Hacks to Improve Your English Grammar
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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 Ali all
Harvey hi Ali Ali says hi Alicia I saw
your channel on YouTube and I like your
videos but I don’t know which playlist I
should start from and what playlist I
should watch second thanks for helping
sure so depending on your level I would
recommend different video series if you
are a beginner I would recommend
starting with the English in three
minutes series so these are short videos
about three minutes long and they teach
you basic phrases that you can use like
hi how are you where are you from and so
on like talking about your hobbies so if
you’re a beginner I recommend starting
with this playlist the English in three
minutes playlist then after you finished
that playlist I recommend checking some
of the whiteboard videos that are on the
channel so some of these have like
really good basic grammar introductions
so to start with I would suggest the
simple present tense simple past tense
the present perfect tense video I would
also recommend you start looking at some
of the other grammar related videos on
the channel so some of the whiteboard
videos are kind of vocabulary points or
maybe they’re about specific situations
I would suggest you focus on the grammar
related videos first because they can
give you kind of a base to build the
rest of your studies on so focus in on
your grammar videos first after that I
would suggest you move to maybe some top
words videos so the top word series is
vocabulary based in every video we
introduce ten different vocabulary words
about one theme so you can pull those
vocabulary words out and study them in
the example sentences in the video but
you can also use those key words to make
your own sin
tenses so I think it would be maybe a
fun way to study to use those new
vocabulary words with the grammar you
learned from the whiteboard videos so
you can start making really simple
sentences this way so keep focusing in
on those grammar lessons and build your
vocabulary with some of the top words
lessons may be a good place to start
with the top words lessons is to choose
a video that’s related to something
you’re interested in so if you have a
hobby or if there’s something about your
work or your studies that you’re
interested in you want to know more
about you could choose a top words video
about that topic so that might help you
get some example sentences and new
vocabulary words if you feel comfortable
with the top words videos and they’re
pretty easy or you feel ready to
challenge yourself then you could try to
check out the English topics videos so
those are kind of like slower paced
everyday conversations that Michael and
I or Davie and I had and we usually talk
about a culture point or like a learning
point or every once in a while we just
kind of enjoy a typical conversation too
so that can be a really nice
introduction to more natural styles of
conversation other things you could do
of course you can check out the stuff
that we have on the website too so
there’s other stuff there to help you
train your grammar to help you build
your vocabulary to help with
memorization and so on so that would be
kind of my course so again I started
from beginner level so if you’re a
little past beginner maybe you can start
with some whiteboard lessons and some
top words lessons if you’re very
comfortable with that maybe you can look
at the English topic series and of
course this series ask Alicia this is a
little bit more high-level so I hope
that this helps you and good luck using
our videos to study thank you very much
for watching okay let’s move on to your
next question next question this week
comes from Jamal Rana
Snell Jo Miranda hi Johanna Johanna says
hi Alicia how do i improve my English
grammar okay to improve your grammar
make sure first you actually use the
grammar so an issue that I see with men
students is they use the textbook or
they use their textbook like as their
only method of practice so I’ve seen
lots of students who can complete
textbook exercises perfectly they’re
really really good at filling in the
blank or maybe changing a sentence to
make a specific grammar point but when
they try to create using that grammar
they create a new sentence or create a
new question it’s really difficult for
them so try to separate yourself from
using only your textbook or from just
those fill-in-the-blank exercises and
try to build your own sentences on your
own so it’ll seem challenging at first
but you’ll have to progress by making
something new that’s uniquely yours so
that’s one the second point here is when
you learn a new grammar point just start
by making a very simple sentence with
that grammar point that’s fine
so if you learn to make a simple past
tense statement for example you can
begin with very simple simple past tense
statements to start so if you know this
word like work the verb work and you
just practice changing that to past
tense like worked you’ve made a simple
past tense verb so then add that with
some other information like he worked
she was a different verb walk turns into
walked so she walked then practice
making like irregular conjugations so
like he eats becomes he ate for example
so start with these very small points so
if you learn a more advanced grammar
point you can do the same thing just
continue to try to use that grammar
point to create something on your own
also don’t forget to create questions
I noticed lots of students focus on
giving statements like they’re always
replying to a question replying to the
teachers question or replying to
something that they’ve read on the
Internet
try to make your own questions as well
so that’s key for conversation asking
other pupil questions so don’t forget to
practice your question making skills to
when you feel comfortable then you can
start making simple sentences about your
day for example I ate breakfast I worked
I studied then as you learn more
grammar you can add more information
like where with whom what time for
example I ate breakfast at home with my
family at 8 a.m. so it’s just one
