50 Answers To Englishrelated Questions That Youve Always Wondered About

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hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and i

answer them maybe thanks very much as

always for submitting your questions

remember you can submit your questions

to me at englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia first question

question comes from

carla hi carla carla asks how do native

speakers use

to have i have seen i’ve i have got

formal and informal sure we use the verb

to have for a lot of different meaning

there’s a grammatical function for the

verb have

when we pair it with the past participle

form of a verb like i

have plus past participle to make the

present perfect tense

or i had plus past participle to make

the past perfect

tense so there’s that kind of

grammatical function

of the verb have however if you just

want to use the verb

have in everyday situations like i have

a phone or i have a camera or

i don’t have any money for example then

to have

in that case just means to own something

or to hold something to be

keeping something so please consider the

sentence that you’re looking at with the

verb have in it

if it comes before a verb in the past

participle

it’s probably a past perfect or a

present perfect expression

if you’re seeing something after the

verb have

like an object in my examples like a

phone or a camera or money

then it’s probably referring to owning

something or

keeping something so those are probably

two of the most

common ways that you’ll see the verb

have and its variations in

at least american english speech next

question

the next person asked two questions so

the next two questions are from

essa warsiadi where where’s sayadee

i’m very sorry question one from asa can

you explain

through thorough though and thought

they sound similar yes indeed they do

sound similar

and they even look similar in writing

for sure

however these words have different

meanings and different functions in

speech

and in writing let’s look at through to

begin with though

through means to pass into

something and to come out the other side

of something

so for example to go through a tunnel or

if you’re looking at a document for

example to go

through a document means to read through

read

all of the content of the document from

beginning to end

so through something is to to begin at

something

and pass through all of the content to

pass through everything

and come up come out the other side or

to complete something so we also use the

word

through to mean finished in american

english like are you through with dinner

or i’m through with my homework so

through those are a couple of different

ways we use the word through the second

word thorough

thorough so different from through

thorough means

um comprehensive thorough means

completely thorough means

well done it has typically a positive

meaning

so for example she was very thorough in

her explanation of the word through

or she was very thorough in her

explanation of the word thorough sorry

she was very thorough in her

presentation meaning she gave a lot of

information

in her presentation thorough means well

done containing a lot of knowledge a lot

of information

in something thorough so please be

thorough in completing your homework or

he wasn’t very thorough in cleaning his

room so

thorough means well done completely done

finished so considering

everything considering all points of

something even the small

details is considered thorough so we can

use thorough for presentations

for activities that require small

details a thorough safety check for

example

so these are actions that are done

completely fully to the small details so

that’s

thorough next word here is though though

though you can think of though

in the same way you think of the word

but so it’s used to contrast

information it’s used to express a

difference in something so you could

someone’s opinion with an expression

like though so for example

i think summer is the best season though

winter is pretty fun too

so you can think of though in the same

way as you think of but

a though be so you’re presenting

a and then a contrasting opinion b and

you’re connecting those two ideas with

though in the same way you would but so

though though although is similar we use

although and though and but

in similar ways what’s the difference

but is much more casual and but

is used much more in casual conversation

in everyday conversation

if you’re writing a document a formal

document or if you’re making a formal

statement

you could use though in place of but so

though

shows contrasting information the last

one on this list is

thought thought thought is the past

tense of

think when used as a verb so i thought

you were coming today

or i thought it was going to rain later

or i thought this was such a great

afternoon

thought is used as the past tense of

think we can also use

thought to refer to an idea as a noun so

i have a thought for example or

do you have any thoughts about this

project so we can use

thought as a verb past tense of think or

as a noun to refer to an idea so again

that’s

through thorough though and thought

some of you might be wondering how do i

remember which is which

when i’m reading or when i’m listening

you have to pay attention to the grammar

of the sentence they all have different

grammatical functions

so you need to think about the grammar

surrounding the word too

on to question do from issa what does

love to hate mean and when can i use it

love to hate

means it’s something that you really

really dislike

but it’s sort of enjoyable to dislike so

for example this is an expression we can

apply

to reality tv so many people think

reality tv

is not very good entertainment or it’s

not very high quality entertainment

however it’s really really fun to watch

so maybe for example you just hate a

character

on a reality tv show but somehow you

enjoy

watching that tv show too so something

that you feel

very strong dislike for and yet you

really enjoy

it at the same time that’s something you

can love to hate you love to hate that

thing

next question next question comes from

bowie dente

bowie bowie dente very sorry dante asks

when can i use

ever in a present perfect sentence like

have ever ever means at any time or at

all times

you can use ever when you’re asking a

question like have you ever blah blah

have you ever been to france have you

