How to Explain a Problem in English Basic English Phrases
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problem we are back so today kind of a I
guess summary of today’s lesson I’m
going to talk about vocabulary words you
can use to express mistakes I’m also
going to talk about a useful sentence
pattern that you can describe our use
when you don’t know something and
finally I’m going to talk about some
grammar points that I think are useful
for this topic so if you have not
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delay let’s begin over here with
vocabulary words all right so these are
vocabulary words we use for mistakes for
mistakes and for problems usually when
we use these we’re using these in the
past tense so let’s take a look these
first two are to make a mistake and to
make an error so they both use the verb
make to make a mistake to make an error
what is the difference between a mistake
and an error we use mistake most
commonly in everyday speech so something
a person did so like earlier maybe like
I’m I wrote the wrong letter or I did
something small like an everyday like
life small thing I would say I made a
mistake so we use past tense here I made
a mistake when you use the word error
it’s often for like machines so you
could say like my printer had an error
or like this other person in my
organization made an error so we use
this for like machines and for like
business situations maybe for contracts
as well to make an error to make an
error okay the next one I want to
introduce this one I’ve had a couple
questions about this word the word is
oops oops the pronunciation oops is used
for small mistakes so like if I drop my
pen or if I maybe accident like I drew
on my skirt earlier on accident you can
say oops for a small mistake something
that’s a really small thing you didn’t
on like accident
so by accident means you did not plan to
do that so you can say
oops for those very small mistakes oops
I have here as well I’m not going to
talk about all of these words but this
is a category I have here curse curse
words or swear words curse words or
swear words so these are words I can’t
say on this channel but they’re the rude
words that you hear on TV and movies
that you maybe hear in everyday life so
we use those words when we make mistakes
so they sound much stronger than so oops
is very mild it’s very mild like little
kids use oops adults use oops as well
but when you want to express something
in a stronger way you can use a curse
word or a swear word if you like not
everybody chooses to use these and they
tend to sound quite rough if you do use
them they sound quite strong and maybe a
bit aggressive so I will leave it to you
to Google some curse words or swear
words just be careful in how you use
them we do not use curse words or swear
words in business or polite situations
definitely not we use them only in like
rough or very casual situations with
close friends so please be careful in
choosing your use of swear words even if
you use it positively like even if you
mean something positively you want to
communicate a positive meaning with a
swear word it still sounds extremely
rough like quite rude so please be
careful with those okay
yes I am back indeed we had a technical
problem at the beginning of the lesson
it is fixed okay let’s go on to these
next three here the next three are very
common ways casual ways to express a
mistake so the first one is to screw up
to screw up to screw up this has nothing
to do with like the emotion of like
screwing something into like
piece of wood so to screw up means to
make a mistake it’s a casual expression
we use it in the past tense
this screw takes an IDI ending screwed
up I screwed up he screwed up we screwed
up it sounds like you made a mistake but
this is much more casual than to make a
mistake I screwed up I screwed up
that’s creative primer my report or I
screwed up making that presentation
another very common one is the
expression to blow it to blow it where
it is the situation in past tense blow
becomes blue so she blew it he blew it
we used this for a huge mistake
so something like for example a really
big opportunity like maybe a job
interview if someone really makes a huge
mistake in a job interview they could
say I blew it
or she blew it or to be specific like
she blew the job interview he blew the
presentation
so using this verb or this phrasal verb
really communicates a huge huge mistake
all right final one here is to mess up
to mess up so to mess up it sounds a
little less severe than to blow it so
this verb takes a regular IDI ending I
messed up he messed up this usually
means like a small mistake like you
wrote the wrong word on a report or
maybe you sent the wrong file to someone
you can say oh I messed up sorry about
that
it sounds quite casual so you can kind
of choose this one to blow it is for
really big mistakes to screw up is kind
of medium level mistakes and to mess up
is lower level mistakes here okay junior
hey junior junior says Alicia is blunder
kind of like a mistake yeah blunder is
like a mistake but it’s like a mistake
you make because you don’t know
something like because you
ignorant of something you make this
mistake so it you you look a little like
maybe not smart so it’s kind of an
embarrassing mistake is a blunder
that’s a blunder so like maybe I don’t
know if I fell down on this live stream
or something like that I don’t know
that’s not really a blunder that’s just
weird I don’t know that’s not a mistake
that would just be embarrassing I think
so a mistake is kind of like related to
your activities you know something that
you are in control of okay let’s go on
to this last group here of vocabulary
words it’s very small can we zoom in I’m
very sorry I ran out of space that looks
