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[Music]
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 henrique hi henrique enrique says
how do we use at in and on
correctly thank you okay very quickly
because there are videos on the channel
about how to use prepositions so please
do a search and check them out
very quickly to review let’s begin with
at
we use at to mark specific locations in
cities that means like buildings so for
example i’m
at the bank or she’s at the supermarket
we can also use at to refer to specific
locations outside cities like in the
countryside
like we’re at the river today we also
use
at before times to mark specific times
of day
like let’s meet at 2pm or she arrived at
3
30 we also use at with night as in
at night please note we do not use at
with morning or
afternoon or evening those are incorrect
we only use it with
at night then let’s talk about in we use
in before the names of cities and
countries like she lives in switzerland
or he lives in barcelona or it’s in
toronto so we use it before city names
and country names we can also use in
before a length of time to mark a
duration
like let’s meet in 10 minutes or we
finish the project
in one hour we also use in
with months for example she moved in
february
or i’m going to europe in june finally
let’s talk about on
we use on with days of the week and to
talk about the weekend as in something
we did
on the weekend in some variations of
english you may hear people saying
at the weekend but this is not used in
american english we use
on the weekend so we use on before days
of the week
as in let’s meet on tuesday or
we had coffee together on saturday so
this is a very quick introduction to
different ways to use act
in and on as i said please do a quick
search of the channel for prepositions
to find
other videos with more details about
this topic
so i hope that this helps you thanks for
the question okay let’s move on to our
next question
next question comes from nazanin hello
nazanin
nazanin says hi alicia what is the
difference between
park and garden thank you ah a park is
generally a
big open area with lots of grass
you can come to a park and you can do
like a variety of different activities
if you want to have a picnic or a
barbecue or you want to maybe
play a sport or something like that you
can generally do that in a park there’s
a lot of really big open
space so maybe we can show a picture on
screen here so you can see what a park a
typical park looks like
a garden on the other hand is something
that’s supposed to be enjoyed
for its design and when i say design i
mean like the
landscape design like maybe there are
special flowers inside the garden
or there’s uh maybe special decorations
there’s some kind of like landscape that
is special
in the garden so you might see parks and
gardens like together there might be a
garden inside a park
but a garden is generally not a place
that you go to
to do a specific activity like we don’t
go to a garden to have a barbecue or we
don’t go to a garden to play a sport
generally we
go to a garden to enjoy the scenery to
enjoy being in the garden like walking
along the paths in the garden
so parks are generally more open spaces
where we can do a variety of activities
gardens are spaces that we use for
enjoyment of that natural space
so i hope that this helps you thanks for
the question okay let’s move on to your
next question
next question comes from sumitha
aaron hello sumitha sumitha says i would
like to know the difference
between resume and curriculum vitae okay
they are very very similar a curriculum
vitae or cv
as it is often called these are very
very similar documents
we use both of them to apply for jobs
so a cv is generally longer than a
resume maybe like three to four pages
and it includes everything you have ever
done all of your professional experience
so that’s like your work experience
and your education experience yes so
where you went to school
the degrees that you have uh the topics
that you studied and so on
but we also on a cv include our
credentials our certification so if you
got some kind of special
recognition if you got a scholarship a
grant if you’ve published anything like
a book or a paper
or if you have a thesis somewhere if
you’ve given a presentation
basically anything connected to your
work and your professional experience
will be listed on a cv so a cv is like a
very long
list of all of your achievements all of
your professional
and your educational achievements these
are kind of longer documents
a resume on the other hand is generally
a little bit shorter
it’s maybe like one to two pages long
and it’s kind of more of a
summary so in addition to including like
your contact information
uh you might have a short career
objective like that means
the thing that you are trying to do in
your career you might have that
and then generally with a resume you
have a series of
summaries of your past work so maybe you
have three or four
companies or three or four positions on
your resume and you
summarize your accomplishments and your
role
in each of those positions so that
someone has a good idea has like a good
image
of what kind of work you have done and
therefore how it connects to your
current objective so again a resume
tends to be
a bit shorter than a cv maybe one to two
pages
but a cva like could be maybe three to
four pages if you have a long work
history
in the uk you might find that nobody
actually uses the word resume so if
you’re speaking with a british english
speaker they might only use the word
cv cv generally refers to the same
concept as a resume
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 siam hello siam siam says what’s
the difference
between not and no
uh i’ll give a very general answer to
this question
we use not and no to give
negative responses to things the grammar
of the sentence is what’s important here
so we use not before adjectives and
verbs for example i am not hungry
or she’s not sleeping or they do not
work
on saturdays so this comes before
adjectives or verbs
no of course is also used to respond to
yes or no questions with the negative
answer you may also hear not used in
kind of a sarcastic way to reply to
someone’s opinion or to respond to
someone’s opinion
for example person a might say i really
liked that movie
and person b might respond with yeah me
too
not so this is kind of an old style
humor it’s not it’s actually not very
funny but some people try to use this
not to show contrast to the thing that
they just said so this really means
i’m going to pretend that i agree with
you for a moment but i don’t really
so you might hear some people use not in
this way
too so i hope that this helps you thanks
for the question
okay let’s move on to our next question
next question
comes from arkan git hello arkhan
arkhan says what’s the difference
between police station
and police department nice question yeah
a police station is a building it’s a
physical place that we can visit
so people work inside a police station
a police department on the other hand is
a part of an organization
so the police department refers to a
group of people
working together to do police work this
is the same as like a marketing
department in a company
or as like a sales department in an
online store
it refers to a group of people that are
doing the same
type of work a police department so a
police department refers to that group
of people
the police station refers to the
physical building where
police officers are located so in
sentences you might say something like
i went to the police station to file a
report about my lost wallet
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 mari
hi mari
mari says could you please explain
how to know when i can separate a
phrasal verb by putting a noun between
the verb and the preposition
great question let’s think about this in
two categories
phrasal verbs that you can split are
phrasal verbs that take a direct object
these are called transitive phrasal
verbs but
please note that just because a phrasal
verb takes a direct object does
not necessarily mean that you can split
it let’s take a look at some examples
i wrote down her phone number i
wrote her phone number down this is an
example of a phrasal verb
write down or wrote down in past tense
that can be split
the direct object here is her phone
number we can put her phone number
after wrote down in the past tense or we
can put it between
rote and down this is one that we can
split
let’s look at another example he opened
up the file and started working
he opened the file up and started
working
in this sentence the phrasal verb is
open up past tense opened up
we can move the file the direct object
to the middle of the phrasal verb if we
want to
opened up the file is fine opened the
file up
is also fine so this is another example
of a phrasal verb that we can split a
transitive phrasal verb that is
splittable
let’s take a look now at a transitive
phrasal verb that we cannot split
we got in the car this is an example of
a phrasal verb that we cannot split
so to get in something means to
put yourself into something but we
cannot move
the car between get and in we cannot say
we get the car in this is an example of
a transitive phrasal verb that we cannot
split so how do we know which ones are
splittable and which ones are not
splittable or separable and inseparable
unfortunately there isn’t an easy rule
for distinguishing the two
it just takes time and practice let’s
now talk about
intransitive phrasal verbs so phrasal
verbs that do not take a direct object
which are intransitive phrasal verbs
cannot be split we cannot move the noun
after the phrasal verb to the middle of
the phrasal verb some examples of this
i like to work out my plan fell through
she loved her trip to france she’s
planning to go back next year
the interviewee never showed up so in
each of these example sentences the
phrasal verb is in bold
in each of these examples as well the
phrasal verb does not take a direct
object that means that we cannot split
the phrasal verb
so again these are called intransitive
phrasal verbs
in sum intransitive phrasal verbs cannot
be split
some transitive phrasal verbs can be
split
please take a look at inseparable
transitive
phrasal verbs to get a list of
vocabulary words that you can study so
that you can remember which ones need to
stay together
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 jose elias hello jose
jose says hi alicia i would like to know
how to use
rap for example when people say your
life was a wrap or
you are a wrap i would like to know
other possible meanings please
generally when we use the expression
it’s a wrap or that’s a wrap it means
that something is
finished it’s complete we often use this
word
in like media like film production movie
production or tv production related work
when something has come to an end we can
