1 Hour to Improve Your English Grammar Skills

want to master grammar so you can speak

properly express yourself better and

understand more in this video i’ll show

you how to master grammar with our

lessons and learning program let’s begin

number one listen to the lesson

conversations and explanations in every

lesson you learn a conversation then our

teachers break down every word and

grammar rule

so you’re actually learning grammar

rules in the context of conversations

and you can easily see how they’re used

once you’re done review the conversation

again and again to remember what you’ve

learned number two read the bonus

explanations and tutorials

with the lesson notes you get extra

grammar explanations and examples that

are not presented in the lesson

after you’re done with a lesson read the

lesson notes for extra review you can

even save them as pdfs so that you can

access them anytime number three leave a

comment on the lesson

once you’ve learned a grammar point be

sure to use it

similar question that we got for this

week this is from

moad guitar hi moad

moad said i want to ask about the

differences between despite although

though and in spite of so we talked

about despite and in spite of we tend to

use although a little more often at the

beginning of a sentence like although

it’s kind of like a formal but and

though might be more like at the middle

part of a sentence so like a

though

be so that’s kind of how we might use

these two i hope that that answers both

of your questions i hope that that helps

you i’ll try to make a whiteboard video

about this topic as well thanks very

much for sending these questions okay

let’s move along to your next question

next question comes from satish hi

satish satish says hi alisha how are you

i’m good when i listen english i am

translating it to my country’s language

in my mind how can i stop that and

was using present continuous tense in

the above sentence correct um so one

your present continuous tense no it is

not correct in that i’ll come back to

that a little bit later for now though

your question about translating um to

your language in your head i’ve talked

about this a couple times here and there

in other videos

so i’ll just review again by sharing the

things that helped me to stop

translating in my head one thing that

really helped me was making an

environment making a place where i could

not escape into my native language so in

my case that meant i found like a hobby

group something that i wanted to learn

how to do i found that in my target

language i found that in japanese i

would go to that once a week there was

no option for me to do that in english

the teacher didn’t speak english the

other students didn’t really speak

english like i had no choice but to

learn and it was hard at first so over

time i learned the vocabulary words i

met people and i got to chat a little

bit with people

and then i also just kind of like built

my listening skills as well so that was

really helpful for me

following that then i would often like

go out with people from that group so i

would make friends there and then maybe

we’d go out for drinks we’d go to get

something to eat together and that was

another situation where i could not

escape into english so i had to use

japanese i had no choice if i didn’t do

that i couldn’t talk to anybody so that

was really helpful for me

and this leads to my second tip for

stopping this sort of translation

problem um which is

try not to rely on your dictionary like

i know that we all now have a phone and

like there’s a dictionary in here we can

check when we don’t know a word but my

problem with this with using this too

much is that it stops the flow of

conversation like when you’re talking

with someone and you don’t know exactly

the word you want to use instead of just

reaching for your dictionary try to

think of a different way to explain the

thing that you’re trying to say you want

to say turn on the light like you can’t

think of turn on so what are some other

ways that you could explain that motion

like uh how do i say like the light is

not bright and then the light becomes

bright what’s this what’s this action

like think of the tools that you have in

your head to explain the idea and then

your friend can teach you the word so

use that as an opportunity to one use

the words that you already know and then

so two get a new word using those tools

um three it’s just a really great

communication tool because even

sometimes like in our native language we

forget a word or we don’t know the right

word to use so just think about using

the tools that you already have the

other thing that i would recommend and

that i’ve recommended a lot on this

channel is consuming media so that means

tv and movies books comics whatever

trying to use the language as much as

possible in your day-to-day life like

listening to it and reading it um

because you’re kind of absorbing the

natural ways that people use that

language like textbook language and real

world language are different so you need

to make sure you have a chance to

experience that real world language so

media is great of course you can check

out the stuff we have on our channel and

our website but

you can just watch movies watch tv shows

find podcasts as well so there are lots

of different ways to check out media but

basically just try to get your brain

used to

listening to and experiencing the

language so that you don’t have to like

really work at translating every single

sentence in your head and then over time

and with practice you’ll eventually stop

translating and one day you’ll just be

able to do it and you probably won’t

realize it that’s what happened to me

actually like i just one day i was like

oh i don’t have to translate anymore it

just

was it just was done so i hope that that

helps you those are a few tips for

translating in your head your other

question was about your use of present

continuous tense in your first sentence

you said when i listen to english i am

translating it to my country’s language

we would not use the present continuous

tense here because you’re talking about

a regular action that you do this is a

regular thing that you do we use the

present continuous tense for temporary

actions so in this case you should say i

translate it in my head use the present

tense there okay so thanks very much for

those questions i hope that it helps you

let’s move on to our next question next

question comes from eric hi eric eric

says uh hi what does get wild mean in

this phrase for example he’s getting

wild with the letters uh to get wild

means to be crazy like to go crazy to do

something like surprising or shocking

i’m not sure exactly about your example

sentence situation to get wild with the

letters i’m not sure what that is but

it’s like it means to become crazy to do

something crazily

graffiti uh to get wild with the letters

like drawing the letters could be maybe

he has like a stack of letters in his

room and he’s just throwing them all

over the place i don’t know like if i

could get wild with the lesson and just

start running around the studio he would

be like she’s getting wild a lesson tear

down the green screen

to get wild with the lesson

and we’re done so i hope that that helps

you understand the expression get wild

thanks very much for the question let’s

move along to your next question next

question comes from joey joey hi joey

joey says what’s the difference between

envy and jealous um envy is a noun and a

verb so for example i envy you or envy

is dangerous jealous is an adjective

like you got the best seats in the

theater i’m so jealous you got a long

vacation i’m super jealous all right so

i hope that that helps you thanks for

the question 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

englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia of course if you like

