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[Music]

hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and i answer them

maybe let’s get to your first question

this week first question this week comes

from henrique hi henrique enrique says

how do we use at in and on

correctly thank you okay very quickly

because there are videos on the channel

about how to use prepositions so please

do a search and check them out

very quickly to review let’s begin with

at

we use at to mark specific locations in

cities that means like buildings so for

example i’m

at the bank or she’s at the supermarket

we can also use at to refer to specific

locations outside cities like in the

countryside

like we’re at the river today we also

use

at before times to mark specific times

of day

like let’s meet at 2pm or she arrived at

3

30 we also use at with night as in

at night please note we do not use at

with morning or

afternoon or evening those are incorrect

we only use it with

at night then let’s talk about in we use

in before the names of cities and

countries like she lives in switzerland

or he lives in barcelona or it’s in

toronto so we use it before city names

and country names we can also use in

before a length of time to mark a

duration

like let’s meet in 10 minutes or we

finish the project

in one hour we also use in

with months for example she moved in

february

or i’m going to europe in june finally

let’s talk about on

we use on with days of the week and to

talk about the weekend as in something

we did

on the weekend in some variations of

english you may hear people saying

at the weekend but this is not used in

american english we use

on the weekend so we use on before days

of the week

as in let’s meet on tuesday or

we had coffee together on saturday so

this is a very quick introduction to

different ways to use act

in and on as i said please do a quick

search of the channel for prepositions

to find

other videos with more details about

this topic

so i hope that this helps you thanks for

the question okay let’s move on to our

next question

next question comes from nazanin hello

nazanin

nazanin says hi alicia what is the

difference between

park and garden thank you ah a park is

generally a

big open area with lots of grass

you can come to a park and you can do

like a variety of different activities

if you want to have a picnic or a

barbecue or you want to maybe

play a sport or something like that you

can generally do that in a park there’s

a lot of really big open

space so maybe we can show a picture on

screen here so you can see what a park a

typical park looks like

a garden on the other hand is something

that’s supposed to be enjoyed

for its design and when i say design i

mean like the

landscape design like maybe there are

special flowers inside the garden

or there’s uh maybe special decorations

there’s some kind of like landscape that

is special

in the garden so you might see parks and

gardens like together there might be a

garden inside a park

but a garden is generally not a place

that you go to

to do a specific activity like we don’t

go to a garden to have a barbecue or we

don’t go to a garden to play a sport

generally we

go to a garden to enjoy the scenery to

enjoy being in the garden like walking

along the paths in the garden

so parks are generally more open spaces

where we can do a variety of activities

gardens are spaces that we use for

enjoyment of that natural space

so i hope that this helps you thanks for

the question okay let’s move on to your

next question

next question comes from sumitha

aaron hello sumitha sumitha says i would

like to know the difference

between resume and curriculum vitae okay

they are very very similar a curriculum

vitae or cv

as it is often called these are very

very similar documents

we use both of them to apply for jobs

so a cv is generally longer than a

resume maybe like three to four pages

and it includes everything you have ever

done all of your professional experience

so that’s like your work experience

and your education experience yes so

where you went to school

the degrees that you have uh the topics

that you studied and so on

but we also on a cv include our

credentials our certification so if you

got some kind of special

recognition if you got a scholarship a

grant if you’ve published anything like

a book or a paper

or if you have a thesis somewhere if

you’ve given a presentation

basically anything connected to your

work and your professional experience

will be listed on a cv so a cv is like a

very long

list of all of your achievements all of

your professional

and your educational achievements these

are kind of longer documents

a resume on the other hand is generally

a little bit shorter

it’s maybe like one to two pages long

and it’s kind of more of a

summary so in addition to including like

your contact information

uh you might have a short career

objective like that means

the thing that you are trying to do in

your career you might have that

and then generally with a resume you

have a series of

summaries of your past work so maybe you

have three or four

companies or three or four positions on

your resume and you

summarize your accomplishments and your

role

in each of those positions so that

someone has a good idea has like a good

image

of what kind of work you have done and

therefore how it connects to your

current objective so again a resume

tends to be

a bit shorter than a cv maybe one to two

pages

but a cva like could be maybe three to

four pages if you have a long work

history

in the uk you might find that nobody

actually uses the word resume so if

you’re speaking with a british english

speaker they might only use the word

cv cv generally refers to the same

concept as a resume

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 siam hello siam siam says what’s

