English Common Expressions To Be Short Idioms You Must Know
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hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia
the weekly series where you
ask me questions and i answer them baby
okay let’s get to your first question
this week first question this week comes
from henry
laurent cossaci hello henry henry says i
once heard this conversation in a tv
series
hey how much are we short b 18
30 cents my question is is the
expression
how much are we short commonly used in
spoken english to describe this kind of
situation
thanks love from indonesia yes great
question
to be short means to not have enough of
something this is a very common
expression
in american english anyway and we use
this short
in many different grammatical forms so
in a question
how much are we short means how much
more or how many more
of this thing do we need in statements
you might hear
i’m three dollars short or he’s
short by about 150 dollars
or we’re short a few chairs i’ll get
some from the other room
so you’ll notice that there’s a buy
after
short in example two here and he’s short
by
about 150 you can choose to include that
if the number or if the amount
comes after the word short if the number
comes before the word
short you should not include buy so i’m
three dollars short i’m 150 dollars
short
perfect if the number follows short he’s
short by about 150 dollars
you can include it but you do not have
to as in the third example sentence
we’re short of few chairs so we do not
have to include buy but we can
we’re short buy a few chairs is also
totally correct so that’s up to you
we can also use short in this way to
mean not
enough as a verb as in the bartender
shorted me on my drink which means the
bartender did not
pour enough liquid into my drink or
i think the cashier shorted me on my
change which means
i think the cashier did not give me
enough change
so you may also hear this used as a verb
in this way
so yes to answer your question again it
is a very common expression it’s very
useful
and it means to not have enough of
something and to recognize that
and to kind of make a question or a
statement about
what should have been provided or what
is still needed so i hope that this
helps you
thanks very much for the question let’s
move on to your next question
next question comes from nilo pena flor
hello nilo nilo says hi alicia i’m
confused about the word
compromise it has several meanings can
you please explain it and use it in some
sentences
sure i talked a little bit about the
difference between
compromise and agreement in a recent
episode of ask alicia
so let’s refresh there to begin a
compromise
refers to an agreement that you reach an
agreement that you make
after changing your plans a little bit
so side a
and side b have different ideas about
something they change their ideas
slightly
and make an agreement so that agreement
is called a compromise so it’s not quite
a’s idea not
quite bee’s idea but they kind of work
together to find a solution
so that’s a compromise that’s a noun we
can use this as a verb as well
to compromise means to make an agreement
after
changing both plans a little bit where
there might be some confusion however is
in the
other ways to use compromise as a verb
we use compromise as a verb to mean to
expose
or to reveal something that’s supposed
to be hidden or to reveal something that
is supposed to be secret
so you might have heard it used in this
way in like action films like james bond
movies or like mission impossible movies
you might hear a sentence like for
example james bond has been compromised
which means someone realized james bond
the spy
was in a location and he was supposed to
be hidden
he was supposed to be like a secret
agent like no one is supposed to know
about him
but someone learns about him someone
exposes
james bond he’s no longer safe so
compromised in that way
refers to something or in this case
someone
being exposed or revealed that was
supposed to be confidential that was
supposed to be secret
we can also use compromise as a verb in
this way
to talk about communication this can be
like phone calls
paperwork official documents and so on
in an example sentence you might hear
something like
the president’s phone call was
compromised which means for example
someone who was not supposed to listen
to the phone call
heard information private information or
maybe
information inside the call was shared
to someone who was not supposed to have
the information
so was compromised or has been
compromised as in my james bond example
sentence you can see that this
verb is commonly used in the passive
form because we don’t always know the
recipient of the information we don’t
always know
the person who exposed something or
revealed something
so there is this meaning of compromise
as i said you will
very commonly see this in a passive
sentence structure
when you talk about making an agreement
with someone you’ll probably see it
more i would say in an active sentence
structure
as a noun then it’s kind of different so
to make a compromise you’ll usually see
it
in something like that to make a
compromise as part of that expression
so i hope that this gives you a good
introduction to the different ways that
we use
compromise especially this special
meaning of revealing or exposing
something that is secret
i hope that this helps you thanks for an
interesting question okay let’s move on
to your next question
next question comes from kunduzai
aderbikova i hope i said that right
hello kundazai
kundazai says hi alicia my question is
about this statement
is it grammatical to say i don’t feel
like plus
verb in the ing form how do we use it in
the correct way
in what cases can i use it thanks for
your answer yes
it is grammatical to say i don’t feel
like verb
in the ing form totally grammatical
totally natural totally correct
you could say i don’t feel like watching
a movie or i don’t feel like going out
tonight
or i don’t feel like doing that right
now so this is a very
casual expression which means i am not
in the mood for that activity we usually
use it with
at this time or right now or tonight
it sounds like something you don’t want
to do now but maybe you want to do it in
the future
like i don’t feel like watching a movie
tonight totally natural
you should know however that this is a
very casual expression
we tend to use this with very close
friends or with family members so people
that we have a very close
relationship with i would not recommend
you use this at work or in any other
professional situation
because it sounds like you have kind of
a low opinion of that activity like
i don’t feel like doing that right now
so it sounds like it’s kind of emotional
or
feeling based decision so don’t use this
in professional situations but yes
you can absolutely use this expression
to talk about something you don’t want
to do
at a specific point in time usually so i
hope that this helps you
thanks for your question okay let’s move
on to our next question
next question comes from ahmed hello
ahmed ahmed said
adele said but it don’t matter why did
she say
don’t with it yeah in terms of standard
like correct
english this is grammatically incorrect
but
many singers like to use this kind of
technically incorrect grammar
to sound kind of cool or to sound kind
of rough so
yes the sentence in like standard
english should be
but it doesn’t matter but for various
reasons including like
sentence rhythm or song rhythm in this
case or also just to sound
kind of cool or rough a singer or an
artist might choose to use on purpose
in correct grammar in this case but it
don’t matter
so if you want to sing along with the
song great you should use the same words
that adele uses
but if you’re speaking and you want to
express this idea make sure you use the
correct grammar but it doesn’t matter is
actually the correct way to say this
so i hope that this helps you thanks for
the question okay
on to our next question next question
comes from
rachel hello russell russell says hi
alicia
my question is what is the difference
between race
and ethnicity great question
for a very broad answer so for a very
general answer
you can think of race as related to
your biology so this is something that
you cannot change your race is the stuff
that you’re born with essentially so
common things that we think about with
race relating to race or maybe the color
of a person’s skin
or the shapes of the features of their
face and so on so we cannot change
race ethnicity on the other hand is like
your
cultural identity so what are like the
traditions what are the shared
values in your community the things that
make your community what it is so to
give an example of the difference
imagine you are a person from india and
you move to
the usa with your family when you’re a
baby
so you could say my race is indian
my ethnicity is indian american so
that’s the difference here so your race
is something you cannot change
ethnicity may change over time for some
people so
this is a very general answer to this
question this is a very big discussion
as well too but a very interesting one
so thanks very much for this interesting
question
okay that is everything that i have for
this week thank you as always for
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[Music]
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