the video please don’t forget to give it

a thumbs up subscribe to our channel if

you have not already and check us out at

englishclass101.com

for some other things that can help you

with your english studies thanks very

much for watching this week’s episode of

ask alicia and i will see you again next

week bye bye 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 naru hi again naru naru says hi

alicia what’s the difference between it

and that for example i do yoga every

morning i do it too or i do that too we

use

to replace a noun that we mentioned

earlier in the conversation um so like

for example i bought a new computer it’s

really cool or i built a new computer it

was really hard so that it refers to

like the process of building a computer

or it refers to like the computer i

bought

in the first sentence so we use it to

replace that thing that object that

specific process

when we use that however yes we are

talking about something we referred to

earlier in the conversation but we’re

using it for something that the speaker

and the listener shared it’s a shared

experience so if you use that to talk

about an experience that you did not

share with your listener it’s gonna

sound really weird so in your example

like i do yoga every morning and someone

says oh i do that too it makes sense

because both speakers in that situation

have the experience of doing yoga in the

morning if you say oh i do it too it’s

like it’s not

wrong but it does sound less natural

than using that so when you have a

shared experience of a situation you can

use that i hope that this helps you

thanks for an interesting question okay

let’s get on to your next question next

question comes from artie hi artie artie

says hi alicia how do you politely ask

someone about their health condition is

it common to use are you sick since sick

can also mean crazy or insane uh yeah

good question and actually it’s totally

fine to ask are you sick that’s totally

fine this depends on your intonation so

if you say are you sick and you have

this like concerned look and you have

this concerned voice there’s not gonna

be a communication problem if you’ve

seen a movie where a character is like

are you

sick like that’s the situation where

it’s talking about the person’s like

mental health they’re like are you crazy

are you insane when they use like that

shocked horrified face like are you sick

do you want to fill all those donuts

with mustard

that’s a situation where you would say

are you sick and it means crazy or

insane other ways you could ask would be

like are you okay are you feeling okay

do you have a cold that kind of thing

thanks very much for the question let’s

go to your next question next question

comes from ismail hi ismail ismail says

hi alicia thanks for your support what’s

the difference between may and might

there isn’t really a difference honestly

may and might are used in the same

situations when you’re talking about

possibility in american english however

might is more common than may some

examples i might have forgotten my

wallet i may have forgotten my wallet

they’re the same but may sounds a bit

more formal in american english we tend

to use might so this question actually

connects nicely with a question from

another viewer this comes from alan chan

hi alan alan asked hi alicia how can i

use may be

and probably okay so we talked about how

we use mei and might in the same way to

talk about possibility so now let’s talk

about may and be together not maybe but

may be

and might and probably so let’s compare

these we use may and be when we want to

talk about something that could possibly

be something else that sounds very open

so let’s look at some examples hmm this

may be the restaurant he recommended he

may be the right person for the job so

this is the pattern we can use for may

be and might be so i want to continue on

to probably so if we imagine may and

might express this sort of like

uncertainty maybe on a scale from like 0

to 100 may and might is maybe like 40 or

probably has a much higher level of

certainty like 70 or 80 or so so we have

a pretty good idea of what’s going to

happen in the future but there’s a

little bit of like wiggle room like

we’re still not 100 sure some examples

i’m probably gonna sleep late tomorrow

she’s probably not gonna reply tonight

so it probably shows the speaker has a

higher level of certainty so i hope that

this helps you use may and might and

maybe and might be and probably and

maybe also too thanks very much for

these two questions great let’s move on

to your next question next question

comes from

lombardosi marco hi lombardosi

lombardosi says can you explain the

difference between all and whole with

some examples sure let’s begin by

looking at some example sentences my dog

ate all the cupcakes

my dog ate the whole cake my roommate

stole all the iphone chargers

my roommate stole my whole electronics

box you can see in the sentences that

use all that we’re looking at individual

units of something in the first example

sentence with the dog the dog ate all

the cakes all the cupcakes so we’re

talking about individual units there in

the second situation the roommates stole

all the iphone chargers so we’re looking

at individual units one thing but all of

those one things so when we want to

emphasize the unit we use all all plus

the unit you’ll also notice that the

units use the plural form we’re using

the plural form of the noun so in the

dog situation it’s cupcakes in the

roommate situation it’s iphone chargers

we’re using the plural form however when

we’re using whole we’re talking about

something that can be broken down into

units so in the dog situation it’s a

cake so one cake can be like many

smaller pieces of cake in the second

example sentence

it’s about like a box of electronic

equipment or like electronic related

things so it’s not the things inside the

box it’s the complete box so we imagine

that this is like one complete unit one

complete set of something so we use all

like i said when we want to emphasize

like the units the small pieces of

something so like all my cupcakes or all

of my iphone chargers we’re emphasizing

the unit there using hole

to like refer to a larger

thing that’s composed of many smaller

units really emphasizes like your level

of shock or your level of surprise that

that thing was affected so as you pay

attention in your reading i think

reading will help you to find some more

examples of this just look and see like

the kinds of units and the typical kinds

of like um

larger nouns that get this whole

treatment so like foods are great

examples like a whole pizza or a whole

cake or a whole turkey or a whole

chicken so that refers to one thing

composed of many parts so i hope that

this helps you thanks very much for the

question let’s go on to your next

question your next question is from tian

fu hi tian

tien says can you explain a bit more

sophisticated without context i can’t be

exactly sure what this means but i think

that this is a comparative phrase so

let’s make a complete sentence to start

restaurant a is a bit more sophisticated

than restaurant b so a bit more means

like a little more than something else a

little more or a small amount more than

something else sophisticated means like

refined or maybe they have lots of

culture lots of knowledge if you’re

talking about a person in this case with

a restaurant maybe it’s well-rounded so

there’s like lots of kind of experience

that was used to make this restaurant

like the restaurant decorator had lots

of worldly experience so the menu has a

lot of like different world flavors i

don’t know so it’s something that’s

sophisticated it has like a high class

image so if you use a bit more

sophisticated it means item a is a

higher level of sophistication than item

b in this case a restaurant so i hope

that this helps with your understanding

of the phrase a bit more sophisticated

okay 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 englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia of course if you like

