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whenever i’m ready

all right hi everybody welcome back to

top words my name is alicia and today

we’re going to be talking about 10 words

for connecting thoughts these are going

to be 10 words that you can use to

transition between ideas very useful in

both speech and in writing let’s

go

also

also also is a word that you can use to

add information

i went to the store this morning also i

went and got coffee

that’s true

however

however however is used to contrast or

to contrast depending on your

pronunciation to

differentiate to show a difference

between two pieces of information a good

pattern would be a however

b so

for example

i love tonkotsu ramen however it is very

high in calories so i don’t eat it often

also true on the other hand on the other

hand on the other hand is i feel used

more commonly in speech than it is in

writing um again it’s used to present

like two sides to a story or two sides

to some information so for example

i’m thinking about visiting taiwan

sometime this year but on the other hand

i’m also thinking about visiting

thailand

still

so it might be common to use still with

the word like but or a word like even

though so you’re saying even though

there’s some other factor like like i’m

really really tired this week or even

though i have a lot of homework to do i

still want to go out with my friends or

i still want to

see a movie this weekend so there’s this

other there’s this thing that’s maybe

makes this other action difficult to do

or tough to do or whatever

but even though

there’s this you still have this over

here so maybe the two are kind of used

as a pair i still want to go out later

even though i’m tired

then

then yes a very useful word we use then

when telling stories a lot um so for

example if i could tell a story about my

morning today when i got up i

brushed my teeth and then

i

cooked breakfast then i did a little bit

of work then i took a shower

then i did some cooking blah blah blah

you’ll often hear and then as well and

then i and then we and then you and so

on so then is is really really useful

for sequencing so a useful word i think

besides besides so it’s commonly used in

a pattern like besides that meaning

other than something else i went out

with my friends this weekend but besides

that i didn’t really do much so

another way to say that sentence is i

went out with my friends this weekend

but other than that other than that

activity i didn’t do very much

okay meanwhile meanwhile or you might

hear the similar expression in the

meantime it means

while you’re doing action a at the same

times maybe somewhere else action b is

happening this is used while telling

stories a lot so for example i was

working at my office all week last week

meanwhile my co-workers across town were

having a party without me

so these two things are happening at the

same time

but maybe separate from one another

meanwhile

likewise

okay likewise i don’t really use this

word personally myself at all it’s often

used after an introduction

similar to the pleasure is all mine in a

formal situation so

maybe somebody

says you know hey it was really great to

see you last weekend thanks very much

for coming to my barbecue you can say

yeah likewise it was really good to see

you in your family so likewise means i

have the same feeling or i have the same

idea it’s kind of a friendly phrase but

personally i don’t really use that to

transition between thoughts

um i would just use and i suppose but no

that’s how i would use it

instead

instead so

so instead it’s used like instead of i

want to

a instead of be

can be used to express your plans or

what you want to do i want to have

chinese food instead of italian food

tonight so you’re presenting two

alternatives essentially so instead of

means in place of or as a substitute for

so

i

should have drank a lot of water

this morning but instead i drank a lot

of coffee

that’s true

uh i wanted to

have dinner with my friends this weekend

instead i had dinner at home

in addition in addition this is a really

good word for more formal situations i

like to use in addition

in writing i don’t really use in

addition in speaking unless i’m trying

to be very formal for some reason

similar to additionally as well so you

make point a and point b and then when

you want to make one more point that’s

related to point a and point b you can

say in addition point c so you’re like

building an argument and in addition can

be used to kind of finish that argument

off a little bit our new marketing plan

worked really well last month we noticed

increased sales in product a in addition

uh we’ve gained a lot of new customers

something like that so just you’re

you’re quickly presenting a series of

ideas that are related to one another

you can use in addition to finish it off

all right so that’s the end of 10 words

for connecting thoughts i hope you get

to use a lot of these try to mix it up

it’s good to use a variety of different

words thanks very much for watching this

episode and we will see you again next

time for more fun stuff bye

[Music]

