English Punctuation How to Use Interrobang and Interabang

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 a new rag

Pratap Singh high on rock on rock says

hey Alisha this is an arrival India

hello could you please tell me the use

of these types of marks question mark

exclamation point and so on used in

combination together could you give some

examples take care

mmm yeah these combinations of question

marks and exclamation points are used in

very casual messages like text messages

or on social media or maybe in very

casual emails so we use these together

like a question mark and an exclamation

point together when we want to express

surprise and shock and a question all at

the same time so some mixture of those

feelings so some examples of when you

might use this could be you forgot my

wedding rings on my wedding day or you

crashed my car so in those kinds of

situations you want to communicate like

shock or a really strong anger and you

want to ask a question so in those cases

we combine our exclamation point with a

question mark so it doesn’t matter if

you use exclamation point question mark

or the reverse you can choose the order

that you like some people also choose

for example to use like exclamation

exclamation exclamation question or

maybe they do a question question

question exclamation that’s up to you so

they do that for emphasis they feel I

want to emphasize the question part more

or I want to emphasize the shock or

surprise more so that’s up to you but

just keep in mind that this is very

casual this is not something that’s

officially recognized in style guides

it’s not something that you typically

see in like a professionally edited book

or in a magazine it’s used in very

casual situations but this is very

common so if you want to communicate a

question and some kind of shock or

surprise or other extreme feeling you

can use these two marks together so I

hope that that

see you thanks very much for the

question okay let’s move along to your

next question next question comes from

Peter hi Peter

Peter says hi I have two questions okay

first what’s the difference between

replace with and replace by for example

one people replace computers by phones

two people replace computers with phones

three computers are being replaced by or

with phones okay let’s stop here let’s

start with your first question then we

use replace with when we’re talking

about getting a substitute for something

that is old for something that is broken

for something that just requires an

upgrade I replaced my old iPhone with a

new iPhone or we replaced our TV with a

projector screen so in each of those

examples situation something old or

maybe something that needed an upgrade

got replaced with something new so we

use replaced with or to replace with in

these cases when it’s something is like

old or broken we use replace by when

something is filling the role of another

thing so this is commonly used when

people change their jobs or they change

their position in some way in society so

when we use a pattern like person a was

replaced by person B it means person a

went away and person B took person a’s

place the president was replaced by the

vice president after the scandal company

managers have been replaced by robots so

in both of these examples sentences we

see one person or a group of people

being replaced by something else so that

means that something else is taking the

position or is taking the role of the

person or people mentioned at the

beginning of the sentence so this is the

difference with replaced with or

replaced by your final example sentence

was kind of interesting it was computers

are being replaced by or

phones so it kind of depends on the

nuance that you want to give here I

personally would use computers are being

replaced by phones because I feel that

that kind of communicates that the role

of the computer can be done by a phone

now so maybe like a very old computer

can do the same things that a new phone

can do so we could suggest that a phone

can do those things a phone can be in

the role of an old computer so I think I

would probably use buy in this case

computers can be replaced by phones or

computers are being replaced by phones

as in your example sentence so thanks

very much for that question let’s go on

to the second part of your question

which was which is correct or is more

natural

for example people replace their

computer by a phone people replace their

computers by phones you should send an

email through the gmail app you should

send emails through the Gmail app okay

good question

and the answer really depends on the

goal of your communication in general

when you’re trying to decide between

using the singular and the plural form

in cases like these if you’re speaking

generally use the plural form so to go

back to your example sentence people are

replacing computers with phones would be

correct or send emails using the Gmail

app so using the sentence send an email

with the Gmail app would be ok if you

are talking about one specific email

case like hmm you need to email your

client why don’t you send an email with

the Gmail app like test it out try it

out one time if you’re talking about a

company rule though send emails meaning

all of your emails please send all of

your emails with the Gmail app so using

the singular means one time using the

plural form means generally speaking

send emails so I hope that this helps

you understand the differences between

using the plural and the singular form

in these cases thanks very much for the

question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from mohammad al

daly hey Mahmoud Mohamed says

transistors proved vital in creating the

practical lasers if I want to translate

