Whats the difference in English between CHECK UP and CHECK OUT
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hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and i answer them maybe
okay let’s get to your first question
this week first question this week comes
from eugene hi eugene eugene says hey
alicia is there a difference between
turn off the music and turn the music
off i always run into this problem when
i use phrasal verbs thanks yeah thanks
for this question no there is no
difference between turn off the music
and turn the music off they mean the
same thing
turn off is one of those phrasal verbs
that can be split so when i say split i
mean that when you use this phrasal verb
you can put the object of the phrasal
verb at the end or you can put it
between the two words so phrasal verbs
that you can do this with are called
separable phrasal verbs so that means
you can put the object of the verb after
it or in between the two words there are
some phrasal verbs that you cannot do
this with these are called inseparable
phrasal verbs so turn off is one example
of a separable phrasal verb you can
split it and choose whichever form you
like thanks i hope that that answers
your question okay on to the next
question next question comes from saeed
um
i hope i said that right hi sayyid
says hi alicia i’m from jordan i want to
ask you about the difference between d
value and downplay many thanks okay yeah
nice question so to devalue something
means to take value away from something
so d value consists of that prefix d
which means off or away and then value
right referring to how much something
costs or how much we think something is
worth so to devalue something means to
remove value from something some
examples
a poor quality product can devalue your
brand
my home was devalued due to damage from
a natural disaster
okay so now let’s talk about down play
to downplay something means to minimize
or decrease the seriousness of something
so we use downplay when we’re trying to
make something not seem like as big of a
deal as it actually is sometimes we want
to make people feel more calm or
sometimes we’re trying to hide
information but downplay means to try to
reduce someone’s perception or someone’s
idea of how serious a situation is some
examples
we should not downplay the seriousness
of this deadly disease
my manager downplayed my concerns at the
meeting i was angry
okay so i hope this helps you understand
the differences between devalue and
downplay thanks very much for the
question all right let’s move on to your
next question next question comes from
sergey hi sergey sergey says hi alicia
what is the difference between check up
and check out thank you in advance okay
there are a few different ways to use
these phrasal verbs generally check up
means to request or look for an update
from someone so you might say you need
to check up on someone we typically use
that when we’re talking about a person
for example can you check up on your
sister i haven’t heard from her recently
that means please go get an update from
your sister or please get some
information about the current status of
your sister so we tend to use check up
on something when we want to talk about
another person you might also hear like
check up on a specific place like go
check up on the barn or like go check up
on the animals outside to mean you want
to know the current status or the
current condition
you might also see checkup used with no
space between check and up to talk about
visiting a doctor to check your current
condition so in these cases we say
something like i need to go to the
doctor for a checkup or you should
really get a checkup when’s the last
time you visited the doctor
please note that this use of checkup is
as a noun in your original question you
used check up as a phrasal verb so both
are possible so just please note that
the space does make a difference check
up with a space refers to the phrasal
verb checkup with no space refers to the
noun and that’s the one that refers to
going to a doctor to review your current
condition so let’s compare this then to
check out check out generally checked
out means to finish your transaction and
leave a place most commonly we use check
out when we’re at the supermarket or at
a hotel so you might say something like
please check out at the register after
you finish shopping or i checked out of
the hotel at 10 am so these uses of
checkout refer to finishing some kind of
business or service transaction and
leaving that location you might also
hear check out used to mean go quickly
look at something like let’s check out
that new restaurant or oh i want to
check out that event later it means to
take a quick look at something generally
to see what’s happening
finally you might also hear check out
used sometimes to mean looking at a
person with romantic interest like
you’re physically attracted to that
person for example
that guy just checked you out or wow
check out that girl she’s so pretty
something like that might be used to
indicate that you find someone
physically attractive but generally
check out is used in the first two
senses most commonly in everyday
conversation to finish a transaction and
leave a place or to mean to take a quick
look at something so i hope this helps
you understand the differences between
checkup and checkout thanks for the
question okay let’s go to your next
question next question comes from
uh sarah hello sarah sarah says hi
alicia what is the difference between
knowledge and acknowledge when can i use
them good question okay so knowledge and
acknowledge i know they have that same
knowledge inside them but they’re quite
different knowledge is a noun
acknowledge is a verb so knowledge
refers to the things that we gain the
information that we learn from books
from experience
and so on so we use knowledge to operate
in the world to live our lives right so
for example it’s important to gain a lot
of knowledge as a child or make sure
that you review all of the knowledge on
this subject so knowledge is a noun that
refers to the things that you know or
the things that are known in the world
acknowledge on the other hand like i
said is a verb it means to recognize
something for example the company
acknowledged his hard work
or she acknowledged it would take a few
weeks to reach her goal so think of
acknowledge as meaning recognize it’s
kind of like a more formal way of saying
recognize so again yes although
knowledge and acknowledge do seem very
similar when you see them written they
do have quite different meanings and
different parts of speech so i hope that
this helps answer your question thanks
very much okay next question comes from
masume tabrizi hi masume i hope i said
your name right masume says when we tell
a story can we use passive yeah of
course you can use passive when you tell
stories i think that some people have
learned at some point that passive is
maybe bad or passive sounds weak or
maybe passive should be avoided and we
should focus on using active but
actually passive is an important way
it’s an important tool a grammar tool to
explaining stories and sharing
information so yes there are some times
when it’s a good idea to use passive for
example you should use passive when the
person who did the action is not known
or it’s not important so classic example
of this is if someone steals a bag and
we don’t know who it is we can say my
bag was stolen so that’s a great example
of using passive when you don’t know the
person who did the action you can also
use passive when it’s not important to
refer to the person who completed the
action that’s fine as well you can use
passive when you need to hide
information or when you need to keep
something secret so there are lots of
different ways to use passive to tell a
story and we do this all the time in our
everyday life another example might be
if a glass of water is knocked over in
my house and i don’t know who did it i
don’t know how it happened i might say
ah my glass of water got knocked over or
my glass of water was knocked over so
there are lots of different situations
where it’s very natural to use passive
if you learn that using passive is bad
or something like that
try to forget it passive has a time and
a place there are definitely times when
it’s a great idea to use passive so yes
please include it in your stories when
it feels right i hope that this answers
your question all right that is
everything that i have for this week
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