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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next week bye

[Music]

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