whenever i’m ready all right welcome

back to weekly words i’m alicia and this

week

we’re going to talk about commonly

mispronounced mispronounced wow

this week we’re going to talk about

commonly mispronounced words words that

are often pronounced incorrectly

this is funny i enjoy mispronouncing

this first word the first word is

hyperbole hyperbole um it’s not

hyperbole though it does sound very

funny to say that

hyperbole just means to exaggerate

something um or to make to blow

something up make it really extreme my

friend uses a lot of hyperbole when she

talks about her life stories i really

don’t think some of those things happen

to her

hyperbole not hyperbole

next

antarctic

not

ah

oh i see antarctic is the correct

pronunciation of this word some people

say

and and tart antarctic

really oh i guess when you’re saying

this word quickly you might leave out

that first sea in the antarctic

so don’t say that don’t do that say

antarctic

the the very very cold region the arctic

is the north cold region on the planet

earth the south is the ant arctic

there’s sort of like almost a hiccup in

the word they’re antarctic

oh

uh in a sentence i’m thinking about

taking a cruise to the antarctic what do

you think i need

a penguin suit etc not etc oh yeah okay

i’ve heard i hear this ek x thing a lot

etc is just used at the end of a list to

imply that you mean other things

so the list is not

exclusive to the things that you’ve

listed other things can also be included

in it so in a sample sentence

types of fruits are apples oranges

peaches etc

there are others as well so don’t say

etc that’s not correct etc it’s good

the next word is jewelry

what not mones

the next word is jewelry jewelry i think

i’m probably guilty of this

mispronunciation i can’t say that word

mispronunciation

where the word kind of gets a little bit

smushed together uh and we say jewelry

instead we miss that that second e sound

in there it should be jew ellery uh in a

sample sentence maybe you would say i’m

shopping for some jewelry for my mother

for her birthday

jewelry we’re too lazy

prescription

not

prescription

okay a prescription is something that a

doctor gives you when you’re sick and

you require medicine the doctor will

write you a prescription some people

might say

prescription wow okay i didn’t even

notice and i was doing it while i was

telling you guys not to do it that’s

embarrassing

prescription a doctor writes you a

prescription not a prescription

uh when you go to the doctor’s office

the doctor might say here is your

prescription

end all right well we’ve learned that i

apparently can’t pronounce some words

the way that they’re meant to be

pronounced so please work on your

pronunciation i will work on my

pronunciation too thank you for joining

us on weekly words this week i will see

you next time bye bye

welcome back to weekly words my name is

alicia and this week we’re going to talk

about commonly quoted movie lines ooh

i hope i know these i’ll be back a lot

of people like to try and do an arnold

schwarzenegger impression this comes

from the movie terminator where arnold

schwarzenegger plays a robot from the

future and it’s really awesome you can

use this with your friends you can use

this in in common everyday situations

where you have to leave some place but

you want to tell people in a kind of a

funny way that you plan on coming back

you can say i’ll be back inconceivable

say this with a lisp inconceivable if

you have seen the movie the princess

bride inconceivable so to conceive of

something something you can think about

um putting that in

uh at the beginning of the word means

can’t con are not able to conceive of

something you can’t even think about it

you can’t believe it in other words this

is one word that means i can’t believe

it or this is just ridiculous so you can

use this anytime you’re just shocked by

something you just can’t believe that

something is happening you can say

inconceivable this is a very good one a

recent one from the movie anchorman will

ferrell says this he says i immediately

regret this decision i immediately

regret this decision it’s a very long

phrase

but it means you’ve just made a choice

and you very quickly immediately

realized this was a bad decision i

should not have done this you can say i

immediately regret this decision but

with kind of like a flat tone to it

it’s a little bit funny okay next is a

very famous quote from the movie forrest

gump tom hanks was in this movie his

character famously says mama always said

life was like a box of chocolates the

next line is you never know what you’re

gonna get so this refers to picking a

piece of chocolate out of a box of

chocolates uh maybe you’ve seen kind of

the fancy ones that have a number of

different styles of chocolate in them

when you bite into it oftentimes you

don’t know what’s on the inside so the

character is saying that life is like

that too you might try to do a few

different things but you never know

what’s going to happen until you

actually try to do it so this is an

interesting phrase to use maybe if your

friend is having trouble in their life

in some way you can maybe try to console

them or cheer them up by saying mama

always said life was like a box of

chocolates the next quote comes from the

movie apollo 13 a very famous space

movie the quote is houston we have a

problem houston refers to the control

center nasa’s control center and the

astronaut is famously quoted as saying

we have a problem

anytime you run across a problem

at work or with your friends with your

family whatever you can say houston we

have a problem meaning you’re just

trying to alert the other people around

you that something is wrong you need

help with something perhaps

so

it’s usually not a very serious problem

though i should say that so don’t use it

for like a medical emergency use it for

something you know like oh i’m out of

eggs houston we have a problem you know

if you’re cooking something very very

light-hearted is good and that’s the end

of some famous movie quotes so try to

use a few of these if you like they’re

kind of fun and if you use them with the

right timing they can be very very funny

and people will generally appreciate

that you use such interesting references

in your conversation uh thanks very much

for joining us this week and we’ll see

you again next time bye here’s looking

at you

kid what does that even mean though

a classic goodbye line kind of

welcome back to weekly words i’m alicia

and this week we are going to do

words with strange plural forms this is

good practice i bet let’s start yeah

antenna the plural form of antenna is

antennae i think i would say antennae

antennae

i think i probably actually just say

antennas

an antenna on an old tv set for example

would be it would kind of look like this

we’d call it bunny ears where you had to

adjust the bunny ears you had to just

adjust the antennae to make the signal

on your tv come in more clearly bugs

they have antennae from their heads the

next word is millennium the plural is

millennia a millennium is a period of a

thousand years a thousand years is a

millennium a series of thousands of

years would be called millennia you

might say

many millennia have passed since the

earth

was formed

cactus

is the next word a cactus is a plant uh

these are the arms of the cactus i

couldn’t make the trunk of the cactus

wow

you can put a picture on the screen

instead of my amazing

cactus the plural of cactus is cacti or

cactuses i think i’m more inclined to

say cacti so when you go to the desert

you might say keep an eye out for cacti

if you step on one it could really hurt

you

the next one is an interesting one i

don’t think i’ve ever used this word in

the singular like if you have a swimming

pool or if you’ve seen a pond or

whatever it’s that green sort of scummy

stuff that accumulates on top of it or

on the sides of your pool if you haven’t

cleaned it in a while algae bacterias

and things that like to live in the

water there’s a singular form and i’m

just i’m looking at it for the first

time i don’t know how alga to use the

plural then you would say i need to

clean my pool there’s a lot of algae in

it

yeah

next is ox ox uh the plural of ox is

oxen

these animals used to be used for

farming i don’t know that they are very

much anymore i don’t have much personal

experience with farming um but they’re

they look like really really big cows

with huge horns huge horns yeah okay

next is the end uh

plural words that have weird plural

forms so please keep them in mind when

you are

trying to use them in conversation and

use the correct form of the plural thank

you for joining us again this week for

weekly words next time we will see you

for more weekly words that was weird

we’ll see you again next week for more

fun information take care bye

oh no

all right welcome back to weekly words

my name is alicia and this week we are

going to talk about commonly used

