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hey everyone welcome to the monthly

review the monthly show on language

learning

where you discover new learning

strategies motivational tips

new study tools and discover new

resources

by the way you can download all the

lessons and bonuses you’re about to see

right now on the website so click the

link in the description to sign up for

your free lifetime account

and start speaking in minutes okay

today’s topic is

21 ways to break your routine and master

a language

you’re going to learn one the importance

of taking a break

two how to update your language learning

routine and three

21 ways to break your learning routine

if you’ve ever felt like you’re not

making any learning progress

or are in a rut then this is for you

it’s time to break your routine

you’ll find out how in just a second

but first listen up here are this

month’s new lessons and resources

first the how to count to 1 billion pdf

ebook

maybe you can already count to 10 in

your target language

but with this new ebook you go all the

way up to 1 billion

download it for free right now second

do you know the 40 most common verbs

with this new useful verbs pdf cheat

sheet

you’ll master the 40 most common verbs

that all beginners should know

third do you know the 12 habits of

highly effective language learners

you’ll find out what smart learners do

differently

and you’ll learn how to say these habits

like don’t procrastinate in your target

language

fourth must know money phrases can you

talk about money

this one minute lesson will teach you

phrases like i’m broke

time is money and i want to be rich to

get these free resources

click the link in the description below

okay let’s jump into today’s topic

21 ways to break your routine and master

a language

so have you ever felt like you were in a

language learning rut

you have a routine going you’re studying

but you’re not really pushing the needle

on your progress

so what should you do let’s jump into

the first part

part one the importance of taking a

break so

before you quit learning languages

completely you should just take a day or

two off

why well there’s a good reason why many

cultures rest for one or two days out of

the week

it’s why we go on vacation why we take

days off

we need time to recharge our batteries

because language learning is work

it’s non-stop dedication to one of many

goals you have in your life right

you have other things in mind bills

relationships

work school vacations so first

if you feel like you’re in a rut take a

break for a day or two

do something else and let your brain

rest the next step

update your current language learning

routine part two

how to update your language learning

routine what do i mean by that

i mean do something completely different

with your language learning

do something you enjoy and there are two

ways you can update your routine

first do something new within the

specific skill you’re working on

for example if you like reading and want

to continue reading

change the resource put down the

textbook and try a comic

or our easy extensive reading books on

the website

the second way is to change it up

completely if you’re focusing on grammar

stop that and switch over to something

else like practicing your listening with

audio lessons or podcasts

the point here is you break a routine

you’re tired of and you do something

else

something you enjoy but you’re still

learning the language

the result is you don’t burn out you

have something new to look forward to

and you’re still taking action on your

language goal

so right now you might be thinking okay

i want to break my routine

what else can i do let’s get into the

third part

21 ways to break your learning routine

the key here is to do something new and

fun

or at least something that’s easy enough

so that you’re not overwhelmed

and for that you need some new resources

and study tools

so here are 21 examples but if you have

more approaches leave a comment

these are just suggestions and you need

to find out what works for you

okay if you’re focusing on vocabulary

set small goals

learn just five words a day that’s it

emails

you learn one new word a day every day

learn words and phrases with our free

vocabulary lists

these cover all kinds of topics seasons

holidays and common phrases

use spaced repetition flashcards to

drill words

or if you’re listening to music or

watching a show or a youtube video

make it a goal to write down five words

you don’t know

for grammar listen to our audio lessons

with every lesson conversation

you’ll learn the grammar rules for the

lines used in the conversation

it’s a lot easier to hear grammar in

action than to read about the rule

look up example sentences using that

specific grammar rule

again it’s better to learn from multiple

examples and see the rules in action

get a grammar workbook and drill through

the problems

for speaking try and talk to yourself

say what you’re doing out loud

read out loud you can do this with any

reading resource

including our lessons shadow what you

hear

if you’ve heard this tactic before

there’s a good reason why you’re hearing

about it again

because it works and if you’re not doing

it you’re missing out

for listening this is the easiest skill

to practice

just watch a youtube lesson you can also

look up songs and tv show clips

listen to our audio lessons on the site

immerse yourself

download our dialogue tracks that give

you just the conversation in the

language

and play them on repeat for writing make

it a goal to write one or two sentences

about your day

or simply copy out text from elsewhere

whether our lesson or

a social media post you saw you can also

write down all the new words you learned

today

finally for reading it’s a bit tough to

find an easier

leave a comment below

or do you think you can do better here’s

the challenge for you

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to submit a recording click the link in

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so thank you for watching this episode