the video don’t forget to give it a

thumbs up subscribe to our channel if

you haven’t already and check us out at

englishclass101.com for some other

things that can help you with your

english studies thanks very much for

watching this week’s episode of ask

alicia and i will see you again next

week bye bye

so which is better pokemon or spider-man

pokemon

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 karima

again hi karima prima says hi lisha

could you please tell me what does the

expression

give it a try mean give it a try is a

friendly way to suggest someone try

something so we use give it a try like

after we show someone a process we teach

someone how to do something we show them

how to do something and then we say okay

give it a try like now it’s your turn

please try this thing i showed you if

you’re at the golf course and you show

someone how to swing a golf club you

could say all right give it a try i

think we do it on this channel actually

we introduced like a vocabulary point or

a grammar point and then ask you give it

a try so it’s a suggestion to try

something hope that helps you thanks for

the question okay next question next

question comes from sanju hi sanju sanju

says what is the main difference between

simple past and present and past

participle or perfect tense the main

difference is that simple past tense is

used for actions that started and

finished in the past there’s often a

specific time point we know when the

action started and when the action

finished with perfect tense though we

don’t know when the action started or

when the action finished so we use it to

talk about like life experience in the

past like maybe when it happened is not

so important but we use it for like

travel experience or job experience so

that’s one thing that we do with perfect

tense the other thing is we use it to

talk about actions that started in the

past and that continued to the present

especially with the continuous tense we

also do this um to talk about the

effects of actions that started in the

past and continue to the present so like

for example i saw beyonce live last week

is a past tense sentence so when we want

to use the perfect tense like we’ve seen

beyonce live so many times that means

we’ve seen beyonce in the past many

times but when is not important so we

use that perfect tense we’ve seen we

have seen so another example like when i

get this question i sometimes will say

like i’ve talked about this many times i

have talked about this many times is a

perfect tense statement so in the past i

have discussed this this is something i

talked about uh at points in the past so

i can use perfect tense to describe that

so if you have any questions about

simple past tense or present perfect

tense i would recommend checking the

videos that we have on the website or on

the youtube channel so i talk more about

how to use these two grammar points

thanks for the question i hope that that

helps okay next question next question

comes from semi hi again sami semi says

hi what’s the difference uh i want you

to know i want to you know

i want you know from these choices only

the first one is grammatically correct i

want you to know so it could introduce

something it could introduce an idea

like i want you to know i did my best

the other two things that are you

presented here they’re not grammatically

correct maybe with some punctuation or

maybe in a conversation with the right

emphasis they could be part of something

else i’m not sure but the other two

things uh are not grammatically correct

so the difference here is that your

first option is correct and it can begin

an idea i hope that that helps you okay

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from danny hi danny hi

again danny danny says i’d like to know

about finish

has finished and is finished okay

um finish can be a noun or a verb as in

the first item just finish in present

tense it’s used like in present

situations or to talk about future

situations so like let’s finish work or

we should finish this soon so we can go

to the party something like that let’s

finish so that’s an upcoming activity

let’s go on to is finished when we see

this is finished it’s actually finished

being used as an adjective so we know

that because we see is there is is our

verb so like he is finished she is

finished class is finished so it’s an

adjective it’s describing the situation

finished there we use that to talk about

something that is completed it’s done so

we could use a verb form like class

finished at nine o’clock or we could say

like at nine o’clock class is finished

so that’s the current state that’s the

current situation uh the race is

finished or dinner is finished let’s

compare that to has finished so has

finished is using the present perfect

form so finished here is the past

participle form of the verb finished

something has finished as i talked about

in one of the other questions in today’s

episode

has finished that would be the present

perfect tense meaning that something

occurred in the past and the effects of

that continue to the present this is an

example of an effect continuing to the

present we would see has finished used

in like a polite situation for example

like i imagine at like a hotel breakfast

service if hotel breakfast ends at like

nine o’clock but i’m a guest and i

arrive at 9 30 and i want to eat

breakfast the hotel staff might say to

me sorry breakfast has finished so they

could say i’m sorry breakfast is

finished that’s kind of direct sounding

but if they say breakfast has finished

we could think of it like

the like ending point for breakfast was

at nine o’clock but there’s this effect

and the effect of that is that me the

guest like i can’t eat breakfast now

because it finished in the past so we

could kind of think of it like an effect

so i hope that that helps you thanks

very much for the question okay let’s

move on to your next question next

question comes from sridhar reddy hi

again sridhar sridhar says hi alicia

which one is correct in the following

sentences one not all questions can’t be

answered by alicia or two

not all questions can be answered by

alicia the first sentence i read on your

site why use both not all and can’t be i

thought using only one of them makes a

sentence meaningful yes thank you very

much you’ve found what is called a typo

a typo is a typing mistake so i checked

this out on the website we will fix it

you are correct this should be can so

not all questions can be answered by

alicia that would be the correct

sentence it should not be can’t so we’ll

fix that if you see a pattern like this

not all somethings can be something so

that would be the correct way to build

this kind of sentence structure okay i

hope that helps and thank you very much

for this point uh next question comes

from antonio locko hi antonio antonio

says i am confused about when to use i

talk with blah blah blah versus i talk

to blah blah blah can you help with that

by the way you’re very funny thanks i

talk to or i talk with yes i’ve spoken

about this very very briefly and i think

the video about speak versus talk

basically there’s not really a

difference between two and with here

when we use two though i feel that it

has more of a one-way conversational

feeling like if you’re giving someone

information if it’s kind of just one

person sharing a lot of information

talking i might use two like go talk to

your boss about this or like let’s talk

to my parents about this when you use

with however it sounds more like you’re

participating in something together

you’re participating in a discussion

together like you do things with another

person so there’s someone else there

participating together with you so using

with to me sounds a little bit more like

there are other people participating

other people involved like i said it’s a

really small point both of them are

correct you won’t have any communication

problems if you choose to or with or if

you choose to mix them hope that helps

you alright that’s everything that i

have for you for this week thank you as

always for sending your questions

remember you can send them to me at

englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia of course if you like