onomatopoeia this is going to be a fun

one we talked briefly about an

onomatopoeia zoom

in a previous episode of weekly words

we’re going to talk some more about some

more talk some more about some more

we’re going to talk about more today the

first word is beep oh

beep beep is any kind of electronic

sound or a car sound and was also in a

popular american cartoon wiley coyote

and the roadrunner the roadrunner would

commonly say meat meat a car sound will

usually make a beep or a honk sound for

electronics however the beep becomes a

little bit more robotic we’ll often see

like beep beep beep beep beep

so in a sentence let’s say you have a

computer problem you tell your friend

the computer won’t stop beeping at me

what do i do next is the sound jingle

jingle is any kind of light ringing

sound this word gets used a lot uh in

holiday seasons particularly christmas

thanksgiving new year’s any jingling

sound is um very commonly assigned to

bells like the song jingle bells for

example is a perfect example of this

jingle is just the sound that a bell

makes in a sentence let’s see you might

say she has a

small bell attached to her phone so she

jingles everywhere she walks it’s really

irritating

okay the next word is thump a thump is

for something to hit heavily to give an

example the people who live in the

apartment above me often thump on the

floor it sounds like maybe they’re

dropping something heavy or

they’re stepping very heavily all right

next is splash anything that falls into

liquid lands in liquid makes a splash

it’s that

sort of sound that comes from water or

any other liquid really we refer to that

as a splash sound there is also a

popular tom hanks mermaid movie called

splash

this has nothing to do with that about

him falling in love with a mermaid i

made a big splash when i jumped into the

swimming pool this summer that has kind

of a double meaning

oh mysterious next is blurt it means to

say something quickly i blurted out the

news as soon as i heard it like i

blurted out the secret i couldn’t hold

it any longer it means you just say

something without thinking to blurt the

first part of the word what that blur

sound it sounds like something is just

kind of

sort of slips out on accident and then

the harsh

blurt

the t at the end is like a kind of a

final like oh my gosh i’ve just said

something i’ve slipped and then i’ve

said something oh no i didn’t think

about that all right that’s the end of

that one so i hope you learned a few new

onomatopias that you can try out next

time thanks for joining us for weekly

words and i will see you again next time

bye-bye

want to speak real english from your

first lesson sign up for your free

lifetime account at englishclass101.com

hi

hey and welcome back to weekly words my

name is alicia and this week we’re going

to talk about interjections this is

going to be fun let’s start the first

word is ba b-a-h

maybe you’re upset about something or

you’re tired of dealing with something

people will often throw up their hands

like this when they say they’ll go ba

and walk away bo humbug is a very very

well-known

use of this interjection is from uh the

story a christmas carol one of the

characters says bah humbug at all these

things that upset him

all right the next interjection is aha

is used whenever you feel surprised

about something or when you have a good

idea about something for example sitting

at work

actually maybe you shouldn’t do this at

work because your co-workers will think

you’re crazy if you’re feeling really

excited about your idea you can go like

this with your finger and go aha i have

an idea for my presentation next week

okay

the next one is meh this one i think has

only become popular in the last i don’t

know it started being used i think it

started more on the internet and now it

has come to be used in everyday life

that is just when you’re you’re not very

excited about something um maybe you

went to a party your friend asks you how

it was and you’re like yeah i went it

was pretty meh we use it like an

adjective actually or you can just use

it as a one word interjection meh meh

meh

okay the next word is oh oh is a very

very useful one you can use o in a

number of situations when you’re

surprised when you’re thinking of

something when you want to have kind of

a soft introduction to whatever you’re

saying i think i tend to use it as a

question or when i’m feeling surprised

so when my friend tells me something

like oh hey i have this great news i’ll

say oh just by itself as a question to

get somebody’s attention i might say oh

did you see that new movie last week a

sentence starter for me anyway okay the

next word is hmm

we use

when we’re thinking about something when

we need a minute to consider our

thoughts it can be used at the beginning

of a sentence or just while you’re

thinking on its own hmm what might be a

good example sentence for hmm

and

end those are all

interjections those are all

interjections try to use them if you use

these correctly in your speech

throughout your speech it’ll help you to

sound a lot more natural and a lot more

smooth

in your speaking ability so give them a

try thanks again for joining us this

week and i will see you next time for

more weekly words bye begin hi everybody

welcome back to weekly words my name is

alicia and this week we’re going to look

at some common english idioms let’s

begin the first word or phrase rather is

about to about to means you’re going to

start something you’re going to begin

doing something for example i’m about to

start explaining this idiom to you hey

hey

okay the next word or phrase idiom the

next idiom is by the way the word here

they’ve used is incidentally it’s a way

to transition to another topic that’s

related to what you’re talking about for

example this week i’m going to a party

by the way did you hear about the party

happening next week so they’re somewhat

related

okay uh the next idiom is in a way in a

way

this is kind of in a way it was a good

thing that the burrito shop was closed

because otherwise i would have eaten way

too much and you can use this to show

that there are maybe two sides to a

situation maybe some things are negative

maybe some things are positive next is

on the other hand i hear this a lot on

the other hand is a way of just saying

however or to share two different sides

to a story for example i think my

co-worker is really irritating on the

other hand at parties he’s really funny

so you can show two maybe different

sides to a point with this phrase next

is a matter of fact as a matter of fact

as an idiom this is a long way to just

say actually or really it’s a little bit

more formal sounding so you might use it

in a business meeting for example

everybody at the business meeting might

feel a little bit unsure about the

previous month’s sales

and you can begin your presentation by

saying something like i know everybody

was a little bit unsure about last

week’s or last month’s sales performance

but as a matter of fact things improved

and that’s the end those are some common

idioms that you might hear in english

give them a try they’re pretty useful

and you might hear a lot of them in

conversation thanks very much for

joining us this week and we’ll see you

again next time for more information bye

hi welcome back to weekly words my name

is alicia and this week we’re going to

talk about ways to say hi this should be

fun let’s get started first is yo

this one is a little bit casual in case

you couldn’t tell used for close friends

maybe family members if you have kind of

a silly relationship with them just

quick short easy to do in a sentence yo

how’s it going howdy howdy uh

traditionally associated with cowboy

culture i suppose you should play a

banjo maybe or you’ve just gotten off a

horse i don’t know i use howdy from time

to time howdy howdy howdy howdy

that’s my banjo

yeah in a sentence you might say

howdy folks

welcome to the

barbecue place

next is hey

hey is good friendly phrase you can

usually use hey with a wave and smile

look happy if you don’t people might

think that you’re down in the dumps

people might think you’re not in a very

good mood in a sentence hey

uh i heard you got engaged last week

congratulations something like that it’s

usually kind of a cheery happy

expression all right next is what’s up

uh what’s up is the long form of sup

this does not literally mean what is

above you right now if you want to be

funny you can say the ceiling or the sky

but that joke gets old really fast and

chances are the person you’re talking to

has already heard it before it just

means what are you up to what is going

on with you in a sentence what’s up did

you have a good weekend typical response

to what’s up is not much find out some

more responses in english in three

minutes we did an episode on this

nothing much how about you that’s pretty

good pretty good pretty good pretty good

[Laughter]