the difference

between not and no

uh i’ll give a very general answer to

this question

we use not and no to give

negative responses to things the grammar

of the sentence is what’s important here

so we use not before adjectives and

verbs for example i am not hungry

or she’s not sleeping or they do not

work

on saturdays so this comes before

adjectives or verbs

no of course is also used to respond to

yes or no questions with the negative

answer you may also hear not used in

kind of a sarcastic way to reply to

someone’s opinion or to respond to

someone’s opinion

for example person a might say i really

liked that movie

and person b might respond with yeah me

too

not so this is kind of an old style

humor it’s not it’s actually not very

funny but some people try to use this

not to show contrast to the thing that

they just said so this really means

i’m going to pretend that i agree with

you for a moment but i don’t really

so you might hear some people use not in

this way

too so i hope that this helps you thanks

for the question

okay let’s move on to our next question

next question

comes from arkan git hello arkhan

arkhan says what’s the difference

between police station

and police department nice question yeah

a police station is a building it’s a

physical place that we can visit

so people work inside a police station

a police department on the other hand is

a part of an organization

so the police department refers to a

group of people

working together to do police work this

is the same as like a marketing

department in a company

or as like a sales department in an

online store

it refers to a group of people that are

doing the same

type of work a police department so a

police department refers to that group

of people

the police station refers to the

physical building where

police officers are located so in

sentences you might say something like

i went to the police station to file a

report about my lost wallet

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 mari

hi mari

mari says could you please explain

how to know when i can separate a

phrasal verb by putting a noun between

the verb and the preposition

great question let’s think about this in

two categories

phrasal verbs that you can split are

phrasal verbs that take a direct object

these are called transitive phrasal

verbs but

please note that just because a phrasal

verb takes a direct object does

not necessarily mean that you can split

it let’s take a look at some examples

i wrote down her phone number i

wrote her phone number down this is an

example of a phrasal verb

write down or wrote down in past tense

that can be split

the direct object here is her phone

number we can put her phone number

after wrote down in the past tense or we

can put it between

rote and down this is one that we can

split

let’s look at another example he opened

up the file and started working

he opened the file up and started

working

in this sentence the phrasal verb is

open up past tense opened up

we can move the file the direct object

to the middle of the phrasal verb if we

want to

opened up the file is fine opened the

file up

is also fine so this is another example

of a phrasal verb that we can split a

transitive phrasal verb that is

splittable

let’s take a look now at a transitive

phrasal verb that we cannot split

we got in the car this is an example of

a phrasal verb that we cannot split

so to get in something means to

put yourself into something but we

cannot move

the car between get and in we cannot say

we get the car in this is an example of

a transitive phrasal verb that we cannot

split so how do we know which ones are

splittable and which ones are not

splittable or separable and inseparable

unfortunately there isn’t an easy rule

for distinguishing the two

it just takes time and practice let’s

now talk about

intransitive phrasal verbs so phrasal

verbs that do not take a direct object

which are intransitive phrasal verbs

cannot be split we cannot move the noun

after the phrasal verb to the middle of

the phrasal verb some examples of this

i like to work out my plan fell through

she loved her trip to france she’s

planning to go back next year

the interviewee never showed up so in

each of these example sentences the

phrasal verb is in bold

in each of these examples as well the

phrasal verb does not take a direct

object that means that we cannot split

the phrasal verb

so again these are called intransitive

phrasal verbs

in sum intransitive phrasal verbs cannot

be split

some transitive phrasal verbs can be

split

please take a look at inseparable

transitive

phrasal verbs to get a list of

vocabulary words that you can study so

that you can remember which ones need to

stay together

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 jose elias hello jose

jose says hi alicia i would like to know

how to use

rap for example when people say your

life was a wrap or

you are a wrap i would like to know

other possible meanings please

generally when we use the expression

it’s a wrap or that’s a wrap it means

that something is

finished it’s complete we often use this

word

in like media like film production movie

production or tv production related work

when something has come to an end we can

say it’s a wrap or

that’s a wrap which means we’re finished

or we’re done

we might also hear this in business or

professional settings to mean

this is finished as in this project is

finished or

this meeting is finished you might say

let’s wrap up this meeting which means

let’s finish this meeting or let’s

conclude this meeting

so it tends to have this idea this

feeling of something being

finished something being completed to

look specifically at the examples that

you provided here

while they’re not sentences i would say

maybe not phrases i would say

perhaps those would be used in very

specific situations

like he got in trouble with his parents

and they said he couldn’t go out for a

month

his social life was a wrap which means

his social life is over

as a result of something that happened

so that might be a situation where you’d

hear something like his life was a rap

or her life was a wrap

if someone says you are a rap it sounds

like maybe i’m finished with you

i suppose again these are not

expressions that i personally would say

but that might be how someone would use

this

okay to end this question let’s talk

about one more very common use of

rap we have the expression to be wrapped

up in something or to be wrapped up in

someone

which means you are so involved or so

interested in someone or something

that you ignore things outside that or

you don’t pay enough attention to those

things

so for example i’m so wrapped up in this

tv show i forgot my friend’s birthday

or why are you so wrapped up in your new

relationship

i never see you anymore so it means that

someone is too interested or too

involved in something

and they forget about the other things

in their life we also have this meaning

associated with rap so i hope that this

helps you thanks for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question