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you next time bye

hey everybody welcome back to ask alicia

the weekly series where you

ask me questions and i answer them maybe

first question comes from

flavia hi flavia flavia says hi alicia

can you explain why you use if i were

you instead of was yeah so

the pattern if i were you is an example

of what’s called the subjunctive

mood so the subjunctive mood is

something that we use to talk about

unreal situations so things that are not

true so we use if i were you

to talk about the unreal situation the

unreal

present situation uh which refers to

the fact that i am not you like that’s

not a true situation so we use this

subjunctive pattern

if i were you to talk about that if

i was however would begin a simple past

statement so

something in the past but maybe the

speaker

is not so certain about that past thing

so for example

if i was wrong i’m sorry or

if i was noisy last night i apologize

so that means the speaker has some

uncertainty

about the past like if i was noisy last

night like i don’t know if i was but

maybe i was if i was i apologize

so those are past situations that

could be possible um they’re not

necessarily like

unreal um but we want to maybe express

like an apology

or we want to express some kind of

uncertainty

about something that might have affected

someone in the past

so maybe i was noisy last night or maybe

i was

wrong for example i don’t know but if i

was

then i apologize or i’m sorry so we use

this if i was for these simple

past tense statements so actually you

will commonly hear

native speakers using if i was you

but it’s not like that’s going to cause

any communication

problems actually so yes the technically

correct

pattern to use is if i were you but

there are so many people that say

if i was if i was that it’s not like a

communication

problem so technically yes it’s

incorrect to say if i was

but you’re not going to have any

problems if you use that pattern instead

so that’s the basic difference if i were

you refers to an

unreal present situation if i was

something

refers to uncertainty about a past

situation or a past event

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 kirill hi kirill

kirill says alicia i’m stumped by trying

to distinguish the difference in meaning

between

evaluate and assess could you help me

yeah great question and actually native

speakers have trouble with the

difference between these words too

so let’s talk first about the word

evaluate

so a great way to remember the

difference between the words evaluate

and assess

is to consider that inside the word

evaluate is the word

value so when we evaluate something

we are assigning or we are giving some

value to that thing or to that person

this can mean like the price of

something this can mean the

significance of something this can mean

like the condition

of something so some examples we

evaluated this camera and gave it an 8

out of 10 score

our company’s software was evaluated by

a tech website and given a low rating

so in each of these example sentences a

certain like level of value

is assigned or is given to something or

to someone

so when we evaluate we’re doing it in

order to give

value or like to assign or to find the

value of something

so it could be a score it could be a

price so let’s compare this to the word

assess

the pronunciation is assess assess so

the word assess then

has the same feel of evaluate but the

purpose of

assess is to understand something better

so we don’t assess something in order to

assign a value to that thing

we’re assessing something in order to

understand it better so like we try to

understand

deeper like information or like to learn

more about the details of something

we assess something so like uh you might

assess

a situation that means you look deep

into the details to

better understand the situation some

more examples

we need to assess the security of the

company’s data

he assessed his housing options before

making a decision

so this is the difference between

evaluate and assess

if you’re ever not sure just remember

that the word value

is inside evaluate to help you remember

that evaluate is used to assign

value to something 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 yasser hi yessir yasser says

what is the meaning of the expression

word i’ve seen it in some movies and i

can’t figure out what it means

yeah word is like a strong

laid-back expression of agreement among

close friends

you can also use it uh to like ask

really or is that true if you use kind

of like a question

intonation so like word so you might

also hear it used in a situation

where someone does something that like

you really admire

or that you kind of respect or you think

is impressive and you

like you might hear someone say like

word in response to that

so that kind of shows support or that

you were impressed or you admire that

thing

i feel like in a lot of cases it’s just

used as a simple expression of

agreement or understanding for example

we’re gonna watch the game tonight

word personally i don’t use this word

that much because it is kind of like a

cool word

and i’m not really like a cool like

hip-hop street culture kind of person

but if you want to use it i would

recommend using it among very close

friends and in very casual situations

so i hope that this helps you understand

it thanks very much for the question

all right let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from

brayan talaigua hi brian breon says hi

alicia

can you please explain to me the

meanings and uses of the word

happen specifically in these cases do

you happen to

my sister happens to be a lawyer etc i’m

confused yeah this is a nice

question okay to begin with i want to

introduce a few

very common patterns that we see with

the word happen

let’s take a look do you happen to have

would you happen to know if it just so

happens that

my sister happens to be okay

so kind of the theme with this use of

the word

happen is chance or by

chance of something so let’s take a look

at the first

two patterns here these first two are

question patterns

so the first one was do you happen to

have

and the second one was would you happen

to know if

so another way to say these is is there

any chance

you have or is there any chance you

know so you’re asking very politely

like is there a possibility is there a

chance

of this thing so we use this form of

happen to make very formal or like very

soft requests

so this is really useful when you’re

like speaking to a stranger

so if you can imagine like you’re a

tourist

and you need some help in a city that

you are unfamiliar

with you could say to a nearby person

like excuse me

do you happen to know where i could buy

a coffee around here

or excuse me would you happen to have

the time

so that’s like you’re making a very like

soft request that’s like saying

is there any chance or is it possible at

all that you have this information or

you could do this for me

so it’s a very soft request form so

let’s take a look

at the other two sentence patterns that

i introduced here

these are some statement patterns so

again these do mean

by chance but for these kinds of

statements

the context is actually really important

the situation is important

so for example it just so happens that i

got two free tickets to that concert you

were talking about last week

so it just so happens means like by

chance uh or like something happened

like that was very coincidental it just

so happens

that this situation fits nicely

with something else in my life right now

so it just so happens

i got these free tickets and this

relates to

having this discussion with you about a

concert last week

so those two things kind of fit nicely

together it’s a nice little coincidence

it just so happens that is used to do

that so

the other example pattern that you

introduced my sister

happens to be a lawyer is probably

something you would see

in a situation where a person is looking

for a lawyer

and the person who says that sentence is

introducing that like oh no i need a

lawyer do you have any recommendations

and person b might say oh my sister

happens to be a lawyer

so that’s like saying by chance my

sister is a lawyer like coincidentally

it matches your situation nicely that’s

kind of the feeling of

happens to in this case happens to be a

lawyer

so yes you could say like oh my sister

is a lawyer that’s fine as well

but it doesn’t have that same nuance of

coincidence

so kind of think of happens to or like

happens to be

as meaning by chance in these statement

situations and when you’re using it as a

question it creates like this formal

very gentle

like is it possible to type request

so i hope that that helps you understand

using the word

happen or happens in cases like these

thanks very much for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question