the video please don’t forget to give it

a thumbs up subscribe to our channel if

you have not already and check us out at

englishclass101.com for a few other

things that can help you with your

english studies thanks very much for

watching this week’s episode of ask

alicia and i will see you again next

week bye-bye

air police hey police eric is the chief

of the hair please

oh my god

that’s recorded okay

[Music]

beyonce hi everybody welcome back to ask

alicia the weekly series where you ask

me questions and i answer them maybe

your first question comes from

mishan hi maison maison says hi alicia

what’s the difference between picture

image and photo in most cases we use

them the same when you use a camera

you can say photo or picture take a

picture or take a photo we use them the

same way so image can refer yes to a

picture or to a photo though it does

sound more like something maybe printed

or published generally speaking image is

used to refer to a depiction or a

representation of something else so that

means it could be like a painting so

this is an image of a goddess or this is

an image of a person on a boat for

example so image is a depiction a

representation of something so that

means it can be physical and it can also

be in your mind like a mental picture of

something we could also call that an

image we have an image of something in

our heads so like my image of her is

ruined or i have a really good image of

that person hope that helps you okay

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from

hairline bieber hi heroline hi alicia i

want to know if i speak in british

english in america will americans

understand me and vice versa

yes they should there should be no

reason why an american english speaker

should not understand a british english

speaker or vice versa it should not be a

problem thanks very much for the

question let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from

alejandro hi alejandro alejandro says hi

alicia i have a question what’s the

meaning of the expression much obligated

and how can i use this i’m not sure

about much obligated that’s not really

an expression we use we do have the

expression much obliged much obliged

which is like thank you very much for

helping me and i owe you for this so if

someone does something for you you can

say much obliged it sounds rather formal

and for some people perhaps a little bit

old-fashioned actually you could use it

at like the end of an email for example

thanks very much for the files much

obliged that sort of thing like i owe

you in return so i hope that that helps

you thanks very much for the question

next question comes from fabrizio

sanchez hi fabrizio fabrizio says can

you explain the differences between

should have could have would have and

they’re negative forms yes but a proper

answer is much bigger than just this q

and a video so

here’s a quick short answer should have

is used to talk about things we wish we

had done in the past or we wish we had

not done in the past i should have

studied more when i was a student i

shouldn’t have had so much to drink last

night so we often have this kind of

feeling of regret when we use should

have or should not have could have

refers to something that was possible in

the past or impossible in the past i

could have finished work at six today if

my boss hadn’t given me a last minute

task did you see that guy in the car was

that davey nah that couldn’t have been

davey he’s at work today could not means

impossible so could not have been davey

in that situation means it’s impossible

for that to have been davey just now in

the past uh would have and would not

have refers to a future action in the

past we are imagining ourselves as like

in the past thinking about our future

activities i would have gone to the

concert but

i had to work i wouldn’t have quit my

job if i were you so i’ll try to make a

whiteboard video about this in the

future thanks very much for the question

let’s move on to your next question for

this week next question comes from

sridhar ready hi sridhar sridhar says hi

alicia how do i use the word wanting in

a sentence and what does it mean so we

tend not to use mental state or

emotional state verbs in anything other

than the present tense or past tense

so want is an example of this we tend

not to use want in the progressive tense

but in a situation like i have been

wanting where we’re talking about

desiring something over a period of time

that started in the past and continues

to the present we can use wanting i’ve

been wanting to see that movie for a

long time or she’s been wanting to take

a vacation for a long time or like i’ve

been wanting to eat that dessert for a

long time so i hope that that helps you

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from

izaldeen hi zaldeen uh izaldeen says

what is the difference between where

were you yesterday and where you have

been yesterday uh the difference is that

the second sentence is incorrect uh

where were you yesterday means what was

your location yesterday the second

sentence could be uh where have you been

or where have you been since yesterday

the first one is more common where have

you been this question means

what was your location or what were your

locations since the last time i saw you

so this is a question that commonly

sounds like you’re accusing someone so

if you expected to see someone and you

did not see someone like you’ve been

waiting for a long time for someone you

can say where have you been like i was

waiting for you that kind of thing we

would use a question like where were you

yesterday if we were expecting to see

someone and they did not come as planned

where were you yesterday what happened i

was expecting to see you thanks very

much for the question hope that helps

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from marcelo oliveira hi

again marcelo marcello says hi alicia

what is the difference between vain vein

and vein yeah a dictionary is helpful

for questions like these uh vein v-a-n-e

is a noun that’s part of a tool that’s

used to measure wind or liquid like the

veins of a windmill for example vein

v-a-i-n is an adjective that means

someone who is obsessed with themselves

like he’s so vain she’s so vain it’s

ridiculous vein v-e-i-n

is a part of the body it’s also a noun

it’s used to refer to the part of the

body that carries blood i hope that that

helps you again a dictionary is really

helpful to understand the differences

between words that sound and are spelled

similar all right so that’s everything

that i have for this week thank you as

always for sending your great questions

remember to send them to me at

englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia of course if you like

the video please don’t forget to give it

a thumbs up subscribe to our channel if

you have not already and check us out at

englishclass101.com for some other

things that can help you with your

english studies thanks very much for

watching this week’s episode of ask

alicia and i will see you again next

time bye-bye 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 isaac alexander hi again isaac