comes from miriam atef hi miriam maryam

says hey alicia

what is the difference between

infectious and

contagious good question something that

is

infectious is something that is capable

of

causing sickness so an infectious

disease

is a disease that can cause someone to

become sick

so that means that diseases are commonly

called

infectious diseases some examples

prevent the spread of infectious disease

by washing your hands

there was something infectious in my

food and now i’m sick

contagious on the other hand refers to

something that can be passed to another

person

through contact some example sentences

i’m sneezing a lot but don’t worry it’s

just allergies

i’m not contagious there’s a highly

contagious cold going around this year

so to think about the relationship

between these two words

something that is contagious is always

infectious

so for example a cold a cold is a germ

it’s a disease

and it can be passed between people so

it is contagious

and it is infectious however something

that is infectious

is not always contagious i gave the

example of

allergies in an earlier example sentence

allergies are an example of something

that is infectious but not contagious so

we can’t pass allergies from person to

person

one person just has this unfortunate

relationship with like dust or maybe

like

cats or dogs or something something

causes this unfortunate

reaction in a person but it is not

contagious it’s the same idea with

something like food poisoning

if you eat something and there’s an

infectious germ in there

you can get sick but you can’t pass that

to another person through contact

so again something that is contagious is

also infectious

but something that is infectious is not

necessarily contagious

on a lighter note we also use these

words to talk about moods feelings and

emotions like you might say

her laughter is infectious or his energy

is contagious

so we can use these words to talk about

concepts as well

so i hope that this helps you thanks for

the question all right

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from

risa hi ryza rysa says hi alicia i’m

trying to memorize some phrasal verbs

but sometimes i don’t understand the

need to use a preposition

when the verb without the preposition

means the same thing

for example what’s the difference

between she called him

and she called him up thanks yeah this

is a good question

in this example the two have the same

meaning yes as you said

but the one with up sounds a little more

casual

so she called him and she called him up

are the same

but she called him sounds a little more

formal

i would use she called him in a more

polite situation

and she called him up in a more casual

situation

if you’re not sure just use she called

him another example of this might be

something like

close down so for example if we say the

story 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 hamza hi hamza

hamza says what’s the difference between

collaborate and cooperate and how do we

use these words in sentences

okay well it depends a little bit on the

situation

let’s talk about cooperate first

so to cooperate means to do

something in accordance with rules like

to follow

rules to do something that’s like in

line with society’s expectations this is

one use of cooperate

for example you might have seen a sign

in english that says

no smoking here thank you for your

cooperation

so that’s an example of cooperate used

as a noun

as cooperation but it means thank you

for following the rules thank you for

your cooperation

so it’s like you’re following some kind

of societal guideline

so cooperate can have this meaning

we also see cooperate used to mean

working together

especially when it’s like two people or

two groups that might not

usually work together for example the

two countries

cooperated to reduce pollution in the

ocean

in that example sentence it sounds like

the two countries might not

otherwise work together we use cooperate

to express that both parties both

groups get some kind of benefit from the

situation

so cooperate has these two primary

meanings of following rules

and of working together with somebody

for mutual benefit

usually somebody that you wouldn’t work

with so

let’s compare this then to collaborate

collaborate and the second meaning of

cooperate share the meaning of working

together with someone yes

but when we use the word collaborate

it’s like you’re working together

closely with someone to make something

very intellectual like creative or

artistic

so this can be like music it could be a

research paper it could be a movie

it’s like two people or two groups

combine their specialties to make

something special to make something

unique so for example

my two favorite musicians collaborated

and made an amazing album

let’s all collaborate to make the event

a success

or researchers from the engineering

department

and the computer science department

collaborated on this research paper

so those are situations in which

collaborate is much more natural to use

than

cooperate it also sounds when we use

collaborate

like it’s kind of natural for those

people to work together

if you use cooperate it kind of sounds

like it’s not so natural or they might

not do those things

there’s one other meaning of collaborate

which is like to

help the enemy or to work for the enemy

so like if you imagine a spy from one

country

goes to another country and starts

working for the other country

we can use collaborate to describe that

relationship

as in the spy started collaborating with

our enemies or we suspect that one of

our employees may be collaborating with

a competitor

so that means working together with

someone and it’s usually used in a

negative situation

so it’s used to mean like someone is

working for someone else

to like reduce our credibility or to

hurt us somehow and give someone else an

advantage

so there is also this meaning of

collaborate but generally

you’ll hear it used to mean the first

meaning that i described so

i hope that this helps you thanks for

the question okay let’s move on to your

next question

next question comes from andrea olivier

hi andrea

andrea says hi alicia i love your videos

very much cool

could you help me with the differences

between warranty

and guarantee yeah sure nice question

as nouns warranty and guarantee these

two mean the same thing

they both refer to a promise it’s some

kind of promise about like a product

or a service so when you buy a product

like a new piece of equipment or you buy

some kind of

like machine for example you might see

it says like two year warranty

or lifetime guarantee so that refers to

the length of time

that the person who made the product

promises it will be good

so if it breaks you can get a refund or

you can exchange it for free or

something like that

so in this sense warranty and guarantee

have the same meaning

this kind of product promise however

guarantee

can be used as a verb and in some of

these verb uses

it has a little bit of a different

meaning than just simply promise

so one of these is like to say something

with confidence one of the meanings of

guarantee

is like to say something or to share an

opinion with confidence

for example i guarantee you’ll love this

restaurant

so that’s like someone saying i know 100

i am very confident that you will enjoy

this restaurant

we can’t use warranty to describe that

we can’t use that

in any way to describe that kind of

confident opinion

sharing so guaranty has this meaning we

also

have another meaning of guarantee which

is to secure

against so for example the insurance

company

secured the house against storm damage

another way to say that is the insurance

company promised the house would be safe

from storm damage so to secure against

is a special meaning of guarantee and

again we cannot use warranty to have

this meaning

at all so a good way to know which

meaning

of guarantee is being used is to look at

the word that follows the verb

so guaranteed the house against storm

damage

if you look after the word guarantee and

you see

against is somewhere after it it’s a

pretty good chance that it’s this

secure against meaning if however it’s

just someone kind of sharing an opinion

it’s probably that asserting something

with confidence saying something with

confidence meaning

and yes we can also use guarantee as a

verb to mean

making a promise so i hope that this

helps you understand

warranty and guarantee and the different

ways that we can use the word

guarantee as a verb thanks for the

question okay let’s move on to our next

question next question comes from bianca

hi bianca

bianca says hi alicia i think the words

to

also likewise even and as well

have similar meanings what are their

differences and in which situations do i

use them

yep common question okay so let’s review

two

also and as well have the same functions

so we use them in just different parts

of the sentence

so two tends to fall at the end of a

sentence

like i want to go to the movies two or

she bought a coffee

too as well typically falls at the end

of a sentence

but it sounds a little bit more formal

than two

in everyday speech we tend to use two

more often

you may see two used before a verb like

i too want to go to the movies or she

too bought a coffee

this use however sounds a little bit

old-fashioned and we tend not to use it

seriously if you hear this it’s probably

being used for humor

so keep in mind again in some here to

and as well can go at the end of the

sentence that’s typically where they go

also on the other hand typically comes

before a verb

like i also want to go to the movies or

she also bought a coffee

so we typically find it before the verb

you may see also

at the beginning of a sentence this

happens when the speaker wants to add

some information and they kind of just

forgot it in the first sentence

so you might see it at the beginning of

a sentence as well

likewise to move on to the next item in

your list

tends to be used by itself it’s like a

response to something someone else said

it’s like saying me too

and it’s kind of friendly but a little

bit polite so for example if speaker a

says i had a great time chatting with

you b might say

likewise it was fun so it’s like saying

me too but it’s a little more friendly

and polite

and usually we just use it alone finally

even so even is probably the most

different of all of these words that you

introduced

before we talk about even let’s take a

look at an example situation

i’m so excited for my friends to come

over to my house this weekend

i deep cleaned my house i bought a bunch

of snacks and drinks

and i picked out some movies to watch i

even bought some games to play

so you’ll notice that even comes before

the last item

in this situation i even bought some

games to play

so we use even in place of like and when

we want to emphasize that we’re doing

something with all of our effort or that

we’re kind of really

focused on something so the speaker

expresses this excitement

and the speaker did thing a and b and c

to prepare for her friends to come over

and then there’s this other thing that’s

even more like intense or she’s

she’s kind of expressing excitement by

using even here instead of just

and so we tend to use even to express

emphasis this sounds like a lot more

like excited than just saying and i

bought some games to play if you say i

even bought some games to play it’s like

showing your commitment i guess or like

your intensity in the situation

so i hope that this is a good

introduction to the differences between

these words

maybe i can make a whiteboard about this

in the future thanks very much for the

question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from emma hi emma

emma says hi alicia i’m wondering when

we use the expression

you guys can i use this in a formal

situation

and can i use this with male and female

friends

what about kids when my kids are

fighting is it okay to say you guys stop

fighting thanks yeah nice question

generally when you say you guys or even

hi guys or hey guys is a greeting

it means everyone or everybody it refers

to

all people whether they’re men or women

so this is also like a very common way

for people on youtube to say hello to

their viewers they maybe start the video

by saying hi guys or hey guys

it’s very common to do but it is

important to note that especially over

the last few years

people are considering carefully the

words that they are choosing

and guys in this expression can for some

people

feel like it’s a little too male centric

and like women are kind of getting left

out of the expression

so because of this situation

some people are trying to use different

ways to greet people or

using different words instead of you

guys as in the expression that you

introduced

so it’s good to consider this for

example i don’t start videos by saying

hi guys i say hey everybody or hi

everyone

that’s what i prefer to use so some

other words that people have suggested

are words like you all or y’all or

folks or fam or you can choose words

that are specific to your group like in

your case if you are talking to your

kids you could say

kids stop fighting or like in our case

if we want to talk to the people who

watch our videos

or if i’m making something for like

video or for audio content for the

internet i might say

learners for the people who watch this

channel or i might say viewers or i

might say listeners

so instead of saying you guys you can

kind of pick a more specific word

that’s general for all genders so

yes to answer your question directly you

can use

you guys to refer to your kids or to

refer to your friends

but i think it’s maybe just good to

consider that more and more people are

being conscious and thinking carefully

about the best words to use

so that all genders can be covered in

these everyday expressions

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

sergey hi sergey sergey says hi alicia

you are a great teacher and a jolly girl

i really like it i heard the phrase go

big or go home

could you please explain what it means

yes first

as an american english speaker just a

small side point i strongly associate

the word

jolly with santa claus so that’s why

your question made me laugh a little bit

jolly usually is only used to describe

santa claus but

just a funny little note there anyway

regarding your main question go big or

go home

go big or go home is an expression that

means do something with

all your effort or your full intensity

or don’t do it at all

it’s like saying do something if you

came all this way to do it or if you’ve

worked this hard to do it you should do

it

or you should just stay at home so you

would hear this maybe in like extreme

sports or

other kinds of like intense activities

or maybe if you go to a restaurant and

there’s some amazing food there and you

have one chance to eat it

your friend might say go big or go home

it’s a very casual

friendly kind of rough expression i used

to use it a lot in videos i guess i

don’t use it so much these days

but it’s kind of like a an encouragement

phrase to say like

you know do it with all your effort or

don’t do it at all

so go big refers to doing something with

your effort like having

big effort or go home like don’t do it

just stay in your house

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

sending your questions

remember you can send them to me at

englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia of course if you like

