Improve Your Spelling Mistakes

hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha

the weekly series where you ask me
questions and I answer them

maybe first question this week comes
from hardik patel hi Karthik Karthik

says how can i improve my spelling yeah
this is an important question and we did

a livestream about this topic so I’ll
quickly introduce the key points we

talked about in the livestream and
hopefully they can help you as kind of a

starting point so the first and most
important thing to do to improve your

spelling is read and make sure that you
read things that are properly edited

properly prepared so this means I don’t
recommend for example social media posts

because not everybody is preparing
everything thoroughly before they write

it it’s not being checked it’s not being
proof read before it’s being posted so I

would recommend books and magazines and
newspapers that kind of thing that has

been properly edited and properly
checked this is important because you’re

not just listening to the words you’re
actually reading the words you’re

reading the words on the page so you’re
getting familiar with how the words

should be spelled instead of just how it
sounds some other things that you can do

are word puzzles word puzzles are a lot
of fun in the live stream I talked about

something called crossword puzzles
crossword puzzles are word puzzles you

need to know some vocabulary words you
also need to know some like history

perhaps or science or maybe pop culture
and then you need to put your knowledge

together with your spelling knowledge to
create like the finished version of a

puzzle so a crossword is really fun and
you can find beginner level crossword

puzzles to try so as you practice as you
learn more English and as you learn more

about other topics too you can level up
the difficulty of your crossword puzzle

so that can be a fun way to do it
another thing that you can do is join a

spelling contest depending on where you
live you may have a spelling contest in

your city or in your country in the US
we have something called the spelling

bee
it’s for kids yes so if you’re watching

this in your kid if you are a young
person who’s studying you can look for a

spelling bee if you are in the USA or
maybe there’s a similar spelling contest

in your country so those are great ways
to practice your spelling because it’s a

contest you’re competing with other
people to spell the word correctly so

that can be a fun way to do things if
you are a student if you are a young

person another thing you can do
regardless of your age is watch English

media with subtitles so again like I
mentioned for the reading point make

sure that the subtitles have been
properly prepared if it’s someone who

has like created subtitles that are
maybe not perfect or they were prepared

by a non-native speaker there might be
some errors in there so if you can try

to find media like movies or even our
videos for example sometimes they have

subtitles you can try watching that with
the subtitles on so that you can

understand the spelling of the words as
they’re being said so that’s another fun

way to stetic I think really though I
think reading is the best thing that you

can do this was something I love to do
when I was a kid I participated in a

spelling bee when I was a kid and I
think that reading really helped me

understand the correct way to spell
words and to like learn how to identify

new words in the future so read I think
that’s the best thing you can do thank

you for your question and good luck with
your spelling let’s go to our next

question next question comes from noir
as Lena hi Nora Nora says hi Alicia my

question is what is the difference
between I’m looking and I’ve been

looking we use I’m looking for when we
are in the act of searching for

something right now in this moment we’re
looking for something so for example at

like a department store you could say
I’m looking for shoes I’m looking for

the restroom that’s something that
you’re doing right now you’re in the act

of doing something right now on the
other hand I have been looking for is

used for something that yes we’re
searching for it but the search has

continued for a long time so for example
I’ve been searching for a new apartment

for four months or I’ve been searching
for a new job in general if you are in

the act of searching for something right
now you can use I’m looking for if it’s

something that you’ve been searching for
for a period of time a long period of

time you can use I’ve been looking for I
hope that helps you thanks for the

question all right let’s move on to our
next question next question comes from

Lian heigen Lian Lian says hi Alicia
hope you’re doing great thank you I have

two questions what are the rules of
semicolons and when should I avoid them

is one and do in some languages a
multiple-choice test is called an

American test so is it true that
American tests are really mostly

multiple-choice interesting let’s go to
your first question about semicolons the

quick version is semicolons have two
uses the first use is they are used to

separate what’s called compound
sentences a compound sentence is a

sentence that’s made from two
independent clauses so there are two

clauses two parts to the sentence an
independent clause is a sentence that

can stand alone like we don’t need any
other words to explain this sentence

that’s an independent clause so when we
connect these two in a compound sentence

we can use a semicolon to connect it to
you like right here so let’s look at

some examples an independent clause is a
clause that is grammatically correct by

itself no other words are required the
semicolon is used to separate the two

clauses like a period we do this when
the ideas are closely related

the second use is when you’re separating
items in a list this can be tricky to do