say it’s a wrap or
that’s a wrap which means we’re finished
or we’re done
we might also hear this in business or
professional settings to mean
this is finished as in this project is
finished or
this meeting is finished you might say
let’s wrap up this meeting which means
let’s finish this meeting or let’s
conclude this meeting
so it tends to have this idea this
feeling of something being
finished something being completed to
look specifically at the examples that
you provided here
while they’re not sentences i would say
maybe not phrases i would say
perhaps those would be used in very
specific situations
like he got in trouble with his parents
and they said he couldn’t go out for a
month
his social life was a wrap which means
his social life is over
as a result of something that happened
so that might be a situation where you’d
hear something like his life was a rap
or her life was a wrap
if someone says you are a rap it sounds
like maybe i’m finished with you
i suppose again these are not
expressions that i personally would say
but that might be how someone would use
this
okay to end this question let’s talk
about one more very common use of
rap we have the expression to be wrapped
up in something or to be wrapped up in
someone
which means you are so involved or so
interested in someone or something
that you ignore things outside that or
you don’t pay enough attention to those
things
so for example i’m so wrapped up in this
tv show i forgot my friend’s birthday
or why are you so wrapped up in your new
relationship
i never see you anymore so it means that
someone is too interested or too
involved in something
and they forget about the other things
in their life we also have this meaning
associated with rap so i hope that this
helps you thanks for the question
okay let’s move on to your next question
next question
comes from miriam atef hi miriam maryam
says hey alicia
what is the difference between
infectious and
contagious good question something that
is
infectious is something that is capable
of
causing sickness so an infectious
disease
is a disease that can cause someone to
become sick
so that means that diseases are commonly
called
infectious diseases some examples
prevent the spread of infectious disease
by washing your hands
there was something infectious in my
food and now i’m sick
contagious on the other hand refers to
something that can be passed to another
person
through contact some example sentences
i’m sneezing a lot but don’t worry it’s
just allergies
i’m not contagious there’s a highly
contagious cold going around this year
so to think about the relationship
between these two words
something that is contagious is always
infectious
so for example a cold a cold is a germ
it’s a disease
and it can be passed between people so
it is contagious
and it is infectious however something
that is infectious
is not always contagious i gave the
example of
allergies in an earlier example sentence
allergies are an example of something
that is infectious but not contagious so
we can’t pass allergies from person to
person
one person just has this unfortunate
relationship with like dust or maybe
like
cats or dogs or something something
causes this unfortunate
reaction in a person but it is not
contagious it’s the same idea with
something like food poisoning
if you eat something and there’s an
infectious germ in there
you can get sick but you can’t pass that
to another person through contact
so again something that is contagious is
also infectious
but something that is infectious is not
necessarily contagious
on a lighter note we also use these
words to talk about moods feelings and
emotions like you might say
her laughter is infectious or his energy
is contagious
so we can use these words to talk about
concepts as well
so i hope that this helps you thanks for
the question all right
let’s move on to your next question next
question comes from
risa hi ryza rysa says hi alicia i’m
trying to memorize some phrasal verbs
but sometimes i don’t understand the
need to use a preposition
when the verb without the preposition
means the same thing
for example what’s the difference
between she called him
and she called him up thanks yeah this
is a good question
in this example the two have the same
meaning yes as you said
but the one with up sounds a little more
casual
so she called him and she called him up
are the same
but she called him sounds a little more
formal
i would use she called him in a more
polite situation
and she called him up in a more casual
situation
if you’re not sure just use she called
him another example of this might be
something like
close down so for example if we say the
story 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 hamza hi hamza
hamza says what’s the difference between
collaborate and cooperate and how do we
use these words in sentences
okay well it depends a little bit on the
situation
let’s talk about cooperate first
so to cooperate means to do
something in accordance with rules like
to follow
rules to do something that’s like in
line with society’s expectations this is
one use of cooperate
for example you might have seen a sign
in english that says
no smoking here thank you for your
cooperation
so that’s an example of cooperate used
as a noun
as cooperation but it means thank you
for following the rules thank you for
your cooperation
so it’s like you’re following some kind
of societal guideline
so cooperate can have this meaning
we also see cooperate used to mean
working together
especially when it’s like two people or
two groups that might not
usually work together for example the
two countries
cooperated to reduce pollution in the
ocean
in that example sentence it sounds like
the two countries might not
otherwise work together we use cooperate
to express that both parties both
groups get some kind of benefit from the
situation
so cooperate has these two primary
meanings of following rules
and of working together with somebody
for mutual benefit
usually somebody that you wouldn’t work
with so
let’s compare this then to collaborate
collaborate and the second meaning of
cooperate share the meaning of working
together with someone yes
but when we use the word collaborate
it’s like you’re working together
closely with someone to make something
very intellectual like creative or
artistic
so this can be like music it could be a
research paper it could be a movie
it’s like two people or two groups
combine their specialties to make
something special to make something
unique so for example
my two favorite musicians collaborated
and made an amazing album
let’s all collaborate to make the event
a success
or researchers from the engineering
department
and the computer science department
collaborated on this research paper
so those are situations in which
collaborate is much more natural to use
than
cooperate it also sounds when we use
collaborate
like it’s kind of natural for those
people to work together
if you use cooperate it kind of sounds
like it’s not so natural or they might
not do those things
there’s one other meaning of collaborate
which is like to
help the enemy or to work for the enemy
so like if you imagine a spy from one
country
goes to another country and starts
working for the other country
we can use collaborate to describe that
relationship
as in the spy started collaborating with
our enemies or we suspect that one of
our employees may be collaborating with
a competitor
so that means working together with
someone and it’s usually used in a
negative situation
so it’s used to mean like someone is
working for someone else
to like reduce our credibility or to
hurt us somehow and give someone else an
advantage
so there is also this meaning of
collaborate but generally
you’ll hear it used to mean the first
meaning that i described so
i hope that this helps you thanks for
the question okay let’s move on to your
next question
next question comes from andrea olivier
hi andrea
andrea says hi alicia i love your videos
very much cool
could you help me with the differences
between warranty
and guarantee yeah sure nice question
as nouns warranty and guarantee these
two mean the same thing
they both refer to a promise it’s some
kind of promise about like a product
or a service so when you buy a product
like a new piece of equipment or you buy
some kind of
like machine for example you might see
it says like two year warranty
or lifetime guarantee so that refers to
the length of time
that the person who made the product
promises it will be good
so if it breaks you can get a refund or
you can exchange it for free or
something like that
so in this sense warranty and guarantee
have the same meaning
this kind of product promise however
guarantee
can be used as a verb and in some of
these verb uses
it has a little bit of a different
meaning than just simply promise
so one of these is like to say something
with confidence one of the meanings of
guarantee
is like to say something or to share an
opinion with confidence
for example i guarantee you’ll love this
restaurant
so that’s like someone saying i know 100
i am very confident that you will enjoy
this restaurant
we can’t use warranty to describe that
we can’t use that
in any way to describe that kind of
confident opinion
sharing so guaranty has this meaning we
also
have another meaning of guarantee which
is to secure
against so for example the insurance
company
secured the house against storm damage
another way to say that is the insurance
company promised the house would be safe
from storm damage so to secure against
is a special meaning of guarantee and
again we cannot use warranty to have
this meaning
at all so a good way to know which
meaning
of guarantee is being used is to look at
the word that follows the verb
so guaranteed the house against storm
damage
if you look after the word guarantee and
you see
against is somewhere after it it’s a
pretty good chance that it’s this
secure against meaning if however it’s
just someone kind of sharing an opinion
it’s probably that asserting something
with confidence saying something with
confidence meaning
and yes we can also use guarantee as a
verb to mean
making a promise so i hope that this
helps you understand
warranty and guarantee and the different
ways that we can use the word
guarantee as a verb thanks for the
question okay let’s move on to our next
question next question comes from bianca
hi bianca
bianca says hi alicia i think the words
to
also likewise even and as well
have similar meanings what are their
differences and in which situations do i
use them
yep common question okay so let’s review
two
also and as well have the same functions
so we use them in just different parts
of the sentence
so two tends to fall at the end of a
sentence
like i want to go to the movies two or
she bought a coffee
too as well typically falls at the end
of a sentence