this lesson please don’t forget to give

it a thumbs up

subscribe to our 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 my name

is alicia

in this lesson i’m going to talk about

the differences between

may and might let’s get started

first i want to begin this lesson with

the word

may i want to talk about two ways that

we use

mei in modern american english first

we use mei to request and

give permission so that means when we

ask

for permission we can use may and when

we give

permission we can use may let’s look at

a common example

first person a says may i

use your pen may i use your pen

b says yes you may

yes you may so in this question

may is used to request to ask for

permission may i and then b

gives permission with may yes you may

so this yes you may means yes you may

use my pen in other words in many cases

however

native speakers drop this part they just

say

yes or sure or okay

when you’re making a question like this

make sure that may comes before your

subject so may i use your pen

not i may use your pen don’t use that

pattern

please use may i use your pen may we

use your pen or use your computer for

example

so make sure may is coming before

your i or we or he or she you can choose

to

reply with yes you may the negative here

would be

no you may not no you may not

another common example with may a common

request is

may i use the restroom may i use the

restroom

i’m going to talk a little bit more

about another expression we use

can in this question and similar

questions

a little bit later for now though let’s

consider this point one

fermei let’s go to point two for may

the second use of may is to express

a low to moderate moderate is like

medium

a low to moderate level of possibility

so may has this meaning yes

so does might as i’ll talk about later

but may is less commonly used

than might in american english so if you

use

may in a case like this as we’ll see in

a moment

it’s going to sound a little more formal

a little more polite

in american english we tend to use might

more but let’s look at some examples

there’s no communication problem here it

just sounds a little formal

first a positive statement i may visit a

restaurant

later today i may visit a restaurant

later today

means there’s a possibility so kind of

low

to moderate level maybe like 20 to 40

50 chance i’ll visit a restaurant later

today

in the negative then the next two

sentences

we may not have time to finish

our report today we may not have time to

finish our report today

so this may not means there’s a

possibility

that we will not have time so there’s

kind of this chance

that this thing will not be done today

so

same thing in the next one she may not

be able to make it

to the meeting so it might not is

another way to say this yes

but there’s a low or moderate

chance she will be able to make it

so we use may not or as we’ll see later

might

not to express that one more positive

sentence

he may join us later so again positive

so that shows there is a chance

that he’s going to come later so

think about this you can use may to talk

about something in positive sentences

that you think has a chance of happening

a chance of occurring

and may not to talk about something you

think has a chance

of not happening so

finally i want to end this section with

this note

about may versus can for permission

so i mentioned that in this question

here may i use the restroom for example

we use both may and can in modern

english to ask for permission

so there’s generally not a communication

problem

however some people prefer to use

historical rules for these two words

historically may has been used for

permission so for this kind of thing

this is a situation where the speaker is

asking for permission like is it okay if

i do this

can however historically has been used

to talk about abilities

so the things we are able to do for

example i can speak english i can speak

french so if you’re thinking

historically

can i use the restroom for some people

some people who are very strict about

rules

think it means like do i have the

ability

to use the restroom of course in modern

american english

we use them the same so it’s a

permission question but occasionally you

will meet people

who prefer to use this may rule the

historical

may rule so if you want to be sure

to be correct always please use may

when you’re trying to ask for permission

in a situation like this

or like this as well so if you want to

be very very strict

you can use may but many people use can

i think i probably use

can most of the time because may does

sound a little bit formal

but for your information this is the

historical difference between these two

words

okay so with that in mind let’s continue

to

might might so we use might

to express a low to moderate level of

possibility just as with

mei here however might is more

commonly used than may in american

english

so again this point is about american

english we tend to use

might more often than may in american

english

it might be a little different for

british english speakers

so we can make the same sentences that

we made over here

we can substitute might in place of

may for example i might visit a

restaurant later today

i might hear so a positive sentence and

to me an american english speaker this

sounds much more like friendly much

more commonly used i might visit a

restaurant later today

a negative we might not have time to

finish our report

today we might not have time so again

there’s a chance

we won’t have time to do this another

negative

she might not be able to make it to the

meeting

she might not be able to make it to the

meeting so again this doesn’t sound so

formal she may not sounds a little more

polite

finally he might join us later he might

join us later a positive

expression so again it sounds friendly

it sounds like an everyday conversation

so if you want to sound a bit more

polite maybe you’re using

this at work for example you could use

mei

to sound a little bit more polite

otherwise

i would recommend using might to sound

friendly and

have kind of a more everyday feel to

your conversation

one final point here is this

old-fashioned point

so um this is not used mite is not used

in this way

in modern american english but you might

hear it sometimes so

um it’s an old-fashioned use but using

might

to make requests for permission so like

we talked about here

but like i said this is not used in

modern american english

except for media so this is why i chose

to include this point in this lesson

so you might hear sentences like these

like

might i come in or might i help you

so these are like um requests we’re

asking is it okay to come in or like

is it okay if i help you so it’s kind of

like making an

offer this is an old-fashioned or

archaic use of

might in american english perhaps you’ll

hear this

in british english but this is very

rarely used

in modern american english unless you’re

watching a movie

that’s set in a time period a couple

hundred years ago perhaps

but this is not so commonly used if you

want to make a question a permission

question use may instead but you may

hear this

okay so this is a quick introduction to

the differences between

mei and might and a quick discussion of

may versus can for permission so i hope

that this helped you understand the

differences

between using these words if you have

any questions or comments

please feel free to let us know in the

comments section of this video

of course if you like the video please

don’t forget to give it a thumbs up

subscribe to our channel if you have not

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

lesson and i will see you again soon

bye hi everybody my name is alicia

in this lesson i’m going to talk about

the differences between

however nevertheless and despite

i’m also going to talk a little bit

about the expression

in spite of too so let’s begin

the first one that i want to look at is

the word

however however let’s take a look at

three

different ways we can use however first

however can mean on the other hand

or but it’s like a more formal way

of saying but something kind of more

polite than just

butt so let’s look at a couple of

examples of however

used in this way first example

i wanted to go to a movie however

i stayed home and studied one more

sorry we don’t have tea we do

however have coffee okay

so these two examples show how we use

however

to mean but like in this first example

it has the feeling of

but and in this one the second example

it’s more like

on the other hand so it’s like another

option

is available we also see that kind of

the positioning of however or the use

changes can shift a little bit here

we see that it’s connecting these two

ideas i wanted to go to a movie a

however so even though there was this

thing

i wanted to go to a movie but i stayed

home and studied so we’re connecting

those two ideas there

it can have kind of the feel of even

though but not as much

as some of the other things we’re going

to talk about later

in this sentence you might be surprised

at the positioning of however here

sorry we don’t have t that’s one point

we do however have coffee so this is a

pattern you might hear

native speakers use first we use this

do we do we use this to

contrast to give like a strong opposite

to this negative don’t we don’t have tea

we do have coffee so this however

is like on the other hand so

you could put this here as i’ve done we

do however

have coffee you could put this before

this comment

however we do have coffee that’s also

okay

so you might hear an expression in an

expression like this

you might hear the position of however

shift a little bit

but these uses are on the other hand or

but

let’s move on to a totally different way

of using however

we can use however to mean to whatever

degree

or no matter how much no matter how much

so first let’s look at some examples

however hard we tried we couldn’t stop

him from smoking

and however badly we wanted to win

we couldn’t beat the top team in our

league

so these two uses of however

could be replaced by this expression

right here

no matter how much so it doesn’t matter

how much

something for example it doesn’t matter

how hard we tried or in this case past

tense it didn’t matter

how hard we tried we couldn’t stop him

from smoking

so no matter what we did it didn’t

matter how hard we tried

this was something we were unable to do

so this is a long expression

no matter how much is a long expression

however

is much shorter same thing in the second

sentence

however badly we wanted to win again

past

tense we couldn’t beat the top team in

our league

so no matter how much we wanted to win

is another way to say this

so no matter how much might sound a

little bit more

casual however using however in this way

sounds a little bit more formal so if

you want to express something in a more

polite way

you could use however instead of no

matter how much

so you’ll see however you’ll notice here

positioned

at the beginning of these expressions so

it’s like you’re no matter how much

statement however

comes at the beginning of that we don’t

see it at the end

okay so with that then let’s continue on

to the last use of however

we use however uh to express surprise

or shock like you might know the

expression how on earth

so i have here a question mark and an

exclamation point

we can informally we can use these two

together

to show like surprise and a question at

the same time

so this is kind of a formal expression

and it’s a little

uncommon we don’t use this so much so

when we want to express

shock often times about like a negative

situation or like a really surprising

situation

we could use this for example however

are we going to get home tonight the car

has been stolen

so this is a really shocking situation

using

however here though makes the speaker’s

shock sound rather

formal so i would say this is probably

not like a really the first this is not

kind of the first thing and most native

speakers would say

i think today most native speakers would

say how are we going to get home

however there are some cases where

however could be used

to express shock like this like a really

formal shock

however are we going to get home you can

think of this like

how on earth are we going to get home so

it really kind of elevates it levels up

that shock and surprise feeling

one more example however did you find

the answer to this question

so again surprise kind of shock we

really want to know how

on earth did you find the answer to this

question i’m really surprised

however did you find so we use these two

for polite shock but again it’s fairly

uncommon this is not a pattern that i

use very much you might see this perhaps

in like

movies or tv from time to time but again

not so common in everyday speech

so these are three ways to use however

with that in mind let’s move on to

nevertheless nevertheless

so nevertheless basically means even

though even though something something

else so even though a

b is kind of the field let’s look at

some examples first

