Loose vs Lose Whats the Difference Basic English Grammar
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can you believe that’s cool 100 episodes
thanks everybody for watching this we
appreciate it
and your questions 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 on that June 80 hi Ahmad Ahmad says
hi Alicia what’s the difference between
afraid and scared I’m a little confused
thank you okay sure
if you are talking about fear afraid and
scared mean the same thing when you’re
using them as adjectives so I’m afraid
and I’m scared mean the same thing we’re
talking about our emotions we’re talking
about fear in different situations
however these words can be used in
different ways let’s talk about scare
first scare can be used as a verb to
scare someone or to scare something
means to cause someone to feel fear for
example what you scared me or you scared
the cat so that means you caused fear in
someone else
past tense it’s scared as used in these
examples we cannot use afraid in this
way afraid however can be used in a way
that’s scared cannot afraid can be used
in very formal situations like business
situations as an apology for example I’m
afraid I don’t have time to meet with
you today or I’m afraid we don’t have
that item right now
so this afraid doesn’t mean I’m scared
it means I’m very sorry but so I’m very
sorry but we don’t have that item in
stock right now or I’m very sorry but I
don’t have time to meet with you so I’m
afraid is like a short polite way to say
that so these are the differences
between afraid and scared I hope that
this helps you thanks very much for the
question ok let’s move on to your next
question next
question comes from Bruno Maria hello
Bruno Bruno says hi Alicia can you tell
me the difference between the words
commitment and compromise please okay
sure
think about commitment as a promise or
as an agreement so a commitment is
something you agree to with another
person or with a group of people as a
verb we say commit to commit to
something so a commitment is something
you agree upon with other people some
examples I made a commitment to do my
best in this job he’s afraid of
commitment so the second example
sentence is actually a common kind of
complaint in romantic relationships he’s
afraid of commitment or she’s afraid of
commitment you may hear it in situations
other than romantic relationships but it
generally refers to someone who is
afraid to enter into a kind of agreement
like a romantic agreement to date or to
be in a relationship with one person for
a long time so that’s the nuance of the
second example there more generally
however commitment usually refers to
agreements and they can be in business
situations let’s compare this now to
compromise compromise so a compromise is
a situation in which two sides have
different proposals for something and
they each make changes to those
proposals to arrive at this middle point
this middle point is called a compromise
so as a noun this point is called a
compromise so side a and side B have
different ideas they change their ideas
slightly slightly slightly and find an
agreement so that agreeing point is the
compromise point as a verb it’s to
compromise so let’s look at some example
sentences with compromise our team
members reached a compromise after
discussing the project my friends wanted
to go bowling but I wanted to play video
games so we compromised and went to an
arcade so in the second example sentence
I’ve used cop
as a verb in the past tense we
compromised that means each side changed
the plan just a little bit and we found
this middle solution so in some
commitment is an agreement a compromise
you can think of as like a type of
agreement in which both sides change
their ideas slightly so I hope that this
helps you thanks for the question okay
let’s move on to your next question next
question comes from Patti Renee hello
pattern a pattern a says hi Alicia what
is the difference between supposed to
and meant to in terms of meaning nothing
supposed to and meant to have the same
meaning the only difference here is that
meant two is used in British English and
we don’t use meant to in American
English for example I’m supposed to go
to a company event this weekend and I’m
meant to go to a company event this
weekend an American English speaker
would use the first example sentence I’m
supposed to go to an event this weekend
a British English speaker would use the
second sentence I’m meant to go to a
company event this weekend for me as an
American English speaker the second
example sentence feels a bit unnatural
to say it’s not something that we use in
American English but these two sentences
communicate the same idea so if you are
studying American English great I
recommend using supposed to if you’re
studying British English great use mint
to it’ll sound more natural I hope that
this helps you thanks for the question
okay let’s move on to your next question
next question comes from Reuben Hagen
Reuben Reuben says hi Alicia is there
any difference between loose and lose
I’m also confused with the words
uninterested and disinterested I think
they have the same meaning
but I’m not sure yes great question
there are key differences let’s start by
talking about loose and lose loose with
two O’s is the opposite of tight so for
example huh my ring is loose or wow my
pants are loose so this means the
opposite of tight something tight is
like under pressure or it’s kind of you
can imagine it
like this shape something that is tight
something that is loose is not that
there’s not so much pressure it’s easy
to move it’s flexible so loose is an
adjective lose on the other hand is a
verb which means to no longer have
ownership of something or to not win
something as in sports so for example I
lost my cat in the forest or I think
we’re going to lose the basketball game
today
so lose and loose may seem to have
similar pronunciations and similar
spellings but they do have very
different meanings also different parts
of speech lose is a verb and loose is an