comes from cloudy hi cloudy

cloudy says what’s the difference

between these words

admire adore and idolize

thanks okay let’s compare let’s make

some example sentences first

i admire beyonce i adore beyonce

i idolize beyonce okay so first

let’s look at i admire beyonce so we use

admire

for people usually people that we

respect

so maybe we respect that person’s work

or we want to be more like that person

or we think they’ve done like great

things uh they’re very talented so if i

say i admire beyonce it means like i

respect her i respect her work

so we use admire to mean like something

or someone that we

respect the second sentence i adore

beyonce

uses the word adore which means you love

something so when we say i adore

something we can use it to talk about

like uh people usually people in our

lives sometimes we use it to talk about

like our favorite activities as well

like i adore arts and crafts perhaps

but when we use it to talk about people

it’s usually for people that we have a

relationship to so like a beyonce super

fan

might say like i adore beyonce i just

love her

so that means that they feel like a

close connection to that person or like

they really really

enjoy in this case the celebrities work

so to adore something

can be used in that way also within

families like parents could say they

adore

their children so to adore means to love

something and have a very close

connection or you feel like you have a

close connection with someone

then the final example sentence was i

idolize beyonce

i idolize so to idolize that verb

has the word idol inside so idol

actually has a like a religious

kind of connection so an idol was

something like to be

worshipped so like a god or a goddess

figure

sort of thing so to idolize something

means to kind of have

that thing as like above you so

you have like this image in this case

like beyonce i idolize beyonce

that means she’s like above everything

like we really appreciate her

like we think she’s just amazing and

she’s like above

everybody else so to idolize someone is

has almost like this image of worshiping

someone

so maybe like a super super super

beyonce fan could say like i idolize

beyonce

i want to be like her like i want to do

everything a fan can do so maybe that’s

uh idolize in this case

so probably the most common words here

are

admire and adore idolize is not used

nearly as much

as these two um but that’s the

difference between those words so i hope

that that helps you understand

thanks very much for the question all

right that’s everything that i have for

this week thank you as always for

sending

your questions remember you can send

them to me at englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia of course if you like