but it sounds a little bit more formal
than two
in everyday speech we tend to use two
more often
you may see two used before a verb like
i too want to go to the movies or she
too bought a coffee
this use however sounds a little bit
old-fashioned and we tend not to use it
seriously if you hear this it’s probably
being used for humor
so keep in mind again in some here to
and as well can go at the end of the
sentence that’s typically where they go
also on the other hand typically comes
before a verb
like i also want to go to the movies or
she also bought a coffee
so we typically find it before the verb
you may see also
at the beginning of a sentence this
happens when the speaker wants to add
some information and they kind of just
forgot it in the first sentence
so you might see it at the beginning of
a sentence as well
likewise to move on to the next item in
your list
tends to be used by itself it’s like a
response to something someone else said
it’s like saying me too
and it’s kind of friendly but a little
bit polite so for example if speaker a
says i had a great time chatting with
you b might say
likewise it was fun so it’s like saying
me too but it’s a little more friendly
and polite
and usually we just use it alone finally
even so even is probably the most
different of all of these words that you
introduced
before we talk about even let’s take a
look at an example situation
i’m so excited for my friends to come
over to my house this weekend
i deep cleaned my house i bought a bunch
of snacks and drinks
and i picked out some movies to watch i
even bought some games to play
so you’ll notice that even comes before
the last item
in this situation i even bought some
games to play
so we use even in place of like and when
we want to emphasize that we’re doing
something with all of our effort or that
we’re kind of really
focused on something so the speaker
expresses this excitement
and the speaker did thing a and b and c
to prepare for her friends to come over
and then there’s this other thing that’s
even more like intense or she’s
she’s kind of expressing excitement by
using even here instead of just
and so we tend to use even to express
emphasis this sounds like a lot more
like excited than just saying and i
bought some games to play if you say i
even bought some games to play it’s like
showing your commitment i guess or like
your intensity in the situation
so i hope that this is a good
introduction to the differences between
these words
maybe i can make a whiteboard about this
in the future thanks very much for the
question
okay let’s move on to your next question
next question comes from emma hi emma
emma says hi alicia i’m wondering when
we use the expression
you guys can i use this in a formal
situation
and can i use this with male and female
friends
what about kids when my kids are
fighting is it okay to say you guys stop
fighting thanks yeah nice question
generally when you say you guys or even
hi guys or hey guys is a greeting
it means everyone or everybody it refers
to
all people whether they’re men or women
so this is also like a very common way
for people on youtube to say hello to
their viewers they maybe start the video
by saying hi guys or hey guys
it’s very common to do but it is
important to note that especially over
the last few years
people are considering carefully the
words that they are choosing
and guys in this expression can for some
people
feel like it’s a little too male centric
and like women are kind of getting left
out of the expression
so because of this situation
some people are trying to use different
ways to greet people or
using different words instead of you
guys as in the expression that you
introduced
so it’s good to consider this for
example i don’t start videos by saying
hi guys i say hey everybody or hi
everyone
that’s what i prefer to use so some
other words that people have suggested
are words like you all or y’all or
folks or fam or you can choose words
that are specific to your group like in
your case if you are talking to your
kids you could say
kids stop fighting or like in our case
if we want to talk to the people who
watch our videos
or if i’m making something for like
video or for audio content for the
internet i might say
learners for the people who watch this
channel or i might say viewers or i
might say listeners
so instead of saying you guys you can
kind of pick a more specific word
that’s general for all genders so
yes to answer your question directly you
can use
you guys to refer to your kids or to
refer to your friends
but i think it’s maybe just good to
consider that more and more people are
being conscious and thinking carefully
about the best words to use
so that all genders can be covered in
these everyday expressions
so i hope that this helps you thanks
very much for the question okay
let’s move on to our next question next
question comes from
sergey hi sergey sergey says hi alicia
you are a great teacher and a jolly girl
i really like it i heard the phrase go
big or go home
could you please explain what it means
yes first
as an american english speaker just a
small side point i strongly associate
the word
jolly with santa claus so that’s why
your question made me laugh a little bit
jolly usually is only used to describe
santa claus but
just a funny little note there anyway
regarding your main question go big or
go home
go big or go home is an expression that
means do something with
all your effort or your full intensity
or don’t do it at all
it’s like saying do something if you
came all this way to do it or if you’ve
worked this hard to do it you should do
it
or you should just stay at home so you
would hear this maybe in like extreme
sports or
other kinds of like intense activities
or maybe if you go to a restaurant and
there’s some amazing food there and you
have one chance to eat it
your friend might say go big or go home
it’s a very casual
friendly kind of rough expression i used
to use it a lot in videos i guess i
don’t use it so much these days
but it’s kind of like a an encouragement
phrase to say like
you know do it with all your effort or
don’t do it at all
so go big refers to doing something with
your effort like having
big effort or go home like don’t do it
just stay in your house
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
sending your questions
remember you can send them to me at
englishclass101.com
ask hyphen alicia of course if you like
this lesson please don’t forget to give
it a thumbs up
subscribe to our channel if you haven’t
already and check us out at
englishclass101.com for some other
things that can help you with your
english studies
thanks very much for watching this
week’s episode of ask alicia and i will
see you again
next week bye bye hi everybody my name
is alicia
in this lesson i’m going to talk about
the differences between
may and might let’s get started
first i want to begin this lesson with
the word
may i want to talk about two ways that
we use
mei in modern american english first
we use mei to request and
give permission so that means when we
ask
for permission we can use may and when
we give
permission we can use may let’s look at
a common example
first person a says may i
use your pen may i use your pen
b says yes you may
yes you may so in this question
may is used to request to ask for
permission may i and then b
gives permission with may yes you may
so this yes you may means yes you may
use my pen in other words in many cases
however
native speakers drop this part they just
say
yes or sure or okay
when you’re making a question like this
make sure that may comes before your
subject so may i use your pen
not i may use your pen don’t use that
pattern
please use may i use your pen may we
use your pen or use your computer for
example
so make sure may is coming before
your i or we or he or she you can choose
to
reply with yes you may the negative here
would be
no you may not no you may not
another common example with may a common
request is
may i use the restroom may i use the
restroom
i’m going to talk a little bit more
about another expression we use
can in this question and similar
questions
a little bit later for now though let’s
consider this point one
fermei let’s go to point two for may
the second use of may is to express
a low to moderate moderate is like
medium
a low to moderate level of possibility
so may has this meaning yes
so does might as i’ll talk about later
but may is less commonly used
than might in american english so if you
use
may in a case like this as we’ll see in
a moment
it’s going to sound a little more formal
a little more polite
in american english we tend to use might
more but let’s look at some examples
there’s no communication problem here it
just sounds a little formal
first a positive statement i may visit a
restaurant
later today i may visit a restaurant
later today
means there’s a possibility so kind of
low
to moderate level maybe like 20 to 40
50 chance i’ll visit a restaurant later
today
in the negative then the next two
sentences
we may not have time to finish
our report today we may not have time to
finish our report today
so this may not means there’s a
possibility
that we will not have time so there’s
kind of this chance
that this thing will not be done today
so
same thing in the next one she may not
be able to make it
to the meeting so it might not is
another way to say this yes
but there’s a low or moderate
chance she will be able to make it
so we use may not or as we’ll see later
might
not to express that one more positive
sentence
he may join us later so again positive
so that shows there is a chance
that he’s going to come later so
think about this you can use may to talk
about something in positive sentences
that you think has a chance of happening
a chance of occurring
and may not to talk about something you
think has a chance
of not happening so
finally i want to end this section with
this note
about may versus can for permission
so i mentioned that in this question
here may i use the restroom for example
we use both may and can in modern
english to ask for permission
so there’s generally not a communication
problem
however some people prefer to use
historical rules for these two words
historically may has been used for
permission so for this kind of thing
this is a situation where the speaker is
asking for permission like is it okay if
i do this
can however historically has been used
to talk about abilities
so the things we are able to do for
example i can speak english i can speak
french so if you’re thinking
historically
can i use the restroom for some people
some people who are very strict about
rules
think it means like do i have the
ability
to use the restroom of course in modern
american english
we use them the same so it’s a
permission question but occasionally you
will meet people
who prefer to use this may rule the
historical
may rule so if you want to be sure