we got lost driving in a new city

nevertheless we made it to the airport

on time

and many said her dream project

couldn’t be done nevertheless she

continued working to achieve it

so in both of these sentences we see

nevertheless

comes at the beginning of the second

sentence

when we use nevertheless in this way it

means

even though the thing previously

said so even though this

thing in sentence one so a

nevertheless comma b is a very common

pattern with nevertheless

same thing here many said her dream

project couldn’t be done

is our a statement nevertheless so

nevertheless meaning even though many

said her dream project couldn’t be done

she continued working to achieve it so

what’s the difference why should i use

nevertheless instead of even though

nevertheless sounds a bit more formal

than even though

if you want something to sound a little

bit more serious

less casual you could use nevertheless

in a pattern like these

so we essentially keep the meaning of

even though we just make kind of a

different sentence structure there

okay so with this in mind then i want to

go to despite and then we’ll compare

these two so despite just like

nevertheless

means even though actually yes but

when we use despite we need to build

different

sentence structures so let’s look at the

examples

first i ran out of time to style my hair

before an important meeting despite that

my presentation went well

one more despite the fact that she

arrived

late at the airport she made it to the

conference

on time so you might notice here

i’m not using despite alone

in my first example sentence i’m using

despite

that my second sentence despite the fact

that this is a key difference between

despite and nevertheless

when we use despite we have to connect

it to a noun phrase

when we use nevertheless we do not so

this is the key difference between these

two

so when i say connect despite to a noun

phrase

i mean patterns like these despite

that where that is your

a statement so despite that

means the statement that came before

that means despite the fact i ran

out of time to style my hair before an

important meeting so

even though this happened my

presentation went well that’s what it

means

so we have to use that or maybe this

as well that could be okay depending on

your situation

so we have to use that we cannot use

just despite

we can’t do that we must include that

noun phrase

so some common examples of that as i

said despite

that or despite the fact that as i’ve

done here

or just despite a b

so i don’t have an example sentence here

but

we could change um one of these

sentences

to use just despite at the beginning of

the sentence

um so for example um despite

my favorite donut

shop being open every day um

i didn’t go this morning for example so

you could make an example sentence or

you could make a sentence an

a statement here and attach it directly

to despite

but essentially it has to be some kind

of noun phrase

we need to use something in direct

connection

to despite here so this is a key

difference with

nevertheless so we always follow

nevertheless or i’m sorry we always

introduce

our a point and then introduce

nevertheless

so it’s like a nevertheless b it will

always follow that pattern

so one more point i want to mention here

is the very closely related in spite of

in spite of so in spite of we can

actually use this to replace despite

they have the same meaning the same

function just be careful

we use in spite of as a phrase as a set

phrase

to mean despite so for example

in spite of that or

in spite of the fact that

or in spite of a b

so if you want to use in spite of you

can you can replace

despite with in spite of

so to summarize all of this over here

nevertheless we can think of

nevertheless like despite

that then we can think of despite

as equal to in spite of

and we can think of nevertheless as

in spite of that so these are kind of

the equivalents the things that are

equal to each other

when we’re using these words so yes they

all mean even though they have the same

meaning

but it’s just that the way we make the

sentence is a little

bit different so i hope that this helps

i’ll say

too that i feel despite is a little more

commonly used despite that or despite

the fact that

is a little more commonly used than

nevertheless or

in spite of but actually everything is

common but i think the

most common perhaps is despite from this

group

okay so this is a quick introduction to

however

nevertheless and despite and in spite of

if you have any questions or comments or

if there’s something else you would like

to know about this topic

please let us know in the comment

section of this video

of course if you like this lesson please

don’t forget to give it a thumbs up

subscribe to our channel if you have not

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 lesson and i will

see you again soon

bye bye hi everybody my name is alicia

in this lesson i’m going to talk about

using just

for the very recent past and for the

near

future let’s get started all right i

want to begin this lesson by talking

about the very

recent past so i have two

different patterns that you we can use

to talk about the very recent past with

just

the first will be for actions that were

completed

very recently and the second will be for

actions that were planned

for completion recently so let’s start

with this first one here

number one i’ve marked it on this

timeline here with a check mark

so on my timeline this is the present

back here

is the past uh for actions then

that were very recently completed we can

kind of imagine

this check mark as like something that

happened very very

recently so just before now

so um a simple statement pattern that we

can use

with just is this subject plus

just plus a simple past tense

verb this is the most basic way to make

a statement with

just some examples are i just

finished work or he just

arrived or they just left

so you see in each of these very simple

example sentences

we have just followed by a simple past

tense verb in these cases finished

arrived and left so if you want to make

a basic statement about a

finished action something that has

finished it’s done

in the very recent past you can use a

pattern like this

i want to include one note about this

this particular point this number one

point you might also hear

the present perfect used by that i mean

instead of i just or he just or

they just sometimes people will use i’ve

just

he’s just they’ve just so

this v and s here this is i

have just he has just they have

just you may hear present perfect used

as well

um it has this same meaning like i’ve

just finished work or he’s just

arrived or they’ve just left the meaning

is the same

for whatever reason the speaker has

chosen to use

present perfect tense perhaps it sounds

a little bit softer

but these two uses or rather these two

patterns

have the same purpose it serves the same

function

so you may hear these two let’s look

however

at kind of the opposite of this so

point number two here is used to

express an action that was planned

for the very recent past but that did

not

get finished it’s not done it was not

completed

it might get done in the future we don’t

know but it did not happen

so to imagine this like visually we can

use

this x mark in the very recent past so

something

just before the present time that did

not

happen but we had a plan to do this

so some examples of this actually i’ll

introduce in a second

but when we want to make a statement

with this kind of

grammar we can use again the subject

but we’ll use the past tense form

of b so by that i mean the b verb so

that means like

was or were plus just

about two so this is a key difference

here between the regular completed

action pattern

and then we’ll use the present tense

form of the verb

so here you’ll already notice maybe

there are a couple of different

points between this and this so some

examples of this in action

i was just about to call you

or we were just about to leave

or she was just about to cancel the

appointment

so in each of these example sentences we

see our subject

plus the past tense form of the verb to

be

in this case i was we were

she was so here’s our b verb

then we include just about two there’s

no change in these sentences

just about two something and then our

verb is the present tense form of the

verb

call leave and cancel in these cases

so when you want to talk about something

that was planned

for the very recent past but that did

not happen

you don’t need to change the verb you

don’t need to conjugate the verb to past

tense

we conjugate the verb to past tense when

we’re talking about

finished actions so please keep these

points in mind

so simple past tense for completed

actions uh

present tense simple present tense for

actions that um

are not completed or were not completed

okay

so with that in mind about the very

recent past

i want to talk now about some patterns

you can use

with just for the very near future

so let’s begin with this first one

number one here

this pattern is used to talk about an

action in the very near future so

something we have

planned we are thinking about that

action or we’re planning to do that

action

in the very near future so here on this

timeline

we’re looking now into the future so

this is my now point

this number one i’ve represented with a

check mark

here so this marks an action that i have

planned i want to do that or i’m

thinking about that

action and i’m going to do it soon to

make

a basic sentence with this a basic

statement

we can say subject plus the present

tense

of the verb to be plus just

about to and the present tense form of

the verb

so you’ll notice actually there’s only

one difference between

this sentence and this sentence and

that’s this

part right here in this part where we

were talking about the very recent past

we used the past tense form of the verb

to be i was

you were here we’re using the present

tense form of the verb be i

am we are so this is one hint

that it’s actually a future action so

this will tell you is it a future action

or is it a past

action it’s a small point to listen for

some examples though are

i’m just about to finish work or

he’s just about to arrive or they’re

just about to leave

so here i’ve reduced it in each of these

example sentences but my be

verb is here i’m is i am

he’s is he is and there is

they are so i’m just about to finish

work he’s just about to arrive

they’re just about to leave these tell

us something is going to happen

very soon another point about this

is that sometimes native speakers will

drop just from this pattern

so i’m about to finish work he’s about

to arrive

they’re about to leave these are all

fine they communicate the same thing

it’s just the speaker’s preference so

you can choose whichever you prefer

okay then i want to continue to point

two

for this part point two let’s look at

the

pattern first is subject plus the

present tense

be again here plus just

and then we see the progressive form of

a verb

so this is something that we use for an

action that’s happening

now and it’s like something that we

expect is going to finish in the very

near

future so we use just to emphasize

this to visualize this then on a

timeline

we can imagine with this kind of wavy

line here

that something is happening now and it

will continue

until the very very like near future

so maybe it stops or it finishes here

if you want to talk about an action like

that you can try using this pattern

so some examples are i’m just

finishing work or he’s just

arriving or they’re just leaving so

these show like the action has already

started

so i’m just finishing work means maybe

i’m making my last

like uh steps in my day or i’m taking

the last um

i don’t know bits of information from my

day and putting them somewhere i don’t

know it depends on you

but we use these to talk about actions

that started

and that we expect will finish very soon

so you can try using one of these

um at like the end of your work day or

like maybe uh when you’re leaving a

location those are some common

situations where we would use patterns

like this

so please keep that in mind when you’re

using the progressive form of the verb

it’s going to sound like something is

already like happening now it’s begun

when you’re using it without when you’re

just using the present tense form of the

verb here

it’s something you are planning to do in

the future

okay so that’s a quick introduction to

using

just for the very recent past and for

the near

future i hope that you found some

patterns that you can use

to talk about your recent past and to

describe some of the things you’re going

to do in the near

future of course if you have any

questions or comments

please feel free to let us know in the

comment section of this video

and also please feel free to leave some

example sentences if you want to

practice using this grammar

of course if you like the video please

don’t forget to give it a thumbs up

subscribe to our 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 lesson and i will