i don’t know what i’m doing the next one

is long time no see you can use this

when you haven’t seen the other person

for a long time you’re at a party or an

event or whatever any time it’s been a

long break you can decide how long long

is not the day before or the week before

maybe a few weeks or a month whatever is

unusual for you and this other person

when you see them you can say hey long

time no see how have you been uh that’s

the end so those are a few different

ways to say hi in a few different

situations i hope that you have a chance

to try them out the next time you meet

someone or you greet someone thanks very

much for joining us this week and we’ll

see you again soon bye

instead of saying sup i like to say soup

soup

hi everybody welcome back to top words

my name is alicia and today we’re going

to be talking about 10 different phrases

that you can use to respond to the

question how are you so let’s go i’m

great

the first phrase is i’m great if someone

says how are you you can say i’m great

try to say i’m great with a kind of an

upbeat voice

so something like how are you i’m great

i’m feeling bad

i’m feeling bad if you say i’m feeling

bad the other person is probably if

they’re a friend of yours or a co-worker

going to ask you why what happened so if

you want to use i’m feeling bad make

sure you have an explanation ready

anyway somebody says how are you and you

go i’m feeling bad

maybe i went out for drinks last night

with my co-workers oops i’m okay

i’m okay i feel like this is one of

those intonation practice ones i’m okay

with that ah i’m okay it’s like sort of

upward intonation you’re like cool but

if someone says how are you and you’re

like i’m okay

they’re like oh no

what happened

so you can use your intonation with i’m

okay to make it a good thing or another

good thing but either way it’s not like

a very super serious response thank you

for asking yeah

i imagine this would be in a more formal

situation like if my friend said to me

how are you

and i was like thank you for asking

they’d be like

what i would say i’m fine or i’m doing

well i’m doing great plus thank you for

asking so

how are you i’m doing very well thank

you um oh that’s how i would use it

and you the next one is and you like the

least natural response to how are you is

i’m fine thank you and you like just get

out of put it just take it out of your

head nobody says that i always say how

about you that’s a much more natural

thing how are you

how are you how are you can be a

response again after you have given your

answer to the question how are you

i’m great how are you how are you i’m

good how are you i’m great how are you

i’m okay how are you

how have you been recently how have you

been recently this is only useful if you

haven’t seen the other person for a

while i’m not bad i’m not bad i’m not

bad how are you i’m not bad i’m not bad

things could be worse i would probably

do this

i’m sleepy the next expression is i’m

sleepy

it’s like so specific if someone said

how are you i would probably say i’m

okay but i’m a little sleepy i don’t

know that i would just say i’m sleepy

unless it’s a really good friend of mine

it’s a person close to you you can say

i’m so tired i’m i would say i’m super

tired or i’m really tired

and i feel like that’s a little bit more

natural than just i’m sleepy i’m good

one that i use a lot if someone says how

are you i say i’m good

that’s just probably my go-to response

yeah i’m good i’m good maybe i’ll repeat

it

while smiling i’m good i’m good yeah

thanks for asking great

how are you that is the end those are 10

phrases that you can use to respond to

the question how are you if there’s one

takeaway from this and from other things

that we’ve done over the last few years

in this channel just get rid of that i’m

fine thank you and you and pick one of

these that we’ve talked about today um

of course if there’s another expression

that you use

for a response to

how are you

i’d be very interested to learn about

that but

uh in general you’re pretty safe if you

stick with these i think so thanks very

much for watching this episode of top

words and we will see you again soon bye

that means

we’re going to the

movie theater right all right uh hi

everybody my name is alicia welcome back

to top words today we’re going to be

talking about must-know expressions for

agreeing and disagreeing very useful so

let’s go

exactly exactly when you agree 100 with

something someone else has said you can

say exactly for example ramen is one of

the best foods in the world exactly i

don’t agree i don’t agree you have a

different opinion from the other person

they tell you i think that soccer is the

best sport you can say i don’t agree but

be prepared to provide your own opinion

after this i think soccer’s the best

sport i don’t agree i think that

football is

oh that could cause some problems soccer

football americans say football when we

mean american football but the rest of

the world says football when they mean

soccer

maybe maybe is when you don’t know when

you can’t make a decision or when you’re

not sure about something okay so someone

tosses you an opinion someone says their

their idea to you i think it’s gonna

rain tomorrow you can say yeah maybe you

don’t know for sure yes or no but it’s

possible it’s a good sort of in-between

expression but if you use maybe all the

time it’s going to sound really strange

and it’s going to sound like you can’t

make a decision so use maybe very

sparingly don’t use it so often maybe is

very commonly used as a soft nose it’s

up to you to figure that out among the

people that you’re talking to though do

you want to stay over my house this

weekend and maybe

i couldn’t agree with you more

you

are in complete agreement with the other

person and really want to communicate

that to them you think that what they

have just said is really really correct

super correct yes you are completely on

board with that idea you can say i

couldn’t agree with you more i couldn’t

the negative form i could not agree with

you more meaning it’s not possible that

i could agree more with what you’re

saying next week

it’s really important that we have a

barbecue because summer is ending and

then your friend can say i couldn’t

agree more that’s a fantastic idea i’ll

buy

steak

i think we’re going to have to agree to

disagree agree to disagree this is a

kind of it seems like a simple phrase

agree to disagree so you’re agreeing

with the other person you agree

that we have a different opinion agree

to disagree i would use this expression

at the end of a discussion so person a

and person b have different opinions and

they’ve been discussing those opinions

for a long time and person a is not

changing his or her opinion person b is

not changing his or her opinion so you

can say at the end of the conversation

okay we have to agree to disagree let’s

just accept our different opinions and

move on in the conversation you have a

point there this is not necessarily an

agreement or disagreement phrase it’s a

small agreement within a larger

discussion so maybe you’ve been

discussing a topic for a long time and

you’ve disagreed with the other person

until this this time this person says

something and you agree with that ah you

have a point there so there’s one thing

that this person has said that you can

agree with you can say you have a point

there i think that’s correct or i agree

with that point that’s exactly how i

feel that’s exactly how i feel

meaning my feeling is the same as your

feeling or my opinion is the same as

your opinion that’s exactly how i feel

maybe you can use this if someone

describes your feeling very accurately

for example you can say i feel like the

company is really heading in a nice new

direction you can say yeah that’s

exactly how i feel i really like the new

boss i don’t think so i don’t think so

it’s

soft it’s not so direct it’s not a hard

i disagree but just i don’t think so of

course you can use it to discuss

opinions but you can also use it when

you’re making plans are you going to

that party this weekend and i don’t

think so it’s not a disagreement but it

can be used as a negation phrase a

negative

response to something when used as an

opinion i think chinese is the hardest

language to learn you can say i don’t

think so i think that arabic is the

hardest language to learn yes

you’re right yes you’re right means

you’re correct yes i agree with you i

think that’s the right information i

think that’s the correct opinion just a

very clear agreement phrase you’re right

it also has the nuance of being correct

so maybe there was

there was a possibility the other person

could be incorrect did you know that

pepperoni pizza is the most delicious

pizza in the world yes

you’re right you can change it to that’s

right for that opinion you can use your

to talk specifically about the person

itself but that’s right yes that’s right

that information is correct i guess so i

guess so it’s so it’s an agreement but

it’s sort of a flaky agreement i guess

so it’s like you don’t really want to

make a decision uh but you don’t feel

strongly in one like in agreement or

disagreement you can say i guess so it’s

usually said with this tone of voice i

guess so you know we don’t really say i

guess so generally it’s like you can’t

quite make a decision or you don’t want

to make a decision you can say i guess

so hey we’re going to go for chinese

food for dinner tonight do you want to

come yeah i guess so you don’t feel

strongly either way i guess so i’m

afraid i disagree it’s a rather polite

expression that you can use in a

business situation for example i’m

afraid here doesn’t mean i’m actually

scared or i’m really frightened but just

it’s a softener that’s used at the

beginning of sentences to introduce a

negative opinion so i’m afraid i

disagree or i’m afraid i can’t agree

with you for example i think that you

need to adopt a new policy for your

company i’m afraid i disagree it’s a

soft disagreement that sounds a bit more

formal than some of the other phrases

we’ve talked about so far absolutely

absolutely means 100 percent yes exactly

precisely definitely it’s a quick and

clear and can be polite as well as

casual

word that means you agree with the other

person hey do you want to go to the

beach this weekend yeah absolutely

absolutely

oh that’s the end

so

those are some phrases that you can use

to agree and disagree with other people

there are a lot of them so and you can

kind of mix and match them as you see

fit

so give them a try thanks very much for

watching this episode of top words and

we’ll see you again soon bye

playa’s beach

[Music]

want to speak real english from your

first lesson sign up for your free

lifetime account at englishclass101.com

hi everybody my name is alicia and today

i’m joined again in the studio by

michael hello hi michael thanks for

joining us again today today we’re going

to be looking at a few tips for learning

another language so each of us have

prepared a few things that we think are

really useful when learning another

language both of us have studied another

language to some degree uh so we’re

going to talk about things that were

useful for us and which might be useful

for you as you practice your english

skills so let’s begin do you want to

start

sure go for it um i would say

absorb media this is something that

actually when i meet someone and they

sound like a native english speaker and

i go you know where are you from are you

from australia america no no i’m from

blah blah blah what

you mean you’re not a native english

speaker and every single time they tell

me i said you know how did you learn

please i’m an english teacher i want to

know i want to help people blah blah

blah

and every single time they tell me oh i

just love

blah blah culture so usually i love

american culture i love justin bieber

and lady gaga blah blah blah and so all

day every day they’re reading they’re

watching movies they’re sitting on

youtube and just absorbing it and it

doesn’t feel like you’re studying but

you are

um and so then you’re more likely to

study so it’s like a fun way to study um

it’s it’s helped me i’ve changed

everything on my ipod so even when i’m

lazy i have no choice but to listen to

the language i’m learning yeah i think

that’s a really good tip i had the same

thing essentially mine was just phrased

slightly different i said find something

that interests you in your target

language so if english is your target

language whatever it might be if it’s

music if it’s movies if it’s comic books

i don’t know if it’s if you’re

interested in some dating someone who

speaks your target language whatever it

is find something to motivate you

something that’s going to make you want

to study and make you want to learn that

language so that you have that you know

that that drive to do it i totally agree

with you yeah i think it’s a great tip

okay cool so we had one thing that was

the same i guess i’ll share another one

of mine if that’s okay

um my next one

is one that i try to do myself but i

know that i i miss i mess up every once

in a while um

practice every day even if it’s just a

few minutes uh whether you can spare an

hour or two hours or just

i myself study while i’m you know

commuting to work on on the subway uh

just find something that you can do

every single day so that you don’t lose

you know lose your place in your studies

just whether it’s vocabulary or picking

a new grammar point to be looking at or

just you know finding a new phrase on tv

that you thought was interesting just

being an active learner every single day

really really contributes i think to

your abilities to speak and to

understand another language it’s just

practice every single day something

i think this is a really useful

piece of advice for anything

i think a lot of people you get

overwhelmed and you know you think man i

want to be here whether it’s exercising

or playing the piano or whatever and you

just want to finish you know a year’s

worth of time in one day and so you

study really hard you know you

procrastinate and then one day you do

you cram as much as you can you get

burnt out and then you don’t do it for

weeks months and that’s not the way

humans work we’re creatures of habit any

of the best the greatest whether they

speak a language like you is as

wonderfully as you do or whatever or

play piano or whatever

every single time you ask them and it’s

brick by brick by brick so i i agree 100

and i also don’t follow this advice all

the time it’s tough i think the key is

to not give up so for me honestly my my

languages aren’t i’m not as confident

but as far as exercise you know you’ll

get lazy and you’ll pig out and you go

down yeah but you can’t just give up and

just let it go down right just remember

the big picture that you are making

progress even if there’s some some some

decline so if you get busy with work

whatever get back on it keep practicing

yeah english get back on

englishclass101.com

[Laughter]