isaac says hi alicia what’s the

difference between make or cook dinner

and have or eat dinner about make and

cook dinner there’s really not a

difference unless you want to be really

really specific and you’re just like

using a microwave or an oven to heat up

food in that case it’s probably more

correct to say

make dinner regarding your second

question about have or eat dinner or any

other meal for that matter

they have the same meaning yes but we

tend to use have more when we’re making

invitations like do you want to have

lunch or do you want to have dinner with

me we use it a bit more in those cases

um we use eat more when we’re talking

about like our personal plans i think

have just sounds a little bit softer for

an invitation so i hope that this helps

you understand some of the small nuances

there thanks very much for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from

sung wan hai seung-wong song one says hi

can you describe what a stereotype means

um yeah so a stereotype as a noun

is kind of like an unfair or

kind of a negative

idea about a person or a thing

based on some common characteristics so

some examples of stereotypes are like

women love shopping or men love sports

or like all indian food is spicy for

example so even though it’s like

something that might be true in many

cases

it’s not true in all cases so this is a

stereotype i hope that that helps you

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from ronnie

gontalidad gontale.hi ronnie ronnie says

how do you properly use the period and

the comma in a sentences along with the

proper grammar use periods at the end of

a sentence in the most basic form a

sentence is a subject and a verb so like

i walked or he slept or she swam for

example we put a period at the end of a

sentence i watched the new batman movie

the neighbors ate all my popcorn so

those are more like complex sentences we

use commas then when we’re connecting

independent sentences with coordinating

conjunctions a coordinating conjunction

is like and but or for so yet like i

watched the new batman movie and the

neighbors ate all the popcorn so i

watched the new batman movie comma and

the neighbors ate all the popcorn that’s

when i would use a comma that’s one

example actually there’s a video on the

channel i made about how to use commas

it’s an introduction to using commas so

i recommend you check this video out to

learn more about commas so i hope that

that helps you thanks very much for the

question okay let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from karima

hi again karima karima says i think the

verb address has different meanings

could you tell me some of them one of

the meanings of address is to write the

mailing address on like a letter or a

package like please address your

envelope too or

i have a package addressed to so and so

address also means to deal with

something or to handle an issue usually

a problem something negative how do you

plan to address this situation or when

are you going to address this issue for

example so that means deal with or

handle something

another meaning of address is like to

give a formal speech or to talk directly

to someone so like the president

addressed the country in a televised

speech or the ceo plans to address the

employees in the morning meeting so

there are three different examples of

how to use address again if you want to

know more about definitions i highly

recommend checking a dictionary okay

hope that helped you let’s go on to your

next question next question comes from

marcelo olivier hi marcelo marcelo says

uh hi alicia what do these expressions

mean uh to scrape the bottom of the

barrel and last resort um to scrape the

bottom of the barrel means to use like

only the people or the things that you

have available and this means that

they’re typically not of good quality

some examples i had to scrape the bottom

of the barrel to find this computer for

work you put that guy on your team

you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel

your second question about the word last

resort means like your last option the

last thing that you are able to do or

the last thing you can possibly do you

have no other options in a situation you

turn to your last resort i might not

have enough money to launch my business

my last resort is asking my parents for

a loan

if this job doesn’t work out his last

resort is to start working at his

friend’s company so i hope that that

helps you understand those two

expressions thanks very much for the

questions 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

englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia of course if you like

the video please don’t forget to give it

a thumbs up subscribe to our channel if

you have not already and check us out at

englishclass101.com for some other

things that can help you with your

english studies thanks very much for

watching this week’s episode of ask

alicia and i’ll see you again soon bye

be funny

be funny quick alicia be funny oh god

hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and i answer them maybe first

question comes from sarah hi sarah sarah

says what’s the difference between just

and adjust just can be used to refer to

an action that was very recently

completed i just finished my workout we

just ate dinner we just turned the

cameras on and we use it to talk about

actions that are going to finish in the

near future usually with about like i

was just about to do something i was

just about to go on to the next question

or i was just about to go home when it

started raining so these are a couple of

very common uses of just adjust however

is a verb to adjust means to make a

change to something usually like a small

change to something like to fix

something or to make it match something

else some examples he made me adjust my

hair before i started talking or i need

to adjust my jacket before i go on stage

we just adjusted the cameras oh i hope

that that helps you let’s move on to

your next question next question comes

from atsushi mizuno hi atsushi atsushi

says i have two questions okay first one

what is the difference between the

something something and this something

something second how do i use it seems

that and seems to uh okay first one the

uh so the something something versus

this something something it’s kind of a

big question the is used to refer to

something that you mentioned earlier in

the conversation so here are some

examples i saw a dog i pet the dog thank

you for sending me the paperwork i

requested so in each of these cases the

person listening or the person reading

the message understands what the is so

there’s some like previous like

conversation or there’s some previous

information so we know that the refers

to a specific instance of that so we use

this when we want to differentiate

between two nouns so we use this before

the noun i don’t want that sandwich i

want this sandwich so i’m

differentiating between these two i

think this coffee shop has great lattes

so when i use this here it’s like the

other coffee shops i know maybe don’t

have such great lattes i want to

emphasize this one we use it a lot in

questions like is this drink yours so

meaning from all these other drinks here

is this one in particular the specific

drink is this yours so your second

question was about the difference

between seems that and seems to

uh the difference here is just seems

that is followed by a noun and seems to

is followed by a verb for example it

seems that you made a mistake or it

seems that he

is out of time

sugar a grandma

yeah grandma it seems that you are out

of sugar

[Laughter]