but the reason we do this is because
when you’re making lists that have like

lots of complicated information they
include commas for example it may be

difficult to understand where the items
in a list end or start so we use

semicolons to help readers understand
the points in a list here’s an example

this is a long list so I’m gonna read it
the citizens requested a new park

complete with a swimming pool improved
roads sidewalks and traffic lights and

cleaner schools we have a few plans for
our vacation

hiking biking and swimming near our
campsite having a BB Q and enjoying

fireworks so you can see in these lists
actually all of the items have a

semicolon in between them that shows us
that’s one item so we do that because

there are commas in other parts of the
list if we use commas to separate the

items in the list we might confuse the
reader so to show that each item is

clearly one item we use semicolons to do
that this is not as common like there

are not so many situations where you
need to use a semicolon in this way but

just in case this is the second use in
most cases we just use the first one you

don’t need to avoid using the semicolon
it’s a very convenient way to punctuate

your sentences so you don’t have to
avoid it you can use it just remember

that you need to use it two separate
independent clauses like we talked about

in the first news as for your second
point that’s very interesting I didn’t

know the tests were called American
tests that’s interesting we do have a

lot of multiple-choice style tests for
sure especially in like high school and

university levels for like official
tests like embedding tees for example

however we do have other styles of tests
too so we have fill-in-the-blank which I

use a lot on this channel in the
whiteboard videos we also have like

essay essay tests or essay examinations
for students write essays we also have

like free answers so a student has to
come up with an answer like just from

their own mind or using their own skills
we see that a lot in math classes for

example so yes there are a lot of
multiple-choice tests but it doesn’t

mean that all tests are multiple-choice
just it is very common so I hope that

helps okay thanks for the questions
let’s move along to our next question

next question comes from we sit - hi
again do we sorry if I pronounced your

name wrong I do he says what is the
difference between below under

underneath beneath bottom and down nice
okay there may be some differences

depending on the situation but generally
speaking let’s look at the first for

example as you presented
we can use all of these adverbs in the

same way let’s take a look at some
examples I keep my hairdryer below the

sink I keep my hairdryer under the sink
I keep my hairdryer underneath the sink

I keep my hairdryer beneath the sink all
of these mean exactly the same thing the

differences here is that probably I
would say under is the most commonly

used in American English beneath sounds
perhaps the most formal and maybe the

most old-fashioned so you can use them
all in the same way they refer to being

positioned under or like below something
else so there’s not really much of a

difference there I think we just use
under the most the word bottom however

that’s a noun that refers to the lowest
part or like the underside of something

let’s look at some examples there
there’s dirt on the bottom of my bag

he cut the bottom of the pumpkin so
these refer to the underside or the

lowest point of something so it’s an
actual amount after then the last word

in this list is down so down it’s also
an adverb but down refers to motion so

we use down when we’re actually talking
about movement of some kind so for

example put your hand down or walk down
the stairs he sat down in the chair so

we’re using some kind of motion there’s
word there’s something happening from

like an upper level to a lower level
there’s movements happening there so we

use down to express movement the first
four words that we talked about are used

to talk about position not about
movement down is used to talk about

movement bottom is used to talk about a
place on something so I hope that helps

you thanks for the question
okay so that’s everything that I have

for this week thank you as always for
sending your creative questions remember

you can send them to me in English class
101.com / ask - alicia if you liked the

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English Studies thanks very much for
watching this week’s episode and I will

see you again next week