the video please don’t forget to give it

a thumbs up

subscribe to the channel if you haven’t

already and check us out at

englishclass101.com for some other

things that can help you with your

english studies

thanks very much for watching this

week’s episode of ask alicia and i will

see you again

next week bye bye hi everybody welcome

back to ask alicia the weekly series

where you

ask me questions and i answer them maybe

first question

comes from nick hi nick nick says hi

alicia

what does to roll mean in this context

sugar was rare too if you could offer

guests a feast

featuring spices sugar and vegetables

from the new world

you were rolling is it about madness or

poverty

oh yeah great question so to roll or

like to be

rolling means to have a lot of money so

the image here is that

you have so much money that you can roll

your body

around in the money like you are so rich

you could roll in

it so like we will sometimes say he’s

rolling or she’s rolling or they’re

rolling which means they’re rolling in

money she inherited a lot of money from

her family

she’s rolling they bought a huge house

last year and this summer they bought a

yacht

they must be rolling in dough okay so i

hope that this helps you understand the

word

roll thanks very much for the question

all right let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from

gevor galstian hi givorg gborg says

what’s the difference between

gonna gotta and where should i use them

okay uh gonna is the short form of

going to i’m gonna go to the store

he’s gonna leave early we’re gonna watch

a movie

gotta is the short form of got to

which means have to so like i have got

means i have to do something but native

speakers will often drop the

the have part the contracted form of

have in speech

so we’re supposed to say i’ve gotta

which is the contracted form of i

have got to but we often drop the v

sound in quick speech so it sounds like

i gotta

or we gotta uh we do however keep it

when

the subject is he or she or its because

it’s easy to say quickly

so some examples i gotta go

he’s gotta leave we gotta work

so because gunna is like the reduced

form of going to

we use it to talk about upcoming plans

and because

gotta is like the reduced form of got2

meaning have to we use gotta to talk

about upcoming responsibilities

so i hope that this helps you understand

the difference between the two

thanks very much for the question okay

let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from

benny hi benny benny says hi alicia

could you please tell me which forms are

correct

hey i learned english in the morning b

i’ve learned english in the morning see

i’ve been learning in the morning

d i was learning in the morning two

a we will be eating dinner when he

arrives

b we will be eating dinner when he

arrive okay

i’m gonna stop here for your question

because it’s quite long so

before i talk about my responses to

these i also want to say that i’m going

to use the word study the verb study

instead of learn to answer this question

so you’ve used learn

in your example sentences but we use the

word

learn when we have finished learning

something

so like i learned how to use a computer

or i learned how to

do something we’re finished with that so

for that reason i’m going to use

study instead of your original learn

here so study sounds more

natural so with that in mind uh the

correct answers or the correct sentences

here

are sentences a and d b and c

both use forms of the present perfect

tense

sentence b uses just kind of a regular

present perfect

uh so i have studied in the morning

that sounds strange because we’re using

a specific point in time

in the morning plus present perfect

tense and we don’t use those two

together

really so we use present perfect tense

when we want to talk about

general life experience so we could say

for example like yeah

i’ve studied english before so before

just means sometime

before now so sometime in the past yeah

i’ve studied english before

so that’s okay but we would not use in

the morning a specific

time the second sentence c there is also

strange even though we’re using the

continuous form the present perfect

continuous form

because it’s like something that is

continuing yes but we have it at a

specific point in time so like

i’ve been studying in the morning we use

the present perfect continuous with like

for and since to talk about the time

when an action started we talked about

the specific point when the action

started so in this case you’re talking

about an action that is finished it’s

done

so it sounds strange to use in the

morning and it’s grammatically

incorrect you could say i’ve been

studying

since 10 this morning or i’ve been

studying

for three hours this morning those are

fine when you want to talk about a

duration of time

and you want to talk about the point in

time where you started that thing

so only sentence a and sentence d are

correct

you could change sentence b and sentence

c but you would change the meaning a

little bit

on to your second question then this is

a quick answer

the correct one is he arrives he arrives

this is because

arrive is connected to he so when you’re

using

he or she or it you need to use arrives

so when you’re using i you or we there

is no change to the verb

so he arrives she arrives it arrives i

you we

arrive so i hope that that helps you you

had one more question

which was uh this michael said

yeah that was a new one for me as well

i hope i don’t have to do that again can

i use this instead of that

um and really the answer is it depends

on the situation

so if in this case michael is gesturing

and pointing to something like ah

that was a new one for me or this was a

new one for me

i hope i don’t have to do this again and

we can clearly see

what’s this then it’s okay to use this

here

if it’s just general and he’s not

gesturing or anything to clearly show

us what this or that is it sounds more

natural to use

that so the answer is it depends a

little bit

if you can clearly show the other person

what you’re talking about

sure you can use this especially when

you’re gesturing you’re pointing at

something

so i hope that this helps you thanks

very much for all your questions

all right let’s move on to the next

question next

question comes from muhammad

abdel haqim hi muhammad muhammad says

are you using me for my brain what does

this mean

you mention this in 100 phrases every

english beginner must know

yeah okay i was making a small joke here

actually

so there’s a really common like

complaint or a really common problem

um that you sometimes hear in couples

who are in romantic relationships

so if one person or maybe both people i

don’t know

has just a really strong physical

attraction to somebody

um one there might be a complaint where

someone says like

are you using me for my body this is a

common complaint in a relationship where

a person thinks

it’s only physical this person only

cares about my physical appearance

they say are you using me for my body so

i was making a joke

in that one and saying are you using me

for my brain

to suggest that someone could just be

interested in like the things that i

think

so it’s not actually like a joke i was

just making a twist

on a common complaint i can’t quite

remember but i feel like in that video i

was maybe talking about like

relationships or something similar

but i wanted to twist the joke a little

bit to make it about like

knowledge i don’t know so it’s not

actually funny i was just twisting a

very common complaint

so i hope that this helps you thanks for

the question okay

let’s move on to your next question next

question

comes from silverway hi again silverway

silverway

says hi alicia i want to ask about the

expression

things couldn’t be better does this mean

in the past or can i use it to mean for

the time being like in the present

yeah this is a present tense expression

so when you say things couldn’t be

better it means

right now it’s not possible for my life

to be better so that means things are

great

so yes couldn’t is being used here but

it means things

now could not be better it’s not

possible for things to be better

so for example like hey how are things

oh couldn’t be better

work is going great and i have a

vacation coming up soon

or hey how’s the family uh couldn’t be

better

everyone’s happy and healthy so that

means like it’s not

possible to improve more it’s not

possible for things to be better

so we say couldn’t be better now that’s

a present tense expression

thanks very much for the question hope

that that helps all right

that’s everything that i have for this

week thank you as always for sending

your questions

remember you can send them to me at

englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia of course if you like