so like evil sounding like it seems

you’re out of sugar grandma it seems

that i have enough examples for this so

i’ll move on to the next one seems to

then is followed by a verb like this

seems to

have been a mistake he seems to like

spicy food she seems to

have a lot of hobbies so we follow seems

too with a verb thanks very much for the

question let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from aya hi

aya aya says what’s the difference

between gorgeous adorable fabulous and

beautiful um

beautiful is like the most general word

from this group we can use beautiful to

talk about people to talk about nature

to talk about music

adorable is like is cute we use adorable

to talk about things that are cute

meaning kind of childish that can be a

person like so like a little kid is

adorable that’s usually the tone of

voice we use when we say it too oh he’s

adorable she’s adorable we also use it

for like design

things that have like this kind of cute

or child like appearance as well like oh

that’s adorable this room is adorable i

love this design that’s adorable so

gorgeous then you can think of gorgeous

as like a leveled up beautiful we use

gorgeous when we talk about people we

use gorgeous to talk about adults and we

use it to have like this kind of feeling

of glamorous or maybe it’s kind of

expensive or it seems high quality

something is gorgeous like wow that

chandelier is gorgeous or her dress is

gorgeous or wow he’s gorgeous that model

for example so we can also use it for

nature like oh my gosh the sunset was

gorgeous or like that cake i ate for

breakfast was gorgeous i did not eat a

cake for breakfast finally fabulous is

kind of a playful word it means great in

general something that’s great can be

like fabulous and you might hear people

say it with kind of a funny intonation

like that’s fabulous so kind of this uh

silly joking playful intonation like oh

my gosh your shirt is fabulous this

dinner was fabulous or oh my god your

new hairstyle is fabulous so just kind

of pay attention to the kinds of people

who use the word fabulous that you see

in the media and maybe you can kind of

get the idea

of how and when you might use it all

right so i hope that that helps you

thanks very much for the question let’s

go on to your next question next

question comes from vishnu hi vishnu

vishnu says how to use these forms have

been has been and had been correctly

okay these questions refer to the

present perfect tense

have been and has been our present

perfect tense uh grammar structures so

please check this video on the channel i

did a video about how to make and how to

use the present perfect tense there’s

also some information about present

perfect progressive tense

regarding your question about had been

when we use had been that’s past perfect

tense so we use that to talk about an

action that was continuing in the past

before

another action in the past so for

example i had been studying for three

hours when the phone rang or

she had been sleeping

for

six hours when it started raining

something that was like a continuing

action that was in the past often that

was interrupted so i’ll try to make a

whiteboard video about past perfect

tense i hope that that helps you thanks

very much for the question okay let’s go

to your next question next question

comes from

arseney hi arseny arseny says hi alicia

what’s the difference between site place

and area site is used in like

construction projects we use site to

talk about the place where a new

building is going to be made wear a hard

hat on the construction site let’s visit

the site and make the plans place is

quite a general word but it refers to

like a specific location let’s go to my

place or this is a really nice place or

i know a good place up the street

finally area is like a larger region

uh than place let’s hang out in the

downtown area later there were typhoon

warnings in the coastal areas today so i

hope that that helps you uh thanks very

much for the question let’s move on to

our next question next question comes

from connie hi connie connie says what’s

the difference between others the others

and another how do i use in the correct

situation yeah this is tough okay

let’s begin by introducing a sample

situation look at this picture

this is my sister

this is my other sister

the others are my parents

now let’s look at another picture so

here i introduced other with my other

sister in the second sentence here i

said this is my sister third sentence

was this is my other sister so i

introduced sister in the first sentence

other than refers to like the addition

to something that’s already known so

it’s kind of like there’s a very close

relationship between those two sentences

this is my sister this is my other

sister shows that there’s like an

addition to the thing i just said

then when i say the other the other

refers to like the remaining known

things so if i’m looking at this picture

and i know that there are four people in

the picture and two people are the

speaker’s sisters there are two people

remaining and i say the other people

that means the remaining people in the

picture that i don’t yet know so the

other people in the picture are my

parents then i say let’s look at another

picture so another refers to an addition

or something extra from outside the

existing situation so i hope that this

can help you see the relationships

between other

the other and another okay that’s

everything that i have for this week

thank you as always for sending your

questions remember please send your

questions to me at englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia of course if you like