what is your next tip

um so my next tip is uh

also related to practice every day is

practice fearlessly so this means

you know it’s easy to learn some basic

phrases in english hello i’m fine thank

you and you and you sound like a robot

and you feel comfortable comfortable in

your little like comfort zone but you

don’t expand you got to be willing to

make mistakes and i think it’s the same

as with dancing

if you’re afraid you look stupid if

you’re you’re reserved and you’re off on

to the side of the club and you’re just

kind of moving like one shoulder in your

little comfort bubble it looks really

stupid it looks way more stupid than if

you were actually going all out and just

having fun with it yeah i think it’s the

same thing with language don’t just

stick to your little comfort of hello

i’m fine thank you and you and sound

like a robot yeah you got to have some

fun with it try to use those big words

that maybe you mess up that’s okay

that’s how you learn just like a kid

um so let’s see your other one my tip my

last tip then uh is kind of general i

guess i’ve just chosen immersion um this

doesn’t necessarily mean that you have

to go to the country you know where they

speak the language that you’re studying

but just find a way to

even if it’s just for a short period of

time every day or once a week or

whatever it is if there’s some some way

that you can immerse yourself in the

language that you’re studying for a

period of time and only study you know

spanish or only study english in your

case uh for for a period of time every

day or every week every month whatever

it is on a regular basis so you get used

to just hearing that and just

experiencing that i think is really

really helpful i think

yeah i agree um i think that’s

no no that’s not the other one um

i thought i thought i wrote it down

um yeah i agree one of the things that

uh most people don’t realize is that now

it’s the 21st century everyone’s

connected so a lot of people just assume

that if you move to the country you’re

going to pick up the language because

immersion is is one of the best most

you know time and time again proved way

proved ways to learn a language

but that’s not always the case like i

have a lot of friends in different

countries who don’t learn it at all

they’re married to a local but they just

it’s easy to just sit on facebook and

talk to your old friends and never

actually you know practice and put it

out there so um

if you can’t make it out to another

country don’t worry about it because

even if you do sometimes you know it’s

that mindset it’s actually doing it yeah

yeah i agree i agree good okay what’s

your last tip my last tip is

take grammar with a grain of salt

so of course grammar is essential for

learning a language absolutely there’s

no doubt about it you should definitely

focus on that but what i’ve found is

that when you’re learning from a

non-native english speaker

they feel safe teaching grammar because

their set rules they can teach even if

their pronunciation isn’t correct or any

of that

and

you know you you you can just get into

that rut but the reality of most

languages is we break those rules all

the time so don’t worry too much if

you’re if your grammar’s a little off or

you’re having trouble learning it just

just kind of go with it and just try to

repeat what you hear yeah i don’t know

about you though no i think that’s an

interesting point though because i think

that like you say i think grammar is a

really safe place for a lot of people

because like you say there are there are

rules it’s clear that i can see that you

know if i put a noun and a verb like

this then i’m going to make a sentence

that says this and i understand that

it’s really easy to understand but i

think that’s something that a lot of

learners and myself i’m guilty of this

too is that there’s a limit to how much

grammar that you can learn like once you

learn the grammar you’re you’ve you’ve

learned the grammar like it’s possible i

think to master the grammar of any

language but it’s the vocabulary that

continues to change every year there are

new words and every single language that

get developed people are making up new

words every day especially in english so

experiment you know once you find that

you know you’ve learned you’ve learned

the grammar

move on you know keep keep exploring new

vocabulary find new and interesting

things to do with the tools that you’ve

given yourself so don’t be afraid to

experiment with your vocabulary too if

you find something that you might like

to try to make a verb out of like google

for example

give it a try see if it works if the

other people around you are confused

maybe it didn’t work if the other people

around you laugh or you know continue

with the conversation hey maybe you just

made a new word you never know so give

it a try uh thanks very much for joining

us for our english tips on this lesson

we will see you again next time bye is

it recording hi there welcome back to

weekly words my name is alicia and today

we’re going to talk about commonly

looked up words these are words that are

the most commonly uh searched for on

merriam-webster online which is a

popular english dictionary so let’s get

started the first word is pretentious

pretentious is a word that means you’re

trying to impress other people or

someone who tries to impress other

people by making themselves seem more

exciting or more important or cooler

than they really are in a sentence you

might say my co-worker is so pretentious

he’s always exaggerating his stories to

make himself sound important don’t be

pretentious the next word is ubiquitous

ubiquitous just means something that you

see everywhere smartphones smartphones

smartphones

that’s ours still laughing about

smartphones it’s a fern that’s really

smart you can tell when you need extra

oxygen

in a sentence uh you might say

smartphones are ubiquitous everybody has

one now and i have one too albeit uh

albeit just means although in a sentence

she was making progress albeit rather

slowly the next word is ambiguous

ambiguous just means something that’s

the meaning is not really very clear to

you maybe if you’re reading the

newspaper for example and a sentence is

written kind of strangely you might say

hmm the meaning of this is rather

ambiguous all right

love really

baby don’t hurt me

love is just that intense feeling where

you really really like somebody else

could be your family member it could be

a partner a romantic partner whatever it

could be a food you really like as well

just anytime you have that really deep

strong emotion you can use the word love

for example i love pizza it’s my

favorite food

okay

and that’s the end of commonly searched

for words in the dictionary i hope you

learned a few new things give them a try

and we’ll see you again next time for

more weekly words bye

[Music]