ever eaten ramen have you ever

taken a trip to the mountains for

example we can use

ever when making questions that’s one

but because ever means at all time or at

any time

we may not use it to answer a question

like that have you ever blah blah blah

we usually say yes or no in that in

response to that we can say i have never

ever taken a trip to france or i have

never

ever forgotten my keys for example i

have never

ever blah blah blah but in that case it

still means

never an expression like never ever just

emphasizes the word

never so to use ever we need to pair

ever with a verb in a sentence so

we can’t say i have ever just i

have plus a verb we cannot say i have

ever

that’s incorrect i have at some at any

time or at all times

it’s it’s redundant it’s it’s not

necessary

we can however use ever in a negative

expression like i haven’t ever been to

france or

she hasn’t ever eaten cheese for example

so we have to pair ever with a negative

to make a response we use ever for

present perfect tense questions

and paired with a negative have or has

to make a response to make a negative

response so please keep those two in

mind next

question next question comes from bahar

hey bahar nice to see you again

uh bahar’s question is what does dash

mean

and when can we use it okay so the word

dash as a verb means to run very quickly

for a short period of time so for

example

i dashed to the station to catch my

train or i dashed to the classroom

for my test he dashed off to the flower

store to buy

a bouquet for his mother for example so

these are very very

short periods of time and very high

speed that’s

to dash however we can use dash as a

noun

in a way that does not refer to running

we can use it in writing as well

sometimes we use the word dash to refer

to these lines we see in writing you

might see

hyphens n dashes and m dashes these all

have different functions in writing

hyphens may be used to connect words n

dashes can be used to show

periods of time and m dashes can kind of

show um

extra information in a sentence um so we

call all of these

dashes this is kind of the category that

we assign to each of these so there’s

the verb

to dash and there’s also dash as a noun

which means all of these sorts of things

so thanks for that question baja

next question next question comes from

ricardo villarreal hey ricardo welcome

back ricardo’s question is what’s the

difference between

several sundry and various okay i’m not

quite sure how sundry fits in here

several means a few of something so

think of several as

higher than a couple or a few

but it’s not quite at many yet so maybe

as a good hint the word several sounds a

bit similar to

seven maybe it doesn’t necessarily mean

exactly seven of something but it’s a

bit higher than a few

and it’s not quite at the level of many

or a lot of

the next word you asked about sundry

sundry is something we use for household

items like everyday small household

items we usually use that

in the plural form like shops which sell

sundries

so this is quite uh different from the

words several and various

so sundry is usually used in the plural

form and it refers to

everyday items in your house the last

word you asked about

various we use various to describe a

miscellany of things

we use it before a noun typically

for example various ideas or various

people or various subjects various

topics

so various is used to describe many

different types of

something several refers to quantity

various is just used to indicate that

there are different

types or different kinds of the noun

that follows it so as i said

various ideas various flavors various

people

meaning different types of ideas

different types of people different

types of flavors

so several quantity various

types next question next question comes

from arnett

jake nougued no no i’m very sorry how do

we use

well before someone starts speaking and

though

after they speak well is kind of used as

soft way to begin speaking well it kind

of shows that you were listening to the

other person so it shows you listened to

the other person

and you are responding to them well if

that’s the case it kind of has that

nuance

well it sort of shows you were listening

and you are going to

respond based on that information

remember

though is used to show contrast so if

someone presents you with an idea or

gives you an opinion

and you want to show contrast to that

formally you can begin with

though so if for example you’re in a

formal situation

a business situation for example and

someone says

i think we should continue with the idea

we proposed last summer for this project

you might counter the opinion or you

might oppose the opinion

by beginning your statement with though

so you could say

though that’s going to cost a lot of

money to implement

so though shows contrast in a formal and

polite

way next question next question comes

from michael

king hi michael michael asks i want to

study at home

self-study what should i do ah yeah okay

i have self-studied

and it can be tough to do but you have

the internet congratulations

so what can you do there are a lot of

things number one define your goal

what is it you hope to achieve what are

you looking to do

through your studies don’t just say i

want to learn english that’s not a very

specific goal

give yourself a specific goal to achieve

like i want to pass

this level of a test or i want to be

able to do this thing in my life

i want to be able to give a business

presentation in english number two

look for resources that are going to

help you achieve that goal

if you need to work on your speaking you

need to find ways to practice your

speaking

if you’re looking for something to help

you with your reading or your writing

for example

look for tools that do that if you want

to read look for blogs look for websites

that have the content

in your target language that you want to

know more about

so start reading things and trying to

pick up the vocabulary

through studying those things in your

target language there are tons of

resources out there but you need to

define your goal

first and then start looking for the

resources that match your goal

three maybe the most difficult one for a

lot of us is to practice every day

find some way to make language practice

part of your everyday routine in my case

for example i found that it was really

helpful for me to take 15 minutes

in the morning and 15 minutes in the