the video please don’t forget to give it

a thumbs up subscribe to our channel if

you have not already and check us out at

englishclass101.com

for some other things that can help you

with your english studies thanks very

much for watching this week’s episode of

ask alicia and i will see you again soon

bye bye hi everybody welcome back to ask

alicia the weekly series where you ask

me questions and i answer them maybe

first question comes from isaac

alexander again hi isaac what’s the

difference between switch on and off and

turn on and off which is more casual

less so than casual in american english

turn on and turn off is more common

switch on or switch off is just less

common that’s all hope that helps you

thanks for the question okay let’s go to

your next question next question

comes from

zakari hi zakari zakari says i hear

americans pronounce the article a

before a word in a sentence with the

sound ae and sometimes pronounced with

the sound

is there a rule about that

no there’s no rule there is absolutely

not a rule for this it’s just speaker

preference though i do feel personally

when i’m trying to emphasize something

i’ll use a more it’s up to personal

preference it’s all just a speaker’s

preference so i hope that that helps you

no rule thanks for the question okay

let’s go to the next question next

question comes from

harris hi harris harris says hi alicia

what is the difference between using yet

and instead of and despite let’s begin

by comparing yet and despite we’ll talk

about instead of at the end let’s begin

by comparing two sentences i wanted to

go to the party

yet i stayed home i wanted to go to the

party despite that i stayed home let’s

look at the first example sentence here

which uses yet so yet is a conjunction

here it’s connecting these two ideas i

wanted to go to the party and i stayed

home

yet gives us the meaning of even though

or but so we see it’s kind of like

saying a which is the desire i wanted to

go to the party a and b the outcome the

actual result i stayed at home are

connected with this yet statement so a

yet be

desire yet outcome

let’s compare this to despite so a key

difference between despite and yet is

that we cannot use despite as a

conjunction we need to include despite

with that initial desire that a point

that i talked about in the yet

explanation so it’s like saying despite

so it has the same meaning yes but it

just has a different structure the

sentence has a different structure when

you make a sentence like this you can

introduce a the desire then connect it

to the next sentence not using a comma

but with the next sentence you can say

despite this or despite that where that

means part a so i wanted to go to the

party a despite that despite wanting to

go to the party b i stayed at home so

you need to connect your

despite with something like this or that

or the specific noun phrase you might

also hear the very common expressions

despite the fact that or despite wanting

to blah blah blah we need to use some

kind of noun phrase to introduce that

point so this is a key difference

between yet and despite

finally let’s take a look at instead of

instead of refers to a substitution so

you’re doing something in place of

something else i stayed home instead of

going to the party so this means in

place of going to the party i stayed at

home so despite and yet have very

similar uses but we need to make

slightly different grammatical

structures in order to use them instead

of just refers to something that is

being substituted for something else so

i hope that that helps thanks very much

for the question all right let’s go on

to the next question next question comes

from karima hi karima hi again karima

says hi alicia i want you to explain the

phrase get started grammatically if it’s

possible when do we use get plus

adjective or get plus a verb yeah okay

so we can use get plus a verb when we’re

talking about uh beginning the process

of that verb so when i start videos on

this channel with the expression let’s

get started i’m saying let’s begin the

first steps of starting some examples i

gotta get going that means i need to

begin to leave let’s get cooking

that means let’s start the process of

cooking something you should get writing

so we can’t pair all verbs with this get

plus verb pattern but there are quite a

few that we can use to move on to your

next question though get plus adjective

get just means become here but become

sounds very formal so we use get instead

some examples i’m gonna get pretty for

my date tonight the fight got ugly it’s

getting dark outside don’t get drunk so

i hope that this helps answer your

question thanks very much let’s move on

to your next question next question

comes from milan hi milan milan says hi

alicia i would like to ask is there any

difference between my and mine for

example he is my friend and he is friend

of mine okay your example sentences have

the same meaning just one small

correction he is a friend of mine he is

a friend of mine don’t forget that

article that you need with your singular

noun i would say though that the my

pattern is more commonly used than the

mind pattern i think that this comes

from the fact that when we end a

sentence with mine

it kind of sounds like we’re being

greedy or possessive in your example

like he’s a friend of mine that’s very

very common that’s kind of a set phrase

that we use a lot but in other examples

i would just go with the simple my

pattern this something is my something

or this is my blah blah blah

i just feel that that sounds a little

bit less like greedy like mine you

sometimes hear kids or like even adults

sometimes when they get really excited

about owning something or having

something they might say like this is

mine so it can have kind of a negative

feel about it for that reason i would

recommend the my pattern instead of the

mind pattern so i hope that that helps

you all right so thank you very much as

always for sending your questions

remember you can send them to me at

englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia of course if you like