to be correct always please use may
when you’re trying to ask for permission
in a situation like this
or like this as well so if you want to
be very very strict
you can use may but many people use can
i think i probably use
can most of the time because may does
sound a little bit formal
but for your information this is the
historical difference between these two
words
okay so with that in mind let’s continue
to
might might so we use might
to express a low to moderate level of
possibility just as with
mei here however might is more
commonly used than may in american
english
so again this point is about american
english we tend to use
might more often than may in american
english
it might be a little different for
british english speakers
so we can make the same sentences that
we made over here
we can substitute might in place of
may for example i might visit a
restaurant later today
i might hear so a positive sentence and
to me an american english speaker this
sounds much more like friendly much
more commonly used i might visit a
restaurant later today
a negative we might not have time to
finish our report
today we might not have time so again
there’s a chance
we won’t have time to do this another
negative
she might not be able to make it to the
meeting
she might not be able to make it to the
meeting so again this doesn’t sound so
formal she may not sounds a little more
polite
finally he might join us later he might
join us later a positive
expression so again it sounds friendly
it sounds like an everyday conversation
so if you want to sound a bit more
polite maybe you’re using
this at work for example you could use
mei
to sound a little bit more polite
otherwise
i would recommend using might to sound
friendly and
have kind of a more everyday feel to
your conversation
one final point here is this
old-fashioned point
so um this is not used mite is not used
in this way
in modern american english but you might
hear it sometimes so
um it’s an old-fashioned use but using
might
to make requests for permission so like
we talked about here
but like i said this is not used in
modern american english
except for media so this is why i chose
to include this point in this lesson
so you might hear sentences like these
like
might i come in or might i help you
so these are like um requests we’re
asking is it okay to come in or like
is it okay if i help you so it’s kind of
like making an
offer this is an old-fashioned or
archaic use of
might in american english perhaps you’ll
hear this
in british english but this is very
rarely used
in modern american english unless you’re
watching a movie
that’s set in a time period a couple
hundred years ago perhaps
but this is not so commonly used if you
want to make a question a permission
question use may instead but you may
hear this
okay so this is a quick introduction to
the differences between
mei and might and a quick discussion of
may versus can for permission so i hope
that this helped you understand the
differences
between using these words if you have
any questions or comments
please feel free to let us know in the
comments section of this video
of course if you like the video please
don’t forget to give it a thumbs up
subscribe to our channel if you have not
already
and check us out at englishclass101.com
for some other things that can help you
with your english studies
thanks very much for watching this
lesson and i will see you again soon
bye hi everybody my name is alicia
in this lesson i’m going to talk about
the differences between
however nevertheless and despite
i’m also going to talk a little bit
about the expression
in spite of too so let’s begin
the first one that i want to look at is
the word
however however let’s take a look at
three
different ways we can use however first
however can mean on the other hand
or but it’s like a more formal way
of saying but something kind of more
polite than just
butt so let’s look at a couple of
examples of however
used in this way first example
i wanted to go to a movie however
i stayed home and studied one more
sorry we don’t have tea we do
however have coffee okay
so these two examples show how we use
however
to mean but like in this first example
it has the feeling of
but and in this one the second example
it’s more like
on the other hand so it’s like another
option
is available we also see that kind of
the positioning of however or the use
changes can shift a little bit here
we see that it’s connecting these two
ideas i wanted to go to a movie a
however so even though there was this
thing
i wanted to go to a movie but i stayed
home and studied so we’re connecting
those two ideas there
it can have kind of the feel of even
though but not as much
as some of the other things we’re going
to talk about later
in this sentence you might be surprised
at the positioning of however here
sorry we don’t have t that’s one point
we do however have coffee so this is a
pattern you might hear
native speakers use first we use this
do we do we use this to
contrast to give like a strong opposite
to this negative don’t we don’t have tea
we do have coffee so this however
is like on the other hand so
you could put this here as i’ve done we
do however
have coffee you could put this before
this comment
however we do have coffee that’s also
okay
so you might hear an expression in an
expression like this
you might hear the position of however
shift a little bit
but these uses are on the other hand or
but
let’s move on to a totally different way
of using however
we can use however to mean to whatever
degree
or no matter how much no matter how much
so first let’s look at some examples
however hard we tried we couldn’t stop
him from smoking
and however badly we wanted to win
we couldn’t beat the top team in our
league
so these two uses of however
could be replaced by this expression
right here
no matter how much so it doesn’t matter
how much
something for example it doesn’t matter
how hard we tried or in this case past
tense it didn’t matter
how hard we tried we couldn’t stop him
from smoking
so no matter what we did it didn’t
matter how hard we tried
this was something we were unable to do
so this is a long expression
no matter how much is a long expression
however
is much shorter same thing in the second
sentence
however badly we wanted to win again
past
tense we couldn’t beat the top team in
our league
so no matter how much we wanted to win
is another way to say this
so no matter how much might sound a
little bit more
casual however using however in this way
sounds a little bit more formal so if
you want to express something in a more
polite way
you could use however instead of no
matter how much
so you’ll see however you’ll notice here
positioned
at the beginning of these expressions so
it’s like you’re no matter how much
statement however
comes at the beginning of that we don’t
see it at the end
okay so with that then let’s continue on
to the last use of however
we use however uh to express surprise
or shock like you might know the
expression how on earth
so i have here a question mark and an
exclamation point
we can informally we can use these two
together
to show like surprise and a question at
the same time
so this is kind of a formal expression
and it’s a little
uncommon we don’t use this so much so
when we want to express
shock often times about like a negative
situation or like a really surprising
situation
we could use this for example however
are we going to get home tonight the car
has been stolen
so this is a really shocking situation
using
however here though makes the speaker’s
shock sound rather
formal so i would say this is probably
not like a really the first this is not
kind of the first thing and most native
speakers would say
i think today most native speakers would
say how are we going to get home
however there are some cases where
however could be used
to express shock like this like a really
formal shock
however are we going to get home you can
think of this like
how on earth are we going to get home so
it really kind of elevates it levels up
that shock and surprise feeling
one more example however did you find
the answer to this question
so again surprise kind of shock we
really want to know how
on earth did you find the answer to this
question i’m really surprised
however did you find so we use these two
for polite shock but again it’s fairly
uncommon this is not a pattern that i
use very much you might see this perhaps
in like
movies or tv from time to time but again
not so common in everyday speech
so these are three ways to use however
with that in mind let’s move on to
nevertheless nevertheless
so nevertheless basically means even
though even though something something
else so even though a
b is kind of the field let’s look at
some examples first
we got lost driving in a new city
nevertheless we made it to the airport
on time
and many said her dream project
couldn’t be done nevertheless she
continued working to achieve it
so in both of these sentences we see
nevertheless
comes at the beginning of the second
sentence
when we use nevertheless in this way it
means
even though the thing previously
said so even though this
thing in sentence one so a
nevertheless comma b is a very common
pattern with nevertheless
same thing here many said her dream
project couldn’t be done
is our a statement nevertheless so
nevertheless meaning even though many
said her dream project couldn’t be done
she continued working to achieve it so
what’s the difference why should i use
nevertheless instead of even though
nevertheless sounds a bit more formal
than even though
if you want something to sound a little
bit more serious
less casual you could use nevertheless
in a pattern like these
so we essentially keep the meaning of
even though we just make kind of a
different sentence structure there
okay so with this in mind then i want to
go to despite and then we’ll compare
these two so despite just like
nevertheless
means even though actually yes but
when we use despite we need to build
different
sentence structures so let’s look at the
examples
first i ran out of time to style my hair
before an important meeting despite that
my presentation went well
one more despite the fact that she
arrived
late at the airport she made it to the
conference
on time so you might notice here
i’m not using despite alone
in my first example sentence i’m using
despite
that my second sentence despite the fact
that this is a key difference between
despite and nevertheless
when we use despite we have to connect
it to a noun phrase
when we use nevertheless we do not so
this is the key difference between these
two
so when i say connect despite to a noun
phrase
i mean patterns like these despite
that where that is your
a statement so despite that
means the statement that came before
that means despite the fact i ran
out of time to style my hair before an
