A FewFew A LittleLittle How to Talk About Quantities in English
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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 Minh sir Hyman moon says hi Alicia
could you please show me how to
pronounce these symbols so the first
symbol here in your list is this mark so
this is read as hashtag so we use this a
lot on social media like Twitter
Instagram this mark means hashtag or is
read as hashtag if however you’re
reading it in like a phone number it’s
read as the pound sign so that’s kind of
a lesser used word for this symbol in
most cases today we read this as hashtag
hashtag so this symbol is read as @ @ or
at mark so we use this a lot on again
Twitter or Instagram when we want to at
somebody or when we want to contact
somebody or tag them in something so we
call this the at mark the at mark so
this very short dash is called a - a -
so I also just use the word - so
actually there are three dashes there
are three small lines that we use when
we’re writing in English and actually
native speakers often don’t know the
differences between these so the first
one here this shortest one is called a
hyphen
so we use this one we’re connecting
words so for example like extra crispy
or free-for-all we use hyphens to
connect these small words together the
next longest dash is called an N - en an
en n - is used when we want to for
example mark like time periods so for
example like 2002 to 2007
instead of writing to in 2002 to 2007 we
may use an N - so that’s like this
medium length - actually the third kind
of dash is the longest - this is called
the M dash p.m. the e/m
- is used for breaks in speech so like
when you’re speaking and you stop in
your speech and you want to make an
extra point or you want to emphasize
something we set off that extra point
with an M - we use M dashes when we want
to make an extra point in a sentence
like to give an example and we want to
continue talking after that so I just
gave an example of that when I said like
to give an example that’s sort of like
extra information I want to add in the
sentence we can use M dashes on both
sides of that to set it off in the text
some people choose to use parentheses to
do that so that’s actually the next item
on your list parentheses so there are
those two kind of like curved lines
parentheses so the one that opens this
way this is called the open parentheses
we begin our parenthetical information
with the open parentheses mark the other
side is called the closed parentheses
mark so these are called parentheses
parentheses the thing that looks like a
- or like a - but it’s kind of low
that’s called an underscore an
underscore you might also hear it called
an underbar so underscore or underbar so
another item from your list was this
little star this tiny little star is
called an asterisk and asterisk we read
that as asterisk it’s kind of hard to
say even for native speakers um then for
questions when we’re making questions we
finished the sentence with a question
mark we call that a question mark and
then it’s not on your list but when we
have like a shocking statement or a
surprising statement we use the
exclamation mark the exclamation mark or
the exclamation point that’s what that’s
called your final item on the list was
this thing that’s called a slash a slash
you can use a front slash or a back
slash if you want to be very specific
but in most cases just using slash is
fine so I hope that that helps you
understand some very common marks that
we use in our writing so thanks very
much for this interesting question okay
let’s move along to your next question
next question comes from Sofia hi Sofia
Sofia says hi Alicia what is the
difference between farther and further
lot of and lots of for example and for
instance okay
about your last two pairs a lot of and
lots of they are the same and for
example and for instance those are also
the same for instance might sound
slightly more formal than for example
but generally speaking these are used
exactly the same way you can use them in
the same way in every situation that I
can think of okay but I do want to talk
about your first pair here farther and
further farther and further when you’re
talking about distance they can be used
the same we use them the same way when
we’re talking about distance this can be
like distance in time it can be like a
physical distance as well however
further has some uses that farther does
not so further can also mean more some
examples we need to look further into
this problem she further refined her
skills by taking a training course
further can also mean additionally when
it has this meaning it typically comes
at the beginning of a sentence or at the
beginning of a clause so for example we
plan to make a new product this month
further we plan to sell 1000 units in
the first week so that further means
additionally or more over there so
farther does not have this meaning
further does so this is one important
difference remember when you’re talking
about distance you can use either I hope
that this helps thanks very much for
your question alright let’s move along
to your next question next question
comes from nacho hi nacho nacho says hi
Alicia English speakers use crispy
crunchy and crisp when they explained
food what’s the difference okay
let’s talk about crispy and crunchy
first I want to focus on crunchy to
begin with so crunchy comes from the
word crunch so when we eat crunchy foods
in our mouth they make a crunching sound
it’s like hard to eat these things
crunchy foods are often like hard
candies so maybe like peppermint or it
could be like carrots for example could
be really crunchy
nuts can be really crunchy so when we
eat them we have to chew a lot and they
make a crunching sound in our mouth
that’s a crunchy food crispy on the
other hand is kind of like light crunchy
and crispy foods are foods that are like
often fried foods so like the outside
part of something is crispy so for
example like crispy skin on fried
chicken or let crispy potato chips or
crispy bacon so these things aren’t like
noisy foods they don’t really make a
crunching sound maybe it’s like a light
crunching sound when we eat them but
they have kind of a lighter feel about
them and they’re often yes fried foods
these are crispy things crisp then
refers to something usually like a fruit
or a vegetable that is very fresh so
something that is crisp is like
perfectly ripe so like a Crisp apple or
a crisp pear
you could also use it to talk about like
celery or again carrots so something
that’s just right is crisp we don’t