nice so here I want to talk about these
expressions so these are all you’ll see
these are all for making mistakes these
are all mistake related expressions
mistake related oh sorry these however
are for when you don’t know something
and you need to explain that so that’s
that’s a kind of problem yeah when you
don’t know something I’m gonna talk
about this later
so we can use this pattern I have no
idea I have no idea or I have no clue so
we can use both clue and idea here so
here you’ll notice idea and clue these
are used in the singular form here I
have no idea means I totally don’t know
I don’t know at all I have no idea so we
use this in the singular form please
note that not ideas not clues I have no
idea this means I don’t know 100% I
don’t know this is a very casual phrase
the second one here is I’m stumped I’m
stumped I looked up the history of this
word it has a long history that’s kind
of uncertain but stumped for those of
you who know the stuff here in the root
at root that’s funny
the stump is like the base of a tree so
when people would cut down in the US
when people cut down trees to make roads
or like for fields or pastures the stump
the base of the tree would remain so if
you can’t imagine I am NOT an artist I
mean if you can’t imagine like a stump
is this part of a tree that’s this stump
the bottom part of a tree so when people
were making roads are like fields or
things the base part of the tree the
stump was left and that created problems
for people like they couldn’t like
finish making the road because the
stumps were there it was like being
blocked so today we use this expression
I’m stumped to mean I’m blocked like I
can’t think of anything like I’m
mentally blocked so this expression
means like I’m confused or I don’t know
how to go on or I don’t know how to
solve this problem I’m stumped you’ll
hear this a lot okay final one here is
he’s or she’s clueless he’s or she’s
clueless let’s break this down so clue
this clue this is the same clue we saw
in this expression and I have no clue
yeah
clue lists so here less you can think of
less as acting like a suffix here so
this means having no clue so she has no
clue he has no clue but we say clue less
so not having a clue
so less means not having this thing okay
to the person who just sent a long
question in YouTube please check the
YouTube channel so today’s lesson is
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good so I’m gonna take one more quick
break and then I want to go on to this
middle part in today’s lesson this kind
of key pattern for explaining things you
don’t know so if you missed it earlier
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to the part that I think is the most
interesting part of today’s lesson this
part okay we’re going to talk about some
grammar exciting okay so this I’ve
labeled when you don’t know something so
I want to help you explain specifically
what you don’t know so this part I don’t
know
this one is easy to say yeah like I
don’t know I don’t know the answer maybe
or just I don’t know what you want me to
do
maybe we know a few basic patterns here
I want to talk about how to explain
specifically what you don’t know so that
someone can help you fix this problem so
first I’ve included here at the end of
this I don’t know expression the basic
WH questions I don’t know who I don’t
know what where when why how so I want
to take a look first at these three at
the top here so these three
sentences follow a really special
pattern let’s read them first the first
one is I don’t know who has the office
key this is just an example I don’t know
what the password is I don’t know where
my bag is so sorry
I’m is labeled this it’s this one in
this one sorry and let’s look at this
one too I don’t know when she’s gonna
get here
so sorry I want to look at these three
here first so these three sentences they
all explain a problem something we don’t
know and we’re using different WH
questions to explain that then you’ll
notice this part of the sentence you can
kind of see like the key words to make a
question what the password is or where
my bag is or when she’s gonna get here
but maybe you can see the word order in
these types of like parts of sentences
is swapped yeah so when we make a direct
question like for example what the
password is that sounds really weird I
know
usually you would say what is the
password right or here like where is my
bag not where my bag is that sounds
weird I know but when you’re using the
be verb like right here here we have is
in this case is is she is when you’re
using the be verb in these kinds of
patterns like inside another sentence or
inside another question you need to
change the order of your be verb so the
be verb is coming after your noun so we
would say what is the password here
though my be verb comes after my noun so
this is kind of a special grammar and
word order point that we use sorry we
use only in patterns like these so oh no
I’ve just erased it so I don’t know what
the password is it comes at the end of
the sentence I don’t know where my bag
is this is correct here so think about
this when you’re making these types of
questions in sentences that do not use B
verbs though we don’t have to worry
about this rule so this first sentence
is a great example I don’t know who has
the office key I don’t know who has the
office key does not use a beaver so this
part of the sentence
who has the office key this is a regular
direct question so no change is
necessary so if there’s no beaver in
your question don’t worry about it so
that’s a part 1 of this part here too I
will try to check your questions as well
nice one I’m not on Facebook says I
don’t know who has the answer nice one
good okay um let’s move on then to a
couple other points yeah a nice one alka