see you again

soon bye-bye

hi everybody my name is alicia in this

lesson i’m going to talk about

pronunciation i’m going to focus on

beginning

th sounds let’s get started okay

beginning th sounds are broken into

two categories there are voiced

th sounds and unvoiced th sounds

let’s start with the voiced th sounds

so a voiced sound means we use our vocal

chords

to make the sound so one big tip

for today’s lesson especially is over

here

about voiced and unvoiced sounds if

you’re not

sure about the difference between a

voiced sound

and an unvoiced sound you can practice

by touching your throat right here when

you make the sound

so for voiced sounds if you touch your

throat when you make

the sound and you hear or you feel a

vibration

that means the sound is voiced so you’re

using

your vocal chords to make the sound

so vibration means it’s a voiced sound

if you touch your throat when you make

the sound and there’s

no vibration that means it’s an unvoiced

sound so this is a quick way to test if

you’re making a voiced

sound or an unvoiced sound so you can

use this for today’s lesson

so i want to begin as i said with voiced

th sounds so to make the voiced

th sound you can practice by putting the

tip

of your tongue that means like the top

of your tongue or not the top of your

tongue but like the part of your tongue

that’s like right here it’s right there

put that

uh against the back of your upper

teeth so your upper teeth put that the

tip of your tongue

that part of the tongue i just pointed

to put that

against so if this is your tongue and

this is your teeth put that against

your teeth to make that first position

then when you release that position

make the vowel sound that follows the

word

so it’s not just making the th

sound but because this is a voiced sound

we’re making this sound together with

like another vowel sound

so when we release our tongue from this

position

we continue on in our mouth to making

the vowel sound

next so some great examples to practice

with

are words like these this

that these those

the and there so you’ll notice as well

that the words that are voiced th sounds

or the words that use

voiced th sounds are kind of like these

grammar words they’re really closely

linked to the grammar

of the sentence it’s not like the nouns

or like the verbs in a sentence but it’s

like those small

words so again when we make these sounds

this this so the beginning position

my tongue is against my teeth

and i pair that as i’m moving away from

the back of my teeth with my tongue

i go to the vowel sound this

this this i change the vowel sound and i

change my mouse position that

that so when i say i change my mouth’s

position

i mean i change the position that i move

to so this position i always begin

from this position i always start

there but then i change the position of

my mouth to make the next vowel sound so

this that so my mouth is kind of

wide to make the that sound these

these so it’s like i’m smiling when i’m

making this sound so

my tongue begins against my teeth and

then

i move to an e sound these

i make the sound when i release my

tongue from that position

these when i make the o sound

those those this is a case

where you might notice the tip of your

tongue comes between your teeth a little

bit

that’s okay those those that’s totally

natural

so my mouth is making an o shape those

those but basically the top of my tongue

still begins against my upper teeth i

make an

o sound so i release my tongue from that

position

those and i make an o sound to follow it

with this one the the this is another

case

where the tip of your tongue might move

between your teeth

a little bit that’s okay da da

da another one there there

there so another example where the tip

of your tongue might move a little more

between your teeth to make the sound so

these are all

voiced sounds so to test again you can

touch your throat when you make this

sound so

this my throat vibrates that

these those the

there so these should all make a

vibrating or a vibration rather in your

throat when you make the sound

so these are voiced th sounds beginning

sounds

with th that are voiced i want to

compare this then

to unvoiced sounds so again

as i said an unvoiced sound or you might

know a

voiceless sound is a sound in which no

vocal chords are used to make the sound

so if we touch our throat when we make

the sound

we won’t feel any vibration that’s

correct

so to practice making an unvoiced sound

you can begin by practicing this very

slowly

so you can put the tip of your tongue

between your teeth to make this sound

so that’s the beginning position that

you can slowly practice

so that means between your top teeth and

your bottom teeth put the tip of your

tongue between those

that’s the starting position so some

examples

a great example we can begin with is

think

think so you might think why is this an

unvoiced sound i hear a vowel sound when

i touch my throat and say

think my throat vibrates yes that’s true

but we’re focusing on the th sound only

so make the th sound in think

there’s no voice like there’s no

vibration in your vocal chords

the i sound in think is voiced yes but

the th

sound is not voice so it’s a f sound

it’s just the feeling like you have the

feeling of air passing through your

mouth

there’s no vibration in your vocal

chords so this is the correct way

to make an unvoiced th sound

so let’s try this with another word we

practiced a little bit with

think think another example

thanks thanks so this is a word i often

hear

students make an s sound instead like

thanks not

correct so make sure you use your tongue

thanks

thanks to make the sound another one

thought thought so again

begins with no sound so thought

thought i open up into the next vowel

sound

thought another one thunder

thunder so here i’m making a u sound

after my unvoiced th thunder

thunder another one thigh

thigh so you can hear as i did

with all of these i’m like making the

next

vowel sound so my mouth is already

moving to the next vowel sound

as i’m making my th sound so they’re

very closely connected

if you’d like to practice slowly by

maybe breaking down the

the sounds like ink it’s okay but try to

put them together

so f ink maybe f angs

that’s how we could perhaps break down

these

but try to put them together practice

making the sounds

together to make your speech sound more

natural

let’s look at some more examples three

three three so here maybe is a little

tricky point this

r sound that comes after the th

three three so you can kind of imagine

there’s another e here three so that’s

the position

we don’t say an e but that’s sort of the

position of

the mouth to make that r sound after the

th

three three so i’m kind of dropping

my jaw a little bit to make the er sound

three three another example

13 13

13 so when i make this sound there’s a

little gap here

right here 13 13.

so again the th is unvoiced

13. so my voice does not begin until the

i

sound here there’s a little gap 13.

