Whats the difference between Ever since and Since then

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hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and i answer them

maybe all right let’s get to your first

question

first question this week comes from

fabio hi fabio

fabio says hello alicia i would like to

know the meaning of the expression

every other day can i also say every

other week

every other year every other hour minute

thanks a lot

yep every other day refers to a schedule

of activities

in which you do one thing for one day

and then the next day you

take it off that you don’t do the

activity the next day

the following day you do the activity

then the next day you don’t do the

activity

so it’s this one day on one day off

pattern

we call this an every other day schedule

so yes you can replace day in this

expression

with another time period so you could

say every other year or every other

hour every other minute whatever it just

means you do something for

one unit of time so one year or one hour

or one minute

and then the following period of time

you do not do that thing

so yes you could use this to express

something like every other minute i’m

not sure what activity you need to talk

about

and use every other minute to describe

it but you could do it

so every other day is a very common way

to express this one day on

one day off pattern i hope that this

helps you thanks for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next

question comes from clinton hi clinton

clinton says

when i meet a person that tries to speak

a language with me that i don’t

understand

what should i say in english to respond

um

you can say i don’t speak that language

so you could say i don’t speak spanish

or i don’t speak dutch or i don’t speak

chinese you can just say something

very direct like that you don’t have to

say i’m sorry

i suppose if you want to you could but

you don’t really have to apologize in

this situation

just be direct i don’t speak that

language you could

follow up this statement by saying

something like

do you speak english or do you speak

your native language

so if the person maybe needs help or if

you’re trying to communicate with that

person

you can try to find a solution try to

find a common language by asking

do you speak english or do you speak

spanish or whatever your

native language is so again just to

respond

i don’t speak that language i hope that

this helps you thanks for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question is from

sanju hi sanju sanju says hi alicia and

team how are you all

my question what is the difference

between dying

to and vying for and how do we use them

properly okay we use dying to

for things that we want to do very very

much so we’re like exaggerating we’re

making this

desire for something seem much stronger

than it is

we tend to use this in casual situations

for example i’m dying to watch that

movie

or we’ve been dying to go to that new

restaurant

so we’re expressing a strong desire for

something and it’s usually something

that’s kind of casual kind of light

vying for on the other hand is used in

like

competitive situations so you might hear

it in sports you might hear it

in business you might hear it in

politics when two

or more people are trying to get the

same result or the same outcome we can

express that with

vying for different from dying to which

is followed by a

verb vying for is followed by a noun

phrase

so vying for noun phrase where the noun

phrase is the desired result the desired

outcome so some examples of this might

be

the two candidates were vying for the

mayor’s position

or all of the children were vying for

the teacher’s attention

so vying for something means actively

engaged in trying to

win something but that’s quite a long

expression so we say

vying for the base verb is to vai to vai

for something so this is the difference

between dying to which expresses a

strong desire for something

and vying for which also expresses a

desire to win something

but we talk about this along with the

desired

results the desired result not the

desired action so i hope that this helps

you

thanks very much for the question okay

let’s move on to our next

question next question comes from anmal

virk hello animal

animal says hung or hanged snuck or

sneaked yes this is a question

about the past tense forms of verbs so

the first one

hung or hanged the verb in question here

is the verb

to hang to hang so should we use hung or

should we use hanged for past tense

the answer in most cases is you should

use hung

for example he hung a picture on the

wall

or we hung our coats up in the closet

when you’re talking about this action of

putting something on a wall or putting

clothing

on a hanger please use hung the past

tense hung

hanged on the other hand has a very

specific use we use

hanged when we’re talking about someone

who has been punished

with death by hanging so hanging is a

very specific type of death penalty

in which a rope is tied around a

person’s neck and

the rope is used to end the person’s

life when we want to talk about this

in past tense we use hanged as in

the criminal was hanged or hundreds of

years ago

many people were hanged for crimes so

hanged is used in this specific case in

all

other cases of the verb hang in present

tense please use

hung to refer to the past form of the

verb so this is quite a clear

distinction in terms of meaning

please keep it in mind when you’re

speaking and when you’re writing too

regarding your other question about the

past tense form of the verb

sneak there are two forms and there are

two forms that remain today actually

initially originally this is according

to merriam-webster my favorite

dictionary

according to merriam-webster sneaked was

the original past tense form of this

verb but in the

late 1800s or so snuck began

being used so today we still use both of

them

actually snuck and sneaked some examples

then might be like

i snuck into the office late last night

or she sneaked around the neighborhood

so you can use both of them i personally

feel that i like snuck better that could

just be me

but whatever you choose please just be

consistent with it so i hope that this

helps you thanks for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question

comes from anathu shaji hi enough

anathu says could you please explain the

differences

between ever since and since then

sure while they have the same meaning

the structure of the sentence changes

depending on which one you use

so let’s take a look at a couple of

example sentences

a graduated college last year since then

i’ve worked in a tech company and

ever since i graduated college i’ve

worked in a tech company

so these sentences communicate the same

idea the speaker graduated college

and since that point in time the speaker

has worked at a tech company

so we can use both since then and ever

since to describe

that the difference is that since then

tends to follow

a past tense statement in the first

example sentence it was

i graduated college last year so we have

a simple path

tense statement there since then refers

to the point in time that was described

in the previous sentence so in this case

last year since that point in time i

referred to in the previous sentence

so this is a common position for since

then

ever since however can take a couple

different positions in the sentence

in this example i’ve placed it before

the simple past tense action

ever since i graduated college so we can

place it before the action

you may also see ever since used in the

same position as

since then so for example i graduated

college ever since i’ve worked in a tech

company

though in these cases as you might have

noticed in this example

i’ve removed i’ve omitted the specific

point in time so instead of saying

i graduated college last year ever since

i’ve worked in a tech company

you might hear some people remove that

specific point in time it’s just kind of

the speaker’s preference i suppose but

ever since can take a lot of different

positions we don’t see

since then taking these different

positions so since then again refers to

a specific

point in time that then in since then

means

that point in time i just referred to so

we have to have that

we don’t have that then in ever since so

that means we don’t have to refer to a

specific point in time and that’s why it

sounds kind of natural sometimes

not to use this paired together with a

specific point in time in your past

tense statement

you might hear people say ever since

then in which case yes you must include

a point in time in the past but this is

the difference it’s the positioning of

the expression in the sentence

and the relationship of the past tense

statement to the outcome so i hope that

this helps you

thanks very much for the question okay

that is everything that i have for you

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