evening during my commute on the subway

to study vocabulary and that helped me

improve little by little

day by day so it was a total of 30

minutes but

it added up over time and through

practicing every day

you’ll find that the resources you’re

using will become easier to understand

number four where possible try to create

an immersion environment if you’re not

in a situation where you’re actually

living in the country or you can

go to the country where they speak the

language you’re studying

try to create some kind of immersion

environment for yourself where you can’t

escape

into your native language just as much

as possible try to create some sort of

immersion environment so that you get

used to hearing those sounds and kind of

the natural responses that people have

to those sounds too

number five i think one more really good

tip for studying at home

is asking questions so there are other

people who are learning your language

and other people who are trying to study

we see it a lot on this channel too and

you guys are fantastic about helping

your fellow classmates

when you have a question and you can’t

find the answer for it

ask someone don’t let yourself get stuck

also think about the resources you

already have if it’s a question about

vocabulary you can check a dictionary if

you want to deepen your vocabulary you

can check a thesaurus

if you have a specific question about

how an expression is used

try asking a native speaker try posting

on a message board try posting in the

comments try posting on our website

so if you have a question reach out and

ask chances are if you have the question

it’s going to help somebody else to ask

the question and get the answer if you

have a question

ask good luck with your self-study next

question next question is from harley

passage hey harley welcome back what

does

uncountable mean this refers to a group

of nouns that we do not

count with numbers alone so for example

bread is uncountable

instead we use a counter word between

the number

and the uncountable noun so in my bread

example

we use one loaf of bread one slice of

bread

there are different words we use to

count the individual pieces or the

individual units

of the uncountable noun uncountable

nouns

means nouns which we cannot count with

just a simple number before the noun

we need to use an additional counter

word next

question next question comes from taylor

hi again taylor what’s the difference

between

look into my eyes and look me in the eye

i would say that we use a look into my

eyes

in more romantic situations or you might

hear this in like

movies maybe there’s something magical

that’s happening and

i don’t know a witch is casting a spell

and she says look into my eyes

look me in the eye is typically used in

a more aggressive situation it’s used in

an expression like look me in the

eye and say that look me in the eye

tends to be a more aggressive statement

look into my eyes sounds more romantic

or mysterious

next question from yonki

i’m sorry what’s the difference between

i like to take naps

and i like to take a nap or i like to go

for walks

and i like to go for a walk so when

you’re speaking

generally especially in a sentence like

i like to

you need to use the plural form of the

noun you can’t use the singular form of

the noun

because you’re talking generally about

all cases of that noun or all cases of

that action you’re talking about a

regular activity you like to do

something you have done more than one

time something you are going to do

repeatedly presumably into the future so

you need to use the plural form next

question next

question is from suha how do we write a

good paragraph

number one you need to think about the

position of your paragraph in your

overall document

let’s think about writing a document in

terms of three parts an introduction

a body and a conclusion in the

introduction section

you need to introduce the key

information your reader needs to know

what they’re going to read about later

in your document so if your paragraph is

in the introduction

you need to think about how to introduce

your information there

second the body section of your document

should be where you include

your evidence your supporting materials

your opinions

any references that you have so if your

paragraph falls in the body of the

document you should have these themes in

mind

if your paragraph is in the conclusion

of your document at the

end you should be concluding or

finishing your ideas it’s typically a

good idea to summarize the ideas you

presented in the body

and the introduction of your document in

the concluding section

two use transitions when you’re writing

it’s good to transition from one

sentence to another

and to use good transitions between

paragraphs themselves so some example

transitions could be

first second third or next

then finally after that moreover

additionally furthermore

so transitions help the reader connect

the ideas that you’re presenting in your

writing three

avoid trying to include too much

information in one sentence

remember you need to try to present your

ideas as

clearly and accurately as possible so if

you find you’re just writing and writing

and writing and the sentence is becoming

extremely long

take a moment and look at the goal of

this sentence what are you

actually trying to communicate if you

need to break it into smaller sentences

and connect them with transitions

next question next question comes from

luann garcia hi luann one asks i would

like to know how to use down

up off in on and out after a verb and

why it’s necessary

oh dear won this is a very big question

your question is about phrasal verbs

these are all called phrasal verbs verb

plus adverb or

preposition there are an enormous amount

of phrasal verbs i cannot

possibly talk about all of them in one

video phrasal verbs are

necessary because they are part of

speech they are simply

a type of verb they are a type of

expression so you need to know them

because

they will help you to communicate

effectively um so

if you want to know more about specific

phrasal verbs i would suggest checking a

dictionary okay thanks very much for

submitting your questions again this

week

great questions as always thank you so

much you guys make me think really hard

remember if you’d like to submit a

question

please send them to me at

englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia alright so thanks very