the verb proved here would it be correct

to understand it as meaning tested or

are there other possibilities great

question

yeah the verb to prove means to show

evidence for something or to show

evidence that something is true so

another way to say this part of the

sentence this transistors proved vital

would be transistors were shown to be

vital or like we learned that

transistors were vital so vital means

very important and transistors refers to

a part of a machine so that’s not so

important for understanding the focus of

this question the verb proved so proof

doesn’t really mean test no to answer

your question although it is used in

test situations so in testing situations

or like in experiment situations or when

you’re trying something new you need to

test things and ultimately in the end

you want to prove something to show

evidence for something so if you’re

doing an experiment you want to explain

the results of your experiments so what

did you learn you can use the verb

proved in cases like these for example

the new software proved useful for our

project our new lessons proved popular

among students so in these sentences

proved means was shown to be or were

shown to be so in the first example

sentence the new software proved useful

for our project means the new software

was shown to be useful or we learned

that the new software was useful for our

project in the second example sentence

about classes proving popular among

students proved there again means shown

to be so our new classes were shown to

be

Buhler among students or we learned that

our new classes were popular among

students so this is what proof is used

to do keep in mind though that this use

of proof tends to sound a little bit

more formal we don’t use this so much in

everyday speech you may hear it from

time to time but using proof in this way

makes your speech sound a little more

businesslike so I hope that this helps

you with your understanding of the verb

proof thanks very much for the question

ok let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from Daniel

hello again Daniel Daniel says hi Alicia

what’s the difference between to get

yourself killed and to kill yourself oh

man this is a great question if it’s a

little bit on the dark side let’s start

with getting yourself killed

to get yourself killed refers to dying

because you put yourself in a situation

with a high risk of death so the death

comes from outside you something else

kills you in this situation

another person or maybe a natural

disaster something from outside you

kills you that’s very bad so to get

yourself killed means you put yourself

in a situation where there was a high

risk of death occurring some examples

don’t take the boat out in this storm

you’re gonna get yourself killed

or if you’re a character in an action

movie don’t go alone you’ll get yourself

killed

so in this situation get yourself killed

means something from outside your body

is going to kill you in the first

example situation it’s a storm and the

advice is don’t take the boat out in the

storm you’ll get yourself killed

meaning the bad weather may cause you to

die it’s a high risk situation in a

second example sentence from something

like an action movie don’t go alone

you’ll get yourself killed

means if you go by yourself there’s a

high risk of death you may die so let’s

compare this then to the expression kill

oneself or in your example to kill

yourself to kill yourself means to take

your own life

so that means to

use something in order to end your own

life so this is a very dark expression

yes this is commonly referred to as

suicide

so this verb is used reflexively or

rather this expression is used

reflexively this means that the subject

and the object of the verb are the same

for example he kills himself so he is

the subject and himself is the object

kill is the verb that means he is

causing himself to die so this verb is

reflexively used here this is kind of a

dark one to make some example sentences

about but let’s take a look at a couple

if you’re having thoughts about killing

yourself

please reach out for help and he killed

himself due to high stress in his life

so in some this is the difference

between to get yourself killed

and to kill yourself to get yourself

killed refers to being in a situation

that has a high risk of death and to

kill oneself refers to taking one’s own

life

so I hope that this helps you understand

this thanks very much for the question

ok let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from Anurag hi again

on arago I have two questions from you

in this one ok anuraag says hi Alicia

could you please tell me the difference

between suppose to and supposed to and

their pronunciation while speaking do we

have to use the IDI sound while saying

supposed to in sentences yeah good

question and the difference between

suppose to and supposed to is that

supposed to does not exist we don’t say

I’m supposed to we always say supposed

to do so the pronunciation here may be

the issue here is that supposed which

ends with a D is connecting to the sound

in to so supposed to slowly but in fast

speech we connect the T and the D sounds

together to make supposed to I’m

supposed to go to the store today I’m

supposed to go to the bank later I’m

supposed to meet with my friend so it

doesn’t sound like supposed to we do not

make

those sounds clearly indistinctly we

connect them actually so when you are

speaking as well you can do the same

thing supposed to supposed to so don’t

worry about saying supposed to we don’t

say that you is supposed to supposed to

so I hope that this helps you thanks

very much for the question okay that is

everything that I have for this week

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