Improve Your English Vocabulary Fast
and this one’s the proper camera okay
close up we have a close-up camera now
camera and ask Alicia who are we
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 ways
highways ways says hello can you tell us
which sentence is correct did you used
to play ball or did you use to play ball
thank you yeah nice question in speech
you’ll hear used to used to know D sound
used to this is because it’s really
difficult to pronounce that D sound next
to the T sound quickly in speech
regarding text though there’s some
debate so there are some people who
believe used to is correct in text and
other people who think that use to with
no D is fine I would say just follow the
rules of whatever text book you use
whatever you choose just try to always
use the same one if you prefer used to
try to use that in text if you prefer
used to you can use that just try to
stick to the same one so I hope that
helps you thanks for the question all
right next question next question comes
from Fernando Valencia hi Fernando
Fernando says hi Alicia I would like you
to explain the difference between
unbelievable and incredible also
especially and especially and when
should I use them okay first let’s start
with the word unbelievable and compare
that to incredible so when we look at
unbelievable there are three parts to
think about first there’s unn which
means not or like the opposite of
something next we have that root which
is believed so to believe something
means to have faith in something like to
trust something finally we see the end
part that suffix Abel Abel means like
something that we have the ability to
so when we look at unbelievable it means
something that we are not capable of or
we do not have the ability to trust or
to believe or to have faith in to find
is true all right so we use unbelievable
for surprise or for shock and actually
your intonation matters your intonation
is really important here because you
communicate which you mean like surprise
or shock some examples this dessert is
unbelievably good
someone stole my bicycle unbelievable so
you can hear when someone wants to
communicate a positive meaning of
unbelievable they use that upward
intonation like this dessert was
unbelievably good when someone wants to
communicate that negative meaning they
use the downward intonation someone
stole my bike unbelievable now let’s
look at incredible incredible we can
break down incredible in the same way as
we broke down unbelievable so first
let’s look at in and incredible the in
just like the onion unbelievable means
not so it’s like opposite against
something then we have this root part
cred which relates to like credibility
which means something is legitimate or
true or genuine finally we see the
suffix double again the spelling is
different from unbelievable but it means
like the ability to do something so here
incredible means something that we do
not have the ability to believe is
genuine or true or legitimate so that
means that incredible and unbelievable
have similar meanings but it’s just that
incredible is something that’s like we
can’t believe it’s real unbelievable is
like we’re not able to trust it or we’re
not able to believe in it also
incredible tends to be used in more
positive situations than unbelievable
today’s lunch was incredibly good we saw
an incredible movie last night does
anything incredible movie which movie
all the Incredibles yeah and the movie
Incredibles of course okay let’s go on
to your next question the next question
you had is the difference between
especially and especially okay so let’s
start with
especially especially is used to mean in
particular or above all other things
like above everything else I especially
love the red dress he hates spicy food
especially peppers
we can’t wait to go on vacation
especially to our summer campsite
so especially is used to refer to things
that have a specific purpose we often
use it for things that are made or
designed or created or like set up so
some kind of making or building is very
very commonly associated with this some
examples I had this dress specially made
the computer was specially set up for
classroom use our lessons are specially
designed for young students so though
there are these two separate meanings
for these words you may hear especially
used to refer to things that have a
specific purpose this is just a general
guideline but I hope that that helps you
in choosing between these two words
thank you for the question next question
next question comes from nerd on M
Annette Hagan nerd on nerd on says hi
Alicia what is the difference between
knowledge and information okay all right
think about information like data we use
information like to share things between
people so information is sort of
everywhere we can find information
everywhere knowledge however is
something that we gain so by taking lots
and lots of pieces of information and
putting that together and like studying
a topic or learning about something
specific we gain knowledge so knowledge
is like lots and lots of specific
information together that we can use to
like you know make things or form
opinions or live our lives we lack
knowledge about this topic I don’t have
enough information so I hope that this
helps you thanks very much for the
question the next question comes from
Ronnie
Ahmed hi hi Ronnie Ronnie says do you
have any tips on how to improve
vocabulary within a limited time also
please what is the meaning of hope this
email finds you well and
not more the casual in relationship okay
let’s begin with your question about
improving vocabulary in a limited period
of time I’ll just share with you what I
did when I was studying and what helped
me a lot was writing I would just write
like crazy the new vocabulary words like
a few days before the test
I would like cram them in my head and
just practice writing them over and over
and then I would cover up like the the
words in English in my language and look
at them in the other language I was
studying and try to recall from that
then once I saw that like in the
language I was studying in Japanese I
would cover that up and try to write the
English equivalent so I was always like
producing producing it wasn’t only input
I forced myself to actually produce so
that really helped me for tests yes but
I should say that this is not something
that you can expect is going to help you
remember words forever like you have to
continue studying those words so like in
my case because I would focus so much on
the test and when like when the test was
over I wouldn’t go back and try to
practice those words again and then I
would forget them until like the next
time we needed them so this may be this
could be a good short-term vocabulary
study strategy but if you really want to
remember the words you need to continue
that kind of study let’s move on to your
other two questions your first one was
the about the expression hope this email
finds you well it’s just a formal
greeting it’s just saying I hope that
when you read this message that you are
doing okay that’s what this means your
other question is about the expression
not more the casual actually I’m not
sure this doesn’t appear to be a common
phrase I wonder if this could be not
more than casual in talking about
relationships so when we say that you
don’t want a relationship that’s more
than casual it means that you don’t want
a romantic relationship or a serious
romantic relationship in other words you
just want to be friends with the person
or you just want to have like a casual
like
friendly relationship with someone
nothing serious so maybe that’s what
this means
not more than casual I hope that that
helps you okay thanks for your questions
our next question this week from door
Gregory hi door door says hi Alicia what
does it mean it’s time to turn new leaf
ah this is the expression it’s time to
turn over a new leaf or he turned over a
new leaf so we use this expression to
mean someone changed their behavior so
they made an improvement on past
behavior so if something was bad in the
past but they turned over a new leaf
past tense turned over a new leaf it
means that they made an improvement to
their past behavior they are now doing
something better than they did before my
brother finally started taking care of
himself and cleaning his house he’s
turned over a new leaf
she began cooking at home instead of
eating out at expensive restaurants she
turned over a new leaf
so I hope that that helps you understand
the expression turn over a new leaf
thanks for the question alright so
that’s everything that I have for this
week thank you as always for sending
your questions please remember that you
can send your questions to me at English
class 101.com slash ask - Alicia of
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thanks very much for watching this
week’s episode of ask Alisha and I will
see you again next week
maybe I which is the best incredible the
kid the little the little the little kid
Jack Jack write that like just bursts
into like flames incredible unbelievable
No