Cant or Couldnt Whats the Difference Basic English Grammar
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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and I answer them
maybe first question this week comes
from Rizal khuswaha again hi again
resolved resolved says hi Alicia what is
the difference between task duty job and
assignment and how do we use them thanks
okay good question let’s start with the
word duty duty is the least commonly
used of these words that you’ve
introduced here we use duty to talk
about our responsibilities or our
obligations we use this word however for
kind of specific jobs so people who work
in like the government who do like civil
service related jobs and people who are
members of the military use the word
duty to describe their responsibilities
for example my duty is to serve my
country it is my duty as mayor to do the
best I can for my city we don’t use the
word duty or the plural duties very much
except in these kinds of settings you
might see this on like a contract or
perhaps a job application or a job
information form but in general the word
Duty is most commonly used in these
kinds of environments let’s move on then
to the word job so we use the word job
to refer generally to the type of work
we do like I’m a teacher I’m a
photographer I’m in finance so it’s our
job our job title or the kind of work
that we do that’s our job I make youtube
videos as part of my job we’re
journalists so we have busy jobs okay
finally then the words task and
assignment these really do have quite
similar meanings but assignment is used
more when were students like when we
have homework we often call it a
homework assignment so that’s something
we have to take home complete and bring
back
we use assignment to mean like a thing
that we need to do assignment is also
used quite specifically in the
journalism and media related fields so
when we receive a task when we receive
something that we need to travel for
like we travel and we interview someone
or we travel to collect information
that’s called an assignment in the
journalism and media related fields
so in that case assignment can be quite
specific to a field in most other cases
though just talking about your to-do
lists the everyday items you need to
take care of we use the word task to
describe that so in like your computer
or your smartphone or maybe in a
notebook somewhere you might have a task
list so your task list is your list of
responsibilities the small things you
need to do throughout your day or
throughout your week tasks is probably
the most commonly used word from this
list that you have presented here some
examples I have an assignment in LA this
month where’s your next assignment so
for our other work for most general work
we can use the word tasks to talk about
those small things we need to do
throughout the day I hope that this
helps you understand the differences
between these words thanks very much for
the question ok let’s move on to your
next question next question comes from
trying again hi trying trying says hello
Alicia what’s the difference between
just and only a good question
it does depend on how the word is used
in the sentence in some cases just and
only can be used interchangeably we can
use them in the same way let’s compare
with two sentences I want just one
cookie I want only one cookie so here in
both of these examples sentences just
and only proceed proceed means come
before the word or the expression one
cookie so they’re modifying one cookie
we always put just and only directly
before the word or phrase that we are
modifying please be careful a point that
many native speakers make mistakes with
is they’ll put it before the verb not
before like the
whole thing they want to modify so in
these example sentences we can use the
two words in the same way they mean like
one thing that’s it we want to emphasize
the one thing in other situations though
the two words have different functions
so we can use just to talk about very
recently completed actions to talk about
actions that were planned for completion
very recently and to talk about actions
that are going to happen in the very
near future for example I just finished
my homework I was just about to call you
I’m just about to leave so these are
example sentences which in order our
recently finished action recently
planned action that did not happen an
upcoming action in the very near future
we can use just to do this but we cannot
use only to do this so this is an
example of the various ways that just
can be used only is used for that kind
of emphasis feeling that we talked about
in the cookie example sentence if you
want some more information on the
placement of only and how it affects the
meaning of a sentence please check out
the whiteboard video that’s on the
YouTube channel that details the use of
the word only and the placement of the
word only it’s a big point for native
speakers and learner’s alike I think so
I hope that that helps you thanks very
much for the question
ok let’s move along to your next
question next question this week comes
from Gerardo hi Gerardo Gerardo says how
does the letter T sound in the words
party and started yeah good question so
the T sound in words like this it
becomes quite soft so you’ll notice in
these patterns we have a vowel followed
by our T and then something at the end
in this case we’re looking at like II D
or maybe Y sounds so in the examples
that you included party it’s like a D
sound and started so party and started
it’s like a D sound the T sound that is
not pronounced party and stay
arted are difficult to say in fast
speech we make the sounds much softer
like a D sound party and started so
three more words that follow the same
pronunciation rule are parted blurted
and sporty so here we see vowel plus R T
plus something else so we have sporty in
the last example and then these words
that end in E D with parted and blurted
so you’ll notice that that T sound
becomes very soft like a D so parted
blurted sporty party started so this is
a kind of a good guideline I think for
when you see that R T and you see a
vowel before it but it’s not at the end
of a word so please note that this
pronunciation rule applies when the T is
not the last letter in the word if for
example the word is start or part or
blurt the T sound is quite clear but
when it’s not the last letter in the
word it’s like started party blurted
then the T sound becomes more like a D
sound so we would not say blurted party
started it’s a little too much it’s kind
of difficult to say in fast speech so I
hope that this helps you with the
pronunciation of T sounds that follow
this spelling rule thanks very much for
the question
ok let’s move on to your next question
next question comes from John hi John
John says hi Alicia I would like to ask
the difference between can’t and
couldn’t is it possible to use both of
them to say something is impossible to
do at present which of the two is
preferred or can I just use them
interchangeably Thanks
in statements we use can’t for present
tense and couldn’t for past tense
examples I can’t help you right now he
can’t come to the phone we couldn’t
finish all the food she couldn’t find
the stapler so can’t is used to refer to
impossible things in the present
couldn’t is used to refer to impossible
things in the past so we cannot use
them interchangeably so present-tense
can’t past tense
couldn’t less commonly there is the
expression I couldn’t so we use this
expression when there’s something kind
of tempting or interesting that we’re a
little bit interested about but we kind
of want to like hold back a bit so for
example like three donuts for me I
couldn’t so it’s like there’s some kind
of temptation or something like that but
that’s a sort of set special expression
and it’s not so commonly used another
example might be like a promotion but I
would have to leave all my team members
behind I couldn’t do that so it’s kind
of like there’s a reluctant feeling to
do something so it doesn’t necessarily
mean the speaker is going to choose one
way or the other but it’s just kind of
this shock durricks like surprised
expression that shows a decision is
difficult so in that case I couldn’t
refers to a present tense feeling like
that’s not possible I shouldn’t do that
that’s kind of the feel there but in all
other cases as I talked about in my
example sentences we use couldn’t for
past tense impossibility so please use
can’t for present tense couldn’t for
past tense I hope that this helps answer
your question thanks very much for
sending it along okay on to our next
question this week next question this
week comes from stanislav hi stanislav
stanislav says what idiom can i use to
describe past work if its results were
unuseful and unnecessary and there was
no practical outcome but that wasn’t
clear from the start in my native
language this is called work for a shelf
it means that the results will be put on
a shelf and then forgotten yeah
interesting actually we use shelf in
this way too when we say we’re going to
put something on a shelf after we finish
it it doesn’t really mean that it was
unnecessary or unuseful but it’s just
kind of like you say there’s not really
a practical outcome for it like we
finished this thing it’s done I’m not
going to do anything with it I’ll just
put it on the shelf
we also use this as a verb to shelf
something means to put it off to the
side and kind of forget about it like
something that’s finished we don’t have
to deal with it anymore
we shelf that
some examples a shelf in that vase I
took a week to paint don’t leave that
project on the shelf so in this case in
English it doesn’t necessarily mean that
the item was bad or was not useful or
whatever it just means it’s like not so
important right now so we put it on the
shelf we like don’t think about it so
much we just put it somewhere where it’s
not in the way sometimes literally so I
hope that this helps answer your
question interesting one thanks very
much for sending it along okay that is
everything that I have for this week
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