Tense Changes with Reported Speech in English
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hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and i answer them maybe let’s
get to your first question this week
first question this week comes from
april hi april april says hi alicia
where can i use literally and basically
i think native english speakers use
these a lot thank you great question
yeah literally and basically let’s start
with literally so the actual meaning of
literally means as written or exactly as
described
a lot of american english speakers tend
to use literally too much and actually
they use it in the incorrect way for
example you might hear it in a sentence
like i’m so hungry i’m literally dying
so
in text this expression means the person
is physically dying they are passing
away because they are so hungry now
that’s not true that’s not literally
true but the person uses literally as an
emphasis word to try to express the
extreme feeling they’re experiencing so
you might hear it used in some ways like
this
people tend to use it in this way as an
emphasis word but that doesn’t mean that
this use of literally is correct it’s
not actually correct a correct use of
literally might be something like i’m so
sorry i missed your call i literally
just walked in the door and i put my
phone down i’m so sorry about that so
you’re expressing something that
actually really and truly just happened
so this is the correct use of literally
so even though we all know that this is
the correct use of literally please be
on the lookout please be aware lots of
native speakers use it just as an
emphasis word without thinking about it
okay now let’s talk about basically
basically basically means in essence so
it refers to the most basic of something
so when we want to speak kind of
generally or we want to talk about like
the core idea of something we’ll use
basically for example in an office
meeting where you’re explaining
something that you want someone else to
do you might say basically we just need
your help doing data entry for this
project so that gives the other person a
kind of general idea again you might
hear native speakers using this in a
kind of flexible way when they sort of
mean generally but they’re using
basically instead so we use it in most
cases to refer to the core idea of
something one use that might be a little
bit confusing is when you hear this used
as a one word response to something so
someone might use this in response to a
question like so you were out all
weekend partying and the other person
might say basically which means yes
essentially or in other words that’s the
core of what i was doing for the week so
this is another use of basically that
also has that feel of kind of general
knowledge or general information so i
hope that this helps you thanks very
much for an interesting question all
right let’s move on to your next
question next question comes from vishal
desul hi vishal vishal says what is the
difference between reason and cause and
where do i use it nice question so let’s
start with reason the reason for
something you can think of as the why
for something it answers the question
why what is the reason could be
understood as why so instead of saying
what’s the reason for this mess in my
house you could say why is there a mess
in this house think about reason the
reason for something as answering the
question why
cause on the other hand refers to
something that brought about another
situation so there are some cases yes
where reason and cause could be used
maybe in the same way but cause refers
to something that made another action
happen or another condition happen so
for example the cause of the accident
was a technical error this could i
suppose be written as the reason for the
accident was a technical error while
that’s correct and we can generally
understand it using the word cause shows
that it brought about some other
condition or some kind of effect yeah so
if you say the cause of the accident was
a technical error it shows a better
connection between some effect and in
the future or some effect in the present
reason doesn’t have this so you can kind
of try to separate those two a little
bit with thinking of reason as the
answer to the question why and a cause
as having some connection to another
effect or another condition so i hope
that this helps you thanks very much for
the question okay let’s go to your next
question next question comes from joanna
hi joanna joanna says when do we use the
words cash and money
great question yeah cash can be used in
a couple of different ways we tend to
use cash when we want to talk about
physical money in general everyday
conversation like if you need to get
some money from an atm you might say let
me get some cash from an atm we tend to
use cash to talk about coins and bills
the physical money you might also hear
people use cash to talk more casually
about money like oh no i’m out of cash
this month i need to work really hard
for next month or something like that
cash tends to be used as kind of a
rougher more casual cool way of saying
money money tends to sound a little bit
more polite or more formal we typically
don’t use cash in business situations
for example unless maybe you know the
other person very well or maybe there’s
some kind of special arrangement where
you speak very casually so money refers
to the same thing as cash yes but we
tend to not use it as much in everyday
conversation you might hear it in like
contracts discussions of contracts
discussions of agreements more polite or
official kinds of things
so you might say for example please
transfer the money by tomorrow if you
say please transfer the cash by tomorrow
it sounds a little bit rougher like
you’re doing something that might be
kind of suspicious perhaps so it depends
a little bit on the person it depends a
little bit on the situation they refer
to the same thing but a general guide a
general rule is that money is used as
for slightly more official or polite
situations and cash is used for more
unofficial or everyday or rough
conversation so thanks for the question
okay let’s move on to your next question
next question comes from rachel hi
rachel rachel says hi alicia i
frequently hear the phrase let alone but
i don’t exactly understand when i can
use it for example i wouldn’t speak to
him let alone trust him
nice question yeah i wouldn’t speak to
him let alone trust him let alone shows
that there’s this other level of thing
that you would not do
so for example in this situation if we
think of it as two levels i wouldn’t
speak to him so that’s one thing the
speaker is saying i will not do this
like in a future situation if i had the
opportunity i would not do this i
wouldn’t speak to him and then they
introduce this other level of something
in this case trust so trust is another
like higher level of something and
they’re saying this is also impossible
so it’s like saying this thing at this
lower level is something i will not do
or in this case i wouldn’t do
and so therefore this other thing is
also completely impossible we use let
alone to talk about that for example in
another situation you could say he
doesn’t exercise at all let alone eat
healthy so that’s saying again two
levels of things there’s one thing this
person doesn’t do and therefore this
other thing is also completely
impossible or completely out of the
question let alone expresses that so
keep this in mind when you find let
alone in your reading the speaker or the
writer is expressing that one thing is
not possible or maybe not good or not
favorable and therefore this other thing
is also even more impossible or even
more out of the question so i hope that
this helps you thanks very much for the
interesting question okay let’s move on
to your next question next question
comes from emma hi emma emma says hi
alicia i’m wondering which tents i
should use when making reported speech
sentences for example one i promised my
son that i would buy his favorite legos
for his birthday two i promised my son
that i will buy his favorite legos for
his birthday i heard that in reported
speech we have to match verb tense in a
sentence in this case even though his
birthday is next month should i use wood
instead of will even though it hasn’t
happened yet thanks yeah great question
the correct answer here is wood i
promised my son that i would buy him his
favorite lego set for his birthday the
reason is because this is still an
untrue situation right yes we use will
to talk about our future plans but in
this case when you’re reporting speech
we don’t use will in this way we stick
with wood i promised my son that i would
do this thing you can use this exact
same idea with other future tense
situations like i promised my friends
that i would meet them for a barbecue
this weekend or i told my parents that i
would be home in time for dinner we do
not use will in situations like this if
it helps you you can think of the
situation as being an unreal situation
it’s like a promise you made it hasn’t
happened yet so that’s why we don’t use
will here we need to use wood and
patterns like these so yes in your
example sentence definitely use wood and
use wood in sentences like these in the
future i hope that this helps you thanks
very much for an interesting question
okay that is everything that i have for
this week thank you as always for
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