Oh My God Bless You...How to Use Popular English Expressions

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them

maybe first question comes from Vanessa

Rodriguez hi Vanessa Vanessa says hi

Alicia I’d like to know the difference

between kind of sort of and somewhat

greetings from Brazil let’s begin with

kind of and sort of so kind of and sort

of can be used before verbs and

adjectives to mean a little and when

we’re speaking quickly we say keine and

sorta you’ll also see this spelling used

in casual messages like text messages or

maybe less formal emails so some

examples I kind of want to eat Korean

for lunch this dessert is kind of sweet

don’t you think I sort of like that new

movie our neighbors are being sort of

noisy tonight we also use kind of and

sort of as softeners especially for bad

news some examples I sort of forgot to

send you the details I kind of broke

your computer also keep in mind that

kind of and sort of can come before a

noun but when they’re used in this way

kind of and sort of mean type they don’t

mean a little for example what kind of

ice cream do you like what sort of car

are you thinking of buying so let’s move

on to some what some what means a little

or slightly also but it sounds more

formal than kind of or sort of we can

use somewhat before adjectives we can

also use somewhat with verbs but you’ll

find somewhat used after the verb so

it’s an adverb there some examples our

answer depends somewhat on today’s

meeting the lesson content may vary

somewhat in accordance with students

questions like I said we can use it

before adjectives but it feels more

formal than kind of or sort of I’m

somewhat surprised you replied to my

email this decision seems somewhat odd

okay so I hope that that helps answer

your question thanks very much for

sending it along let’s move on to your

next

question next question comes from David

Hasan oh hi David david says hi Alicia I

am Japanese and not religious is it

acceptable for me to use religious words

like oh my god or bless you if not

acceptable is there an alternate way of

saying it hmm this is kind of a tough

question because it depends on your

listener so let’s start with the phrase

bless you here I’ve never heard of a

situation where someone has gotten in

trouble for saying bless you if you’re

not familiar with this phrase bless you

is a common expression English speakers

use after someone sneezes it has kind of

an interesting history I’ve read two

things actually about where this

expression comes from one people used to

believe that when you sneeze that part

of your soul or part of your spirit

leaves your body so they said bless you

the other thing is that I heard that the

phrase originated around the time of the

Black Plague and so sneezing was like

the first sign that someone might die so

people said bless you when they heard a

sneeze interesting I don’t know which is

true but it’s an interesting it’s an

interesting expression for sure but

regardless when people say bless you it

typically isn’t a problem if you’re not

sure or if you’re not feeling

comfortable just say nothing that’s

totally natural as well some other

people like to use the German word

gesundheit

I don’t know if my pronunciation is

correct there but it means roughly

health to my understanding so some

people like to use that I personally

don’t you might hear it from time to

time but if you’re ever worried my

recommendation would be to say nothing I

personally don’t use the expression

bless you

regarding the question about oh my god

this one is perhaps more sensitive

depending on the person you’re talking

to there are some people especially

people who have strong religious beliefs

who believe that using the word God

outside of a religious situation is bad

it’s not a good thing to do so in those

cases those people might feel offended

if you use the word God in the

expression oh my god for many people

it’s not a problem if you’re worried if

you’re not sure if you’re not

comfortable you can use the expression

oh my gosh this is a very

and very acceptable and natural

substitute so oh my gosh in place if you

listen to the people you’re around and

you hear them saying oh my god oh my god

you can probably safely use oh my god as

well but if you’re worried you can just

say oh my gosh that’s fine too so I hope

that this helps you thanks very much for

this question okay

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from cannot I cannot

cannot says hi Alicia could you please

explain the difference between what do I

have to do and what am I supposed to do

yeah the difference between 1/2 2 and

supposed to is subtle so let’s start

with 1/2 2 when we use the expression

1/2 2 we’re talking about like an

obligation or a responsibility when we

use supposed to it’s like there’s some

kind of outside expectation like a

societal expectation or like a

relationship expectation something you

are supposed to do like a specific way

you are supposed to behave so regarding

your question then let’s imagine two

people are having an argument

if someone says what do I have to do

it’s like they’re asking about their

obligations they’re asking about their

responsibilities what must they do if

someone asks the question what am I

supposed to do it’s often like they’re

asking for the other person’s

expectations of them so maybe it’s not

even necessarily like a responsibility

but you’re asking for someone else’s

expectations with that question

so the situations where you would hear

these two are maybe a little bit

different like what do I have to do

would be used more when we’re looking to

achieve a goal like what do I have to do

to get a good score on this test or what

do I have to do to get this job if

you’re asking the question what am I

supposed to do it’s often in a situation

that’s like trouble so maybe you’re in

trouble with like the person you’re in a

relationship with or maybe you’re in

like trouble with like a landlord for

example like what am I supposed to do if

I don’t have this house I’ll be in

trouble

so it’s like what are your expectations

of me versus what are the things I must

do so it’s a very subtle difference

supposed to is kind of more like

societies and relationships and those

kinds of like people related like

connections and have to can feel more

like obligations responsibilities so I

would suggest to just pay attention when

you see these two words used in text and

you can kind of get a feel for the times

when we would use these I hope that this

helps answer your question thanks very

much for sending it along okay let’s

move on to your next question next

question comes from ty hi ty ty says

hello Alicia can you tell me about the

word record and the way to read it when

it’s a verb and when it’s a noun yeah so

as a verb the word is pronounced record

records so for example we’re recording a

video or let’s record a song next year

when used as a noun to talk about like

the discs that you can use to play music

or to talk about like a written note

where you keep a lot of information the

pronunciation is record record so he

bought a lot of records last week or do

you keep a record of your tasks so as a

verb record as a noun record I hope that

this helps you thanks very much for the

question let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from

Victoria hi Victoria Victoria says I

would be grateful if you could explain

the difference between want to and

wanted to also when can we use one and

two okay

the short answer here is that want to is

present tense and wanted to is past

tense examples I want to eat lunch you

want to get a coffee he wanted to go

jogging she wanted to cook dinner so

something that might confuse people here

is when we’re trying to be soft and

polite we might use wanted in past tense

to make like a soft request or to ask

for information in a soft way so

examples I wanted to know where the

restroom was I wanted to ask you about

the new software I wanted to talk to you

about the presentation

so yes we’re using the past tense here

like I wanted to talk to you about the

presentation it just makes the question

sound softer using past tense in that

way so we don’t do this for all verbs we

do this for like questioning verbs like

I was wondering is another good example

or I was hoping so we’re trying to like

make an inquiry

you might hear this past tense structure

used so we use this in situations where

there’s a little bit of distance between

us and the listener maybe with like a

work colleague we’re not so close to or

maybe with like staff at a department

store so we use it typically with

strangers but we’re trying to be a

little bit more polite of course you

don’t have to do this some people are

very direct and they use present tense

they say I want to know where the

restroom is or I want to talk to you

about the presentation I personally

prefer to be a little softer and a

little more polite so I also tend to use

the past tense form so you can choose

which you prefer but if you hear past

tense in situations like these it’s to

make a softer question I hope that this

helps you thanks very much for the

question all right that’s everything

that I have for this week so thank you

as always for sending your questions

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