Cant or Couldnt Whats the Difference Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them

maybe first question this week comes

from Rizal khuswaha again hi again

resolved resolved says hi Alicia what is

the difference between task duty job and

assignment and how do we use them thanks

okay good question let’s start with the

word duty duty is the least commonly

used of these words that you’ve

introduced here we use duty to talk

about our responsibilities or our

obligations we use this word however for

kind of specific jobs so people who work

in like the government who do like civil

service related jobs and people who are

members of the military use the word

duty to describe their responsibilities

for example my duty is to serve my

country it is my duty as mayor to do the

best I can for my city we don’t use the

word duty or the plural duties very much

except in these kinds of settings you

might see this on like a contract or

perhaps a job application or a job

information form but in general the word

Duty is most commonly used in these

kinds of environments let’s move on then

to the word job so we use the word job

to refer generally to the type of work

we do like I’m a teacher I’m a

photographer I’m in finance so it’s our

job our job title or the kind of work

that we do that’s our job I make youtube

videos as part of my job we’re

journalists so we have busy jobs okay

finally then the words task and

assignment these really do have quite

similar meanings but assignment is used

more when were students like when we

have homework we often call it a

homework assignment so that’s something

we have to take home complete and bring

back

we use assignment to mean like a thing

that we need to do assignment is also

used quite specifically in the

journalism and media related fields so

when we receive a task when we receive

something that we need to travel for

like we travel and we interview someone

or we travel to collect information

that’s called an assignment in the

journalism and media related fields

so in that case assignment can be quite

specific to a field in most other cases

though just talking about your to-do

lists the everyday items you need to

take care of we use the word task to

describe that so in like your computer

or your smartphone or maybe in a

notebook somewhere you might have a task

list so your task list is your list of

responsibilities the small things you

need to do throughout your day or

throughout your week tasks is probably

the most commonly used word from this

list that you have presented here some

examples I have an assignment in LA this

month where’s your next assignment so

for our other work for most general work

we can use the word tasks to talk about

those small things we need to do

throughout the day I hope that this

helps you understand the differences

between these words thanks very much for

the question ok let’s move on to your

next question next question comes from

trying again hi trying trying says hello

Alicia what’s the difference between

just and only a good question

it does depend on how the word is used

in the sentence in some cases just and

only can be used interchangeably we can

use them in the same way let’s compare

with two sentences I want just one

cookie I want only one cookie so here in

both of these examples sentences just

and only proceed proceed means come

before the word or the expression one

cookie so they’re modifying one cookie

we always put just and only directly

before the word or phrase that we are

modifying please be careful a point that

many native speakers make mistakes with

is they’ll put it before the verb not

before like the

whole thing they want to modify so in

these example sentences we can use the

two words in the same way they mean like

one thing that’s it we want to emphasize

the one thing in other situations though

the two words have different functions

so we can use just to talk about very

recently completed actions to talk about

actions that were planned for completion

very recently and to talk about actions

that are going to happen in the very

near future for example I just finished

my homework I was just about to call you

I’m just about to leave so these are

example sentences which in order our

recently finished action recently

planned action that did not happen an

upcoming action in the very near future

we can use just to do this but we cannot

use only to do this so this is an

example of the various ways that just

can be used only is used for that kind

of emphasis feeling that we talked about

in the cookie example sentence if you

want some more information on the

placement of only and how it affects the

meaning of a sentence please check out

the whiteboard video that’s on the

YouTube channel that details the use of

the word only and the placement of the

word only it’s a big point for native

speakers and learner’s alike I think so

I hope that that helps you thanks very

much for the question

ok let’s move along to your next

question next question this week comes

from Gerardo hi Gerardo Gerardo says how

does the letter T sound in the words

party and started yeah good question so

the T sound in words like this it

becomes quite soft so you’ll notice in

these patterns we have a vowel followed

by our T and then something at the end

in this case we’re looking at like II D

or maybe Y sounds so in the examples

that you included party it’s like a D

sound and started so party and started

it’s like a D sound the T sound that is

not pronounced party and stay

arted are difficult to say in fast

speech we make the sounds much softer

like a D sound party and started so

three more words that follow the same

pronunciation rule are parted blurted

and sporty so here we see vowel plus R T

plus something else so we have sporty in

the last example and then these words

that end in E D with parted and blurted

so you’ll notice that that T sound

becomes very soft like a D so parted

blurted sporty party started so this is

a kind of a good guideline I think for

when you see that R T and you see a

vowel before it but it’s not at the end

of a word so please note that this

pronunciation rule applies when the T is

not the last letter in the word if for

example the word is start or part or

blurt the T sound is quite clear but

when it’s not the last letter in the

word it’s like started party blurted

then the T sound becomes more like a D

sound so we would not say blurted party

started it’s a little too much it’s kind

of difficult to say in fast speech so I

hope that this helps you with the

pronunciation of T sounds that follow

this spelling rule thanks very much for

the question

ok let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from John hi John

John says hi Alicia I would like to ask

the difference between can’t and

couldn’t is it possible to use both of

them to say something is impossible to

do at present which of the two is

preferred or can I just use them

interchangeably Thanks

in statements we use can’t for present

tense and couldn’t for past tense

examples I can’t help you right now he

can’t come to the phone we couldn’t

finish all the food she couldn’t find

the stapler so can’t is used to refer to

impossible things in the present

couldn’t is used to refer to impossible

things in the past so we cannot use

them interchangeably so present-tense

can’t past tense

couldn’t less commonly there is the

expression I couldn’t so we use this

expression when there’s something kind

of tempting or interesting that we’re a

little bit interested about but we kind

of want to like hold back a bit so for

example like three donuts for me I

couldn’t so it’s like there’s some kind

of temptation or something like that but

that’s a sort of set special expression

and it’s not so commonly used another

example might be like a promotion but I

would have to leave all my team members

behind I couldn’t do that so it’s kind

of like there’s a reluctant feeling to

do something so it doesn’t necessarily

mean the speaker is going to choose one

way or the other but it’s just kind of

this shock durricks like surprised

expression that shows a decision is

difficult so in that case I couldn’t

refers to a present tense feeling like

that’s not possible I shouldn’t do that

that’s kind of the feel there but in all

other cases as I talked about in my

example sentences we use couldn’t for

past tense impossibility so please use

can’t for present tense couldn’t for

past tense I hope that this helps answer

your question thanks very much for

sending it along okay on to our next

question this week next question this

week comes from stanislav hi stanislav

stanislav says what idiom can i use to

describe past work if its results were

unuseful and unnecessary and there was

no practical outcome but that wasn’t

clear from the start in my native

language this is called work for a shelf

it means that the results will be put on

a shelf and then forgotten yeah

interesting actually we use shelf in

this way too when we say we’re going to

put something on a shelf after we finish

it it doesn’t really mean that it was

unnecessary or unuseful but it’s just

kind of like you say there’s not really

a practical outcome for it like we

finished this thing it’s done I’m not

going to do anything with it I’ll just

put it on the shelf

we also use this as a verb to shelf

something means to put it off to the

side and kind of forget about it like

something that’s finished we don’t have

to deal with it anymore

we shelf that

some examples a shelf in that vase I

took a week to paint don’t leave that

project on the shelf so in this case in

English it doesn’t necessarily mean that

the item was bad or was not useful or

whatever it just means it’s like not so

important right now so we put it on the

shelf we like don’t think about it so

much we just put it somewhere where it’s

not in the way sometimes literally so I

hope that this helps answer your

question interesting one thanks very

much for sending it along okay that is

everything that I have for this week

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