much for watching this episode of ask

alicia and i will see you again

next time bye bye this

is not a traditional christmas outfit by

any means

i kind of look like a cleric from the

movie equilibrium have you guys seen

that movie with

um christian bale and sean bean you know

that movie where they like don’t have

any feelings and they fight

this video is over bye i’m going to use

the force

to make you watch this whole video

hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia

the weekly series where you

ask me questions and i answer them maybe

you can send your questions to me at

englishclass101.com

slash ask hyphen alicia first question

from

harley pasos harley paso paso passport

i’m very sorry harley asks what is the

use of get

plus adverb or preposition for example

i get down this is a question about

phrasal verbs with

get we can use a lot of different things

after the word

get in your example to get down we use

it when dancing for example like i want

to get down this weekend it’s sort of an

old-fashioned expression though to get

down we can use a lot of different

uh words after the verb get though for

example get into

to get into something means to become

interested in something you might hear

to get at like get at me

or get at your professor to get at means

to reach out to or to communicate with

but it’s a very casual expression you

can say get after like i need to get

after my homework for example

it means to like chase after or try to

do something

also to get in like to get into a club

to get into a restaurant to get into a

party

the nuance is that something is

challenging but you can gain

access to that thing like i got into the

party last night but i wasn’t on the

list there are a lot of different uses

of the word

get i can’t talk about all of them in

this video because there are so many

so if you’re curious about the various

phrasal verbs that we can use with the

word get check out a dictionary that’s a

really good place to start

next question next question comes from

long

and longan asks what is the difference

between simple

past tense and past continuous tense or

past progressive tense simple

past tense we use for actions that

started

and ended in the past so the beginning

of the action and the end of the action

happened in the past so for example the

sentence i ate

breakfast is a simple past tense

statement i

ate breakfast eight is the simple past

tense the past continuous tense however

or the past progressive tense

is something we use to talk about an

action that was continuing

at a specific point in time in the past

if i want to use the past progressive

tense i can say

i was eating breakfast using that

continuous tense using that progressive

tense implies i want

to explain something else that happened

at that time or maybe i want to add some

more information

so for example i was eating breakfast at

eight o’clock this morning or i was

eating breakfast when the phone rang

or i was eating breakfast and watching

tv at the same time

i was eating breakfast while studying

today by using the past progressive

i’m explaining that an action was

continuing at a specific point in time

as in the example i was eating breakfast

at eight o’clock

or i can use past progressive to show

one action was happening at the same

time as another action

in the past if i use just the simple

past tense i’m just saying

a simple fact in other words this action

happened i ate breakfast at eight

o’clock

if i want to emphasize the continuous

nature of the action for some reason

like i was eating breakfast at eight

o’clock

i can use the past progressive tense in

that case

it might be in response to a question

like what were you doing at eight

o’clock this morning so if someone wants

to ask maybe

uh what you were doing at a specific

point in time like someone is suspicious

of you like what were you doing last

night

you can say like oh i was having dinner

with my friends last night

but past ten simple past tense is

something we use for actions which start

uh and finish uh in the past but

progressive the progressive tense and

past

can be used to emphasize the continuing

nature of that situation or that action

question next question comes from yasin

yasim yasin i’m very sorry what’s the

difference between

on time and in time is it you arrived

just on time or you arrived just in time

we use

on time to refer to doing something

at the correct time doing something at a

scheduled time so for example i need to

get to work

on time meaning at the correct time or

did you make it to your appointment on

time

in time however is used when we want to

kind of give a nuance of rushing or

hurrying for something

i need to leave my house now to get to

the airport in time

for my flight i need to study for my

test now if i want to be in time for the

party later you should probably leave

now if you want to be in time for the

movie

in time for something else so i want to

action a to make my schedule meet

this other condition this other thing i

would like to do or this other thing i

need to do

in time for has the nuance of a deadline

we can use this expression in like a

panic like oh my gosh i’m not going to

make it

in time like to submit a paper i’m not