adjective so keep these in mind and be
careful of your spellings when using
these words let’s move on now to your
second point about the difference
between uninterested and disinterested
in many cases today we use uninterested
and disinterested to mean the same thing
which is having no interest in something
like we just don’t care we don’t have
positive feelings or negative feelings
it’s just there we’re very neutral so
many people use these two words to mean
the same thing however disinterested can
have a couple of other meanings one of
these is unbiased so for example
politicians should make disinterested
decisions so that means politicians
should make decisions without bias so
bias means having an opinion in one way
or another about something so a
disinterested decision means an unbiased
decision we can use disinterested in
this way we can also use disinterested
to mean no longer interested in
something so something you at one time
were interested in but you are no longer
interested in can be described as
something you are now disinterested in
for example I’ve become disinterested in
my hobbies compare this then to a couple
of example sentences that use
uninterested I told my friend about a
concert I went to
last week but he was uninterested we’re
so tired of having uninterested people
at our events so please keep in mind as
I said many people use uninterested and
disinterested to mean the same thing
when the meaning is about not having any
emotions or not having any attention
focused on something if however you want
to talk about losing interest in
something or about not being biased with
regard to something use disinterested so
I hope that this helps you thanks for
the question ok let’s move on to your
next question next question comes from
Cecilia hi Cecilia Cecilia says hi
Alicia I found that sometimes there is a
comma before and and sometimes not
when should I add a comma before and
thanks ok yes you should add a comma
before and when you are joining two
independent clauses an independent
clause is an idea or a phrase that can
stand alone so it doesn’t need any extra
information it’s a complete idea a
complete thought let’s take a look at a
few examples that show different types
of clauses together on Saturday I’m
going to the mountains and on Sunday I’m
going to the beach I told my mother I
loved her cooking and I told my father I
love his music I’m tired and hungry
I missed my train and forgot my wallet
so the first two example sentences here
use a comma before and this is because
if we remove the comma and and the two
ideas can be separated with a period and
there’s no communication problem the
statements remain the same
on Saturday I’m going to the mountains
on Sunday I’m going to the beach there’s
no error there the second example
sentence is similar I told my mother I
loved her cooking I told my dad I loved
his music if we remove the comma and and
the sentences are okay because they are
called independent clauses there are
complete ideas they don’t need any more
information in the last two example
sentences though we cannot remove and
because the parts that it joins are not
independent so I’m tired and hungry if
we remove and it
I’m tired hungry in the last example
sentence I missed my train and forgot my
wallet I missed my train forgot my
wallet that’s not a grammatical sentence
so this is a good way to test whether
you’re and is connecting independent
ideas or not try removing it from the
sentence if the sentence remains
grammatical perhaps you have an
independent clause and you can use the
comma and there this is one way to use a
comma before in and the other case where
you may see a comma before an and is in
the last item in a list for example I
bought bread fruit and milk I saw my
family
friends and neighbors so before the
final item in each of these lists
there’s an end and there’s a comma
before the and this is what’s known as
the serial comma or the Oxford comma so
some people choose to use this type of
comma and some people choose not to
there are some good reasons I feel for
using the Oxford comma and I’m a person
who believes that this is a good comma
to use because it can help prevent
confusion when you’re reading for
example I need to buy bread fruits and
vegetables and a meat and cheese plate
there are many ands in that sentence
there are three ands in that sentence
and using commas to separate each
individual item helps the reader
understand what they should be looking
for what is one item here a comma helps
us identify those things in another
example we might say this weekend I’m
excited to see my friends Beyonce and
Justin Timberlake so a way to interpret
this sentence without an Oxford comma is
that Beyonce and Justin Timberlake are
my friends but they’re not actually my
friends the Oxford comma helps prevent
this kind of confusion this weekend I’m
excited to see my friends Beyonce and
Justin Timberlake so it sounds like
those are three different things that
are not necessarily related so the
Oxford comma helps prevent this kind of
confusion for that reason I’m a big fan
of it the case is where you might see
the Oxford comma purposely not used are
in journalism really so in newspapers in
my
for example those publications and the
style guides that they follow typically
do not advocate or do not suggest the
use of the Oxford comma you will see the
Oxford comma however in novels and in
short stories and other things like that
so in those cases you may see it used
this is another reason why you may
sometimes see a comma before an and and
you may sometimes not see it there are a
couple of different reasons
so in some one reason it’s related to
independent clauses and connecting those
with a conjunction and in this case and
a comma the other is related perhaps to
the use of the Oxford comma or the
serial comma so I hope that this helps
you thanks very much for the question
okay that is everything that I have for
this week thank you as always for
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