I am done or I have done which is correct Basic 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 okay let’s get to your first
question this week
first question this week comes from neha
hi neha neha says hi alicia my name is
neha could you please tell me when we
use
i am done and i have done
sure nice question first let’s break
down the
grammar of these sentences so that we
can understand the basic differences
first i am done so i
is our subject am is our verb and done
is our adjective i am done is a simple
present
tense statement i have done on the other
hand
is i our subject have our auxiliary or
our helping or linking verb
and done which is the verb in the past
participle form
so this is a present perfect tense
sentence
so i am done a present tense sentence
means i am in the state or i am in the
condition
of being finished with something so we
use this expression
after like a meal like i’m done with my
meal or i’m done
eating we use this maybe after we finish
a task or we’re trying to finish
something before
our friends or our co-workers like maybe
we’re making something and we say
i’m done when we finish so that means in
this moment my condition
is done is finished a simple present
tense statement
i have done on the other hand would be
like the beginning part to a longer
statement
so because this is a present perfect
pattern
it means we’re talking about something
that happened in the past at like a
non-specific
point so for example i have done my
homework
or i have done the laundry so that means
those activities
are finished they’re done yes and we did
them
at some point in the past but when is
not exactly
important so i have done just means that
this thing
happened in the past uh i am done refers
to my condition
now so i hope that this helps you thanks
very much for the question
okay let’s move on to your next question
next
question comes from
yoshitaka horikoshi hi again yoshitaka
yoshitaka says hi alicia
how do you use turn and change
i thought i could say my hair changed to
gray
however some songs say my hair
turned gray also should we say the
season changed
or the season turned looking forward to
hearing from you
nice question yeah this is a little bit
tricky because
both verbs have many uses but to focus
in on this specific difference
i would recommend maybe thinking about
the verb
turn as being used for things that we
cannot reverse so in your example about
hair color
it’s natural for us to say my hair
turned
gray so that means my hair color is not
going to go back to its original color
unless of course we dye it or something
so when we say something
turned it means that that thing moved
kind of into its next
form it was sort of transformed and it’s
probably not going to return to its
original
like status or its original condition so
my hair
turned gray is great we use turn when
we’re talking about birthdays too
so you can think of this in the same way
when we move to the next
age we cannot go back to the previous
age so using turn
makes a lot of sense for example i
turned
50 this year or i turned 60 this year
so we use turn there to mean become and
also we can’t
go back when we use change then we use
it to refer
to a transformation or an alteration yes
but the idea is that more alterations
are possible so it’s not just one time
maybe we could for example change our
clothes
many times so just one time so maybe for
example we can change
our clothes or we could say i changed my
hair
color that would be different from my
hair turned gray
so in my hair turned gray it means my
hair is not going to come back to its
original color
so when we use change it’s to describe
an
alteration or a transformation but like
other
other changes or other alterations are
still possible
so for example with hair color we could
say i changed my hair color so it’s like
i made the decision
i changed it or when you’re traveling
you can say
i changed my us dollars to euro
so more changes are possible in the
future
this is not a perfect rule and as i said
there are many different ways to use
change and turn but maybe this can help
you with a few common uses
relating to the meaning of become for
this verb
regarding your season related example
actually we use
both and the difference is kind of
subtle so we can say like as
the seasons changed she grew more and
more proficient
in her language skills or something like
that so when we say
as the seasons changed or like as the
seasons changed over time or something
like that
it has the feeling of like many
different seasons happening
like not just one season going to the
next season
but as the seasons plural changed it
sounds like
there’s a lot of seasons going in
succession going quickly one after
another
so we would probably use change in that
case
when we use turn with seasons it’s often
an expression like
spring turned to summer summer turned to
autumn
so we’re showing that there’s just this
forward progress
and we can’t go back to the previous
season we’re showing that something is
going to like the next
stage when we do that we usually use the
verb
turn we don’t use change like summer
change to autumn
it sounds a little bit like unnatural i
don’t think there’s a communication
problem but we would use
turn in that case instead so in sum
if you want to talk about something that
you can’t really go back to
try using turn if you want to talk about
something that it’s possible
to make other alterations to try using
change i hope that this helps you thanks
for the question okay
let’s move on to your next question next
question comes from
franklin diaz hi franklin franklin says
hi alicia how are you
good my question is what does it mean
when someone says who cut the cheese
a friend of mine told me that americans
use this expression when they smell
something that is disgusting
is that right yes michael and i
if you have not seen the english topic
series on this channel
we talked about this exact expression
this very expression
many years ago and the explanation is
quite clear
so have a look at this clip really
quickly
ah that’s good starter cut the cheese
cut the cheese um it’s a weird one we
say it we kind of accept it so this
means fart means to fart but i don’t
think it really sounds like a fart when
you cut the cheese
you ask usually you say who cut the
cheese right what i don’t think that
this refers to a sound
this idiom no yeah what do you think it
comes from i don’t have no idea you are
so full of it you’re gonna make me
explain this one aren’t you
this refers to the smell when you pass
gas from your body you guys are gonna
make me oh
you’re making me no i swear i swear i
didn’t know that
it’s a smell thing if you cut a fresh
cheese thing it smells kind of
bad oh yeah cheese so your body as well
if you
release gas from your body it may smell
similar
to a freshly cut block of cheese
and now i’ve explained
something where there was something on
the internet
yeah shouldn’t it be like fry the egg or
something if it’s talking about smell
cheese what do you do to your eggs
my cheese is my farts don’t smell like
cheese they smell like eggs more than
cheese just saying i swore i thought
that was the sound no
like how often all right
i well that’s what about you oh my god
this is only the first one
i’m supposed to talk about this now that
is i would like to point out that phrase
is one that’s used a lot by kids
and parents who are talking to kids
that’s like a nice way to
i guess a silly way to refer to it
otherwise rather unpleasant well no
it’s always unpleasant i would imagine
bodily function
so as we talked about in this
explanation it’s a phrase that’s usually
used by kids it’s not something that we
use so much among adults but perhaps
from time to time and depending on the
person
if you want to watch this full video you
can do a quick search on the english
class 101 youtube channel
for weirdest english idioms to find this
and some other expressions to use so i
hope that that helps you thanks for the
question
okay let’s move on to your next question
next question comes from
kemari hi kimari kamari says hi alicia
what is the difference between how and
how come
okay first how come means why
so kids usually use how come
and kids will often use how come to
complain like they want to ask
why and they’re like disappointed or
they’re upset about something
so for example we’re not going to the
movies tonight
ah how come so it’s usually with that
kind of intonation it means why
or like why not so how come in this way
always means why you may hear adults use
this phrase if they’re trying to be like
friendly or childish or something like
that but generally this is an expression
that’s used by kids
or just i don’t know kind of playful
people in general
on the other hand how is used to mean in
what way
in what way so for example how
does he make a living means in what way
does he make a living
or how do i turn on this computer means
in what way do i turn on this computer
so how alone by itself means in what way
how come means why i hope that this
helps you thanks for the question
okay on to our next question next
question
comes from al-mubin hi al-mubin
al-mubin says hi alicia how’s it going
good uh could you please tell me
what is the difference between make and
make up ah okay yeah generally to
make means to create something so
not makeup but just to make means to
create something so for example
we make videos for youtube or
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