I am done or I have done which is correct Basic English Grammar

want to get cheat sheets audiobooks

lessons

apps and much more every month for free

just click the link in the description

to get your free language gifts of the

month

hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and i answer them

maybe okay let’s get to your first

question this week

first question this week comes from neha

hi neha neha says hi alicia my name is

neha could you please tell me when we

use

i am done and i have done

sure nice question first let’s break

down the

grammar of these sentences so that we

can understand the basic differences

first i am done so i

is our subject am is our verb and done

is our adjective i am done is a simple

present

tense statement i have done on the other

hand

is i our subject have our auxiliary or

our helping or linking verb

and done which is the verb in the past

participle form

so this is a present perfect tense

sentence

so i am done a present tense sentence

means i am in the state or i am in the

condition

of being finished with something so we

use this expression

after like a meal like i’m done with my

meal or i’m done

eating we use this maybe after we finish

a task or we’re trying to finish

something before

our friends or our co-workers like maybe

we’re making something and we say

i’m done when we finish so that means in

this moment my condition

is done is finished a simple present

tense statement

i have done on the other hand would be

like the beginning part to a longer

statement

so because this is a present perfect

pattern

it means we’re talking about something

that happened in the past at like a

non-specific

point so for example i have done my

homework

or i have done the laundry so that means

those activities

are finished they’re done yes and we did

them

at some point in the past but when is

not exactly

important so i have done just means that

this thing

happened in the past uh i am done refers

to my condition

now so i hope that this helps you thanks

very much for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next

question comes from

yoshitaka horikoshi hi again yoshitaka

yoshitaka says hi alicia

how do you use turn and change

i thought i could say my hair changed to

gray

however some songs say my hair

turned gray also should we say the

season changed

or the season turned looking forward to

hearing from you

nice question yeah this is a little bit

tricky because

both verbs have many uses but to focus

in on this specific difference

i would recommend maybe thinking about

the verb

turn as being used for things that we

cannot reverse so in your example about

hair color

it’s natural for us to say my hair

turned

gray so that means my hair color is not

going to go back to its original color

unless of course we dye it or something

so when we say something

turned it means that that thing moved

kind of into its next

form it was sort of transformed and it’s

probably not going to return to its

original

like status or its original condition so

my hair

turned gray is great we use turn when

we’re talking about birthdays too

so you can think of this in the same way

when we move to the next

age we cannot go back to the previous

age so using turn

makes a lot of sense for example i

turned

50 this year or i turned 60 this year

so we use turn there to mean become and

also we can’t

go back when we use change then we use

it to refer

to a transformation or an alteration yes

but the idea is that more alterations

are possible so it’s not just one time

maybe we could for example change our

clothes

many times so just one time so maybe for

example we can change

our clothes or we could say i changed my

hair

color that would be different from my

hair turned gray

so in my hair turned gray it means my

hair is not going to come back to its

original color

so when we use change it’s to describe

an

alteration or a transformation but like

other

other changes or other alterations are

still possible

so for example with hair color we could

say i changed my hair color so it’s like

i made the decision

i changed it or when you’re traveling

you can say

i changed my us dollars to euro

so more changes are possible in the

future

this is not a perfect rule and as i said

there are many different ways to use

change and turn but maybe this can help

you with a few common uses

relating to the meaning of become for

this verb

regarding your season related example

actually we use

both and the difference is kind of

subtle so we can say like as

the seasons changed she grew more and

more proficient

in her language skills or something like

that so when we say

as the seasons changed or like as the

seasons changed over time or something

like that

it has the feeling of like many

different seasons happening

like not just one season going to the

next season

but as the seasons plural changed it

sounds like

there’s a lot of seasons going in

succession going quickly one after

another

so we would probably use change in that

case

when we use turn with seasons it’s often

an expression like

spring turned to summer summer turned to

autumn

so we’re showing that there’s just this

forward progress

and we can’t go back to the previous

season we’re showing that something is

going to like the next

stage when we do that we usually use the

verb

turn we don’t use change like summer

change to autumn

it sounds a little bit like unnatural i

don’t think there’s a communication

problem but we would use

turn in that case instead so in sum

if you want to talk about something that

you can’t really go back to

try using turn if you want to talk about

something that it’s possible

to make other alterations to try using

change i hope that this helps you thanks

for the question okay

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from

franklin diaz hi franklin franklin says

hi alicia how are you

good my question is what does it mean

when someone says who cut the cheese

a friend of mine told me that americans

use this expression when they smell

something that is disgusting

is that right yes michael and i

if you have not seen the english topic

series on this channel

we talked about this exact expression

this very expression

many years ago and the explanation is

quite clear

so have a look at this clip really

quickly

ah that’s good starter cut the cheese

cut the cheese um it’s a weird one we

say it we kind of accept it so this

means fart means to fart but i don’t

think it really sounds like a fart when

you cut the cheese

you ask usually you say who cut the

cheese right what i don’t think that

this refers to a sound

this idiom no yeah what do you think it

comes from i don’t have no idea you are

so full of it you’re gonna make me

explain this one aren’t you

this refers to the smell when you pass

gas from your body you guys are gonna

make me oh

you’re making me no i swear i swear i

didn’t know that

it’s a smell thing if you cut a fresh

cheese thing it smells kind of

bad oh yeah cheese so your body as well

if you

release gas from your body it may smell

similar

to a freshly cut block of cheese

and now i’ve explained

something where there was something on

the internet

yeah shouldn’t it be like fry the egg or

something if it’s talking about smell

cheese what do you do to your eggs

my cheese is my farts don’t smell like

cheese they smell like eggs more than

cheese just saying i swore i thought

that was the sound no

like how often all right

i well that’s what about you oh my god

this is only the first one

i’m supposed to talk about this now that

is i would like to point out that phrase

is one that’s used a lot by kids

and parents who are talking to kids

that’s like a nice way to

i guess a silly way to refer to it

otherwise rather unpleasant well no

it’s always unpleasant i would imagine

bodily function

so as we talked about in this

explanation it’s a phrase that’s usually

used by kids it’s not something that we

use so much among adults but perhaps

from time to time and depending on the

person

if you want to watch this full video you

can do a quick search on the english

class 101 youtube channel

for weirdest english idioms to find this

and some other expressions to use so i

hope that that helps you thanks for the

question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from

kemari hi kimari kamari says hi alicia

what is the difference between how and

how come

okay first how come means why

so kids usually use how come

and kids will often use how come to

complain like they want to ask

why and they’re like disappointed or

they’re upset about something

so for example we’re not going to the

movies tonight

ah how come so it’s usually with that

kind of intonation it means why

or like why not so how come in this way

always means why you may hear adults use

this phrase if they’re trying to be like

friendly or childish or something like

that but generally this is an expression

that’s used by kids

or just i don’t know kind of playful

people in general

on the other hand how is used to mean in

what way

in what way so for example how

does he make a living means in what way

does he make a living

or how do i turn on this computer means

in what way do i turn on this computer

so how alone by itself means in what way

how come means why i hope that this

helps you thanks for the question

okay on to our next question next

question

comes from al-mubin hi al-mubin

al-mubin says hi alicia how’s it going

good uh could you please tell me

what is the difference between make and

make up ah okay yeah generally to

make means to create something so

not makeup but just to make means to

create something so for example

we make videos for youtube or

[Music]