important meeting so
even though this happened my
presentation went well that’s what it
means
so we have to use that or maybe this
as well that could be okay depending on
your situation
so we have to use that we cannot use
just despite
we can’t do that we must include that
noun phrase
so some common examples of that as i
said despite
that or despite the fact that as i’ve
done here
or just despite a b
so i don’t have an example sentence here
but
we could change um one of these
sentences
to use just despite at the beginning of
the sentence
um so for example um despite
my favorite donut
shop being open every day um
i didn’t go this morning for example so
you could make an example sentence or
you could make a sentence an
a statement here and attach it directly
to despite
but essentially it has to be some kind
of noun phrase
we need to use something in direct
connection
to despite here so this is a key
difference with
nevertheless so we always follow
nevertheless or i’m sorry we always
introduce
our a point and then introduce
nevertheless
so it’s like a nevertheless b it will
always follow that pattern
so one more point i want to mention here
is the very closely related in spite of
in spite of so in spite of we can
actually use this to replace despite
they have the same meaning the same
function just be careful
we use in spite of as a phrase as a set
phrase
to mean despite so for example
in spite of that or
in spite of the fact that
or in spite of a b
so if you want to use in spite of you
can you can replace
despite with in spite of
so to summarize all of this over here
nevertheless we can think of
nevertheless like despite
that then we can think of despite
as equal to in spite of
and we can think of nevertheless as
in spite of that so these are kind of
the equivalents the things that are
equal to each other
when we’re using these words so yes they
all mean even though they have the same
meaning
but it’s just that the way we make the
sentence is a little
bit different so i hope that this helps
i’ll say
too that i feel despite is a little more
commonly used despite that or despite
the fact that
is a little more commonly used than
nevertheless or
in spite of but actually everything is
common but i think the
most common perhaps is despite from this
group
okay so this is a quick introduction to
however
nevertheless and despite and in spite of
if you have any questions or comments or
if there’s something else you would like
to know about this topic
please let us know in the comment
section of this video
of course if you like this lesson please
don’t forget to give it a thumbs up
subscribe to our channel if you have not
already and check us out at
englishclass101.com
for some other things that can help you
with your english studies thanks very
much for watching this lesson and i will
see you again soon
bye bye hi everybody my name is alicia
in this lesson i’m going to talk about
using just
for the very recent past and for the
near
future let’s get started all right i
want to begin this lesson by talking
about the very
recent past so i have two
different patterns that you we can use
to talk about the very recent past with
just
the first will be for actions that were
completed
very recently and the second will be for
actions that were planned
for completion recently so let’s start
with this first one here
number one i’ve marked it on this
timeline here with a check mark
so on my timeline this is the present
back here
is the past uh for actions then
that were very recently completed we can
kind of imagine
this check mark as like something that
happened very very
recently so just before now
so um a simple statement pattern that we
can use
with just is this subject plus
just plus a simple past tense
verb this is the most basic way to make
a statement with
just some examples are i just
finished work or he just
arrived or they just left
so you see in each of these very simple
example sentences
we have just followed by a simple past
tense verb in these cases finished
arrived and left so if you want to make
a basic statement about a
finished action something that has
finished it’s done
in the very recent past you can use a
pattern like this
i want to include one note about this
this particular point this number one
point you might also hear
the present perfect used by that i mean
instead of i just or he just or
they just sometimes people will use i’ve
just
he’s just they’ve just so
this v and s here this is i
have just he has just they have
just you may hear present perfect used
as well
um it has this same meaning like i’ve
just finished work or he’s just
arrived or they’ve just left the meaning
is the same
for whatever reason the speaker has
chosen to use
present perfect tense perhaps it sounds
a little bit softer
but these two uses or rather these two
patterns
have the same purpose it serves the same
function
so you may hear these two let’s look
however
at kind of the opposite of this so
point number two here is used to
express an action that was planned
for the very recent past but that did
not
get finished it’s not done it was not
completed
it might get done in the future we don’t
know but it did not happen
so to imagine this like visually we can
use
this x mark in the very recent past so
something
just before the present time that did
not
happen but we had a plan to do this
so some examples of this actually i’ll
introduce in a second
but when we want to make a statement
with this kind of
grammar we can use again the subject
but we’ll use the past tense form
of b so by that i mean the b verb so
that means like
was or were plus just
about two so this is a key difference
here between the regular completed
action pattern
and then we’ll use the present tense
form of the verb
so here you’ll already notice maybe
there are a couple of different
points between this and this so some
examples of this in action
i was just about to call you
or we were just about to leave
or she was just about to cancel the
appointment
so in each of these example sentences we
see our subject
plus the past tense form of the verb to
be
in this case i was we were
she was so here’s our b verb
then we include just about two there’s
no change in these sentences
just about two something and then our
verb is the present tense form of the
verb
call leave and cancel in these cases
so when you want to talk about something
that was planned
for the very recent past but that did
not happen
you don’t need to change the verb you
don’t need to conjugate the verb to past
tense
we conjugate the verb to past tense when
we’re talking about
finished actions so please keep these
points in mind
so simple past tense for completed
actions uh
present tense simple present tense for
actions that um
are not completed or were not completed
okay
so with that in mind about the very
recent past
i want to talk now about some patterns
you can use
with just for the very near future
so let’s begin with this first one
number one here
this pattern is used to talk about an
action in the very near future so
something we have
planned we are thinking about that
action or we’re planning to do that
action
in the very near future so here on this
timeline
we’re looking now into the future so
this is my now point
this number one i’ve represented with a
check mark
here so this marks an action that i have
planned i want to do that or i’m
thinking about that
action and i’m going to do it soon to
make
a basic sentence with this a basic
statement
we can say subject plus the present
tense
of the verb to be plus just
about to and the present tense form of
the verb
so you’ll notice actually there’s only
one difference between
this sentence and this sentence and
that’s this
part right here in this part where we
were talking about the very recent past
we used the past tense form of the verb
to be i was
you were here we’re using the present
tense form of the verb be i
am we are so this is one hint
that it’s actually a future action so
this will tell you is it a future action
or is it a past
action it’s a small point to listen for
some examples though are
i’m just about to finish work or
he’s just about to arrive or they’re
just about to leave
so here i’ve reduced it in each of these
example sentences but my be
verb is here i’m is i am
he’s is he is and there is
they are so i’m just about to finish
work he’s just about to arrive
they’re just about to leave these tell
us something is going to happen
very soon another point about this
is that sometimes native speakers will
drop just from this pattern
so i’m about to finish work he’s about
to arrive
they’re about to leave these are all
fine they communicate the same thing
it’s just the speaker’s preference so
you can choose whichever you prefer
okay then i want to continue to point
two
for this part point two let’s look at
the
pattern first is subject plus the
present tense
be again here plus just
and then we see the progressive form of
a verb
so this is something that we use for an
action that’s happening
now and it’s like something that we
expect is going to finish in the very
near
future so we use just to emphasize
this to visualize this then on a
timeline
we can imagine with this kind of wavy
line here
that something is happening now and it
will continue
until the very very like near future
so maybe it stops or it finishes here
if you want to talk about an action like
that you can try using this pattern
so some examples are i’m just
finishing work or he’s just
arriving or they’re just leaving so
these show like the action has already
started
so i’m just finishing work means maybe
i’m making my last
like uh steps in my day or i’m taking
the last um
i don’t know bits of information from my
day and putting them somewhere i don’t
know it depends on you
but we use these to talk about actions
that started
and that we expect will finish very soon
so you can try using one of these
um at like the end of your work day or
like maybe uh when you’re leaving a
location those are some common
situations where we would use patterns
like this
so please keep that in mind when you’re
using the progressive form of the verb
it’s going to sound like something is
already like happening now it’s begun
when you’re using it without when you’re
just using the present tense form of the
verb here
it’s something you are planning to do in
the future
okay so that’s a quick introduction to
using
just for the very recent past and for
the near
future i hope that you found some
patterns that you can use
to talk about your recent past and to
describe some of the things you’re going
to do in the near
future of course if you have any
questions or comments
please feel free to let us know in the
comment section of this video
and also please feel free to leave some
example sentences if you want to
practice using this grammar
of course if you like the video please
don’t forget to give it a thumbs up
