How to Share Your Opinion in English

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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 mohamed el daily hi Mahmoud Mohamed

says hi Alicia when writing in any

academic exam like some kind of

criticism or literary analysis is it

better to use I or we like if the

speaker wanted to talk about his opinion

okay if you’re writing about your

personal opinion your individual opinion

use I if you are writing to represent a

group of people like a company or a

laboratory or a research group or a team

of some kind use we so if it’s your

opinion use I like I disagree with or I

strongly believe that if you’re writing

for a company like you might see in

company emails for example you can use

we like we appreciate your continued

business or we deeply apologize for the

misunderstanding so use we if you’re

representing a group use I if you’re

talking about your personal opinion I

hope that this helps you thanks for the

question okay let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from

Norrell Dean hi newer newer says hi

Alicia I have a question what is the

difference between specifically and

especially nice question okay first

let’s look at two examples sentences

number one I love music especially jazz

too

I’m a singer specifically a jazz singer

okay so in the first sentence which uses

especially we see a category introduced

music the speaker says I love music then

when they say especially it’s like

they’re highlighting they’re focusing in

on this one kind of music they really

really like so the speaker saying I love

music generally and inside this category

there’s one thing that’s extra special

to me

I use especially or we use especially to

communicate that highlight there so the

other things are

great also but especially means I have

kind of a special place for that thing

in contrast then part two we have this

opening sentence I’m a singer then

specifically I’m a jazz singer so we can

think of this again as like a category

so I’m a singer

singer is the job here specifically I’m

a jazz singer so this means the other

types of singers do not apply so this

person is not a pop singer not a rock

singer not a blues singer a jazz singer

so in contrast with the especially point

which is like everything is OK and

there’s this one thing that’s extra

great the jazz singer here is saying I’m

a jazz singer only so all these other

things don’t apply to me I’m a jazz

singer we use specifically to narrow

something down even more so we have this

broad category it gets even more narrow

like we have a very like clear

understanding of exactly what type of

singer the speaker is so if you want to

show like a highlight in something like

I love desserts especially gelato so you

can use it to talk about those sorts of

categories and something special inside

that category

that’s what especially is for

specifically is used to make a very

narrow distinction so I hope that this

helps you thanks very much for an

interesting question ok let’s move on to

your next question next question comes

from Mustafa jawad hi Mustafa Mustafa

says hi Alicia my question is what’s

correct he and me are going to school or

he and I are going to school the correct

answer is he and I are going to school

so a rule that you can follow is if

you’re using this person and I or person

and me structure when you’re using it as

the subject of a sentence use the and I

pattern like he and I are going to

school she and I are best friends he and

I left early when you’re using it as the

object of a sentence however use the and

me pattern so person and me like my

parents bought my brother and me

presents the manager

told my colleague in me that he was

quitting so in sum if you’re using this

as the subject use the and I pattern if

you’re using it as the object use the

and me pattern in your original sentence

and I is correct I hope that this helps

you thanks for the question okay let’s

move on to your next question next

question is from Sarah

hi Sarah sir Rob says hi Alicia I’m from

India I want to know the difference

between will and wood okay quickly will

is used to make a decision in the moment

of speaking a great example is when

you’re at a restaurant and you look at

the menu and you think okay I’ll have a

salad or I’ll have a beer so we use will

a lot to talk about like decisions we

make in the moment we also use will to

talk about things we’re not sure about

for the future like when you make a

guess about something far in the future

like in 1000 years I think humans will

all be gone or next week I think I’ll

see a movie so you’re not so sure about

your plans you can use will to talk

about that then wood is used to talk

about unreal situations a great example

is like if I were you I would do

something like if I were you I would

find a new job or if I were you I would

get a hobby so would expresses an unreal

situation we use it a lot in something

like advice so wood is unreal and will

is used to kind of make a guess about

something we don’t use will for like

advice we use wood to give sort of these

ideas about like suggestions

recommendations you’re sharing some kind

of information will is more like you’re

talking about maybe a decision that you

might make or maybe a guess that you

have so these are a few differences

between will and wood for a couple more

points you can check out the will and

going to video on our channel for some

more information about will and you can

also take a look at this video about

wood that’s on the channel too so I hope

that this helps you thanks very much for

the question

let’s look at our next question next

question comes from Iqbal Preet Scour

Hayek well preach a quaver it says hi

Alicia I want to know how to use the

word apparently in conversation okay we

typically use the word apparently at the

beginning or at the end of a sentence it

has the meaning of it seems for example

apparently I left my laundry outside in

the rain or we have to go to a company

meeting today

apparently so this means the speaker did

not get this information directly the

speaker learned it from some other

source so it’s often like a surprise

you’re like it seems something is

happening or it seems I did this so if

the speaker does not use apparently it’s

like a reports you know I left my

laundry outside in the rain but using

apparently means someone else told you

that information or maybe you found out

about it somehow so it sounds kind of a

little bit sarcastic in some situations

or it’s like you learned it somehow and

you’re kind of surprised about it so

this is how we use apparently in

situations think of it as like it seems

but for a whole situation like it seems

I left my laundry outside or it seems

them at the end of this episode so this

is how we use apparently in everyday

conversation so that is everything that

I have for this week thank you as always

for sending your questions remember you

can send them to me at English class

101.com slash ask - Alicia of course if

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thanks very much for watching this

week’s episode of ask Alicia and I will

see you again next week

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