English Conditionals IF clauses order Ask Alisha
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This shirt is the same shirt that I was wearing
in the live-stream this morning!
It’s a busy day.
A busy day for me.
[laughs]
Hi everybody, my name is Alisha.
Welcome back to Ask Alisha, where you ask
me questions, and I answer them.
Maybe.
Thanks very much for submitting your questions.
Remember, you can submit your questions at
EnglishClass101.com/ask-alisha.
There’s a hyphen between “ask” and “alisha,”
so watch out.
First question!
For today.
Do you have an American accent or a British
accent?
A lot of you have asked this over the course
of the years.
I have an American accent.
To be very specific, I suppose I speak with
a west coast American accent.
Not British English.
If you want to know what British English sounds
like, there are some videos on the YouTube
channel with Gina, one of our other hosts.
She speaks with a British accent.
So you can listen to her to kind of pick up
some of the differences between my accent
and her accent.
British English and American English.
So, thanks for that question.
But yes, I speak American English.
Next question!
How do we use the word “cheers”?
When do we use it?
Is it formal or informal?
Please help.
In American English, we use “cheers” when
we’re drinking.
When we want to start off a drink with somebody
else, we’ll often clink glasses.
So like, touch glasses together and say “cheers.”
We use “cheers” in this way in American English.
In other types of English, like British English
or Australian English, for example, people
might use the word cheers as a way to say
“thank you,” or as a way to say “thank you
in advance for something.”
If my friend asks me for a favor, and I agree
to do that favor, my friend can say “cheers”
to me, meaning “thank you in advance.”
So “cheers,” it tends to be more on the informal
side.
It’s not a super-formal expression.
If you want to use it in a formal situation
when you’re drinking with someone, you can
use cheers, but in most situations, we use
it informally.
Informally.
Next question!
Hey Alisha, how do I make this sentence negative?
“Let’s go to the park.”
If you want to make a “let’s” blah blah blah
sentence negative, just put “not” before the
verb.
Let’s NOT go to the park.
Let’s NOT plus some verb or some verb phrase.
Let’s not go hiking this weekend.
Let’s not watch that movie tonight.
I’m tired.
Let’s not blah blah blah to make a “let’s”
sentence negative.
Thanks for the question!
Next question!
What does “play down” mean?
This is a phrasal verb.
To play down something or “to play something
down” means to decrease the significance of
something.
I don’t want to play down how delicious my
mom’s Thanksgiving dinner was.
I don’t want to play down my friend’s success.
He’s doing an amazing job!
If something is really great or really interesting,
or…It could be negative, too.
To play something down means to make this
thing seem less than what it actually is.
If there’s a scandal, for example.
The president is trying to play down the seriousness
of the situation.
It means that it’s a very serious situation,
but the president is trying to make it seem
less serious than it is.
So, “to play down” means to make something
seem less than it actually is.
Good question, though.
Thanks!
Next question!
The next question is about if-conditionals.
There’s no problem when you say the main clause
first and you say the if clause after.
Is that correct?
Yes, that’s fine.
In the live stream, I introduced the pattern:
if clause first
main clause second.
But I also mentioned that we can use main
clause first and then if clause second.
If I finish editing this video today, I can
go running.
I can reverse that sentence.
I can go running if I finish editing this
video today.
Both sentences are totally correct.
It’s up to you to choose which order you like.
Thanks for the question, though.
Good one.
The next question is about the present perfect
progressive tense.
I said “I have been wanting to” blah blah
blah.
Why did I use the verb “want” in the continuous
tense, as “wanting”?
I used the progressive form “wanting” because
from a point in the past until now, there
is something I have desired.
I have wanted to do continuously, though.
To give a strong nuance of the continuous
nature of that, I used the progressive or
the continuous form “wanting.”
I’ve been wanting to see that movie.
I’ve been wanting to get a coffee with my
friend.
I’ve been wanting to get more sleep.
I’ve been wanting to go jogging.
Something you started to want in the past
and continued to want until this point in
time.
You can say “I have been wanting.”
We can apply other verbs to this pattern too,
like, “I’ve been thinking about you all week!”
“I’ve been worrying about you all day.”
So, these continuous past emotions, too.
We can use the progressive tense to talk about
those.
Thanks for that question, though.
That’s a good one.
Next question!
Next question comes from Ricardo Villaroel.
I’m very sorry.
What does “one” mean as a subject?
One means “any person.”
It sounds rather formal.
In more casual speech, we say “you.”
Like, if you went to the movie theater, where
would you buy popcorn?
To make it sound more formal, we could say
“where would one buy popcorn?”
Instead of using “you,” we say “one.”
So you might see this more in writing, or
perhaps in situations where “you” is not appropriate,
or it’s too casual.
So “one” means any person.
It doesn’t mean the number.
It doesn’t refer to another noun, necessarily.
A lot of “if” sentences.
Like, “if one were a doctor, how much money
would one make?”
One just means “a person.”
Any person.
Thanks, Ricardo!
Next question!
From Nita Apriyani.
I hope I said your name right I’m very sorry.
Can I say “the ketchup on that crispy chicken
was savory”?
The flavor was barbecue, teriyaki, or black
pepper.
It wasn’t spicy.
Ah!
Yes.
You can say a sauce is savory.
That’s very, very common.
So something savory, as we talked about quickly
in the food live-stream, flavors that are
not so sweet but that are still very very
flavorful.
Something that’s usually a little bit more
salty.
We don’t really use savory to explain sweet
things.
It’s more for kind of salty things, or things
that have like a really deep flavor about them.
So yes, you can describe your sauce, or your
barbecue sauce, or your chicken, whatever
you put on your chicken, as “savory.”
That’s a great word to describe.
Thanks for that question!
[snaps]
I almost forgot!
There’s one more thing I want to talk to you
about.
You guys did not ask this question, but I
noticed it during the food live-stream that
we did recently.
The difference between “desert” and “dessert”
is one “s” in spelling.
However, these two words are difference.
Let’s start with the word “dessert.”
The sweet food that comes at the end of a
meal.
Dessert is spelled with two “s"s.
We use d-e-s-s-e-r-t to spell “dessert.”
However, the word “desert,” which is spelled
d-e-s-e-r-t refers to like a dry landscape.
Not many plants.
Not many animals live there.
That’s a desert.
If you misspell the word “dessert” and you
forget that “s,” it becomes “desert.”
Also, very interestingly, there’s another
way to pronounce the word that’s spelled “desert.”
This is a verb.
To desert.
So, “to desert” means “to leave something
without planning to come back.”
Like, to desert a town, or to desert your
family.
To abandon something.
Also, it can mean like leaving a military
position.
So, to desert the army.
Please note: “dessert” (the end of a meal)
and “to desert” (meaning “to leave” or “to
abandon something”) have the same pronunciation,
but different grammatical functions.
So please be careful of this point.
How can we put them all together?
I’m going to desert my station so that I can
enjoy dessert in the desert.
Ho-ho.
Okay!
So, I think those are all the questions that
I want to take a look at this week.
Remember, if you want to submit a question,
you can send them to me at EnglishClass101.com/ask-alisha.
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Our recent live-stream, which many of these
questions are from, was about food.
So if you have any other food vocabulary related
questions, let me know!
Thanks very much for watching this episode,
and I will see you again next week.
Bye Bye!