subscribe to our channel if you haven’t
already and check us out at
englishclass101.com
for some other things that can help you
with your english studies thanks very
much for watching this lesson and i will
see you again
soon bye-bye
hi everybody my name is alicia in this
lesson i’m going to talk about
pronunciation i’m going to focus on
beginning
th sounds let’s get started okay
beginning th sounds are broken into
two categories there are voiced
th sounds and unvoiced th sounds
let’s start with the voiced th sounds
so a voiced sound means we use our vocal
chords
to make the sound so one big tip
for today’s lesson especially is over
here
about voiced and unvoiced sounds if
you’re not
sure about the difference between a
voiced sound
and an unvoiced sound you can practice
by touching your throat right here when
you make the sound
so for voiced sounds if you touch your
throat when you make
the sound and you hear or you feel a
vibration
that means the sound is voiced so you’re
using
your vocal chords to make the sound
so vibration means it’s a voiced sound
if you touch your throat when you make
the sound and there’s
no vibration that means it’s an unvoiced
sound so this is a quick way to test if
you’re making a voiced
sound or an unvoiced sound so you can
use this for today’s lesson
so i want to begin as i said with voiced
th sounds so to make the voiced
th sound you can practice by putting the
tip
of your tongue that means like the top
of your tongue or not the top of your
tongue but like the part of your tongue
that’s like right here it’s right there
put that
uh against the back of your upper
teeth so your upper teeth put that the
tip of your tongue
that part of the tongue i just pointed
to put that
against so if this is your tongue and
this is your teeth put that against
your teeth to make that first position
then when you release that position
make the vowel sound that follows the
word
so it’s not just making the th
sound but because this is a voiced sound
we’re making this sound together with
like another vowel sound
so when we release our tongue from this
position
we continue on in our mouth to making
the vowel sound
next so some great examples to practice
with
are words like these this
that these those
the and there so you’ll notice as well
that the words that are voiced th sounds
or the words that use
voiced th sounds are kind of like these
grammar words they’re really closely
linked to the grammar
of the sentence it’s not like the nouns
or like the verbs in a sentence but it’s
like those small
words so again when we make these sounds
this this so the beginning position
my tongue is against my teeth
and i pair that as i’m moving away from
the back of my teeth with my tongue
i go to the vowel sound this
this this i change the vowel sound and i
change my mouse position that
that so when i say i change my mouth’s
position
i mean i change the position that i move
to so this position i always begin
from this position i always start
there but then i change the position of
my mouth to make the next vowel sound so
this that so my mouth is kind of
wide to make the that sound these
these so it’s like i’m smiling when i’m
making this sound so
my tongue begins against my teeth and
then
i move to an e sound these
i make the sound when i release my
tongue from that position
these when i make the o sound
those those this is a case
where you might notice the tip of your
tongue comes between your teeth a little
bit
that’s okay those those that’s totally
natural
so my mouth is making an o shape those
those but basically the top of my tongue
still begins against my upper teeth i
make an
o sound so i release my tongue from that
position
those and i make an o sound to follow it
with this one the the this is another
case
where the tip of your tongue might move
between your teeth
a little bit that’s okay da da
da another one there there
there so another example where the tip
of your tongue might move a little more
between your teeth to make the sound so
these are all
voiced sounds so to test again you can
touch your throat when you make this
sound so
this my throat vibrates that
these those the
there so these should all make a
vibrating or a vibration rather in your
throat when you make the sound
so these are voiced th sounds beginning
sounds
with th that are voiced i want to
compare this then
to unvoiced sounds so again
as i said an unvoiced sound or you might
know a
voiceless sound is a sound in which no
vocal chords are used to make the sound
so if we touch our throat when we make
the sound
we won’t feel any vibration that’s
correct
so to practice making an unvoiced sound
you can begin by practicing this very
slowly
so you can put the tip of your tongue
between your teeth to make this sound
so that’s the beginning position that
you can slowly practice
so that means between your top teeth and
your bottom teeth put the tip of your
tongue between those
that’s the starting position so some
examples
a great example we can begin with is
think
think so you might think why is this an
unvoiced sound i hear a vowel sound when
i touch my throat and say
think my throat vibrates yes that’s true
but we’re focusing on the th sound only
so make the th sound in think
there’s no voice like there’s no
vibration in your vocal chords
the i sound in think is voiced yes but
the th
sound is not voice so it’s a f sound
it’s just the feeling like you have the
feeling of air passing through your
mouth
there’s no vibration in your vocal
chords so this is the correct way
to make an unvoiced th sound
so let’s try this with another word we
practiced a little bit with
think think another example
thanks thanks so this is a word i often
hear
students make an s sound instead like
thanks not
correct so make sure you use your tongue
thanks
thanks to make the sound another one
thought thought so again
begins with no sound so thought
thought i open up into the next vowel
sound
thought another one thunder
thunder so here i’m making a u sound
after my unvoiced th thunder
thunder another one thigh
thigh so you can hear as i did
with all of these i’m like making the
next
vowel sound so my mouth is already
moving to the next vowel sound
as i’m making my th sound so they’re
very closely connected
if you’d like to practice slowly by
maybe breaking down the
the sounds like ink it’s okay but try to
put them together
so f ink maybe f angs
that’s how we could perhaps break down
these
but try to put them together practice
making the sounds
together to make your speech sound more
natural
let’s look at some more examples three
three three so here maybe is a little
tricky point this
r sound that comes after the th
three three so you can kind of imagine
there’s another e here three so that’s
the position
we don’t say an e but that’s sort of the
position of
the mouth to make that r sound after the
th
three three so i’m kind of dropping
my jaw a little bit to make the er sound
three three another example
13 13
13 so when i make this sound there’s a
little gap here
right here 13 13.
so again the th is unvoiced
- so my voice does not begin until the
i
sound here there’s a little gap 13.
okay one more thud fudd
thug so again th makes no sound
my uh my vowel sound is a voiced
sound thud thud so these are a few words
that you can use to practice
making these voiced and unvoiced sounds
so you can begin by practicing words
like these
individually by themselves then you can
begin making sentences
and trying tongue twisters that use
these sounds
too so practice these words together
in sentences as well so don’t focus just
on like one word you can of course put
them together and try to say them
quickly
like this that these those the there you
could try to say it quickly like that
or for unvoiced sounds think thanks
thought thunder thigh
313 thud if you want to practice making
those sounds quickly
so you can kind of build your own tongue
twisters in this way if you want
but this is a basic introduction to
voiced
and unvoiced th sounds especially at the
beginning of words that was the focus
for today’s lesson
so if you have any questions or comments
or if there’s something else that you’d
like to see on the channel please feel
free
to leave us a comment below of course if
you know a good tongue twister that uses
these sounds
please share that with us as well if you
enjoyed the video please don’t forget to
give it a thumbs up
subscribe to our channel if you have not
already and check us out at
englishclass101.com for some other
things that can help you with your
english studies
thanks very much for watching this
lesson and i will see you again soon
bye-bye okay the first tip is
learn words through phrases so learn
words through phrases what does this
mean
this means instead of studying one
vocabulary word at a time
and having that be your only way to
study vocabulary
it means study entire phrases study a
group of words at a time
so for example don’t study like
morning only study good morning or
how was your morning those kinds of
expressions so you’re not just studying
one word at a time and thinking about
how you need to link
that word to other words instead set
yourself
up to know how to put those words
together by studying a few phrases
at a time okay the next tip is to watch
your favorite video with
subtitles so when you do this choose a
video or maybe a movie that you like
and turn on the english subtitles for
that movie
so while it might be difficult to catch
everything that’s happening in each
scene
you can at least check the subtitles you
can check the information
as it’s being said so if you can’t catch
everything by listening
you can at least read the words on the
screen and understand these as kind of
units or as sentences that you can study
so again you’re not looking just at one
word
or maybe even two words together but
you’re studying
things as a phrase or as a question or
as a sentence
okay let’s go to the next tip the next
tip is to
think in the language you want to learn
think in the language you want to learn
this is a really really tough one
especially when you’re starting out and
it will take time so don’t worry
if you can’t do this right away but this
means as you go about your day
as you wake up and eat food go to school
go to work whatever
try to think spend some time thinking in
english
think in the language you’re studying so
this can be really really boring stuff
like thinking about what you’re doing
how could i express that in english so
think about those sorts of
everyday actions and activities and try
to express them
in english you can do this out loud to
work on improving your speaking skills
okay let’s go to the next tip okay the
next tip is to use
available learning applications use
available learning applications
so that means if you have a favorite
application
and app that you like to use to study
make sure you use that so maybe you’ve