okay one more thud fudd

thug so again th makes no sound

my uh my vowel sound is a voiced

sound thud thud so these are a few words

that you can use to practice

making these voiced and unvoiced sounds

so you can begin by practicing words

like these

individually by themselves then you can

begin making sentences

and trying tongue twisters that use

these sounds

too so practice these words together

in sentences as well so don’t focus just

on like one word you can of course put

them together and try to say them

quickly

like this that these those the there you

could try to say it quickly like that

or for unvoiced sounds think thanks

thought thunder thigh

313 thud if you want to practice making

those sounds quickly

so you can kind of build your own tongue

twisters in this way if you want

but this is a basic introduction to

voiced

and unvoiced th sounds especially at the

beginning of words that was the focus

for today’s lesson

so if you have any questions or comments

or if there’s something else that you’d

like to see on the channel please feel

free

to leave us a comment below of course if

you know a good tongue twister that uses

these sounds

please share that with us as well if you

enjoyed the video please don’t forget to

give it a thumbs up

subscribe to our channel if you have not

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

lesson and i will see you again soon

bye-bye okay the first tip is

learn words through phrases so learn

words through phrases what does this

mean

this means instead of studying one

vocabulary word at a time

and having that be your only way to

study vocabulary

it means study entire phrases study a

group of words at a time

so for example don’t study like

morning only study good morning or

how was your morning those kinds of

expressions so you’re not just studying

one word at a time and thinking about

how you need to link

that word to other words instead set

yourself

up to know how to put those words

together by studying a few phrases

at a time okay the next tip is to watch

your favorite video with

subtitles so when you do this choose a

video or maybe a movie that you like

and turn on the english subtitles for

that movie

so while it might be difficult to catch

everything that’s happening in each

scene

you can at least check the subtitles you

can check the information

as it’s being said so if you can’t catch

everything by listening

you can at least read the words on the

screen and understand these as kind of

units or as sentences that you can study

so again you’re not looking just at one

word

or maybe even two words together but

you’re studying

things as a phrase or as a question or

as a sentence

okay let’s go to the next tip the next

tip is to

think in the language you want to learn

think in the language you want to learn

this is a really really tough one

especially when you’re starting out and

it will take time so don’t worry

if you can’t do this right away but this

means as you go about your day

as you wake up and eat food go to school

go to work whatever

try to think spend some time thinking in

english

think in the language you’re studying so

this can be really really boring stuff

like thinking about what you’re doing

how could i express that in english so

think about those sorts of

everyday actions and activities and try

to express them

in english you can do this out loud to

work on improving your speaking skills

okay let’s go to the next tip okay the

next tip is to use

available learning applications use

available learning applications

so that means if you have a favorite

application

and app that you like to use to study

make sure you use that so maybe you’ve

downloaded

our application for example thank you

you can use that

to work on your speaking you can do that

by reading dialogues by

trying to shadow conversations that you

hear you can also

just use your phone’s recording function

and record yourself

and then listen to it later that might

sound like a really simple tip but it

can help you a lot

so we sound very different when we’re

talking and we often don’t hear that

unless we kind of step outside our body

a bit and listen to ourselves from

outside

and recording your voice is a really

really good way to do that

so make sure you check out the apps and

the functions that you have on your

phone or your computer to do that

the next tip is to expand your

vocabulary by reading expand your

vocabulary by reading

so a common complaint from learners is

they say i don’t feel like i have the

vocabulary

i need to express myself i know lots of

basic words

but i don’t feel like i can say the

things i want to say

when the time comes in a conversation so

one way to do this is to work on

building your vocabulary

reading is a really great way to do that

so

choose things to read that you have a

connection to

they’re related to your hobbies to your

work to your studies whatever

choose things that are relevant so like

they’re connected to your life and read

those things and find the key vocabulary

words that people use

within your daily life activities and

try to remember those try to make those

the vocabulary words that you study and

practice so that you’re able to use them

when you speak in conversations

the next tip is to talk to yourself talk

to yourself

like talking to yourself sounds a little

bit crazy sure

but this is a great way to practice

speaking when there’s nobody around

you can just practice making the sounds

that you’re working on you can practice

saying sentences and questions you can

practice talking about your day

so for those of you that maybe don’t

have somebody to practice with this can

be an excellent

tip and again as you talk to yourself

you can also record yourself and listen

back

and i know a lot of people say i hate

the sound of my own voice i hate the

sound of my own voice

it’s only you you’re the only person who

is going to listen to that recording

and it’s to help you study and it helps

a lot actually this

is something that i do when i need to

improve my own speaking skills so i

highly recommend

this tip if you want to work on speaking

and improving your speaking so talk to

yourself

sounds weird but it helps okay next tip

is to

listen to recordings and repeat listen

to recordings and repeat

another word for this is shadowing

shadowing

so that means basically you listen to a

lesson for example like if you want to

listen to this video or you want to

listen to one of

our lessons you can listen to it and

then

quickly try to say the same thing that

the speaker is saying

right after them so if you’re using this

video for example

it just means you try to repeat the same

things i say

now in just a moment so shadowing like

this

the point of shadowing like this is to

try to match the intonation and the

rhythms of the speaker in addition to

the pronunciation

so this can be helpful if you’re having

trouble like linking words together

on your own if you’re having trouble

building your own sentences

by shadowing after a native speaker you

can kind of get

a better feel sometimes for the rhythm

of how a language is supposed to sound

and how you can produce that language

yourself the next step is to prepare for

daily routine situations prepare for

daily routine situations

so that means like think about your day

and think about the things you need to

say

in your day and how you would express

those things in

english so for example when you greet

your co-workers or you greet

your fellow like classmates or whatever

how do you greet them how would you

greet them in english prepare something

for that

or when you want to ask about dinner how

would you ask for dinner

in english so think about these things

you know you’re going to do

in your day and just prepare them ahead

of time it will save you time

and it will also make the other person

feel more comfortable right because

they’ll be ready for a natural question

the next tip is to try to practice your

speaking with a native

speaker try to practice your speaking

with a native speaker

this is challenging for many people i

know because they don’t have a native

speaker in their community

or they don’t have a native speaker to

connect with online

it might take some time to find that

person but this is of course

a hugely important thing to do so a

native speaker

does not mean a teacher so just because

a person is a native speaker does not

mean that they are a teacher

in fact most native speakers probably

don’t know

all of the rules of grammar and they’re

not prepared to answer all of your

questions which is fine

but a native speaker does know what

feels

and sounds natural so they can help you

to make more natural choices with your

speaking

they can also help you to address any

questions that you might have about

pronunciation or maybe like vocabulary

choices

within a specific region so it’s

important to remember

that not every native speaker is a

perfect speaker but

they can help you a lot in helping you

sound more natural

the next tip is know your audience know

your audience so what does this mean

to know your audience means to think

about the person

to whom you are speaking so that means

don’t just think about you think about

the other person like

when you’re talking to someone else what

are they looking for in the conversation

are they talking to you to get

information are you study partners are

you co-workers are you classmates

what are their needs so how do you meet

their needs how do you match

their manner of speaking so please try

to remember to think about the other

person

in the conversation as well the next tip

is to ask

for feedback and reflect on it ask for

feedback and reflect on it

so try to think of someone in your

community that you can ask for feedback

about your speaking skills if you don’t

have a teacher you can check out the

online options that we offer

of course or maybe you have an online

exchange buddy that you can practice

with but make sure to ask for feedback

and when they give you feedback don’t

take it as criticism

so if someone says for example oh your

pronunciation of this

sound needs some work don’t feel

offended like

that feedback is intended to help you

improve so when you receive

feedback like that think about how you

can focus your energy on improving those

points so that means please reflect

on that feedback and think about what

you can do to

integrate it so to integrate it means

how do you put that feedback

into your mind and put your energies

towards

improving that point all right the next

tip is to avoid

reading directly and try to use an

outline

avoid reading directly and try to use an

outline so

this tip is specifically if you need to

give a presentation

or if you need to like share some

information like a report

in a classroom so instead of just

printing a piece of paper and reading

directly from the piece of paper

like this in a classroom setting or if

you’re giving a speech or a presentation

try to print just an outline of your

main points

and then practice talking about those

things before

you’re speaking presentation before

whatever presentation you need to do

this will help you sound a lot more

natural it’s really

unnatural and it’s not very much fun or

and it’s not very interesting

to watch someone just read a report in

front of a classroom or to read a report

in a business presentation so instead of

doing that try to refer to an

outline throughout your presentation so

your outline

might be something like introduction

main points i want to talk about

and then you move on to the detailed

points you want to talk about and just

write a few words so that you can

remember the things that you want to

make sure

you share with your audience so again

this goes back to that point about

knowing your audience in our earlier tip

think about their perspective too the

next tip is

shadow language cds and then repeat what

you heard

shadow language cds and repeat what you

heard so very very similar to the

earlier tip about repeating quickly

after a native speaker like when you’re

watching this kind of video

if you’re not comfortable using a movie

or using a video like this one

you can try using language learning

audio so maybe you have cds or maybe

you have podcasts or other lesson

content

that is at a slower pace and that is

easier for you to understand

you can practice shadowing with these

things too

you don’t have to practice with a native

speaker that’s

talking at fast pace you can also use

these slower

practice cds and practice audio files

to do your shadowing exercises so don’t

feel like you have to speak

super super quickly to practice your

speaking efficiently

practicing slowly is also okay keep

practicing regularly otherwise your hard

work will be wasted

keep practicing regularly otherwise your

hard work will be wasted

so this one i think is pretty clear but

it’s important for

all aspects all parts of learning a

language

keep practicing regularly so that means

practice your speaking

a little bit every day if you just try

to speak for like

an hour one week it’s way too much so

try to practice speaking like one minute

today and then a minute and 10 seconds

tomorrow so keep building keep working

on things

every single day and you’ll see much

better results in the long term

all right let’s go to our last tip the

last tip is don’t give up and stay

positive

don’t give up and stay positive so that

means

please be kind to yourself so if you

make a mistake in a conversation it’s

not the end of the world

if you forget a word or if you say

something funny that’s

fine it’s all part of the learning

process please don’t worry about those

sorts of things you’ll get over them and

you’ll learn

how to improve so make sure that you

always continue moving forward

and you keep a positive attitude hey

everyone welcome to the monthly review

the monthly show on language learning

[Music]

where you discover new learning

strategies motivational tips study tools

and resources

by the way all the lessons and bonuses

you’re about to see can be downloaded

for free on our website

so click the link in the description

right now to sign up for your free

lifetime account

okay today’s topic is how to make sure

you keep going when your reason for

learning language

changes did you know that the reason

most people start learning languages

isn’t why they continue with the

language

successful learners change up their

reasons along the way in order to keep

themselves motivated

so if you started learning for whatever

reason but no longer feel motivated then

this episode is for you

you’ll discover 1. why your reason for

learning a language can

and will change and two how to keep

going with language learning when your

initial reason no longer works

[Music]

