Know the Difference Infinitives vs Gerunds Basic English Grammar

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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

jose antonio hi jose jose says hi alicia

i love your videos i’ve learned a lot

with them

cool my question is how do i use

four and two for instance i want to

practice my

english for improving or to improve

it yeah tough question good question and

many people have asked this question

over the last year and a half or so or

questions very similar to it

this is a very big question that does

not have an easy quick

answer but i want to talk a little bit

about this and maybe at least

point our viewers in the right direction

here

so this difference the difference

between this four something and two

something

breaks into two categories called

infinitives

and gerunds so the infinitive form

is two plus a verb so like in your

example to improve

or like to practice or to start and so

two plus a verb is the infinitive form

the gerund on the other hand is that

like verb the base verb

plus ing so for example starting

or improving or practicing those are

gerunds so there are these two

types of like things that we can use

in sentences and the problem comes in

where we don’t know which one to use or

learners don’t know which one to use

the reason for this is there’s not like

a specific grammar rule

that tells us use a gerund here or use

infinitive here there’s not a specific

grammar rule

instead native speakers understand which

one to use

based on the verb that precedes the

gerund or the infinitive

so that means we’re not following like a

written rule for grammar

we’re instead following established

patterns

that start from the verb before the

expression

so for example the verb agree following

the verb agree

we use the infinitive so to describe

this we say

agree takes the infinitive for example

he agreed to meet me or

she agreed to wait another day so after

the verb agree

we use the infinitive form of a verb the

verb

practice takes the infinitive we need to

practice

to improve or she practiced the song to

increase her confidence

the verb start takes either the gerund

or the infinitive

she started cooking she started to cook

he started writing he started to write

either is fine with the verb start

the verb finish takes a gerund

he finished working i finished showering

the verb like takes either he likes to

cook

he likes cooking she likes to hike she

likes hiking

so these are just a few examples of very

common verbs and

it’s up to all of us to practice as we

listen and as we read

to notice which form comes after which

verb this is not easy by any means but

this is something native speakers

gradually learn over time it’s not like

a one study

moment thing there’s not one specific

rule to memorize

so unfortunately it’s not an easy thing

to fix it’s just something that takes

time and awareness so as you read

pay attention to the sorts of verbs that

are usually followed with a gerund or

with an infinitive

and you’ll start to be able to make

these decisions more naturally for

yourself so

i know that this is a very open answer

and it is a very

big topic for sure but i hope that this

at least helps you get started

in being more aware as you read and as

you listen

so thanks very much for this question

and thanks very much to everybody who

sent in similar questions over the last

few months too i hope that this is

helpful for all of you

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question

comes from i’m on hi again i’m on

i’m on says i sometimes hear the phrase

just because

as a reply to someone’s statement what

does it mean

for example why did you do that reply

just because yeah you can imagine this

as like the short version

of the statement just because i wanted

so usually we use this expression when

we do something nice for someone

just because we want to like there’s no

special reason

it’s not someone’s birthday there’s not

a big event we are

happy to see our friend or we’re happy

to see our family member

so we do something nice we give them a

present or we say something nice

whatever

and when they ask us why we say just

because

so it’s like saying i have no specific

reason

i did it because i wanted to but we

don’t say all of those words we make it

very short

and quick and we say just because so for

example

uh i got like concert tickets from a

good friend like oh wow

you got me concert tickets this is

amazing why did you do that

and just because so it’s usually with

that kind of friendly

like it was no big deal there’s no

reason that’s usually the feeling of

this expression

just because so it’s because that person

wanted to

and they didn’t have a particular reason

for it 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 ammer armor hi armor

umer says hi alicia how’s it going good

can you please tell me the meaning of

strap in four strap in four yeah sure

to strap in for something means to

prepare

for something so this comes from

like kind of extreme sports or like

extreme activities

for example a pilot or like a race car

driver when they enter the place where

they’re going to work or where they

enter like their activity space because

it’s an extreme activity or very

dangerous

they use physical straps like seat belts

in a car

similar to that strap infor comes from

those straps that are used to secure

someone into position

and we use in to refer to like this

situation

we are entering so a pilot is entering a

plane or a race car driver is entering a

race car

so they are preparing for something

extreme to happen

so when do we use this expression in

everyday life you might hear this

used before exciting experiences like

you’re going rafting or kayaking or

something kind of extreme

you might also hear it used in like

advertisements for action movies they’ll

be like

strap in for the last installment in the

star wars saga

or something like that the star wars

finished

it’s never finished right yeah so strap

in for makes it sound like something

exciting is going to happen to you so

you need to prepare

by putting like safety straps on so

that’s the idea strap

in for an exciting or potentially

dangerous or a thrilling

experience so that’s what this

expression means and this is how you

might hear it used

i personally do not really use this

expression i feel like it gets used more

in like advertisement

and media things to sound catchy 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

koki yamashita hi koki koki says hi

alicia i love your channel i always

watch your lessons during my commute

cool

thanks when i lived with a host family

in america my host mother sometimes

asked me

you wanted to help me cook is you wanted

the same meaning as can you greetings

from japan

i have a couple of thoughts about this

first to answer your question

you wanted to does not mean can you that

those two things

are not the same they are different my

first thought

is about the expression you wanted to

so in your example you wanted to help me

cook

if that’s a question it could be correct

it is correct

that would be a confirmation question so

in that situation

maybe for example you spoke to your host

mother earlier in the day

and you mentioned like you’re interested

you were interested in cooking

she wanted to confirm later in the day

oh you wanted to help me cook

in that situation that question is fine

she’s confirming something that she

heard

earlier from you so yes you can use you

wanted to

to confirm something from before like

you think this person wanted to do

something before

you want to confirm that if that was the

situation

great no problem my second thought about

this situation though is that perhaps

there’s maybe perhaps a chance that

instead of

saying you wanted to she might have said

you wanna help me cook as in you wanna

help me cook

which means would you like to help me

cook which sounds like an offer but it’s

actually a very

soft request like you want to help me

cook

it sounds like she’s inviting you to do

something but it actually is kind of

more of a request like please help me

cook

so though i have those two thoughts

about this so

yeah again in direct answer to your

question no those two things do not mean

the same thing

uh it could have been a confirmation

question or perhaps she said

you wanna instead of you wanted to help

me cook so i hope that one of those

ideas will help you understand the

situation a little bit better

so thanks very much for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from andre hi andre

andre says hi alicia what does the

expression get it right

mean i noticed it has several meanings

depending on context

thanks anticipating your answer this

expression means to do something

correctly

or to understand something correctly

so if we make a mistake and our teacher

notices the mistake

and is really strict with us the teacher

might say get it right

like shouting like that so you might

hear that in other situations

outside of education so like a coach

sees the

players on a team making mistakes and

the coach might shout get it right

which means do it correctly do it

correctly

or like if you’re at work and you say to

yourself um i really want to get this

right

meaning i really want to do my project

correctly or i really want to do this

task correctly

you would be using this expression in

the right way too perhaps you’ve also

heard something like

let me get this right let me get this

right and get it right are a bit

different

actually so for example if you heard

something like

let me get this right you want me to

loan you two thousand dollars so you can

buy a puppy

are you crazy you might hear an

expression like that where

let me get this right means let me

confirm

or let me check to make sure i

understand

you correctly so that is very different

from

get it right so to get it right means to

do something or to understand something

correctly

let me get this right means let me check

or let me confirm

something so they’re quite different

perhaps that’s

the different context that you were

referring to in your question

but i hope that this answer helps you

thanks very much for the question

okay that is everything that i have for

this week thank you as always for

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next week bye bye

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