downloaded
our application for example thank you
you can use that
to work on your speaking you can do that
by reading dialogues by
trying to shadow conversations that you
hear you can also
just use your phone’s recording function
and record yourself
and then listen to it later that might
sound like a really simple tip but it
can help you a lot
so we sound very different when we’re
talking and we often don’t hear that
unless we kind of step outside our body
a bit and listen to ourselves from
outside
and recording your voice is a really
really good way to do that
so make sure you check out the apps and
the functions that you have on your
phone or your computer to do that
the next tip is to expand your
vocabulary by reading expand your
vocabulary by reading
so a common complaint from learners is
they say i don’t feel like i have the
vocabulary
i need to express myself i know lots of
basic words
but i don’t feel like i can say the
things i want to say
when the time comes in a conversation so
one way to do this is to work on
building your vocabulary
reading is a really great way to do that
so
choose things to read that you have a
connection to
they’re related to your hobbies to your
work to your studies whatever
choose things that are relevant so like
they’re connected to your life and read
those things and find the key vocabulary
words that people use
within your daily life activities and
try to remember those try to make those
the vocabulary words that you study and
practice so that you’re able to use them
when you speak in conversations
the next tip is to talk to yourself talk
to yourself
like talking to yourself sounds a little
bit crazy sure
but this is a great way to practice
speaking when there’s nobody around
you can just practice making the sounds
that you’re working on you can practice
saying sentences and questions you can
practice talking about your day
so for those of you that maybe don’t
have somebody to practice with this can
be an excellent
tip and again as you talk to yourself
you can also record yourself and listen
back
and i know a lot of people say i hate
the sound of my own voice i hate the
sound of my own voice
it’s only you you’re the only person who
is going to listen to that recording
and it’s to help you study and it helps
a lot actually this
is something that i do when i need to
improve my own speaking skills so i
highly recommend
this tip if you want to work on speaking
and improving your speaking so talk to
yourself
sounds weird but it helps okay next tip
is to
listen to recordings and repeat listen
to recordings and repeat
another word for this is shadowing
shadowing
so that means basically you listen to a
lesson for example like if you want to
listen to this video or you want to
listen to one of
our lessons you can listen to it and
then
quickly try to say the same thing that
the speaker is saying
right after them so if you’re using this
video for example
it just means you try to repeat the same
things i say
now in just a moment so shadowing like
this
the point of shadowing like this is to
try to match the intonation and the
rhythms of the speaker in addition to
the pronunciation
so this can be helpful if you’re having
trouble like linking words together
on your own if you’re having trouble
building your own sentences
by shadowing after a native speaker you
can kind of get
a better feel sometimes for the rhythm
of how a language is supposed to sound
and how you can produce that language
yourself the next step is to prepare for
daily routine situations prepare for
daily routine situations
so that means like think about your day
and think about the things you need to
say
in your day and how you would express
those things in
english so for example when you greet
your co-workers or you greet
your fellow like classmates or whatever
how do you greet them how would you
greet them in english prepare something
for that
or when you want to ask about dinner how
would you ask for dinner
in english so think about these things
you know you’re going to do
in your day and just prepare them ahead
of time it will save you time
and it will also make the other person
feel more comfortable right because
they’ll be ready for a natural question
the next tip is to try to practice your
speaking with a native
speaker try to practice your speaking
with a native speaker
this is challenging for many people i
know because they don’t have a native
speaker in their community
or they don’t have a native speaker to
connect with online
it might take some time to find that
person but this is of course
a hugely important thing to do so a
native speaker
does not mean a teacher so just because
a person is a native speaker does not
mean that they are a teacher
in fact most native speakers probably
don’t know
all of the rules of grammar and they’re
not prepared to answer all of your
questions which is fine
but a native speaker does know what
feels
and sounds natural so they can help you
to make more natural choices with your
speaking
they can also help you to address any
questions that you might have about
pronunciation or maybe like vocabulary
choices
within a specific region so it’s
important to remember
that not every native speaker is a
perfect speaker but
they can help you a lot in helping you
sound more natural
the next tip is know your audience know
your audience so what does this mean
to know your audience means to think
about the person
to whom you are speaking so that means
don’t just think about you think about
the other person like
when you’re talking to someone else what
are they looking for in the conversation
are they talking to you to get
information are you study partners are
you co-workers are you classmates
what are their needs so how do you meet
their needs how do you match
their manner of speaking so please try
to remember to think about the other
person
in the conversation as well the next tip
is to ask
for feedback and reflect on it ask for
feedback and reflect on it
so try to think of someone in your
community that you can ask for feedback
about your speaking skills if you don’t
have a teacher you can check out the
online options that we offer
of course or maybe you have an online
exchange buddy that you can practice
with but make sure to ask for feedback
and when they give you feedback don’t
take it as criticism
so if someone says for example oh your
pronunciation of this
sound needs some work don’t feel
offended like
that feedback is intended to help you
improve so when you receive
feedback like that think about how you
can focus your energy on improving those
points so that means please reflect
on that feedback and think about what
you can do to
integrate it so to integrate it means
how do you put that feedback
into your mind and put your energies
towards
improving that point all right the next
tip is to avoid
reading directly and try to use an
outline
avoid reading directly and try to use an
outline so
this tip is specifically if you need to
give a presentation
or if you need to like share some
information like a report
in a classroom so instead of just
printing a piece of paper and reading
directly from the piece of paper
like this in a classroom setting or if
you’re giving a speech or a presentation
try to print just an outline of your
main points
and then practice talking about those
things before
you’re speaking presentation before
whatever presentation you need to do
this will help you sound a lot more
natural it’s really
unnatural and it’s not very much fun or
and it’s not very interesting
to watch someone just read a report in
front of a classroom or to read a report
in a business presentation so instead of
doing that try to refer to an
outline throughout your presentation so
your outline
might be something like introduction
main points i want to talk about
and then you move on to the detailed
points you want to talk about and just
write a few words so that you can
remember the things that you want to
make sure
you share with your audience so again
this goes back to that point about
knowing your audience in our earlier tip
think about their perspective too the
next tip is
shadow language cds and then repeat what
you heard
shadow language cds and repeat what you
heard so very very similar to the
earlier tip about repeating quickly
after a native speaker like when you’re
watching this kind of video
if you’re not comfortable using a movie
or using a video like this one
you can try using language learning
audio so maybe you have cds or maybe
you have podcasts or other lesson
content
that is at a slower pace and that is
easier for you to understand
you can practice shadowing with these
things too
you don’t have to practice with a native
speaker that’s
talking at fast pace you can also use
these slower
practice cds and practice audio files
to do your shadowing exercises so don’t
feel like you have to speak
super super quickly to practice your
speaking efficiently
practicing slowly is also okay keep
practicing regularly otherwise your hard
work will be wasted
keep practicing regularly otherwise your
hard work will be wasted
so this one i think is pretty clear but
it’s important for
all aspects all parts of learning a
language
keep practicing regularly so that means
practice your speaking
a little bit every day if you just try
to speak for like
an hour one week it’s way too much so
try to practice speaking like one minute
today and then a minute and 10 seconds
tomorrow so keep building keep working
on things
every single day and you’ll see much
better results in the long term
all right let’s go to our last tip the
last tip is don’t give up and stay
positive
don’t give up and stay positive so that
means
please be kind to yourself so if you
make a mistake in a conversation it’s
not the end of the world
if you forget a word or if you say
something funny that’s
fine it’s all part of the learning
process please don’t worry about those
sorts of things you’ll get over them and
you’ll learn
how to improve so make sure that you
always continue moving forward
and you keep a positive attitude hey
everyone welcome to the monthly review
the monthly show on language learning
[Music]
where you discover new learning
strategies motivational tips study tools
and resources
by the way all the lessons and bonuses
you’re about to see can be downloaded
for free on our website
so click the link in the description
right now to sign up for your free
lifetime account
okay today’s topic is how to make sure
you keep going when your reason for
learning language
changes did you know that the reason
most people start learning languages
isn’t why they continue with the
language
successful learners change up their
reasons along the way in order to keep
themselves motivated
so if you started learning for whatever
reason but no longer feel motivated then
this episode is for you
you’ll discover 1. why your reason for
