people do not include it you can choose

it’s up to you

i heard on the news that crime in the

city

is down this year i heard on the news

that crime in the city

is down this year so key points here

your pronunciation

i heard heard i

heard on the news your preposition is on

we’re going to practice prepositions at

the end of this lesson too

i heard on the news that crime in the

city is down this year

monday says he told me he was going to

move to baltimore very nice

okay so i heard

one your past tense thing on the news on

the news so you can change

this part to a different source like i

heard on a podcast or i heard

in a song but the key here make sure

your

verb matches your source so i heard

on the news or i read in a book

that blah blah blah so this is a good

pattern to use

to report your source where did you get

the information

okay let’s go to the last one because

time is running out

next this is a pattern you can use

if you just want to express like an

emotional

reason for something so this one

these patterns are like you know i i

read i got information from a source or

someone gave me information or i have

data

sometimes though you just have like an

emotional

reason for this for an idea you can use

this pattern or of course

i think i feel that this

is not the right decision for our team

at this time i feel that this is not the

right decision for our team at this time

so again this that you may hear some

people use it you may hear some people

not use it

both are correct you can totally use

both if you want to be super efficient

you can remove it but it’s very natural

to use both of them so this i

feel other uh verbs you can use

instead of feel could be believe or

think

as i said so these are like again

kind of emotional reasons to support

your ideas

okay some examples are coming in with i

heard great

uh guy williams says i heard on the news

that english school had started on

facebook really

is that true uh mustafa says i heard on

the tv or on the television

the that accident was terrible good the

accident was terrible ah

so if you are reporting a news i heard

on the news

if you’re reporting about a past tense

action like an accident in this example

sentence nice

please make sure uh the verb in

the information is also in past tense i

heard on the news the accident

was terrible so the accident has

finished

okay some other examples of the last

sentence here with i feel

i feel are i feel that is not a good

idea

good okay i feel this is not the best

the right way for your team this year um

i feel this is not the best

choice maybe for the team okay

um nice some others with i heard good

uh i heard don’t forget this d yeah i

heard

i heard unless you want to talk about a

regular action

i heard on the news that the

second stimulus checks are almost ready

okay uh oh my gosh it is 30 minutes

after the hour i have to go on so

uh this is a quick list of some patterns

you can use to support

your ideas all right so i’ll finish

there and then we’ll go quickly

sorry remote control this we’ll go

quickly to the last point for today

so uh we’ll take one more quick break uh

if you have not already please do make

sure to like and share this video so

that other learners

can find today’s lesson i’ll show you

again

uh today’s lesson boards one more time

if you want to take a picture real quick

i just talked about part two how to

support your ideas

last today i’m going to talk about some

frequently asked questions from

you i will show you this one more time

later at the end of the lesson too

also in case you missed it earlier this

banner

at the bottom of the screen if you want

to check out our team’s free

beginner level course and download the

52-page workbook

check it out from the link below the

video on youtube or above the video

if you’re watching on facebook okay

so let’s continue on to black the last

part

faq from you so you send me lots and

lots and lots of questions

i chose a couple uh mainly three

that i want to finish today’s lesson

with you send these to me like on the

ask alicia series

first i want to look at these two what’s

the difference questions

i talked about this a little bit uh

earlier

what is the difference between says and

said

or do and did in these patterns so let’s

review these

i think these are two kind of key points

uh

present versus past question so

let’s look at these two to compare first

some some person someone asked me

something like this

uh what’s the difference between the

president

says and the president said

what’s the deal here so the difference

here

is when you use says present tense

it creates a question or a statement a

regular statement something that

the president often says

the president says crazy things let’s

say that’s our example sentence

the president says crazy things on

twitter let’s say that

so says says this shows

regular statement this is something that

happens often

let’s compare this to the president

said the president said

this uses past tense yeah so this

creates

a past statement the feeling

is that it was one time only

one time only so for example the

president said

something crazy that sounds like one

time only

in like an interview or in a discussion

something strange happened so that’s the

difference between

said and says so both of them they are

both grammatically correct

but they communicate different feelings

okay so try to send me an example

sentence if you can

let’s look at one more uh pattern that

uses this

i showed you these two earlier in

today’s lesson but i want to review

because these are very common

it’s why do you say that versus

why did you say that so the same thing

we have this present tense why do you

say that

versus why did you say that

so again this one

is a question about a regular statement

why do you say that

so that means it’s some it’s a question

about something the other person

often says or a question about the other

person’s like

regular opinion why do you say that

this question past tense why

did you say that is about a

past statement so like after a meeting

if your co-worker said something strange

or something you didn’t understand

you might say why did you say that

using past tense because

the conversation has finished

so again both of these are grammatically

correct

but the feeling is different this is a

question about a regular

statement or like another person’s uh

regular opinion something they share a

lot this one is about a past

action um

okay finally today i’m going to end with

prepositions yay everyone’s favorite

lots of you asked me about prepositions

uh so i’ve chosen some

uh prepositions to use with information

sources

i will come to your questions in just a

moment chat i see there are lots of

examples coming in uh so correct

prepositions to use with information

sources i have two

big groups here one is on the other is

in so on we use

with these kinds of things on the news

on the phone on the street on the

internet

on facebook on instagram on youtube on a

podcast

so these are very uh good ones to know

good prepositions

and vocabulary words to study together

so try to study these as phrases it’s

kind of

tricky sometimes to try to add it later

so try to study these as phrases because

they are

very common on the other hand

in in a book in an article

in a newspaper in a tweet in a song

so again it can be helpful to study

these as

units instead of trying to remember okay

i should use in

with a song when you study try to put it

all together

in one phrase so you can practice your

writing practice writing these down too

lastly you can combine these for example

in a post

on instagram or in line 10

on page 20. so you may see them combined

too but just a little preposition review

to end

today’s lesson okay now i will come to

your questions

um eduardo says i have a question with

this one what is the difference between

will oh william going to there is a

lesson on the youtube channel

uh if you don’t know we have a very big

youtube channel with

many many lessons please visit a youtube

uh just search englishclass101

on youtube to find all of the lessons i

have taught many many lessons there

please check

it out uh okay how

let’s see some of your questions i was

looking i saw a few on youtube

uh natalia says what is the difference

between

on and by for example on the bus or by

bus

ah so if you want to talk about um

riding the bus

on like i am on the bus to talk about

your current location

like where am i now i’m on the bus or

if you want to talk about like an

advertisement

that you see like a banner or a poster

you could say i saw it

on a bus like i saw a poster on a bus

when you use buy it’s talking about the

method of transportation

like i’m going to travel by bus

you’re talking about transportation

methods that’s the difference uh in that

case

okay uh luz says is it correct on the

internet

uh make sure you use the on the or on

the

internet don’t forget this the before

that

okay so that is everything i have to

finish oh my gosh

that was a lot so some prepositions to

end today’s lesson

i’ll show you the boards one last time

take a picture now

okay so this is today’s uh information

we talked about how to make

specific questions we compared three

different grammar patterns we talked

about supporting your ideas

and we covered some frequently asked

questions hooray good times

okay so next week i’ll be back as usual

next week i’m going to be here talking

about

modal verbs in the past with could have

and couldn’t have

so join me next week 10 pm eastern

standard time august 5th this year is

flying by isn’t it

should be good so thank you very much to

everybody for joining me again

this week uh i will put some links in

the youtube description

after this lesson so please check it out

and enjoy the rest of your week check

out

the free guide on our website uh thank

you for liking

sharing and sending me your example

sentences i will see you again

somewhere on the internet soon