Sentence Structure What is it or What it is Confusing English

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gifts of the month hi everybody welcome

back to ask Alisha the weekly series

where you ask me questions and I answer

them maybe ok let’s get to your first

question this week first question this

week comes from Takumi hi Takumi how

come he says hi Alicia I’m a university

student in Japan I teach English to

elderly students as a part-time job one

of them asked me what fire with fire

means I guess the man heard the phrase

in a movie could you tell me the meaning

yeah this is part of an idiom the

expression is usually to fight fire with

fire that’s the full phrase typically

you might also hear to match fire with

fire or to meet fire with fire but in

most cases it’s to fight fire with fire

this phrase means to fight an opponent

with the same weapon or the same method

that your opponent uses so sometimes

this literally means fighting someone

with the same kind of weapon but in most

cases it’s talking about like a specific

kind of competition and using the same

method as your opponent to participate

in that competition for example if

someone starts shouting at you you can

fight fire with fire by shouting back at

them so in that case there’s no fire

involved but shouting is your opponent’s

weapon or method of attacking so if you

want to fight that you use the same

method and shout back so that could be

considered fighting fire with fire you

might also hear this used in like

business situations when you’re talking

about like competition between

businesses or between companies or

industries for example company a is

spending a lot of money on advertising

this year we have to fight fire with

fire and increase our own advertising

budget so this just means to compete or

like to attack or oppose someone with

the same method or the same weapon that

they use against you so again this is

usually to fight fire with fire I hope

that helps you thanks for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from el hassan ahmed

hello again al hassan al hassan says

what is the difference between I don’t

know what is that and I don’t know what

that is

for example I don’t know what the

difference between them is and I don’t

know what is the difference between them

okay

the difference is that the second

example is correct the first example is

incorrect these are examples of what are

called embedded questions so it’s when

we have a question inside a statement or

we have a question inside another

question these are called embedded

questions embedded questions and when we

use the verb to be in embedded questions

it takes a slightly different word order

so when we use the verb to be to ask a

direct question we would say something

like where is the restroom or where are

my coworkers that’s a direct question

but when we use an indirect question or

we use an embedded question we have to

change the word order a little bit so

instead of where is the restroom we have

to say something like I don’t know where

the restroom is and instead of where are

my co-workers we might say do you know

where my coworkers are so in each of

these examples the to be verb actually

moves to the end of the sentence or to

the end of the question this is kind of

special for these embedded questions

style responses so keep this in mind

when you’re making an embedded question

is does not follow your question word is

goes at the end of the sentence the same

is true for our and of course was and

were if you’re making past tense

statements or past tense questions but

again this is just for the verb to be if

you’re using any other verb you don’t

need to worry about this change so if

it’s like talk or walk or drink or

whatever you don’t need to worry about

that if you’re using the verb to be

however you do need to switch your word

order in the sentence so again your

second example sentence is correct so I

don’t know what that

is is the correct sentence I don’t know

what is that is incorrect

of course if you’re ever not sure what

to do and you’re faced with a situation

where you should choose it’s not

impolite it’s not incorrect to use a

direct question like where is the

restroom but it does sound a bit more

polite to phrase it indirectly or to use

an embedded question like do you know

where the restroom is it sounds a bit

more polite so again if you’re ever

unsure you can use a direct question no

problem but do make sure to practice

these embedded questions and the special

pattern that we use with the verb to be

so I hope that that helps you thanks

very much for the question okay let’s

move on to your next question next

question comes from on high on on says

can you give an explanation about the

word roughly thanks so much okay sure

roughly means about it means

approximately or around for example

roughly half of the students in the

class passed the test sales decreased by

roughly thirty percent last month so in

these cases roughly means about or

around we tend to use roughly more in

polite situations like at work in

meetings we don’t use it so much in

everyday conversation in everyday

conversation we use about or around

there’s another use of roughly however

which you can kind of think of as

meaning aggressive or like a little bit

aggressive or not refined so for example

my neighbor speaks roughly but he’s

actually a nice guy or this woman on the

train pushed me really roughly it hurt

so in those cases roughly means in kind

of an aggressive manner a slightly

aggressive manner or a not refined

manner so when we use roughly as an

adverb in this way it means like not

refined it’s it’s kind of aggressive

when you’re using it to talk about

amounts or data it means about so I hope

that this helps you thanks very much for

the question ok let’s move on to your

next question next question comes from

Patricia hi Patricia

Patricia says hi Alicia I enjoy your

videos thank you

my question is about when I visit

restaurants and I don’t want ice in my

drink for example how do I say that no

ice or without ice thank you yeah we

would say no ice no ice so if you said

without ice it’s probably not a

communication issue but more naturally

we would say no ice please

you can use this for pretty much

anything any kind of special order like

no tomato no onion no pickles and so on

so if you don’t want something use no

before the name of that thing that you

don’t want we have another expression

that we use at restaurants which is on

the side on the side so for example if

you order a salad and you say I’d like

the dressing on the side please

it means your salad and the dressing or

the topping for the salad will come

separately so if you don’t say on the

side the restaurant staff will probably

put the dressing on top of your salad

and serve it to you if you request the

dressing on the side however you can

choose how much to put on top of your

salad so some people like to in this

case with salads request that things be

served separately to do that you say on

the side you’ll usually get a separate

dish or a separate cup or bowl or

something for your dressing or whatever

it is you’ve chosen to order so on the

side is another thing you can use in

restaurants finally for the opposite of

this situation for the opposite of no if

you want more of something you use extra

extra like extra cheese please or extra

bacon please or extra avocado keep in

mind though that when you say extra

you’re probably going to have to pay

more so if you have like a cheeseburger

for example and you say I’d like extra

avocado so that means there’s already

avocado on the cheeseburger you want

more avocado on it you’re probably going

to have to pay more for that avocado if

however you order something without an

ingredient like no tomato on this

cheeseburger there’s no discount so

please don’t expect a discount if you

ask for less of something if you ask for

more of something however it’s probably

going to cost you a little more money so

also keep in mind that

use extra when something already exists

inside the dish so in my example it’s

like an avocado burger there’s avocado

on the burger I want more I say extra if

there’s no avocado on the burger I say

like something like can I have a picado

as a topping please or can I add avocado

as a topping please we might use one of

those expressions so can I have

something as a topping or can I add

something we might use one of those two

patterns so those are a few restaurant

related expressions that I hope are

helpful for you thanks for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from will Jin’s diss

Samus hello will jhin’s will Jin says hi

Alicia is there a difference between to

lend and to borrow yes the difference is

in the point of view for example I lent

my friend a pen and my friend borrowed a

pen from me so when the person that is

giving the object is the subject of the

sentence we use lend when the person who

is receiving the object is the subject

of the sentence we use borrow so let’s

swap the people in my example sentences

so my friend lent me a pen and I

borrowed a pen from my friend so again

in those cases the person giving the

object is the subject of the sentence

when I use lend and the person receiving

the object is the subject of the verb

borrow when I use borrow so please keep

this in mind this relationship so am i

giving or am i receiving that’s what’s

important to keep in mind I know it’s a

little confusing at first but with

practice you will get the hang of it

you’ll get used to it so I hope that

this 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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send them to me at English class 101.com

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Alisha and I will see you again next

week bye bye

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