Use of Personal Pronouns in informal speech 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 okay

let’s get to your first question this

week first question this week comes from

brinto hi brinto brinto says can you

please tell me the difference between

change exchange and interchange sure

let’s talk about it let’s start by

talking about change we can use change

in probably the most situations out of

these three words when we want to alter

something so we want to make a different

kind of something or we want to use a

different type of something we can use

change to describe that so if you want

to make a

maybe slight alteration

which is a noun that you can use to

describe a change as well if you want to

do something in a document for example

you want to write a new sentence in a

document or you want to remove a

sentence in a document you would

describe that as a change as a noun or

if you want to use a verb in this case

you could say i changed the document

that means you altered it or you made it

different in some way the key with

change is that you are making something

different in some way or you’re adding

something new you’re removing something

that wasn’t there some common

expressions you might hear change used

in are for example like to change the

baby which means to change the diaper on

the baby to put a new diaper on a baby

or as we talked about earlier to make a

change in a document can also be

described as changing a document so

adding or removing something to make

something different that’s what we use

change to talk about let’s move along to

exchange to exchange means to usually

have two things that you want to swap so

we use this a lot when we are shopping

for example if you go to a store and you

buy a shirt that’s small but you needed

a shirt that’s a medium and you realize

it after you got home you might come

back to the store and ask to exchange

the shirts for a different size that

means you have two things that are the

same or very very similar and you want

to swap them so we use exchange to talk

about this like i exchanged my shirts at

the store yesterday to use another

example you could talk about maybe

exchanging money at a currency exchange

stand so when you want to transfer money

from for example us dollars to euros you

would ask for a currency exchange or in

other words to swap money in this way so

when you use exchange you are switching

you can think of switching or swapping

one thing for another thing okay finally

let’s go to interchange interchange i

use the word interchangeably or you can

use them interchangeably a lot on this

channel that means that you can replace

something with something else like it’s

okay to use that thing or this thing in

this place so to use something

interchangeably means that you can use

one or two or maybe three or more things

in exactly the same way or in exactly

the same position so this is different

from exchange which refers to some kind

of transaction usually

interchange doesn’t have this feeling

it’s like saying you can use anything in

this place or you can use anything in

this way

exchange doesn’t have this feeling about

it it just kind of refers to switching

or swapping to things that are similar

or roughly equal so i hope that this

helps you understand the differences

between change exchange and interchange

thanks very much for the question okay

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from nihan hello nihan

nihan says hi alicia i’ve got a question

is there an adjective in english

meaning that you won’t talk to anyone

because you’re soaking but it’s

temporary because another person did

something wrong to you and it’s not that

you often sulk as a personal quality

yeah this is an interesting question we

might not use an adjective in this case

if i had to choose an adjective

specifically i might describe this

feeling as gloomy like you feel gloomy

because someone else did something to

you or something happened and your mood

is low you might say i’m gloomy or you

might say i’m feeling dejected or maybe

if it’s really serious despondent like

you don’t want to talk to somebody and

it’s very very serious what we might say

instead of using a specific adjective in

this case if you are actively not

talking to someone because you’re upset

with that one we might instead say we’re

giving someone the silent treatment

which means you are not talking to

someone because they did something wrong

or because there’s some kind of problem

so we often say that that’s a kind of

punishment like not talking to someone

is a kind of punishment so we might use

that kind of expression in this case

like oh i’m giving him the silent

treatment he made a huge mistake and i

don’t want to talk to him right now so

we could use something like that to

express that kind of feeling you feel

upset you don’t want to talk to someone

you are giving them the silent treatment

i hope that this helps you i hope this

kind of communicates the idea that you

were expressing in your question thanks

for an interesting topic okay let’s move

on to our next question next question

comes from gerardo vega hello gerardo

gerardo says hello alicia i’d like to

know what’s the difference between stare

and look at thank you very much sure

okay let’s cover look at first we use

look at to refer to moving our eyes to

something so we focus our attention on

something when we use look at like look

at the camera means use your eyes to

focus on the camera so we use our eyes

in a direction when we look at something

look at that look at him look at her

right but stare to stare at something

means yes to use your eyes to focus on

that but it means you don’t move your

focus so for example if you see

something interesting or maybe you see

like an attractive person or you see

something you really want to eat

whatever it might be for you if you look

at something for a very long time and

you don’t look at anything else you can

describe that as staring at something so

for example a pretty girl crossed the

street and he stared at her for 10

seconds straight so that means someone

focused their attention on another

person 100 focus their attention on

another person for 10 seconds straight

so stare means a long period of focused

attention to look at does not have this

feel we just use our eyes to focus and

to take in images so this is the

difference between look at and stare i

hope that this helps you thanks for the

question okay let’s move on to our next

question next question comes from achoo

i hope i said that right achchu says

white house staffer has tested positive

for covid19 on cnn and white house staff

has tested positive for covid19 on bbc

in our country we use staff commonly but

staffer is new to me is this an american

lingo what’s the difference between them

great question yeah so staff generally

is used to talk about a group of people

right the people who work at a company

or an organization we’re talking about

everybody there all of the employees all

of the members we say that’s the

company’s staff those are the people

that work there or they belong to the

organization so we understand staff as a

group of people right however you may in

some cases see the word staffer staffer

we tend to see this more i feel in like

government organizations or maybe more

official organizations staffer refers to

one person only one person only so in

this case as with the news reports a

staffer got a disease in this case

we want to use staffer here to refer to

one person only in this news report so

this might be a decision it might be a

decision that’s determined by the

reporting agency different reporting

agencies might follow different rules

for if they choose to use staff or maybe

employee or staffer but this is what it

means staffer refers to just one person

staff refers to a group of people

generally so i hope that this helps you

understand the difference thanks for an

interesting question okay let’s move on

to your next question next question

comes from

onerolan wonderland i hope i said your

name right owner allan says hi alicia

and team thanks for your great work it’s

amazing awesome thank you

sometimes i receive short messages from

native speakers without a personal

pronoun like got it

as far as i know this is okay in spanish

or russian languages but can i do this

in short sentences in non-formal verbal

speech only or should i avoid it hmm

good question so when you get messages

like these like got it or understood

those kinds of things it’s totally

normal it’s totally natural to use those

kinds of expressions in quick messages

typically with your friends with your

coworkers your colleagues if you’re

close to somebody it’s generally

understood that it’s okay to drop that

you don’t have to say i got it or i

understood it’s fine to just say

understood or got it

if however you don’t have such a close

relationship with someone if you are

talking to a client for the first time

or you’re exchanging emails with a

teacher for the first time or you’re

making a new connection it’s better to

write full sentences i would recommend

that you don’t use these kind of casual

expressions until you know someone and

you’ve developed a little bit of a

relationship with them but then

absolutely it’s completely fine to use

these short messages just to show you’ve

received something or you saw something

or you understood some information so

yeah got it or understood or even just

great something like that those are

perfectly fine to use and they’re very

effective ways to communicate as well so

i hope that this helps you thanks very

much for the question

all right that is everything for this

week thank you very much as always for

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