sentence but that one sentence includes
a lot of information so think about how
to do this as you study grammar and as
you see more and more example sentences
that use more and more complex ways of
speaking ok so those are three tips that
I hope help you as you try to improve
your grammar thanks very much for this
question ok let’s move along to your
next question next question comes from
Sadat hi Sadat so dad says hello I need
some advice to master phrasal verbs in
English idiomatic expressions yeah this
is a tough question for phrasal verbs
let’s begin there I would suggest you
choose a verb choose a verb to focus on
like the verb by for example and study
in small groups the phrasal verbs that
use the verb by if you try to study all
the phrasal verbs in one like study
session it can be really overwhelming
and tough and because the meanings often
seem similar you can get confused so I
would recommend you try just like a
group of 5 maybe 10 max start with
something like that and then study those
until you feel comfortable with them so
some verbs have a lot of phrasal verbs
like run for example I think that’s the
verb that has the most additional
meanings associated with it but choose
like five maybe ten phrasal verbs to
start with get comfortable with those
and then try to study more when you feel
comfortable with that verb and all the
phrasal verbs associated with it then
maybe consider moving on to another verb
so if you use the study method and you
find some other verbs some other phrasal
verb that you don’t know you might be
able to guess what it means so for
example if you study some phrasal verbs
that use by and you know by into by out
and by up then maybe you have at least a
little bit of an idea what buy-back
means if you see it in text so it can
help you make a guess even if you don’t
know exactly what that means so the
other part of your question is about
idioms
matic expressions these can be tough
because sometimes we don’t identify an
expression as an idiom I would say to
begin with you can start by studying a
couple lists of common idioms that we
have in English we have some videos on
the channel about common English idioms
so you can start there other things you
can do are just google lists of idioms
that way you can find things that people
use a lot and it can be really helpful
once you’ve studied these lists you can
kind of think of using Google as like a
phrase search engine this is something
that I do actually with Japanese
expressions too what you can do is if
you find a new phrase that like you try
to search for the individual words in
your dictionary and it doesn’t quite
make sense
try using quotation marks around that
phrase in Google and you might find that
it’s actually an English idiom so if you
add like English idiom to your search
keywords you might find a new idiom this
way so think about these kinds of
existing lists and existing tools that
you can use that will help you study
so idioms and phrasal verbs these are
both things that take time and practice
to master but I hope that these tips
help you in your studies a little bit
thanks very much for the question
let’s move on to your next question next
question comes from Natalia hi Natalia
Natalia says how do I start reading
books in English I’ve done it before but
it’s very hard okay first I would say
choose a book that’s correct for your
level in my case I aim for books that
are about 70% understandable so that
means if I’m trying to read the book and
I have to stop to find a new word like
10 times a page the book is too
difficult for me if I have to stop maybe
three or four times a page max then that
seems to be about right for me after I
choose a book that I think is pretty
good for my level I first just try to
read through the book without using a
dictionary so I do this for a couple
reasons
one I’m trying to find like the themes
of the book what are the keywords what
are the themes what’s the way that the
author writes so I’m looking for those
things - I’m looking for the things that
are difficult for me to understand am I
having a hard time with grammar am I
having a hard time with vocabulary
am I missing like some history or
cultural points so what is difficult for
me so I read through the book that one
time if I don’t get everything that’s
okay I don’t use the dictionary then
what I do is I go back to the beginning
of the book and very slowly like page by
page or maybe section by section chapter
by chapter then I start to identify the
points that I couldn’t understand and
that I can’t understand the second time
around so in my case I’m like super
detailed about it so I’ll highlight the
word in the book write it down in a
notebook look it up in my dictionary
write that down as well I’ll spend my
time like covering a couple of pages in
my study session and when I know all the
words that I didn’t know then I’ll go
back at the end of my study session and
reread the page that I couldn’t read
before so I couldn’t read it completely
at the beginning of my study session but
at the end of my study session I can
read it completely so it takes time for
sure but then I’ll review that maybe a
couple days later and try to remember
and refresh those words in my head so
that’s a really slow process for me but
in my case that really helps me when I’m
reading it helps me to remember the
words as well refreshing this way but
again I think it’s really really
important to choose a book that’s
appropriate for your level if you choose
a book that’s too difficult you’re going
to feel discouraged and you won’t want
to continue so I would recommend you
choose a book that’s interesting to you
the topic is interesting to you and also
something that’s just a little bit
challenging so this has really helped me
maybe it will help you alright
that’s everything that I have for this
week thank you as always for sending
your questions remember you can send
them to me at English class 101.com
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much for watching this week’s episode of
ask Alicia and I will see you again next
week bye bye
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