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
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i’m dad hello david velasquez hi
everybody thank you very much for
joining us
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the small white boards again
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lesson
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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
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english class 101 youtube channel
to find these videos or just do a google
search as well
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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
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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