the video please don’t forget to give it

a thumbs up subscribe to the channel if

you haven’t already

and check us out at englishclass101.com

for some other things that can help you

with your english studies

thanks very much for watching this

week’s episode of ask alicia and i will

see you again

next week bye bye hi everybody welcome

back to ask alicia the weekly series

where you

ask me questions and i answer them maybe

first question

comes from i am hi ayan ayan says hi

alicia

which sentence is correct i think

someone break into my apartment

or i think someone broke into my family

when should i use the simple past tense

um actually

both sentences are close but neither

sentence

is correct the correct sentence would be

i think

someone broke into my apartment

so when we use the verb break into and

the regular present tense

we follow it with the actual place like

with the location so we don’t use

people as the object of this phrasal

verb we use the actual

place so i broke into an apartment

or someone broke into my house or i

think someone is breaking into your car

or a thief broke into the jewelry store

last night

okay so i hope that this helps with your

understanding of the phrase

break into thanks very much for the

question all right

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from

vladimir hi vladimir vladimir says hi

uh what is the difference between what

as a conjunction

and that some examples i should have

said

what i said i don’t know that we can

show me that you can help me and i’ll

tell you where your friends are

i got these examples from tv shows yeah

really good question and a tough

question too

actually in these sentences what and

that

are not acting as conjunctions they’re

acting as

relative pronouns so relative pronouns

start a noun clause like a relative

clause they’re giving us some

information

and we begin these clauses with relative

pronouns

so let’s take a look at the examples

that you sent

let’s start with what so in your first

example sentence you said

i should have said what i said so

here what marks the beginning of this

new clause

what i said is the clause itself so i

should have said something so this

what i said refers to something the

speaker mentioned earlier or something

the speaker

like mentioned in a different

conversation so

what i said could be replaced with it

or that and the sentence would remain

grammatical

like i should have said it i should have

said

that what is acting as a relative

pronoun

and it means the thing which or the

things

which something something something so

you could say i should have said

the things which i said so that would be

a grammatically correct

sentence so in this case what does not

act as a conjunction it’s acting as a

relative pronoun

it’s starting off this clause this new

information

so let’s look at another example that

uses this

for example uh i shouldn’t have eaten

what i ate for lunch

so in this sentence what i ate for lunch

is like my extra information that’s my

noun clause there

and i’m using what to introduce that so

here the speaker is expressing

regret maybe the speaker ate lots of

junk food for lunch and now they feel

terrible

so i shouldn’t have eaten what i ate for

lunch so that means

that thing or those things that i ate

for lunch even though the speaker is not

specifically stating

everything he or she ate so we use what

in this way to mean the things which or

the thing

which so let’s continue on to your other

two examples the first one was

i don’t know that we can so here

that is the relative pronoun as we

talked about with

what but here that is used

to introduce like an idea or a concept

so that we can is the noun clause here

it’s acting as the object

of the verb no i don’t know that we can

so that we can is referring to something

that was said

earlier in the conversation so maybe for

example

like we should try to convince the

neighbors to build a pool and share it

with us

and then the speaker might respond with

um i don’t know that we can

so that we can like that seems like

it’s kind of an unfinished sentence like

what does can connect to there

but can actually connects to the verb

that was in the previous statement or

the previous sentence

in that case it was we should convince

the neighbors

so that we can connects to the verb

convince like i don’t know that we can

convince the neighbors that’s what it

means

so in order to introduce this clause we

use

that so we use that for like things

ideas concepts

it sounds quite informal too for more

information on using

that you can check out a video that we

have on the channel

about relative clauses as well let’s

look at your last example

so in this example you said show me that

you can help me

so here let’s focus on this clause

that’s that you can help

me so in this case it’s actually not

acting as the object the direct

object so the verb here is show the

direct object is me

and this clause is actually what’s

called the object

complement so an object complement

describes or gives us some more

information

about the direct object so in this case

it’s

show me like what are you going to show

that you can help me so there’s this

noun clause there and we begin the noun

clause with

that so this is the difference and this

is how we use these kinds of things in

sentences so i hope that this answers

your question

thanks very much for sending it along

okay let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from

muhammad bushra hi muhammad

muhammad says how do i use in terms of

in sentences

okay um using in terms of kind of like

helps you to explain a specific

focus for a situation or gives you more

context about a situation

so for example at like a company meeting

you could say

in terms of sales last month was a huge

success

but in terms of staff morale it was a

huge failure

so here you’re pointing out like two

parts of

one situation so you’re talking about

the company’s performance maybe

last month as a whole as one thing

but inside that there are small points

so you’re pointing out

smaller things inside something larger

so we use

in terms of to do that i would say we

tend to use this a little bit more in

formal conversations

i wouldn’t use this a lot with friends

but you could if you want to

so i hope that that helps you thanks

very much for the question

all right let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from

essan hi essan essan says hi alicia

could you please explain a bit about

past and

past and how to use them in different

situations because it’s quite

challenging for learners

i watched a few videos but i’m still a

bit confused thanks

okay sure let’s talk about past past

first so past can be a noun which refers

time before the present we can also use

past to refer to prior things

so that means it’s like an adjective so

past work or like my past relationships

or my past

job so past refers to things prior

in the past what kind of work have you

enjoyed doing

some of her past relationships ended

terribly

now let’s talk about past so p-a-s-s-e-d

this is the past tense form of the verb

to pass which can mean like to move

beyond something else or it can mean to

give someone something else usually like

a close range

we also use this verb to mean to

successfully complete a test or to get a

good grade on a test

to pass so again this is the past tense

and the past

participle form of this verb so that

means that

even though the pronunciations sound

very similar these two words have very

different grammatical functions

and therefore you can determine which

word is being used

depending on the positioning of the word

in the sentence

so let’s look at some examples with past

i passed my co-worker on the street

earlier

have you ever passed a test without

studying there’s one more use of

past that’s also very common which is to

pass out to pass

out means to fall asleep and we usually

use this when like

we’ve been drinking or when we’re just

super super tired so for example

i passed out as soon as i got home last

night or

he passed out in the back of the car so

pass out

is kind of a set phrase on its own which

like casually or roughly means to fall

asleep

so you can hear in these example

sentences that past p-a-s-s-e-d

and past p-a-s-t take different

positions in sentences

so we’re not just listening for the

pronunciations of these words

in speech we’re also kind of listening

to the grammar of this sentence as a

whole

so if you’re confused if you’re

listening to someone speaking and you’re

wondering did that person just say

past or did they say past which sound

extremely similar

think about the way the sentence is made

like what’s the position of the word

that you’re wondering about

and also think like does this word make

sense the meaning of this word so in

some these words do take different

positions and have different meanings so

try to listen to the sentence as a whole

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

fernardo valencia gonzalez hi again

fernando

bernardo says hi alicia my questions i

still can’t get the difference between

buy and purchase in the same way i don’t

know when or where to use a mid

among and between cool so first let’s

take a look at

buy and purchase yeah when we use these

as verbs they

share a meaning really but in everyday

conversation we use

buy like i need to buy a camera or i’m

gonna go buy

lunch or what did you buy last weekend

so they refer to just

like going shopping and exchanging money

for things

we use purchase more in like formal

situations maybe

in like contracts or maybe you see it in

like a customer service agreement

you might also see purchase as like the

verb used on an online shopping website

like the button to click something might

say buy or it might say purchase

so it’s just the verb that’s used you

might also see

purchase used as a noun we can use it as

a countable noun actually so like

customers should bring their purchases

to the register

it does sound more formal we cannot use

in this way we cannot use by as a noun

that would sound

very strange so please only use purchase

as a noun

so in everyday conversation i would

recommend using the verb

buy to talk about shopping in more

formal situations we might use

purchase more commonly regarding your

second question about the differences

between amid

and among and between the very short

answer

is that a mid is used with uncountable

nouns

among is used with countable nouns and

between is used in situations where

there are just two options to choose

from

we also use between to mean in the

middle

of two objects another point a mid

does tend to sound quite formal and we

tend to use a mid

with these kind of like abstract nouns

so for example

she lost her wallet amid the confusion

the thief escaped amid the excitement of

the concert

regarding among then when we use it with

countable nouns it kind of sounds a

little bit less

formal than amid like they walked among

the trees or

there’s a spy among us so between can be

used to mean

in the middle of two things so for

example

on the train this morning i sat between

two people wearing lots of perfume

or i put your lunch over there between

the microwave and the coffee maker

so this is a really quick introduction

to these i made a whiteboard video about

this question

so please keep an eye out for that on

the channel very soon

so i hope that that helps answer your

question thank you very much for sending

this along

all right that’s everything that i have

for this week thanks as always for

sending your questions

remember you can send them to me at

englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia of course if you like

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for some other things that can help you