really use this word to talk about
squishy things so like berries or
oranges or grapefruits
we don’t use crisp to talk about those
crisp is usually something that’s solid
so when you bite into something that’s
crisp you might hear like a nice like
slicing sound that’s something that’s
crisp
additionally crisp is used to talk about
like the weather or to talk about smells
- it’s usually for something that’s kind
of fresh when we use crisp to talk about
the weather it usually means something
like a day that is kind of fresh the air
is very fresh and a little bit cold as
well - so this is crisp so I hope that
that helps you understand the
differences between crunchy and crispy
and crisp
go forth and use them okay thanks very
much for the question okay let’s move
along to your next question the next
question comes from Charles Higham Roos
Charu’s says hi Alicia what is the
difference between a few and few also a
little and little yeah a nice question
okay let’s look at some example
sentences to compare first the company
bought a few computers
second the company bought few computers
okay so the first sentence in this pair
sounds like a simple statement of fact
the company bought a small number of
computers that’s what it means if the
speaker is really excited when they say
this like the company bought a few
computers maybe it sounds kind of
positive in general it’s kind of a
neutral just simple statement of fact
just information the second sentence
however the company bought few computers
can have a little bit more of like a
disappointed or a negative field so yes
this sentence means the company
purchased a small amount of computers
but it kind of has the feeling that like
maybe the speaker wishes the company had
purchased more computers like the
company purchased few computers so it
sounds like there’s a little bit of
disappointment there one more example a
few people attended the meeting and few
people attended the meeting again in the
first example it kind of feels like a
simple statement of fact again depending
on speaker intonation like a few people
attended the meeting it could sound a
little more excited more positive but
generally it’s kind of neutral it’s a
simple statement the second sentence
here though few people attended the
meeting sounds kind of disappointed or a
little bit more negative so we see the
same thing with a little and little I
made a little progress on my project
today and I made little progress on my
project today this is the same kind of
idea so I made a little progress on my
project today is a simple statement of
fact and it can sound more excited it
can sound more positive depending on the
speaker’s intonation the second sentence
I made little progress on my project
today
sounds more disappointed sounds more
negative so this is a very small point I
know but it can kind of change the
feeling of your sentence when you make
the decision so if you want to sound
just kind of neutral or if you want to
have a little bit of a feeling of
positivity you could use a few or a
little if you want to use kind of a
negative or disappointed feel you can
use no article there few or little okay
so I hope that that helps you understand
thank you very much for an interesting
question all right let’s move on to your
next question next question comes from
Gautam hyegyo Tong Bao Chun says could
you tell me the difference between that
and which oh yeah okay
so this is kind of related to a more
advanced grammar point actually and not
a lot of native speakers know the
difference between these two the
difference between that and which
generally speaking for kind of
intermediate level learners is that
which is going to sound more formal most
of the time so we use that in which as
relative pronouns we can use both of
these words to talk about people and to
talk about things but in more advanced
grammar when we’re looking at relative
clauses which give us extra information
about a noun there are two types of
relative clause and depending on the
type of relative clause we choose a
different pronoun so there’s a kind of
relative clause that’s called
a restrictive or some people call it a
descriptive clause this means it’s
information about a noun that is
essential to understanding the noun like
we have to have this information in
order to understand the noun so an
example is the car that my mom bought is
really fast so here the relative clause
is that my mom bought so we have to have
this information in order to understand
the car if we don’t have this
information we might not be able to
understand which car the speaker is
talking about so for example if I want
to select compare the car that my mom
bought with the car that my dad bought
it’s very important to clearly say the
car that my mom bought is really fast
the car that my dad bought is really big
I have to have that relative clause in
order to communicate this essential
information so this is an example of
what’s called a restrictive clause or a
descriptive clause as well when you’re
using a descriptive clause you have to
use that to show it then on the other
hand when you’re using a non restrictive
clause or what’s called a non
descriptive clause for some people you
don’t have to use that instead you use
which so an example
a non-restrictive clause is something
like this phone which I bought two years
ago is really convenient so here my
relative Clause is which I bought two
years ago so if I remove that from the
sentence my sentence becomes this phone
is really convenient
so it’s grammatically correct and I
still understand which phone we’re
talking about I still understand that
from the sentence so in these cases the
information in that relative Clause is
not essential I don’t need that
information to understand them now in
these cases we use which and you’ll also
notice that these non restrictive
relative clauses are set off with commas
so we have a comma at the beginning and
a comma at the end of the clause so
these are a couple of different ways
that you can kind of spot restrictive
and non-restrictive clauses so again
this is kind of a more advanced grammar
point and something that even like lots
of native speakers don’t know but that
is the difference that is the difference
in terms of grammar and in terms of your
pronoun choice so I hope that that helps
you thanks very much for this question
ok that’s everything that I have for you
for this week thank you as always for
sending your interesting questions
remember you can send them to me at
English class 101.com slash ask - alicia
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