learning a language can
and will change and two how to keep
going with language learning when your
initial reason no longer works
[Music]
but first listen up here are this
month’s new lessons and resources
be sure to download these now before we
take them down in a few days
first be going to a restaurant
conversation cheat sheet
do you know how to order food in your
target language you’ll be able to
with this pdf cheat sheet you’ll get the
must-know restaurant phrases and
vocabulary for common dishes
second the daily conversations pdf ebook
with this you’ll learn over 100 phrases
for everyday conversations
download and review the ebook on any
device third
can you talk about grammar in your
target language if you’re learning a
language you’ll need to be able to say
verb adjective and much more and in this
one minute lesson you’ll pick up over 25
grammar related words fourth how to talk
about working from home
you’ll learn how to say wi-fi online
meeting work from home
25 phrases in total with this one-minute
lesson
fifth must know art vocabulary learn how
to say canvas
brush and much more with this quick
vocab bonus
to get your free resources click the
link in the description below right now
they’re yours to keep forever okay let’s
jump into today’s topic
how to keep your motivation going even
when your reason for learning a language
changes
first here’s a question for you what was
your reason for starting this language
you might have started learning for
travel for the culture to watch tv shows
or understand music
or because someone you know speaks it
and you want to try speaking with them
all of these reasons have something in
common they’re external
meaning you’re trying to get some
outside reward or benefit
like a friendship a personal
relationship travel or living in the
country
you can say they’re also external
motivations
all of these reasons are why most people
start learning languages
they’re exciting all of us want to
understand a tv show 100
or have a conversation with native
speakers but the problem with external
reasons is that they may not last very
long
have you ever been motivated to start
learning only to lose that motivation
and months later you realize you made no
progress on a goal you wanted
it happens quite often for example you
want to learn a language for travel
but then the pandemic happened and you
weren’t able to travel
or you were learning to enjoy tv shows
but the shows are way too complicated
and you find you’re no longer enjoying
them
or you’re learning for your partner but
then you break up
when that happens all learners come to a
crossroads continue or quit
most people quit because the reason they
started is no longer motivating
so how do you keep going in the first
part you learn that most reasons for
starting are external reasons
like traveling meeting new people being
able to watch tv shows and such
for external motivations however your
reason for starting a language
isn’t often the reason why you continue
learning it’s natural for your reasons
to change
so what do you do when your initial
reason for learning is no longer working
if your current motivator isn’t working
switch to an internal reason
external reasons are about getting some
outside benefit
internal reasons have more to do with
yourself for example
you could say you’re learning the
language because you want to improve
yourself
you want to achieve this goal you’ve
failed goals in the past so now you’re
determined to make it work for once
you’re the type of person that gets
things done all of these are examples of
internal reasons
where you make it about yourself
external reasons can only last so long
even external reasons like you want to
live in that country so you want to
learn the language
aren’t enough there are plenty of people
that move abroad to learn a language but
end up losing their motivation anyway
and psychology studies show that
internal reasons internal motivation
doing it for yourself is much more
powerful than external
doing it because you want to is much
more powerful than doing it because you
have to
so thank you for watching this episode
of monthly review
next time we’ll talk about the first
step in your language learning journey
that will guarantee your success
if you enjoyed these tips hit the like
button share the video with anyone who’s
trying to learn a language and subscribe
to our channel
we release new videos every week and if
you’re ready to finally learn language
the fast fun and easy way
and start speaking from your very first
lesson get our complete learning program
sign up for your free lifetime account
right now click the link in the
description
see you next time bye
know any good tips for mastering
conversations well there are some words
and phrases that tend to be used more
often than others in everyday
conversation
so if you know the most common questions
answers and phrases
you’ll be able to handle a lot when you
think about it
a lot of conversations are quite
predictable they’re about topics we’re
already familiar with
so if we approach our studies to these
conversations like we’re working on
remembering parts of a script
we can study efficiently in this video
we’ll cover one hack for improving your
speaking skills
first understand what you say
when you meet a new person what do you
say to them things like what’s your name
and where are you from then you talk a
little bit about yourself
and even if you know that person there
are common lines you use all the time
right
these lines you use all the time in your
conversations are your scripts
these are your most commonly used
questions answers and phrases
targeting these expressions in your
studies will help you be able to handle
a lot of everyday conversations
so take some time to examine what you
talk about most or what you’re
interested in talking about
next where to find scripts for speaking
luckily we have hundreds of scripts that
you can use
with our language learning program you
get the line by line scripts for all of
our lessons
in fact lessons like the top 25
questions you must know
the three-minute lessons and survival
phrases are specifically designed to
help you master the most commonly used
questions
answers and phrases for example the top
25 questions you must know
focuses on the 25 most common questions
you’ll hear in a conversation
this includes basic questions like where
are you from
what’s your name and how old are you as
a learner of another language
these are the questions you’ll hear
almost every time you meet someone new
and you’ll use them every day it goes
like this
you hear the question then we break down
its meaning and teach you how to respond
that way you’ll be ready to speak right
after the lesson
you can listen to these lessons and read
along with the lesson notes
with our dialogue study tool you’ll get
line-by-line scripts of the conversation
so you can review each line as many
times as you want
you can listen to the audio read the
script and the translation
you can also do this with our three
minute and survival phrases lessons
in these lessons we give you line by
line scripts for how to introduce
yourself how to make conversation or
even order food at a restaurant
if you’re a premium or premium plus
member you get the dialogue tool
and line-by-line scripts for all of
these lessons
starting to speak in your target
language might be scary but this simple
hack will help jump-start your
conversations
so if you’re ready to speak better check
out our complete language learning
program
sign up for your free lifetime account
by clicking on the link in the
description
get tons of resources to have you
speaking in your target language
and if you enjoyed these tips hit the
like button share this video with anyone
who’s trying to learn a new language and
subscribe to our channel
we release new videos every week i’ll
see you next time
bye do you want to have access to tons
of language lessons but you don’t want
to have to buy more textbooks
in this video you’ll learn six ways you
can get language lessons for free
this video will cover ways to get our
audio and video lessons on a regular
basis
so you can work on improving your
language skills you can use these
anywhere anytime alright let’s take a
look at how to get access
first write on our website new lessons
come out every single week
mondays tuesdays and video lessons on
fridays access them all in the lessons
drop down menu on the site
click on newest lessons if you’re on the
go you’re going to work
driving or running errands you can
easily learn with your mobile device
and that brings us to our next tip
second
get lessons on the innovative language
app
if you’re an iphone ipad or android user
learn on the go with the innovative
language 101 app
download it for free after you download
the app you can keep up with all the
latest lessons
there is a newest lessons icon right on
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instant access to your free lessons
anywhere anytime
just look for innovative language 101 on
the app store or
google play the third way is the apple
tv app
you can learn on the big screen turn on
your tv and access
all of your audio and video lessons you
can learn at home
keep the lessons playing and immerse
yourself all day long with the
innovative language 101
app look for it on the apple tv app
store
now this one is useful for only apple tv
subscribers
but if you’re not an apple tv subscriber
don’t worry
the fourth way get lessons with our
itunes feed
itunes can download your lessons
automatically and have them saved
forever
you get every single lesson as it comes
out you’ll never miss one
they’re saved in your itunes simply
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fifth
is the daily dose of language app this
is for the iphone
ipad and android with this you get
bite-sized lessons sent to your device
every day
each day you get a notification that
your daily dose of language is here
doing the lesson takes just a minute
these aren’t our full-sized audio and
video lessons but these one-minute
lessons will help you build a habit of
learning daily
find the daily dose of language app on
the app store or google play
the sixth way is with our brand new
alexa skill
if you own an amazon echo dot or show or
are planning to get one
you’ll want the daily dose by innovative
language find it in the amazon skills
store
with it you get new audio lessons and
vocab lessons
every day across all 34 languages
if you’re ready to start learning a new
language these six tips can help you get
started learning with our language
learning program
just pick which way works best for you
and get started learning today
there are so many ways to start learning
for free just check out our complete
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get tons of resources to have you
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