but first listen up here are this

month’s new lessons and resources

be sure to download these now before we

take them down in a few days

first be going to a restaurant

conversation cheat sheet

do you know how to order food in your

target language you’ll be able to

with this pdf cheat sheet you’ll get the

must-know restaurant phrases and

vocabulary for common dishes

second the daily conversations pdf ebook

with this you’ll learn over 100 phrases

for everyday conversations

download and review the ebook on any

device third

can you talk about grammar in your

target language if you’re learning a

language you’ll need to be able to say

verb adjective and much more and in this

one minute lesson you’ll pick up over 25

grammar related words fourth how to talk

about working from home

you’ll learn how to say wi-fi online

meeting work from home

25 phrases in total with this one-minute

lesson

fifth must know art vocabulary learn how

to say canvas

brush and much more with this quick

vocab bonus

to get your free resources click the

link in the description below right now

they’re yours to keep forever okay let’s

jump into today’s topic

how to keep your motivation going even

when your reason for learning a language

changes

first here’s a question for you what was

your reason for starting this language

you might have started learning for

travel for the culture to watch tv shows

or understand music

or because someone you know speaks it

and you want to try speaking with them

all of these reasons have something in

common they’re external

meaning you’re trying to get some

outside reward or benefit

like a friendship a personal

relationship travel or living in the

country

you can say they’re also external

motivations

all of these reasons are why most people

start learning languages

they’re exciting all of us want to

understand a tv show 100

or have a conversation with native

speakers but the problem with external

reasons is that they may not last very

long

have you ever been motivated to start

learning only to lose that motivation

and months later you realize you made no

progress on a goal you wanted

it happens quite often for example you

want to learn a language for travel

but then the pandemic happened and you

weren’t able to travel

or you were learning to enjoy tv shows

but the shows are way too complicated

and you find you’re no longer enjoying

them

or you’re learning for your partner but

then you break up

when that happens all learners come to a

crossroads continue or quit

most people quit because the reason they

started is no longer motivating

so how do you keep going in the first

part you learn that most reasons for

starting are external reasons

like traveling meeting new people being

able to watch tv shows and such

for external motivations however your

reason for starting a language

isn’t often the reason why you continue

learning it’s natural for your reasons

to change

so what do you do when your initial

reason for learning is no longer working

if your current motivator isn’t working

switch to an internal reason

external reasons are about getting some

outside benefit

internal reasons have more to do with

yourself for example

you could say you’re learning the

language because you want to improve

yourself

you want to achieve this goal you’ve

failed goals in the past so now you’re

determined to make it work for once

you’re the type of person that gets

things done all of these are examples of

internal reasons

where you make it about yourself

external reasons can only last so long

even external reasons like you want to

live in that country so you want to

learn the language

aren’t enough there are plenty of people

that move abroad to learn a language but

end up losing their motivation anyway

and psychology studies show that

internal reasons internal motivation

doing it for yourself is much more

powerful than external

doing it because you want to is much

more powerful than doing it because you

have to

so thank you for watching this episode

of monthly review

next time we’ll talk about the first

step in your language learning journey

that will guarantee your success

if you enjoyed these tips hit the like

button share the video with anyone who’s

trying to learn a language and subscribe

to our channel

we release new videos every week and if

you’re ready to finally learn language

the fast fun and easy way

and start speaking from your very first

lesson get our complete learning program

sign up for your free lifetime account

right now click the link in the

description

see you next time bye

know any good tips for mastering

conversations well there are some words

and phrases that tend to be used more

often than others in everyday

conversation

so if you know the most common questions

answers and phrases

you’ll be able to handle a lot when you

think about it

a lot of conversations are quite

predictable they’re about topics we’re

already familiar with

so if we approach our studies to these

conversations like we’re working on

remembering parts of a script

we can study efficiently in this video

we’ll cover one hack for improving your

speaking skills

first understand what you say

when you meet a new person what do you

say to them things like what’s your name

and where are you from then you talk a

little bit about yourself

and even if you know that person there

are common lines you use all the time

right

these lines you use all the time in your

conversations are your scripts

these are your most commonly used

questions answers and phrases

targeting these expressions in your

studies will help you be able to handle

a lot of everyday conversations

so take some time to examine what you

talk about most or what you’re

interested in talking about

next where to find scripts for speaking

luckily we have hundreds of scripts that

you can use

with our language learning program you

get the line by line scripts for all of

our lessons

in fact lessons like the top 25

questions you must know

the three-minute lessons and survival

phrases are specifically designed to

help you master the most commonly used

questions

answers and phrases for example the top

25 questions you must know

focuses on the 25 most common questions

you’ll hear in a conversation

this includes basic questions like where

are you from

what’s your name and how old are you as

a learner of another language

these are the questions you’ll hear

almost every time you meet someone new

and you’ll use them every day it goes

like this

you hear the question then we break down

its meaning and teach you how to respond

that way you’ll be ready to speak right

after the lesson

you can listen to these lessons and read

along with the lesson notes

with our dialogue study tool you’ll get

line-by-line scripts of the conversation

so you can review each line as many

times as you want

you can listen to the audio read the

script and the translation

you can also do this with our three

minute and survival phrases lessons

in these lessons we give you line by

line scripts for how to introduce

yourself how to make conversation or

even order food at a restaurant

if you’re a premium or premium plus

member you get the dialogue tool

and line-by-line scripts for all of

these lessons

starting to speak in your target

language might be scary but this simple

hack will help jump-start your

conversations

so if you’re ready to speak better check

out our complete language learning

program

sign up for your free lifetime account

by clicking on the link in the

description

get tons of resources to have you

speaking in your target language

and if you enjoyed these tips hit the

like button share this video with anyone

who’s trying to learn a new language and

subscribe to our channel

we release new videos every week i’ll

see you next time

bye do you want to have access to tons

of language lessons but you don’t want

to have to buy more textbooks

in this video you’ll learn six ways you

can get language lessons for free

this video will cover ways to get our

audio and video lessons on a regular

basis

so you can work on improving your

language skills you can use these

anywhere anytime alright let’s take a

look at how to get access

first write on our website new lessons

come out every single week

mondays tuesdays and video lessons on

fridays access them all in the lessons

drop down menu on the site

click on newest lessons if you’re on the

go you’re going to work

driving or running errands you can

easily learn with your mobile device

and that brings us to our next tip

second

get lessons on the innovative language

app

if you’re an iphone ipad or android user

learn on the go with the innovative

language 101 app

download it for free after you download

the app you can keep up with all the

latest lessons

there is a newest lessons icon right on

the home screen and it gives you

instant access to your free lessons

anywhere anytime

just look for innovative language 101 on

the app store or

google play the third way is the apple

tv app

you can learn on the big screen turn on

your tv and access

all of your audio and video lessons you

can learn at home

keep the lessons playing and immerse

yourself all day long with the

innovative language 101

app look for it on the apple tv app

store

now this one is useful for only apple tv

subscribers

but if you’re not an apple tv subscriber

don’t worry

the fourth way get lessons with our

itunes feed

itunes can download your lessons

automatically and have them saved

forever

you get every single lesson as it comes

out you’ll never miss one

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fifth

is the daily dose of language app this

is for the iphone

ipad and android with this you get

bite-sized lessons sent to your device

every day

each day you get a notification that

your daily dose of language is here

doing the lesson takes just a minute

these aren’t our full-sized audio and

video lessons but these one-minute

lessons will help you build a habit of

learning daily

find the daily dose of language app on

the app store or google play

the sixth way is with our brand new

alexa skill

if you own an amazon echo dot or show or

are planning to get one

you’ll want the daily dose by innovative

language find it in the amazon skills

store

with it you get new audio lessons and

vocab lessons

every day across all 34 languages

if you’re ready to start learning a new

language these six tips can help you get

started learning with our language

learning program

just pick which way works best for you

and get started learning today

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