How to Pronounce Names like an English Native Speaker
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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and I answer them
maybe first question this week comes
from Reza hi Reza Reza says hi Alicia
what’s the difference between in the
beach at the beach and on the beach are
they all correct okay first in the beach
is not used at the beach and on the
beach are both okay we use at the beach
when we want to talk about the general
location we use this when we’re sharing
pictures of ourselves visiting the beach
when we want to talk about a place to
meet and so on
so if you for example take a photo and
you want to post it to Instagram you
might use the caption Here I am at the
beach or today I’m at the beach with my
friends we use at the beach to talk
about the specific location where
something is happening we had a barbecue
at the beach and so on on the other hand
we use on the beach to talk about
activities that happen on the surface of
the beach so this is activities like
lying in the Sun to get a tan for
example or looking for shells on the
beach so these are things that happen on
the surface of the beach like you play
volleyball on the beach these are things
that happen like on the sand you can
think of it as the surface of the beach
so when you want to talk about a
specific location use at the beach let’s
meet at the beach or I saw my friend at
the beach when you want to talk about an
activity that you do on the surface of
the beach you can use on the beach for
example I found this beautiful shell on
the beach or I’m going to lie in the Sun
on the beach so at the beach okay
on the beach okay in the beach not used
I hope that that helps you thanks for
the question okay let’s move on to your
next question next question comes from
Sabina hi Sabina Sabina says hello
Alicia I would like to know the
difference between come back
get back and go back if there are any
okay first let’s talk about come back so
come back means to return to a place you
were just at but we use this when we’re
talking from the perspective of a person
who remains in the original location so
if I am here in front of the camera and
suddenly our camera person leaves I
might say no come back
meaning please return to the place you
were just in I’m still in this place but
I don’t want you to go I want you to
come back return to the place you were
just in so come back in this way means
to return to a place you were at
originally please keep in mind this is
different from come back which does not
have a space to make a come back means
to return to a place of former glory or
a former like kind of celebrity status
so for example an actor or an actress
who has not appeared in movies or TV for
quite some time might try to make a
comeback and appear in something big and
exciting in order to regain their former
status that is spelled come back with no
space to come back however has a space
between come and back so that’s an
important distinction between these
words now let’s talk about get back get
back and have a couple of different
meanings to get back can have the
meaning of to take revenge we use this
in a situation where someone has done
something wrong or something has
happened that is bad to us and we want
to get revenge on that person we use the
expression to get back at that person
like I’m going to get back at my
roommate for destroying my date or I’m
going to get back at my co-worker for
ruining my meeting so to get back at
someone means to take revenge on someone
so like to return a bad action to get
back we can also use get back as a
warning so this means like step away
from a dangerous place so imagine for
example you are near the edge of a cliff
or you’re near a
River that’s very dangerous if you’re
near the river very close to the edge of
the river and it looks really dangerous
someone might say to you get back which
means move away from the edge of the
river move away from this dangerous
position you might hear this in movies a
lot like in action scenes especially one
character might say no get back
meaning move your body physically in a
backwards motion or in a backwards
direction from this dangerous thing so
get back also has this meaning and then
one more point about the expression get
back you might know this expression from
like the famous Beatles song they say
get back to where you once belonged this
has a similar meaning of come back like
I talked about earlier so to get back to
a place means to regain your position
somewhere like if you’re playing a video
game and you die and you have to
continue the game again to get back to
the position you were at you would use
that verb we do not use come back in
that way because we use come back for
like celebrity status or like same that
kind of thing to make a comeback we
might also use that in sports when we
want to talk about going back to a
position we were at before but it’s not
like a super cool position you’re just
kind of regaining lost time you can use
to get back so the last word in your
list is go back go back so to go back to
something is used in very specific
situations it’s usually used in like
presentations like PowerPoint
presentations or like if you’re showing
someone photos or something like that
and you want them to return to the
previous page or to the previous item so
if you’re doing like a PowerPoint
presentation for example and someone in
your audience says like oh can you go
back to the last slide it means can you
return so this go back means return we
can also use go back to mean return to a
physical place we were in like I talked
about with come back at the beginning of
this answer but we use go back when were
the person that’s returning so in my
earlier example about the camera person
leaving the room during the shoot the
camera person might say I’m going to go
back into the room
so go back can have a few different uses
come back go back and get back are all
quite different though so please try to
keep this in mind okay
I hope that that helps you understand
the differences between these words
thanks very much for your question