going to make it in time

in time means like before the deadline

whereas on time has the meaning of

completing an action or completing

something

at a scheduled time next question

the next question comes from garrison

silva hi what is the difference between

shade and shadow oh great this is a

great question

both of these words can be used to refer

to a place

that is darker than its surroundings

because

there’s an object that is blocking the

light we can say

there’s shade over there or there’s a

shadow over there

in that sentence they are used the same

however

shadow refers to the dark shape only so

a person

can cast a shadow we use cast the verb

cast with a shadow i cast a shadow when

i stand

in the sun for example shade however as

a noun

refers to or has the nuance of a kind of

shelter

so shelter provided by some other object

shelter from the light shelter from the

sun so we would say

stand in the shade because shade has the

nuance of

shelter we would not say stand in the

shadow shadow does not carry the nuance

shelter in the way that shade does

interestingly enough though

shade and shadow are both used as verbs

as well

to shadow something means to follow

something closely

to shadow someone at work means to

follow someone at work and and try to

understand their job

for example shade is used as a verb to

mean to create

shelter from light for example the

canopy shaded

us from the sun shade also has some

interesting uses you might hear the

slang phrase to throw

shade throwing shade is a really

interesting slang expression that we use

which means

to communicate disrespect or to to

communicate like contempt

bad feelings for something when you’re

speaking generally in most cases

when you want to talk about a dark cool

area we should say

shade stand in the shade when you want

to talk only about the dark

area that dark object use shadow next

question actually two questions from

danny hi danny danny’s first question

is you talked about lit as slang yes i

talked about lit

in episode two episode one episode two

of ask alicia can you please talk about

the verb

light and using it in active and passive

sure

light means to start a fire so to light

a fire to light a candle

some examples of active and passive

voice with this verb then why don’t we

light some candles for dinner tonight

all the candles in the restaurant were

lit on our camping trip

my neighbors lit a fire and we brought

uh hamburgers to make a fire was lit in

the campsite while we were gone

i was going to light a fire but i fell

asleep so to light means to start a fire

he lit the house on fire we can say to

light blah blah blah

on fire so there are a few different

examples of using the verb

light in active and in passive past

tense future tense as well so i hope

that that’s helpful danny’s

second question can you talk about ride

and its uses

like take someone for a ride can i take

a ride ryan is another verb that has a

lot of different uses you use the

example

to take someone for a ride means to

drive together with

someone to go for a ride has the nuance

of doing something just for fun

it’s just for fun i want to take a ride

to a location i want to take a ride to

the mountains this weekend or take a

ride to

the beach but to take someone for a ride

means to

invite someone to drive somewhere with

you

in a car that’s one way to use ride you

can also say

give me a ride can you give me a ride so

this is a request expression

i don’t have a car my friend has a car i

want my friend to take me

in their car to a location i can say can

you give me a ride

to the movie theater can you give me a

ride to the lake

give me a ride is a request so give me a

ride in your

car so there are a lot of uses of ride

if you want to see all of them or if you

want to see more of them i recommend

checking a dictionary there are quite a

few and i can’t talk about them all in

this video so please check a dictionary

question okay next question is from

femme femme

fam what does you’re too good to be true

mean

is it good or not maybe you’ve heard

this in a famous song you’re too good to

be true

can’t take my eyes off of you in that

case it’s a good meaning

a different way to say this expression

is you are so

good you are so amazing that i can’t

believe you’re real

so in other words something must be

wrong there must be some problem with

you

it’s not possible for you to be real

because you are

so good you are so great so you’re too

good to be true

it’s like wow i’m amazed by you so it’s

a good expression if however uh maybe in

a more

uncommon situation someone said like ah

this guy’s too good to be true

like maybe reviewing a job application

for example

uh this girl she’s too good to be true

like if it’s said in that way

maybe there’s something suspicious about

that person this doesn’t seem right

there’s just too much good information

here there must be some problem with

this person depending on the intonation

it can portray either a very positive

meaning or a very suspicious meaning

in most cases however it’s a positive

meaning so if you heard this in a song

for example

it’s probably a very positive kind of

romantically nuanced phrase thanks very

much for that question femme nice one