the video please don’t forget to give it

a thumbs up subscribe to our channel if

you have not already and check us out at

englishclass101.com

for some other things that can help you

with your english studies thanks very

much for watching this week’s episode of

ask alicia and i will see you again next

time bye-bye

some examples are

gone where’d they go okay um i gotta get

what hi everybody welcome back to ask

alicia the weekly series where you ask

me questions and i answer them maybe

first question comes from miyuki hi

miyuki yuki says i want to know about

test taking tips okay

i will give you five tips tip number one

is to know your test on your test do you

need to write do you need to read listen

speak what do you need to do first make

sure you know the test and know the

requirements of the test number two

check and see if the sections are timed

check to see how much time you have for

each section of your test number three

is to ask yourself have you taken the

test before what was good for you what

was not good for you so what do you need

to improve review your past tests to see

what you need to work on for the next

test number four if you can if it’s

available take a practice test practice

tests can help you find your weak points

and your strong points and help you if

you have timed sections in your test as

well number five if your test includes

speaking you need to practice speaking

if you don’t practice you won’t be able

to do it at the time that you need it so

if you don’t have a language partner you

can look for one online or you can

practice with media like repeating

shadowing media so those are five quick

test tips i know they’re very general

but i hope that they can apply to lots

of different tests so i hope that this

helps you thanks for the question okay

let’s go on to your next question next

question comes from

nerdan emmanet hi again nerdon nerdan

says hi alicia what’s the difference

between blame accuse and charge all

right blame accuse and charge these are

three verbs that have very similar

meanings let’s begin with blame to blame

means to assign someone responsibility

for something this has a negative nuance

to it some examples my parents blamed me

for the broken vase the police blamed

the accident on a broken traffic light

to accuse someone means to suggest that

someone did something bad so it’s a

little bit different from blame blame is

like assigning responsibility to someone

for like a negative effect to accuse

someone of something it’s like someone

did something wrong maybe on purpose and

you want to suggest that it was that

person some examples the landlord

accused him of not paying rent she

accused the company of fraud let’s move

along then to the last one to charge to

charge is a legal term this is a legal

word which means you formally accuse

someone of wrongdoing so we do not use

charge in everyday conversation when

we’re saying like you did this bad thing

or i think it was you

charge is used in courts to charge

someone with a crime means to officially

and legally accuse them of a crime

examples the suspect has been charged

with murder she’s been charged with

breaking and entering so that’s a quick

introduction to the differences between

these three verbs i hope that that

helped you thanks for an interesting

question okay let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from

isaac alexander hi again isaac isaac

says hi alicia what’s the difference

between soccer and football yeah

soccer is just the word that people from

the u.s use to talk about what the rest

of the world calls football so to my

knowledge

most if not all other countries use the

word football to talk about the game

with the black and white ball the

players kick around the field

we do have a football of our own we have

what many people call american football

which is a totally different game which

involves passing and a little bit of

kicking if you’re speaking with an

american english speaker soccer refers

to the black and white ball sport

football refers to that kind of

egg-shaped brown leather ball sport if

you’re talking to maybe a british

english speaker

football probably means what american

english speakers call soccer i hope that

that helps you thanks for the question

all right let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from ahmed

magdie hi ahmed uh ahmed says hi alicia

what does whiplash mean

uh whiplash this is an injury whiplash

is an injury that happens when the body

is like jerked in a strong way like in a

car accident or maybe another like

transportation related accident whiplash

is an injury around like the head and

neck and shoulders where the body and

the head move like separately if this is

the body and this is the head they move

separately like in a very quick like

jumping like whip like motion if you

know a whip it’s like this indiana jones

has one it’s like uh so to like whiplash

is the name of the injury we get from

our bodies being moved in this way so i

hope that that helps you thanks very

much for the question okay let’s move on

to your next question next question

comes from karima hi again kurima karima

says hi alicia i want to ask you what

does the preposition up mean or refer to

in the following sentence what exactly

are you up to uh all right this up

doesn’t have any meaning so what are you

up to or what’s up this is just a set

phrase up doesn’t have any like

directional meaning there’s no movement

or positioning just consider this a set

phrase like what’s up uh means how are

you or what are you doing same thing

with what exactly are you up to it means

what exactly are you doing up doesn’t

really have a function here it’s just a

set phrase so don’t worry too much about

what exactly up means here it’s sort of

just

it’s just an expression that we use so

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 englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia of course if you like

the video please don’t forget to give it

a thumbs up subscribe to our channel if

you have not already and check us out at

englishclass101.com

for some other things that can help you

with your english studies thanks very

much for watching this episode of ask

alicia and i will see you again next

week bye-bye hi everybody welcome back

to ask alicia the weekly series where

you ask me questions and i answer them

maybe first question comes from leon hi

leon leon says hi alicia number one i’d

like to know why we have to place

incarnate and galore after nouns and two

how do you pronounce the s after a th or

s-t sound like months and scientists

would be glad if you answer okay all

right so regarding your first question

these are examples of what are called

post-positive adjectives so these are

adjectives that come after a noun in

english we usually use pre-positive

adjectives so those are adjectives that

come before a noun however for a number

of reasons there are some adjectives

that we place after the noun so your

examples incarnate and galore usually

come after a noun so for example you

might know the devil incarnate or there

was food galore at the event for example

these are just situations that are kind

of set phrases honestly unfortunately

there’s not really a rule it’s just one

of those things that you need to

remember so regarding your second

question about the s sound in a word

like months your tongue touches the back

of your teeth and we make like a quick s

sound months months so the th sound

almost disappears it’s sort of like when

you’re saying the or this or that that

really quick th sound in a word like

scientists however scientists is very

difficult to say in rapid speech so we

make it like a long s sound scientists

so it just sounds like scientists

thanks for the question let’s go on to

your next question the next question

comes from karima hi karima karima says

hi alicia i want to know the difference

between right now and right away and

when can we use both of them okay right

now sounds more direct than right away

right now is like a command actually so

this is something that you might hear

parents use like for kids so like go to

your room right now is a really good

example of how right now is used right

away however is used in more formal

situations like in business situations

or work situations to show that

something will be done immediately but

it sounds a bit soft some examples can

you please order lunch for our meeting

yes right away please take care of this

right away so i hope that this helps you

understand when to use these two thanks

very much for the question okay let’s

move on to your next question next

question comes from liliana inez jose

concepcion sorry hi liliana what is the

difference between mistake and error

nice question mistake tends to be used

more for human actions things that we

did or things that we caused humans as

people our activities some examples i

made a mistake with this recipe she

found a mistake in the textbook error is

used for machines like computers so if

there’s a problem with the like machine

that you’re using or like your printer

or something you’ll see an error message

not a mistake message examples printer

error error downloading file there are

some cases where we might use error to

talk about the things that humans do

but for kind of a general guide this is

basically the difference i hope that

that helps you thanks for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question is from silas hi silas

silas says hi alicia what does straight

up mean and how can i use it in a

sentence yeah

straight up means like honest true

genuine real it’s kind of got a positive

feeling about it it tends to be used a

little bit more by young people i would

say more by young men but anyone can use

it some examples i straight up forgot my

wallet he straight up passed out in the

car on the way home you have to be

straight up with your roommate so you

can see that straight up does have a

casual feel it also kind of has a

friendly feel though it is talking about

like an honest or a true or a real

situation or an attitude so i hope that

this helps you understand the use of

straight up thanks very much for the

question okay let’s move along to your

next question next question comes from

ahmad sarwar hi ahmad ahmad says hi

alicia what is the difference between

lay lie lying and laying how do you use

and pronounce these words in your daily

life yeah i talked about this question

in episode 21 of this series you can

check that out and find some more

example sentences there so to review lei

uses a direct object lie does not

examples lay down your bag here lie down

on the sofa so in the first example

sentence your bag is the direct object

of the verb lay lay down your bag here

in the second example sentence lie down

on the sofa there’s no direct object in

that sentence so as i said in the

previous episode what makes this

difficult is that the past tense of the

verb lie is lay he lay down on the sofa

we lay down and went to sleep in the

first example sentence he lay down on

the sofa there’s no direct object we

don’t see a direct object in the second

sentence either so we know that this lay

is actually the past tense of lie and

not the present tense lay keep in mind

however the past tense of lay is laid

examples we laid our bags on the table

she laid her keys on her desk each of

these example sentences has a direct

object so a bag and keys so if you want

to know is this lay or is this lie look

for a direct object that’ll tell you

which verb you’re dealing with so your

question is about the progressive forms

of these verbs laying and lying so an

example in the progressive tense our cat

keeps laying dead animals on our front

door

he’s lying on the sofa that’s the

progressive form of lie so there’s no

direct object there i hope that that

helps you okay so that’s everything that

i have for this week thank you as always

for sending your questions remember to

send them to me at englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia of course if you like

the video please don’t forget to give it

a thumbs up subscribe to our channel if

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for some other things that can help you

with your english studies thanks very

much for watching this episode of ask

alicia and i will see you again next

week bye bye

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