How to Pronounce the Sound s after th or st in English
hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and I answer them
maybe first question comes from Leon hi
Leon
Leon says hi Alicia number one I’d like
to know why we have to place incarnate
and Galore after nouns and two how do
you pronounce the S after a th or st
sound like months and scientists would
be glad if you answer okay all right so
regarding your first question these are
examples of what are called post
positive adjectives so these are
adjectives that come after a noun in
English we usually use pre positive
adjectives so those are adjectives that
come before a noun however for a number
of reasons there are some adjectives
that we place after the noun so your
examples incarnate and galore usually
come after a noun so for example you
might know the devil incarnate or there
was food galore at the event for example
these are just situations that are kind
of set phrases honestly unfortunately
there’s not really a rule it’s just one
of those things that you need to
remember so regarding your second
question about the S sound in a word
like months your tongue touches the back
of your teeth and we make like a quick s
sound months months so the th sound
almost disappears it’s sort of like when
you’re saying the or this or that that
really quick th sound in a word like
scientists however scientists is very
difficult to say in rapid speech so we
make it like a long s sound scientists
so it just sounds like scientists thanks
for the question let’s go on to your
next question
the next question comes from karema hi
Karima karema says hi Alicia I want to
know the difference between right now
and right away and when can we use both
of them okay right now sounds more
direct than right away right now is like
a command actually so this is something
that you might hear parents use like for
kids so like go to your room right now
is a really good exam
of how right now is used right away
however is used in more formal
situations like in business situations
or work situations to show that
something will be done immediately but
it sounds a bit soft some examples can
you please order lunch for our meeting
yes right away please take care of this
right away so I hope that this helps you
understand when to use these two thanks
very much for the question okay let’s
move on to your next question next
question comes from Liliana in is Jose
Concepcion sorry hi Lu Jana what is the
difference between mistake and error
nice question mistake tends to be used
more for human actions things that we
did are things that we caused humans us
people our activities some examples and
made a mistake with this recipe
she found a mistake in the textbook
error is used for machines like
computers so if there’s a problem with
the like machine that you’re using or
like your printer or something you’ll
see an error message not a mistake
message examples printer error error
downloading file there are some cases
where we might use error to talk about
the things that humans do
but for kind of a general guide this is
basically the difference I hope that
that helps you thanks for the question
ok let’s move on to your next question
next question is from Silas hi Silas
Silas says hi Alicia
what does straight up mean and how can I
use it in a sentence
yeah straight up means like honest true
genuine real it’s kind of got a positive
feeling about it it tends to be used a
little bit more by young people I would
say more by young men but anyone can use
it some examples a straight up forgot my
wallet he’s straight up passed out in
the car on the way home you have to be
straight up with your roommate so you
can see that straight up does have a
casual feel it also kind of has a
friendly feel though it is talking about
like an honest or a true or a real
situation or an attitude so I hope that
this helps you understand the use of
straight up thanks very much for the
question ok let’s move along to your
next question next question it comes
from Ahmad SAR waar hi Ahmad Ahmad says
hi Alicia what is
the difference between lái lái lying and
laying how do you use and pronounce
these words in your daily life yeah I
talked about this question in episode 21
of this series you can check that out
and find some more example sentences
there so to review lay uses a direct
object lie does not examples lay down
your bag here lie down on the sofa so in
the first example sentence your bag is
the direct object of the verb lay lay
down your bag here in the second example
sentence lie down on the sofa
there’s no direct object in that
sentence so as I said in the previous
episode what makes this difficult is
that the past tense of the verb lie is
lay he laid down on the sofa we lay down
and went to sleep in the first example
sentence he lay down on the sofa there’s
no direct object we don’t see a direct
object in the second sentence either so
we know that this lay is actually the
past tense of lie and not the present
tense lay keep in mind however the past
tense of lay is laid examples we laid
our bags on the table she laid her keys
on her desk
each of these example sentences has a
direct object so a bag and keys so if
you want to know is this layer is this
lie look for a direct object that’ll
tell you which verb you’re dealing with
so your question is about the
progressive forms of these verbs laying
and lying so an example in the
progressive tense our cat keeps laying
dead animals on our front door he’s
lying on the sofa
that’s the progressive form of lie so
there’s no direct object there I hope
that that helps you okay so that’s
everything that I have for this week
thank you as always for sending your
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much for watching this episode of ask
Alicia and I will see you again next
week bye bye