next question rabia arshad

ray rabia arshad rabia i’m very what’s

the difference between

can and may i saw this on the dining

like a champ

cheat sheet and noticed these words were

used for requests

what’s the difference can and may for

requests

in modern english in modern american

english are used

the same if i use them in a statement

can refers to ability

may refers to permission please just be

careful can

and may are only used in the same way to

make

requests in modern american english next

question is from taylor uh hi again

taylor

are where are you from and where were

you born

the same ah great question where are you

from

where were you born no not necessarily

not necessarily where were you born is

only the place where you were physically

brought into the world

maybe your hometown the place you

identify as your hometown

is different from the place where you

were born maybe you were

born in spain but you grew up

in the usa your family moved after that

so you could say i was born in spain but

i grew up in new york city

if someone asks you where are you from

it might be a good idea to say i was

born in blah blah blah

but i was raised in blah blah blah in a

different place if the two places are

different

next question next question is from

hassan hassan says

how do we use gotta in the negative form

so we did a live stream about have to

and got to

and need to on the youtube channel and

on facebook a while ago

gotta is a contraction a very casual

contraction of got

and two it’s not a real word uh gotta

is just the sound that we make when we

say got to

very quickly like i gotta go to school

today or i gotta finish my homework or i

gotta get to sleep i’m so tired in

american english we do not use

gada in the negative instead we use have

or need to i don’t have to go to work

tomorrow i don’t need to go to work

tomorrow i don’t need to go to sleep

right now

but american english does not use gotta

in the negative form

next question next question is from

sadaham i need to improve

my spoken english and my vocabulary how

do i do that i think there’s a tool on

the website where you can record your

voice

speaking english and compare it to a

native speaker saying the same

thing so i think that’s a that’s a

feature on the website so check that out

if you haven’t been it’s an english

class 101.com there should be a

recording function there

where you can record your voice and

compare it to a native speaker

and keep practicing that until your

voice and your pronunciation

matches the native speakers

pronunciation so you’ll see like little

waveforms there

even on the recording page so you can

try to match your voice

to a native speaker so of course

practicing with native speakers where

possible um

repeating so creating your own speech uh

is important too

um practicing with like recording tools

voice recording tools when you record

yourself you suddenly hear

so many problems in your speech so

recording yourself can be another good

tool but in terms of building your

vocabulary

first i need to define a goal what do i

want to talk about if i want to talk

about food

i should look for materials in my target

language

talking about food and i should study

those so think about what

it is that you want to do and try to be

specific try to narrow your goal down

to you know what are the words that i

need to do and try focusing there

and then maybe you can widen the focus

to other interests here

and there too but start maybe with the

things

that are going to help you communicate

the things that you really want to say

so always think about your goals what do

i want to learn how to say

next question from ricardo villarreal oh

hey ricardo welcome back is it correct

to learn

several languages at the same time ooh

is it correct

i can’t answer that whether it’s correct

or not so i’ve heard that if you want to

try

for whatever your reason is if you want

to try to study more than one language

at the same time

it’s better to try to choose languages

that are quite different

so that there’s less chance of you

making mistakes or getting confused in

your studies the other thing that i

think i would

say is if you’re studying more than one

language at the same time your progress

might be a bit slower than if you

studied

just one language yeah is it correct i

don’t know i can’t answer that

that’s up to you to decide so those are

all the questions that i want to talk

about this week

thank you so much for submitting so many

interesting questions i really

appreciate it so thanks very much for

watching this episode of ask alicia i

will see you again

next saturday bye bye

bonus vocabulary word for today spoiler

spoiler

a spoiler is secret information key

information about your media your book

your movie your tv show if you see the

phrase spoiler alert

somewhere it means the next piece of

text the next information the next thing

in the video

is going to be secret information about

the story so

if you have not seen the movie if you

have not seen the tv show or you have

not seen the book

you might find information you don’t

want to read yet so

spoiler means something that will spoil

or something that will ruin the story

for you

so no spoilers about star wars until