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thanks very much for watching this

week’s episode of ask alicia and i will

see you again

next week bye bye hi everybody welcome

back to english topics my name is alicia

and today i’m joined again bye

i’m davey welcome back davey thank you

so in this episode we’re going to be

giving some

reading recommendations so these are a

few ideas that you can use

in your english reading so the idea here

is just kind of to remind

people that although we focus a lot on

speaking and listening on this channel

reading is also an important an

essential part

of learning a language so these are a

couple of ideas

if you’re struggling to find something

to read or if you just want something

new to read maybe

you can try one of the things that we’ll

suggest today

i hope all right um i have i guess i’ll

start because i chose

one of my items is actually quite

general and this was something that i

recommended in

a different video recently too but

um just to start things off quite

broadly i’ve written

magazines specific to your hobbies uh

this could be books as well or maybe

like online magazines

too um but this i chose

because actually this is something that

i did that helped me when i was studying

when i

i am studying now but this actually

helped me too

because um this was something

in my case it was about music i chose a

magazine related to

my hobby because i wanted to study the

vocabulary words

uh that were used for my hobby and i was

also interested

in the subject to start with three when

read the magazine i would also find out

about

other things related to my hobbies that

i might also want to know about but it

was

in the language i was studying so like

really a real example i had a band that

i really really liked when i was in high

school

i looked online because i could not buy

the magazine it was a magazine in

japanese i looked online

bought the magazine online and got it

sent to my house

and then i would sit with a dictionary

and try to read the interview of like my

favorite artists to understand what they

were saying

and then i’d look through the magazine

at some of the other things in the

magazine and it helped me

actually get an idea of like the other

similar things in that subculture that i

might be interested in

in the language i was studying right so

this was

very helpful for me in terms of

vocabulary in terms of learning about

something i was interested in

so this is something i would recommend

and this is also something i think

that’s easy to do quickly

especially if there’s like a blog or

something you follow that’s a good tip

too i think because you’ll be

motivated to read if that’s your hobby

that’s something you’re interested in

you will be motivated to read that you

won’t give up if it’s difficult

you’ll press on you’ll finish reading it

and also if that’s your hobby you’ll be

picking up vocabulary that you will use

if you want to go

talk with people about your hobby in

english you’ll be picking up vocabulary

related to your hobby when you’re

reading and then you can use that

exactly and i think you can do that i’ve

used hobbies for this tip

but i think you could also do that for

your profession yes absolutely yeah

i agree yeah so that’s just kind of a

broad open tip

but i think you have some more specific

ones i do i took a little bit

different approach from you um but my

first one here

is harry potter the harry potter books

uh because

they when the first harry potter book

was written

it was written for children of a certain

age and when the next harry potter book

was written

it was written for the same kids a year

or two

when they were a year or two older and

so the harry potter books get

longer and more complex and more

difficult to read

as you go through them so it’s nice to

start with a nice

simple book that was written for you

know a certain

age so it will be easier for you to read

if you are a language learner if you’re

an english learner

and as you get better you can move

through the books

and also this is a nice package of

extended reading

you know having how many harry potter

books are there seven

seven i’ve actually i’ve never read

harry potter actually

but there’s seven there’s seven there’s

seven books excellent stories

uh that’s all together that’s a lot of

reading

and so you will improve your reading

skills

a lot by just reading a lot even if you

don’t understand

everything you’re reading that’s all

right just press on

and you maybe you’ve already read harry

potter in your first language or in

another language maybe you’ve seen the

harry potter movies

being familiar with the story and the

characters and what’s going on

will help you fill in some of the gaps

if you don’t understand something when

you’re reading the books

and that way you don’t have to focus on

understanding

every single word or every single

sentence you can just focus on

enjoying what you’re reading and your

reading skills

will develop you might not notice and

notice

them developing but they will develop as

you as you press on and as you continue

reading

yeah i think your point about it being a

known story i think so many people

around the world have read harry potter

in their native language

that they know what to expect right i

will say however because i tried the

exact opposite i ordered

harry potter in japanese to try to read

it and so i would give

just one word of precaution for fantasy

stories

that is that there are a lot of nonsense

words in fantasy stories and fantasy

books so like harry potter is fairly

light

right it’s like but i mean it is

make-believe and there are some words

that

just like muggle for example is a word

that we cannot use

in everyday english so i think if you

can keep that in mind

fantasy books are a great thing to read

they’re so much fun i love them

but they can be challenging i think to

apply

all of those words to your everyday life

but yeah i think harry potter is so well

known and so well loved

and you can talk to people about it

that’s true you know you can watch the

movies then

in english as well like there’s a lot of

good stuff to do there that’s true and

read with subtitles actually that’s a

nice tip for improving

reading skills generally we’re talking

about reading recommendations but a nice

tip is reading

watching a movie with the subtitles on

and trying to trying to speed read the

subtitles is a nice little

boost as well yeah you can do that after

you read the book

yeah so that’s a great tool like like

you said it’s like there’s just the

whole

package you have all that material a lot

of content

for sure okay sounds good i will go on

to my next one

which is slightly less vague but i um i

thought this might be useful for

learners

of all ages there’s this are you

familiar with pearson english readers

yes

yeah so there are a lot of books for

kids here

uh but there are also some materials as

well as audio materials for adults

so what is an english reader a pearson

english reader pearson’s the company

that makes these um but they are

graded stories they are simplified

stories or stories that are

made to suit learners

of different levels so if you know your

level or you have an idea of your level

actually i think

their website you can do a short like

kind of level check

sort of thing to sort of get an idea of

the best level book for you

but based on your level you can find

books you can find stories

some of them are based i think on like

movies as well famous movies

but you can get these uh so that they’re

suited to your level

and then maybe you can also challenge

yourself by getting books that are like

the level above you when you’re starting

to feel confident

so these might be a good resource they

have kids books i know

so like you know kids three to five can

read story books in english really

simple ones

and then as kids get older they have