this doesn’t sound natural to me

roll and roll and rolling

okay hi welcome back to weekly words i’m

alicia and today we’re going to talk

about phrases that aren’t cool anymore

woohoo

i probably say a whole lot of these

phrases so i’m about to embarrass myself

the first phrase is sweet oh sweet’s not

cool anymore sweet means cool sweet

means something that’s good you might

say oh man that skateboard trick you

just did was sweet

groovy i still say groovy um groovy

means cool groovy means good um it was

used in the 70s when you know funky

groovy music was popular uh in a

sentence like oh hey um those are some

groovy moves on the dance floor

i don’t know if we can use that going

steady going steady is kind of an

old-fashioned phrase as well going

steady just means you’re dating someone

who is dating someone else like me and

trisha are going steady it just means

you’re dating you’re a couple

not oh this is this word is actually

what the entire holiday of april fool’s

day is based around

that’s a lie particularly i would say

for junior high school students this

phrase is um

very popular they might say something

like hey

um steve thinks you’re cute not

so in other words it’s often used as an

insult

duh is used when someone says something

really stupid or something really

obvious

so if you say something like

oh hey it’s raining the other person who

can also maybe look out the window

you’re both sitting in front of might

say duh

because you’ve just indicated something

very very obvious you can also use duh

to make fun of yourself when you do or

say something really stupid

as soon as you realize this you can go

ah duh yeah i’m learning today but i’m

not cool

that’s the end oh okay well those are

some phrases that are no longer cool i

hope you learned something about things

that are no longer cool but you can

still use these words just you know

don’t expect to sound really interesting

or hip

to the lingo if you use these words okay

thanks for joining us and i will see you

again next time bye bye hi everybody

welcome back to english topics my name

is alicia and i’m here today again with

michael hello and today we’re going to

be talking about questions that we have

been asked so let’s begin what is the

first question that you would like to

discuss today michael i would like to

discuss

what’s the main difference between

british and american english

so

for me

i’d like to get this out of the way um

canadians and americans sound pretty

much the same it’s hard for us to tell

the difference uh even even native

english speakers there’s a couple

telltale signs you know they’ll say some

things but it’s usually regional so i

guess north americans and then like uk

english um and again there’s a lot of

different

um accents and dialects you know it all

depends but for me the easiest way

is

americans

enunciate every word we’re very loud and

we open our mouths a lot hello how are

you where are you from

teacher water we enunciate every sound

so um for me a dead giveaway is that

that r that end r

right it’s tough uh i listen for vowel

sounds and try to guess based on that so

your question is about uh british

english and american english there’s

also australian english there’s scottish

english there’s irish english there’s so

many different english-speaking dialects

and honestly sometimes it’s hard for us

to understand we’re both from relatively

the same part of america so we have the

same speaking style our accents are the

same um but to go through all of the

different dialects to try and

approximate the to try them to try and

say them badly to would probably just be

a waste of time but you’re on the

internet

look it up

okay i guess we’ll go to the next one um

let’s see my questions

let’s see i’m going to start with a

grammar question that i get a lot uh a

grammar question that i come across

students ask me this question

the present tense versus the progressive

tense uh what is the difference when

should i use present tense versus

progressive tense so by this i mean of

verbs the present tense uh is used for

uh facts things which are always true

things which are part of your regular

schedule the progressive tense has a few

different meanings to it a few different

uses to it but one of the meanings or

one of the uses is to express something

which is temporary which is not part of

your regular schedule or another uses to

describe a trend to use a very common

mistake

as an example if i ask the question

where do you work

a lot of times the response i get from

my students is i am working in america

um

depending on on

on the situation that sentence could be

correct but if you’re talking about the

place where you work always every day

you go to that job it could be the

location of your office it could be the

country or the city where you work if

it’s a part of your regular schedule you

want to explain a fact that is true

about your life you should use the

present tense not the progressive tense

so um the correct version of that

sentence should be i work in america

that’s part of my regular schedule if

however you’re only in america for the

week for example

you can use the progressive tense but

it’s more natural to say for example

this week i’m working in america that’s

a much much more natural sentence to use

how do i pronounce the th sound

so

you know depending on who i’m

teaching english to they’ll have

problems with different pronunciation

sounds but for me i think one that’s

that’s common with a lot of different

cultures is the th sound and um i think

again this goes back to like the

different ways of speaking and how

americans we enunciate every word and we

push our the way we speak to the very

tip of our mouth uh that’s the th sound

so most people are

capable of of making the th sound but

they’re just a little shy and it just

doesn’t seem natural it’s almost as if

you can bite the tip of your tongue off

when you say the

sound

right

uh and then just another thing to note

is that th can have a hard or a soft or

voiced or unvoiced sound so

the is hard or voiced you hum

the

the and then with like think it’s a soft

or unvoiced you don’t hum you don’t

vibrate you just say

think

but it’s still the tongue goes touches

your teeth

think

that

um this is another grammar point that i

get questions about from time to time it

is the present perfect tense versus the

simple past tense um the question is

when do i use them so present perfect

tense uh let’s see an example of present

perfect tense would be i have been to

paris

uh simple past tense would be uh i went

to paris what is the difference we use

the present perfect tense to talk about

a life experience or something which

occurred in the past but which still

affects the present so in this case in

my paris example sentence it’s something

that happened in the past but when

exactly when is not important we just

want to say i have had the life

experience of going to paris

simple past however is used to refer to

a specific point in time in the past so

for example i went to paris last summer

it’s important that you know i went last

summer if the time point when you went

to paris is not important use the

present perfect tense um so this is

really useful for talking about your

travel experiences for talking about

your study experiences foods you have

and have not eaten

um so keep just try to keep in mind when

when you should use these two uh they’re

very commonly used together like for

example you might use the present

perfect tense to introduce a question

have you ever been to paris and the

follow-up answer oh yes i have been to

paris using the present perfect tense

again but then a common pattern is to

follow that answer up with a simple past

question when did you go so you can see

it changes from present perfect tense to

simple past tense so a larger life

experience to a more simple life

experience um so they’re used together

but just be careful try to be aware of

am i talking about an overall life

experience or a very specific life

experience this is one that many of my

students struggle with

this is more cultural

why do americans wear shoes inside the

house

on the bed etc

um

i feel like this depends and this is

starting to change i take my shoes off

in most houses but i guess it’s more so

for comfort whereas i feel like on the

east

side of the world

it’s more of like a

cleanliness kind of a thing and if you

do still wear your shoes it’s pretty

taboo whereas in the states i feel like

most people from my experience anecdotal

evidence just personal experience

most

places you take off your shoes but if

they have a party they let people wear

shoes inside the house they don’t care

and a lot of my friends will see

american movies and they see somebody a

main character wearing their shoes on

the bed on the couch something like that

um

again from my experience it’s not that

big of a deal but typically you wouldn’t

do that for me the the the rule of thumb

like the the unsaid rule is that you can

put your shoes up

but you don’t let your shoes um touch

the couch you kind of you hang off right

so you can if you want to lay on the

couch without taking your shoes off you

let your feet hang off um because yeah

of course they’re going to get dirty but

yeah it’s just not as emphasized as much

in our culture i don’t know the last

question i have is can i ask a question

the answer is yes

the answer is yes and in probably 95

percent of cases the answer to the

question can i ask a question is yes um

okay

why did i choose this question my

students sometimes will put their hands

up in my lesson and say

can i ask a question like one this is

your english class yes please ask

questions um but two also this is a

discussion i’ve been having with a few

people recently just about the mindset

that i think is really important when

speaking english

we have experience teaching in asia

where maybe there’s a different approach

to conversations i don’t know if this is

the same cultural approach to

conversations that people from other

countries have but um don’t wait for

permission to speak don’t wait to jump

into a conversation just go for it um

don’t wait for someone to say

oh would you like to speak now because

that’s never going to happen

so don’t be shy get your tongue out

and say things and don’t worry if it

sounds rude or too polite or whatever um

yeah i couldn’t agree more yeah yeah

just it’s a shift in mindset if you when

you when you start speaking that second

language like you said if you just

change your mind just a little bit just

make a small shift in your mindset maybe

you’ll see

ah that’s what it takes just let go a

little bit

of of your home language and see what

happens

great so those are some questions that

we have been asked about teaching about

english about culture

if you have any other questions by the

way please make sure to leave them in a

comment for us or if there’s something

that you’ve always wondered about or if

there’s something that you’ve

encountered recently that confused you

whatever leave it in a comment for us

and maybe we’ll talk about it in the

future

thanks very much for watching this

episode of english topics please make

sure to subscribe to our channel if you

haven’t already and we will see you

again next time bye

welcome back to weekly words my name is

alicia and this week we’re going to talk

about commonly misspelled words i’m

excited about this because i like

catching misspellings believe

to believe something just means to

accept something as true or not true in

the negative believe is commonly

misspelled do they spell it the live

well believe is commonly misspelled

don’t do that

so if you’re having trouble remembering

the correct way to spell the word

believe consider that the word lie is in

the middle of the word which is kind of

counter-intuitive if you’ve been paying

attention to the weekly word series uh

if you’re trying to persuade a friend to

do something you might say please

believe me this is going to be the best

party ever you have to come okay the

next is a lot this is commonly

misspelled because people like to put

the uh and the lot together it’s

actually two separate words ah and lot

a lot just means a large number of

something or a large amount of something

many of something in a sentence you

might say something like i have a lot of

hobbies i like skiing snowboarding and

white water rafting so just spell them

separately don’t put it all together

oh the next

there there and there students of

english tend to be better about spelling

these words than native speakers of

english and i find that very interesting

the first there t-h-e-r-e

refers to a place as in he lives over

there the book is over there somewhere

other than where you are right now the

second form

t-h-e-i-r is the possessive form of they

as in that’s their house that’s their

dog something that belongs to some other

group of people and the last form

t-h-e-y apostrophe r-e they are

refers to equality about another group

of people as in they are the students

they are the teachers it’s the

contracted form of they are onward the

next word is grateful grateful the

meaning of grateful grateful just means

that you’re appreciative of something in

a sentence you might say oh i feel so

grateful my teacher took time after

class to explain this concept to me uh

grateful is commonly misspelled because

this g-r-a-t-e

sounds just like the word great

g-r-e-a-t

but actually that great good meaning is

uh not the correct spelling for this

word we use great instead

this spelling of grade is also used as a

verb as integrate things in the kitchen

um

i don’t know if that has any relation to

this or not probably not it’s g-r-a-t-e

next is receive receive to receive

something as a verb means um to be given

something or to get something receive

can be kind of tricky because of the i

and the e a place where the i before e

except after c rule applies um it’s not

a 100 true rule um but typically after

the letter c

if the letters e and i need to follow it

after the letter c i is typically not

the first letter to come usually it’s e

that’s the first letter so it should be

c e i v e receive rather than recive or

something like that uh in a sample

sentence you might say uh i received a

gift from my friend on my birthday i was

really happy about that

the next word is end all right end is

not very commonly misspelled uh but

thank you for joining us for this

episode of weekly words please watch

your spelling with these words as it can

be very important to get them right

thanks again and i will see you next

week bye bye

want to speak real english from your

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welcome back to weekly words i’m alicia