alright let’s move along to your next
question next question comes from Dewey
citta again hi Dewey Dewey says what
says take someone or something for
granted mean ok so to take something or
someone for granted means to assume or
to expect that someone or something will
always be there to support you like you
forget to show appreciation for
something so a good example is like my
boyfriend or my girlfriend took me for
granted that means my boyfriend or my
girlfriend assumed I would always be
there to support them to help them to
give them what they need to do whatever
it takes to assist them in some way so
this has a very negative meaning about
it because each person chooses who to
support and in what way to support those
people and so when we don’t get
appreciation we may feel very bad about
that so if I say my boyfriend took me
for granted or my girlfriend took me for
granted it would show that I have a
negative understanding or a negative
view of that situation that person did
not express appreciation for my support
and so I feel upset about that so to
take someone for granted is not a good
thing to take someone or something for
granted is considered a negative thing
so please don’t do this ok the reason
that this seems quite negative is it’s
almost like the person who is taking
someone else for granted is like
expecting a free service almost so if I
say oh my boyfriend took me for granted
it’s like he’s just expecting me to for
example cook for him or to support his
work or something like that without
showing any appreciation or any kind of
recognition to avoid this kind of
situation you show your appreciation to
the people who support you this is a
pretty easy way to make sure that you
never make someone feel like they have
been taken for granted so I hope
this helps you with the understanding of
this phrase thanks very much for the
question
okay let’s move along to your next
question next question comes from tram
nuyen hi tram tram says dear Alisha I
hope you’re fine I’m a fan of your
podcasts could you please give me some
rules or tips for pronouncing proper
nouns such as human names geographical
names and so on it’s hard to say these
names properly if you haven’t heard them
before
thanks yeah really good question I would
suggest using YouTube especially if
you’re looking for a famous place or if
you’re looking for a famous person I
would suggest searching YouTube to find
some videos about that place or about
that person
so in many cases you can just find like
a presentation or you can find maybe
something about tourism in that area and
that will give you the correct
pronunciation of that places name or
that person’s name keep in mind though
that even though there are words that
are spelled the same in English they
don’t always have the same pronunciation
this is especially true with names a
great example is my name it’s spelled al
is H a I pronounce it Alicia
some people might choose to pronounce it
Alicia so that’s up to personal
preference you have to ask the person
what they want to be called in those
cases so it’s up to you to ask that
person so those are kind of specific
cases with names if it’s a famous name
or a famous place you should be able to
find a resource on YouTube if you really
want to be sure about your pronunciation
if however you’re just reading a name
and a book and it’s a character in a
book I would say make your best guess
this happens with native speakers all
the time especially in like fantasy
novels where the names of characters are
kind of strange they’re unusual kind of
fantastic if you can’t read the name and
you’re not sure about the pronunciation
that’s totally okay just choose a name
choose an understanding or choose a
pronunciation that works for you to
understand the story this is what native
speakers do as well and then in
conversations we compare our
pronunciations if there’s anything that
happens like that if there’s like a
character a name that we don’t know we
ask each other how do you say this name
how do you say this person’s name
and then you can kind of decide on the
correct pronunciation in your group in
that case so in some Czech YouTube for
famous places talk to people
individually if you have questions about
their name pronunciation but if it’s
just something you’re reading in a book
and it doesn’t really affect other
people if you just need to know a
character name pronunciation make your
best guess so I hope that this helps you
thanks for this question ok let’s move
on to your next question next question
comes from Douglas otávio hi Douglas
Douglas says hi Alicia I saw the phrase
let’s hope in a movie what does it mean
PS the movie was the American assassin
yeah so let’s hope is usually said after
a desired outcome so for example speaker
a might say this restaurant is really
popular but I think we can get a
reservation and speaker B might say mmm
let’s hope so
let’s hope is short for it let’s hope
for that outcome that you just mentioned
so you have to go back to the previous
sentence and the conversation in this
case I think we can get a reservation
that’s the thing that the speaker wants
that’s the desired result
speaker B is agreeing with speaker a by
saying let’s hope which means I also
want that outcome I hope that we can
achieve that outcome so let’s hope
connects to the thing that was
previously said so let’s look at one
more example that uses this phrase
speaker a might say the Sun is going
down but I think we can finish our hike
by sunset speaker B could say let’s hope
meaning I hope that we have the ability
to finish our hike by sunset so it
connects to the previous phrase in the
conversation so I hope that this helps
you understand the expression let’s hope
thanks very much for sending it along ok
that is everything that I have for this
week thank you as always for sending
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them to me in English class 101.com /
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English Studies thanks very much for
watching this week’s episode of ask
Alisha and I will see you again next
week bye bye
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