more um for like

like 9 to 11 year old kids and so on

but based on your level you can choose

uh the book

and the story um that you feel would be

best for you so that might be a good

resource to check out

so specifically created material right

for different levels absolutely yeah

that’s an idea

um so just for some examples like i

checked their website before we

uh before we started talking about this

and for kids stories they had

you know some common english language

children stories like little red riding

hood or the three bears

or maybe children’s adventure stories

when children start to get a little

older

a couple of the things i saw for adults

for example the movie love actually

apparently there’s like a reader plus

some kind of audio as well

to go along with that story so there are

some apparently famous like movies

that have also been turned into reading

material and listening material for

people

so that’s a resource that you can use as

an educator

one but also as a person learning uh

learning english so you can check out

their website i think

nice idea might be something to check

into so anyway

what’s your next recommendation so my

next one is for more advanced

uh readers higher level english readers

and that is to read something by ernest

hemingway

very famous uh nobel prize winning i

think he won the nobel yes he won the

nobel prize in literature

nobel prize winning writer ernest

hemingway who was writing in the middle

of the 20th century

he died in 1962 or something like that

uh and i recommend hemingway because

he famously has a very simple writing

style

even though he’s a very well-regarded

well-respected

american writer he wrote in a very

simple way

he used very very simple syntax so it’s

easy to understand his writing

vocabulary might be difficult but it’s

easy to

to read a short story of his or a

shorter novel of his

and get the idea get the gist of the

story

uh and he wrote a lot of he’s famous for

certain novels like the old man and the

sea

uh for whom the bell tolls uh but he

also

wrote a lot of short stories uh and so

that’s a good place to start

you could buy a collection of his short

stories or find some online i’m sure you

can find some of his

like the nick adams stories or other

stories online to try reading

for free and that’s a good place to

start and if you like what you read then

you can read more

so like i said he wrote novels and he

also wrote a lot of short stories

and i don’t know if i have one specific

favorite short story but

he has a series or a collection of his

stories that are called the nick

adams stories because they all feature

one character named nick adams and the

first nick adams story

is when nick adams is a young boy and

he’s you know five or six or seven or

eight years old

and we see nick adams kind of grow up

through these stories

and a lot of these stories are also

about fishing nick adams growing up

in illinois i think which is all which

is also where

hemingway is from and stories about nick

adams

kind of just going fishing and i grew up

in a fishing family and so i really like

those stories

uh and they’re they’re simple they’re

easy to understand they’re just stories

about

a young guy going fishing it might sound

really boring but they’re very

beautifully written they’re very nice

stories they’re easy to understand

i didn’t read much hemingway i read some

here and there in high school

sure but i think in my case i was always

more drawn towards like the fantasy and

science fiction

genre sure and so that always held more

appeal but

there were some authors and i think from

around the same time period as well

they gained uh notoriety for that style

that you’re describing that it was like

simple situations and simple

uh phrasing but like inability to

like create these just kind of

picturesque images like

um who wrote walden walden was

thoreau thoreau i remember that like

that’s the one about the guy

who just lives in the forest it’s a

journal

by himself yeah like but that’s one that

really stood out to me too like

there was nothing necessarily complex

about that

story like on the surface but that was

one that was like

um it made you think about just like the

pace of everyday life and it wasn’t so

difficult to read like we were reading

it in high school so

you know there are a lot of writers i

think

that have something similar i was also

thinking when you were talking about

kerouac

as well jack kerouac who did uh travel

stories but their stream of

consciousness

so a lot of them like on the road is

very stream of consciousness

sentences that go on for a page i see i

see

i was thinking in terms of material in

terms of topic

sure and in terms of like vocabulary use

and so on so

but that doesn’t make sense because they

are kind of rambly yes

pirouette might be hard so in general

that’s perhaps like a high school

reading list might not

be bad absolutely well i i shouldn’t say

that actually that’s not true it depends

that’s what you’re reading that’s like

homer as well like iliadi

you know did you read certain things are

going to be hard i like faulkner but

he’s not and

that is not an easy author to read i’m

trying to think it’s kind of like uh

in in that same vein then sort of those

um kind of adventure-ish

stories the uh william golding’s uh lord

of the flies

that one was kind of like it’s an

exciting adventure story for sure it

gets dark

as well too and there’s a movie oh is

there there is

yeah okay all right well anyway those

are those are some things that stood out

to me from my high school list

i don’t know what people are reading in

high school these days i’m kind of

curious

a lot of the same there’s a lot of

things in in the canon

a lot of historical stuff too i remember

reading uh the plague

i can’t remember who wrote that that’s

uh not cheery

not cheering that’s right french you’re

good at that you’re good at remembering

authors i am not i was a lit major

but oh that makes sense so yeah that’s a

dark story about

uh the the plague the black plague yes

it is happy times

and murder my man died today

maybe it was yesterday oh man that’s the

first line

i don’t remember i don’t remember these

things anyway i’ll go to something

that came to me uh because i was

thinking about

um adolescent level

books actually sure because i feel as a

learner a second language learner

adolescent level books are nice because

it’s like they’re not too hard and

they’re not too easy

and the subject matter

often has a little bit of like drama to

so anyway i chose two things here

actually

nancy drew and the party boys

no i never read babysitter’s club

actually i was never i was just never

into that sort of thing but

i did read nancy drew so i included both

of these here

uh basically both of these nancy nancy

drew is the story of a young

girl she’s a like she’s a detective

that’s the story here

the hardy boys they are two boys their

last name is hardy

uh i think they’re brothers yeah of

course the brothers already boys they

they are detectives also so these two it

was like

uh a detective series led by a girl and

a detective series led by boys

and i thought these could be nice

because these are books

these are huge huge like there’s so many

books a lot of books in both of these

series

and uh when i was thinking about

the genre of a mystery story

i was thinking about the different types

of grammar that get used in these

stories

like stuff that you might not use so

much in everyday conversations

like he would have been able to or he

might have been able to

or then we could maybe like sort of

these weird

future possibility or past possibility

sorts of things that can get discussed

in these mystery

stories but they’re made for like

teenagers essentially but that doesn’t

mean that the stories aren’t interesting

i remember really enjoying like nancy

drew

when i was a teenager did you ever read

these i