and this week we are going to do

words with strange plural forms this is

good practice i bet let’s start yeah

antenna the plural form of antenna is

antennae i think i would say antennae

antennae

i think i probably actually just say

antennas

an antenna on an old uh tv set for

example would be it would kind of look

like this we’d call it bunny ears where

you had to adjust the bunny ears you had

to just adjust the antennae to make the

signal on your tv come in more clearly

bugs they have antennae from their heads

the next word is millennium the plural

is millennia a millennium is a period of

a thousand years a thousand years is a

millennium a series of thousands of

years would be called millennia

you might say

many millennia have passed since the

earth was formed

cactus

is the next word a cactus is a plant uh

these are the arms of the cactus i

couldn’t make the trunk of the cactus

wow

you can put a picture on the screen

instead of my amazing

cactus the plural of cactus is cacti or

cactuses i think i’m more inclined to

say cacti so when you go to the desert

you might say keep an eye out for cacti

if you step on one it could really hurt

you

the next one is an interesting one i

don’t think i’ve ever used this word in

the singular like if you have a swimming

pool or if you’ve seen a pond or

whatever it’s that green sort of scummy

stuff that accumulates on top of it or

on the sides of your pool if you haven’t

cleaned it in a while algae bacterias

and things that like to live in the

water there’s a singular form and i’m

just i’m looking at it for the first

time i don’t know how alga to use the

plural then you would say i need to

clean my pool there’s a lot of algae in

it

yeah

next is ox ox uh the plural of ox is

oxen

these animals used to be used for

farming i don’t know that they are very

much anymore i don’t have much personal

experience with farming but they’re they

look like really really big cows with

huge horns huge horns yeah okay

next is the end uh

plural words that have weird plural

forms so please keep them in mind when

you are

trying to use them in conversation and

use the correct form of the plural thank

you for joining us again this week for

weekly words next time we will see you

for more weekly words that was weird

we’ll see you again next week for more

fun information take care bye

welcome back to weekly words my name is

alicia and this week we are going to

look at commonly misinterpreted phrases

the first phrase is i couldn’t care less

people will often say i could care less

but that doesn’t really mean the same

thing as i couldn’t care less short for

i could not care less it is not possible

for me to care any less about this

situation so it’s just emphasizing that

whatever is going on it doesn’t bother

you in a sentence my

coworkers project wasn’t successful and

i couldn’t care less

oh

jerk all right next is nip it in the bud

many people say nip it in the butt it

should be nip it in the bud bud in this

case might refer to a flower before it

blossoms that small shape before the

flower actually opens up we call that a

bud so to nip something would mean to to

take something quickly like biting

taking motion to nip something in the

bud would mean to stop something before

it becomes

something else stopping something

negative from happening

knitting a sweater because i was

knitting a sweater earlier there’s a

section of the sweater where the thread

the yarn has started to unravel and you

think to yourself oh my gosh i need to

nip this in a butt nip this in the bud

so you decide to fix it right away

instead of letting the sweater just

slowly unravel as you work on it next is

one and the same not one in the same i’m

probably guilty of this one actually one

and the same just refers to

something that is maybe has two names um

but both of those names refer to the

same thing or the same person my teacher

and my father are one in the same person

maybe you know if your dad is your

teacher in school you could use this

expression on tenterhooks on tenterhooks

is the next expression this isn’t a

phrase that i’m familiar with i don’t

use this one but it seems that some

people use the phrase on tenderhooks i’m

not really sure what tenderhooks are

this expression is used when people are

looking forward to learning the outcome

of something or kind of

maybe there is anticipation they’re

anticipating something maybe you would

use this when you’re watching a movie

perhaps like i was on tenterhooks to

learn about the end of the story

something like that maybe next moot

point not mute point but moot point

something that is irrelevant something

that there’s just no point in talking

about it it is mooch there’s no meaning

a mood point

a moo point that’s funny i don’t know

ah let’s ask the internets hey siri oh

no

okay you’re looking for a guy to fill a

position and you find a guy and he’s a

great programmer and he’s fantastic but

it’s a moot point because he’s a convict

onward wow that was a long one and

that’s the last one okay that’s the end

of commonly misinterpreted phrases be

careful when you use these phrases and

make sure to get them right thank you

very much for joining us this week we’ll

see you again next time for more bye

you’re excited about something anxious

or like looking forward to something the

origins of this phrase are unclear hi

everybody my name is alicia and today

i’m joined again in the studio by

michael hello

and today we’re going to be talking

about bad habits in english so these are

some things that we’ve heard before or

mistakes that native speakers and

non-native speakers of english make and

that drive us crazy so

let us begin

you start what’s your first

thing um this doesn’t bug me too much

until

someone points it out about me and then

it drives me nuts

um

ah yeah okay once you tell someone that

they say

um

or like

too much

then every time they say it they notice

it and it’s really hard to get a thought

out because these are filler words that

you almost always use or i always use

maybe americans always use but

it’s yeah it’s really tough not to use

the word like or um i think when you’re

just speaking casually right

yeah right well yeah i mean like

right now

why would you have to make it the first

word why did you have to make it the

first one actually we talked about that

we have a video i think from probably

like a year ago one of the english

weekly words videos where uh the word

like was one of the words that americans

overuse uh i don’t know where that

information came from but um that was

see oh my god now i’m suddenly aware of

it why oh

this whole thing i’m gonna be thinking

about how often i say liking them okay

let’s see i’m gonna go to one that i

think all of us talked about and all of

us were aware of before we even turned

the camera on but um this is a this one

is written this is a written problem

that drives me nuts and there are so

many variations on this with other words

but this is the big one your y-o-u-r

this is a do not equal sign y-o-u

apostrophe r-e so this one your while

you are

uh is a possessive word this is your

shirt your bag your whatever y o u

apostrophe r e is a contracted form of u

r

interestingly enough though i will say

that i rarely see non-native speakers of

english make this mistake most of the

time it’s native speakers who make this

mistake come on guys

really

i just it just drives me nuts yeah that

one only drives me nuts that one bugs me

too because it’s it’s really simple i

mean there’s another one that still kind

of bugs me but i’m more forgiving is

it’s and it’s

because they’re both

its

and one of them has an apostrophe and in

both cases

it seems reasonable because you can use

an apostrophe for possessive or for a

contraction so both seem reasonable and

you just have to do like you know a

pneumonic device figure it out there’s

rules i’m sure there’s a you know

english language english class 101

episode on it you know no apostrophe is

the one that’s the possessive the

apostrophe s is the one that’s stored

for it has or it is

right

but it makes sense it’s kind of tough

for some people to remember um

you or you’re in your that that really

upsets me yeah just because it’s so easy

it’s simple that and uh there we talked

about this earlier before this there

there and there

the possessive t-h-e-i-r

for that’s their house that’s their dog

t-h-e-r-e it’s over there and t-h-e-y

apostrophe r-e they are there are three

different there there there’s sound the

same but they have different meanings

and they should be spelled differently

too so come on native speakers

gets together

okay all right next one for you what’s

your next one

ah along the same lines of being uh just

like correct

could of so i think the problem with a

lot of these words

is so it’s supposed to be could have

but when you’re speaking the language

any language you you make it quicker and

quicker and you kind of slur the words

together so like for example grandma

or grandma you like native speakers you

don’t really say the d you said grandma

grandma and so as a kid i thought that’s

how you spelled it and i remember

spelling g-r-a-m-m-a

someone told me no that’s not it

so it could have it makes sense why

people would say could of but it doesn’t

it’s not proper and you shouldn’t get in

the habit of doing it i think most of

these things you can be forgiving when

they’re kids but it’s best to to nip it

in the bud because

you know it just becomes a bad habit

yeah and i mean with could have there is

a correct contracted spelled version

it’s just could of apostrophe v e

could’ve i mean i would argue that it’s

more casual and it’s perhaps not the

most correct um thing to write i would i

probably would just write could have i

probably wouldn’t use the contracted

form so much use of contractions will

make you sound more casual if you want

to write a formal letter you should i i

feel you should not use contractions if

you’re writing an academic paper as well

don’t use contractions

spell it out spell the whole thing out

you’ll sound much more formal and more

at least in my mind more educated

all right uh great this topic is getting

me all like

fancy okay let’s see i’m gonna go to

okay another another pronunciation issue

that i feel like almost is cool now

okay

let me ask you a question

this pronunciation okay so i’ve written

acts on this card but the it’s

ask ask let me ask okay so this lemmy

which we talked about in a previous

video which is short for let me i’ve

contracted it here to the very casual

lemmy but i’ve used lemmy here because

this is this is typically said in a very

very casual setting let me ask you a

question but the pronunciation of ask

should not be ax it’s ask let me ask you

a question i want to ask you something

it’s not ax

it’s ask

ask yeah this one

again so like lemmy lemmy is okay i

think most people say lemmy i think

that’s okay but for some reason acts i

think a lot of these just are not even

close at all let me when you say it

really fast it sounds like lemmy i mean

right but when you say

acts it’s just totally wrong well it’s

reversing the the consonants in the word

ask right it’s not faster you’re not