said I don’t know who is there good good
good ok um so that actually yeah that
one works I don’t know who’s there ok
let’s move on then to these next to
these next to here because these are
also special these are I don’t know why
and I don’t know how so first I don’t
know why I have to fill out this form
three times I don’t know why I have to
fill out this form three times and I
don’t know how to use this software I
don’t know how to use this software so
these two relate to this point right
here so I’ve written a couple notes at
the bottom here the first one is about
using B where we swap the word order to
swap means you reverse the word order
here though we do not use do so in these
like yes/no questions do you have do you
need we do not use do or did does or
didn’t in these in these types of
statements so in a question or in a
statement like this I don’t know why I
have to fill out this form three times
if we look
at this part again from after my
question word so if I wanted to make a
direct question I would say why do I
have to fill out this form three times
that’s my direct question why do I have
to fill out this form but we do not use
do so remove do why I have to fill out
this form three times this is correct
inside this larger sentence so we’ve
removed do here okay then this last one
shows us actually there are a couple
different ways we could say this
sentence so we could say for example
looking again here how do I use this
software how do I use this software we
could make this sentence I don’t know
how I use this software we could say
that or we can replace it as I did here
with two with two so there are two
different ways we could express this
here so just do not use do in these
sentence patterns do or any variation
and swap be here all right final point
about this when you use these kinds of
patterns and you see like it is at the
end of the sentence we can’t use a
contraction at the end of a sentence so
I don’t know where my bags we can’t say
that we cannot say a contraction at the
end of this sentence please use is for
sure here so this is actually kind of a
really interesting point I think so if
you want to know more about this kind of
grammar please check out where can you
see this if you want to know more about
this you can search for what are called
embedded questions embedded questions so
this will tell you some more about this
grammar point and the rules with this
grammar point and a lot more examples
today I’m focusing on a problem I don’t
know statements
this is super interesting I think all
right um
Wow we only have two minutes left do I
get to go a little longer because we had
technical problems no I know I know I
know
given your hard time sorry okay let’s uh
let’s go on to the last part I will
let’s see you guys had some nice example
sentences like I don’t know how to use
that machine okay or I don’t know where
my mobile is nice he didn’t know how to
ask her out nice other example I don’t
know why English is so difficult but
Alisha makes it easier yay thanks links
on Facebook cool um nice nice thanks for
your examples okay I’m gonna continue to
the last point of today’s lesson then
which is just some useful patterns that
I wanted to review so the first one is
using the word enough especially in
negative sentences so we can use it
before an adjective the first sentence
here is I don’t have enough time or I’m
sorry to support now I don’t have enough
time so this expresses I need more time
I need more time
we can also use it after an adjective
this bag isn’t big enough
so please note the positioning of enough
changes depending on the grammar of your
sentence so when you’re using this noun
I don’t have enough time or I don’t have
enough food for example you can use it
up before the noun with an adjective
follow the adjective with enough okay
second using too much or too many this
point I’ve noticed a few people in the
comment section of videos they’ll use
too but they mean so so too has a
negative feel to means like excess of
something more than we need so for
example we bought a 2
many drinks more drinks than we need
you’ll also hear this word right here is
way W a why this is an emphasis for it a
casual emphasis word we bought way too
many drinks so too many sounds negative
it’s like more than necessary okay
second example here I ate too much
cheese so what’s the rule for using too
many and too much too many is used when
we’re talking about a countable noun too
many drinks too much is used for an
uncountable noun in this case cheese I
ate too much cheese is that a problem I
feel like for some people it could be
maybe for lactose intelligible very
specific okay so that’s too much and too
many a quick review of that grammar
point last point for today and then
we’ll wrap up is this this is a good one
to use at work for situations where your
expectations have not been met so you
thought there was a plan the plan did
not happen or the plan has not happened
yet so for example my package hasn’t
arrived yet it hasn’t arrived yet so
here we’re using the perfect tense yeah
or our clients haven’t called our
clients haven’t called so here you’ll
notice I’m using haven’t or hasn’t
depending on my subject and I’m
finishing my sentence maybe with yet so
yet shows we have an expectation for
that action I used it here my package
hasn’t arrived yet but I expect it’s
going to come in this sentence our
clients haven’t called the expectation
is much lower like oh maybe there’s a
chance the clients aren’t going to call
so we can use this to talk about a
problem something hasn’t arrived or we
haven’t received in
Meishan yet okay so a couple of quick
and useful patterns for explaining
problems here all right but I have to
finish so we’ll finish there for today
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