How to Sound Like a Native Speaker and Impress English Speakers
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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
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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
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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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