making it quicker you’re not slurring or

making you know putting it into one

little like fluid blob

it’s just you just switch the two

uh yeah syllables similarly i hear this

with the word uh asterisk as well the

little star that’s on like the number

eight on your keyboard or whatever that

this looking thing it’s not an asterisk

or what i don’t even know it’s asterisk

so

over pronunciation so this one is kind

of the opposite direction so this whole

time we’ve been kind of nitpicking when

you use the incorrect version of a word

i think overpronunciation can also be

equally as damaging but instead of

making you look stupid it makes you look

pretentious so for example

we don’t say in english we don’t use all

of the syllables with chocolate so it’s

cha like when you spell it chocolate

wait chocolate right

and so like maybe in spanish or

something like that they would still say

that like chocolate or something

whatever but with english we took it out

and so even though you still spell all

of those syllables native speakers now

say chocolate chocolate or like

comfortable

comfortable that’s how it’s spelled but

native english speakers we say

comfortable

and this is like now it’s it’s

i think it’s like unanimous so maybe

when it becomes when slang becomes so

popular that it’s part of the new

language it’s the language has now

evolved if you don’t go with the flow

even though it’s incorrect i think you

sound pretentious that’s a great one i

like that a lot all right uh i’m gonna

wrap it up i have two actually i’ll just

i think i can do them quickly though do

you have any more by the way

no no okay then i’ll go quickly um these

are two the my last two are just a

couple that my students actually

struggle with um so maybe this this is

something that you can work on as well

um this one uh just an example sentence

i want to go to there i’ve underlined

the word to here

we use the word too when we’re talking

about a specific city or a specific

country like i want to go to new york i

want to go to europe but there is not a

specific location i want to go to there

is is not a specific place so we you

don’t need to use two in this sentence i

want to go there it’s perfectly fine so

this is a mistake that um non-native

speakers it seems seem to make from time

to time

um perhaps okay

and then another one that i’ve heard a

lot recently is this phrase

in case of and then a country

so for example in case of china in case

of egypt or whatever

where someone is trying to explain like

the political situation or a policy in

that country

in case of in case of

but actually you don’t need to use k-sub

just in

china in europe in japan whatever you

don’t need to use kasiv this pattern in

case of is used for like an emergency

situation or used uh to talk about

alternate plans often to to do with

weather so for example in case of rain

the event will be canceled or in case of

tornado please

go to your nearest evacuation center i

don’t know something like that so it’s

used for like an emergency situation

it’s not used to talk about

policies in the countries just use in

plus the place it’s much better much

more natural so those are a few things

that i’ve noticed that non-native

speakers uh struggle with sometimes so

perhaps they’ll be helpful for you as

well so thanks very much for watching if

you have a bad habit that you’ve noticed

when you’re speaking english or

if you’ve noticed a bad habit and

somebody else in their english speaking

or their writing or whatever please

leave it in a comment and let’s compare

it might be interesting to see if there

are any other things that people tend to

struggle with thanks very much for

watching this episode and we will see

you again soon bye

here we go here i go here i go hi

everybody my name is alicia welcome back

to top words today we’re going to be

talking about 10 phrases that make you

look like a fool hopefully you never use

them let’s start i don’t need to learn

anything anymore i don’t need to learn

anything anymore if you say this you

sound like i know all the information

ever i’m done learning i’m done studying

of course you need to learn of course

you need to study please don’t say this

phrase i don’t need your advice i don’t

need your advice i don’t need your

advice you sound like you don’t

appreciate what they’re saying you sound

like you don’t want to hear anything

from them i really think that you need

to be studying more i’m concerned about

your grades jeff i don’t need your

advice mom

i know everything i know everything this

is awful nobody wants to hear you say

this because it’s just not true are you

ready for the test next week steve

yeah i’m good i know everything they

don’t i’m not ready to learn english i’m

not ready to learn english

you can study anything at any time

pretty much i really think that you

should start studying english before

your trip to america next year

no i don’t think i’m ready to start

learning english see how stupid that

sounds

i’m right and you’re wrong i’m right and

you’re wrong uh you sound awful when you

say this nobody likes to hear that

they’ve made a mistake and that you’re

happy about that that’s what the nuance

of this phrase is i’m right you’re wrong

don’t say this phrase unless you’re very

very close with the other person and you

know that it’s okay to joke together i’m

right you’re wrong

it’s too hard don’t even try it’s too

hard don’t even try this sounds like

you’re giving up before you’ve even

started doing something if you don’t try

you never know right hey i think i’m

gonna start studying english this week

because i’m going to canada next year

what do you think don’t even try it’s

way too hard oh really you think it’s

too hard

hmm okay i guess i won’t

don’t do that

just do what i say just do what i say

just do what i say parents might use

this phrase a lot with their children

actually but if you say this to your

friends or to your colleagues you’re

going to sound like a really mean or

difficult to work with person just do

what i say

we can’t do that the next phrase is we

can’t do that this could also be changed

to i can’t do that again this sounds

like you’re giving up before you even

tried to do something i can’t do that

you’re just you’re not prepared or

you’re not even willing to try hey

stevens do you think that you could take

care of this report for next week we

need it for our client meeting ah no i

don’t think i can do that no that’s

that’s not my job that’s not my

responsibility you’re not very smart

you’re not very smart that’s not a nice

thing to say if someone makes a mistake

and you say oh you’re not very smart

that’s so mean it’s so rude everybody

makes mistakes from time to time don’t

tell them that they’re stupid don’t say

you’re not very smart that’s hurtful and

an example of what not to do i’m so so

sorry about this mistake that i made in

my report last week i’ll fix it i

promise i’ll fix it and i’ll send it to

you right away i can’t believe you made

such a simple mistake you’re not very

smart are you

everybody makes mistakes you’ll never

succeed you’ll never succeed you’ll

never succeed this is a phrase that

shows you’re not supporting the other

person and maybe you’re even trying to

hold them back how awful is that who

would say that don’t say that and i hope

no one ever says this to you i’m going

to join a marathon race next summer i

can’t wait a marathon you’re never gonna

succeed with that do you know how hard

those are have you even started training

well no but i think i can do it i just

need a few months and you know i need to

take care of myself and work hard no way

there’s no way that you can do that it’s

not possible oh you really think so i

was so looking forward to it too

thank goodness that’s the end oh my gosh

those were some sad phrases i hope that

nobody says those phrases to you but i

hope also that you don’t use these

phrases with other people because

they’re hurtful really try to be

positive so thanks very much for joining

us for this lesson and we will see you

again soon bye

i’m very insecure about my acting

abilities oh there’s sound coming

through this

i love the awkward pauses

today’s video is on words americans

overuse i haven’t seen these words yet

but apparently it’s going to be a series

of words that we as americans i’m

american um we overuse we use too often

so let’s start uh oh the first word is

definitely

definitely is definitely a word that

americans overuse we use it to

put emphasis at the end of a phrase to

put emphasis at the end of a sentence uh

as in

oh

that party last week was so great yeah

definitely or to agree with somebody

like that uh oh god literally oh just in

the last few days i’ve seen the word

literally so many times on the internet

and used in just such stupid ways the

word literally

uh means actually or truly something

this is literally the best hamburger

i’ve ever eaten

so

literally meaning truly or actually

would mean that in that person’s entire

life that is the best hamburger they’ve

ever eaten however it gets misused a lot

in sentences um like george bush was

literally supporting the war in iraq or

something like that taking a phrase like

that literally would have to mean that

you know the president former president

would be you know physically supporting

a war with his body onward

onward hilarious hilarious is the next

word i like to use the word hilarious

when something is actually funny

hilarious of course means something that

is really funny super funny it’s a step

above funny maybe two steps three steps

i don’t know however people like to use

this word in place of laughter

so uh for example friends are talking

and instead of just laughing the friend

will say that’s hilarious

well if it’s so hilarious just laugh oh

this must be the last one because this

is the worst one this word is like

um i’ve probably said it

several times already today for the for

the purposes of this video

the word like is used as a filler word

so it’s the same as something

such as um or uh or hmm for example we

use like

as a filler word when we’re trying to

think of something

it’s not uncommon to hear the word

repeated like three four five times in a

row when someone is thinking they’ll say

oh you know that party that i went to

like

like uh like uh like

do you know who was there it just

invades your speech sometimes when

you’re trying to think of something and

no other filler words come out but the

word like does

ah this wasn’t the last word there is

another one seriously

seriously is used oh it’s good for

anytime you receive bad news

um well not from your boss it’s a really

casual word um but if you hear something

um like your friend lost their job and

you can sympathize with them or maybe

empathize with them by saying seriously

oh that’s too bad or oh tell me like all

your problems oh my god i just use like

oh god oh i hate myself is that the end

it’s the end all right well i hope you

enjoyed learning about a few

um

words that americans overuse i’m sure

that there are more words that americans

overuse but perhaps you’ll find those

out on your own thanks very much for

watching and we’ll see you again next

time bye

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