we’ve seen it yeah

use the force to study english

want to speak real english from your

first lesson sign up for your free

lifetime account at englishclass101.com

this shirt is the same shirt that i was

wearing in the live stream this morning

it’s a busy day a busy day for me

hi everybody my name is alicia welcome

back to ask alicia where you ask me

questions and i

answer them maybe thanks very much for

submitting your questions remember you

can submit your questions at

englishclass101.com

slash ask alicia there’s a hyphen

between ask and alicia so watch out

first question for today do you have an

american accent or a british accent a

lot of you have asked this over the

course of the year

i have an american accent to be very

specific i suppose i speak

with a west coast american accent not

british english if you want to know what

british english sounds like there are

some videos on the youtube channel with

gina one of our other hosts she speaks

with a british accent so you can listen

to her to

kind of pick up some of the differences

between my accent

and her accent british english and

american english so thanks for that

question but yes i speak

american english next question how do we

use the word

cheers when do we use it is it formal or

informal please help

in american english we use cheers when

we’re drinking when we want to

start off a drink with somebody else

we’ll often clink

glasses so like touch glasses together

and say

cheers we use cheers in this way in

american english in other

types of english like british english or

australian english for example

people might use the word cheers as a

way to say thank you or as a way to say

thank you

in advance for something if my friend

asks me for a favor

and i agree to do that favor my friend

can say

cheers to me meaning thank you in

advance

so cheers it tends to be more on the

informal side it’s not a super formal

expression if you want to use it in a

formal situation when you’re drinking

with someone you can use

cheers but in most situations we use it

informally informally

next question hey alicia how do i make

this sentence negative

let’s go to the park if you want to make

a let’s

blah blah sentence negative just put not

before the verb let’s not go to the part

let’s not

plus some verb or some verb phrase let’s

not go hiking this weekend

let’s not watch that movie tonight i’m

tired let’s

not blah blah blah to make a let’s

sentence negative thanks for the

question

next question what does play down mean

this is a phrasal verb to

play down something or to play something

down

means to decrease the significance of

something

i don’t want to play down how delicious

my mom’s thanksgiving dinner was or i

don’t want to play down my friend’s

success he’s doing an amazing job

if something is really great or really

interesting or

it could be negative too to play

something down

means to make this thing seem

less than what it actually is if there’s

a scandal for example

the president is trying to play down the

seriousness of this situation it means

that it’s a very serious situation

but the president is trying to make it

seem

less serious than it is so to play down

means to make something seem less than

it actually is

good question though thanks next

question the next question is about if

conditionals there’s no problem when you

say the main clause first

and you say the if clause after is that

correct yes that’s fine

in the live stream i introduced the

pattern if clause first

main clause second but i also mentioned

that we can use

main clause first and then if clause

second if i finish

editing this video today i can go

running i can reverse that sentence i

can go running

if i finish editing this video today

both sentences are totally correct it’s

up to you

to choose which order you like thanks

for the question now good one the next

question is about the present

perfect progressive tense i said i have

been wanting to blah blah blah

why did i use the verb want in the

continuous tense

as wanting i used the progressive form

wanting

because from a point in the past until

now

there’s something i have desired

i have wanted to do continuously though

to give a strong nuance of the

continuous

nature of that i use the the progressive

or the continuous form

wanting i’ve been wanting to see that

movie i’ve been wanting to get a coffee

with my friend

i’ve been wanting to get more sleep i’ve

been wanting to go jogging something you

started to want in the past and

continued

to want until this point in time you can

say i have been wanting

we can apply other verbs to this pattern

too like i’ve been thinking about you

all week i’ve been worrying about you

all day

so these continuous past emotions too

we can use the progressive tense to talk

about those

thanks for that question though that’s a

good one next question

next question comes from ricardo

villarreal i’m very sorry what does

one mean as a subject one means any

person

it sounds rather formal in more casual

speech we say

you like if you went to the movie

theater where would you buy popcorn to

make it sound more

formal we could say where would one buy

popcorn instead of using

you we say one so you might see this