think i tried reading one or two hardy

boys books when i was a kid and i didn’t

really get into them

i see but i did similar to those kinds

of books i really liked an author called

john bellairs

who wrote similar kind of like

uh kind of mystery books for young

readers

like the mansion in the mist and these

sort of

weird kind of spooky baroque

kind of mystery books for for

children okay that were really good so

john belairs i recommend he’s a nice

good author too

did you read those uh choose your own

adventure style books

oh that’s a great one those are really

fun but the one thing that i would

caution about with those books is those

books

are often written in second person

meaning the subject

is you you those are kind of a rare

style of book in that respect that’s

true when it’s

what’s called what we’re talking about

is a choose your own adventure i had the

goosebumps series when i was little

this is like scary stories but when the

book is a choose your own adventure book

it means

you the reader are the focus of the

story and so as you read

you have to make decisions in the story

if you choose a

you turn to this page if you choose b

you turn to a different page

and you read what happens to you next so

you are

choosing your story as the character in

the story

so the way the story is written is

different from typical stories so the

focus in the story is

you go to the haunted house right you

see a ghost what do you

do next and that’s not very typical of

the way most stories are

they’re very interactive and very fun

and also very simple

because you’re reading just a few

sentences per page and then making a

decision

so they’re easy to read they are so as

long as you can keep that in mind it’s

called second

person the way those stories are written

but those are fun for sure

absolutely i always got scared i would i

would hold like the different pages

and like yeah if i died in the story i’d

be like no i go back

and then i’d choose the one where i live

and i escaped the haunted house

sort of thing i didn’t like to lose but

they’re actually that’s a good another

nice thing about those books is they’re

they you you will read them again and

again

because you want to discover the

different possibilities

and so rereading something it gets

easier to read and it’s good practice

for you yeah yeah so choose your own

adventure books yeah what was the series

that you read i don’t remember i they

were it was i remember it was like an

adventure series

sort of like indiana it wasn’t indiana

jones but it was that style of

adventures like you’re a treasure hunter

in the jungle

stuff like that i remember reading ones

like that i see

i see yeah i’m not sure what other ones

there are i’ve only had i think

i’m sure there’s a lot yeah they’re

those are very good nice nice idea

okay all right what’s your next one my

last one is also maybe

more for advanced or intermediate

learners

and it’s the new york times now bear

with me i know you might be thinking oh

that seems very difficult

but i recommend the new york times for a

few reasons one

it’s always nice to stay up on current

events and reading about the news and

current events in

english things that are happening now in

english you’ll be able to then go

talk about them in english the second

reason that i’ve recommended the new

york times is

similar to your first recommendation you

can find something to read in the new

york times

if you don’t want to read the news read

the travel section

read the the food section you know

there’s different sections of the new

york times that you can read

based on your interest and the third

reason i’ve chosen the new york times is

because the new york times online has a

very cool feature

you can double click on any word that

you don’t understand and it will give

you the definition

so for learners it’s very useful um so

if you’re worried about

you know understanding all the

vocabulary in an article or

improving your vocabulary this is a very

very easy way to do it

you don’t need to sit there with the

dictionary open while you read you just

need to double click on the word

a little pop-up window will tell you the

definition you can close the window and

keep reading so it’s very very useful

for vocabulary building that’s cool

that’s way cool

and as an extra bonus for extra advanced

learners

you can try the new york times crossword

puzzle oh yes you can

crossword puzzles are great

vocabulary practice

like games i guess it is essentially a

game

yeah new york times though like it’s

infamously difficult the new york times

they get harder through the week

it’s like the sunday crossword is the

most the most difficult

yeah i went through a phase a couple

years uh

doing the new york times crossroad

puzzle every day i want i wanted to get

good at it

and i could complete through wednesday

pretty easily

thursday maybe i never really made it

past thursday

friday i couldn’t really do weekends

were like forget it um so for reference

a crossword puzzle is a word game

so a crossword puzzle it’s like a grid

of uh

lines and columns and they’re empty

boxes

and each line or each column there’s a

word hint there’s a clue about which

word fits in the boxes so you have to

choose

and spell correctly the word so

you might need to erase the word or you

might need to try a few different words

but it’s a test of your spelling for one

it’s a test of your vocabulary too

and for more difficult crossword puzzles

it can be a test of your knowledge of

other subjects

so it’s not just words it’s also history

and science and literature like there

are

so many different things that go into uh

the clues for crossword puzzles so those

are really

really good ways to test your knowledge

they’re difficult even for native

speakers

absolutely totally difficult so if you

want to try

definitely google for some english

crossword puzzles

you can search for easy ones also yes

and they make crossword puzzles

for english learners and a lot of those

are

graded to a specific level or they’re on

a specific topic

you know you could do a crossword puzzle

on you know the ocean and learn

vocabulary related to the ocean for

example

so there’s a lot of different crosswords

that you could find you know at for your

level

yeah so that could be a fun way to

practice reading

and to practice spelling as well so fun

stuff

all right so those are a couple of

different reading recommendations

there’s quite

uh there’s quite a lot to choose from

but i think as long as you’re interested

in what you’re reading

like that’s maybe the hardest part at

least for me absolutely

you know just find a thing you like find

something that’s interesting and you

will stay motivated to read it

agreed agreed are you reading anything

now i

am reading something now i am reading

a book by david mitchell who is a very

wonderful author

who is maybe most famous for cloud atlas

and they made it which they made in two

movies and i’m reading a number

no what am i reading not number nine

dream i bought two books of his recently

i brought

number nine dream and uh uh

with something black swan green that’s

what it’s called black swan green

is the book i’m reading now by david

mitchell i see and it is a good book

cool yeah i’m reading uh i’ve gone

back into history i told you about this

the other day i’m reading uh letters

from a stoic at the moment

uh by seneca the old stoic philosopher

for kind of just

interesting essays and just showing off

advice

life advice so i’m not sure enough it’s

a common book

it’s a very common no i’ve got i’ve got

seneca on my nightstand as well

well i don’t read the things that you

read so it’s the show you know everybody

has something

to find something you like yeah and read

it absolutely

absolutely that’s the point here all

right so those are quite a few

recommendations some ideas

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