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wanna speak real English from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at English class 101.com hi everybody my name is Alisha and today I'm going to talk about prepositions of time I'm going to talk about a few prepositions we use when we're talking about time and time periods so let's get started okay so the first preposition of time I want to talk about is on we use on for days for example on Sunday on Monday on Tuesday and we use on for the weekend like on the weekend or on weekends these are the two cases where we use on as a preposition of time I like to something something on Sunday I like to something something on weekends we use on in these two cases the second preposition of time I want to talk about for today is at so we use at when we want to talk about a time and buy time I mean o clock like 7 o'clock at 9 o'clock at 10 o'clock we can also use at with a.m. and p.m. like at 2:00 a.m. at 7 p.m. we use at to talk about a specific point in time a specific number for example we also use at with the expression at night at night I like to something something at night are usually something something at night we always use at in this case then I have one more here the weekend you'll see I used the weekend for on here but in British English I speak American English in British English you might hear at the weekend instead of on the weekend so at the weekend is something you might hear depending on where you are or depending on the people with whom you study but for me I prefer to use on the weekend ok let's talk about in next so we use in for a lot of different cases as you can see we use in four months like September in October in November we use it for seasons like in summer in spring in fall we use it for expressions like in the morning in the evening in the afternoon as well in the morning in the afternoon we also use in for periods of time so minutes hours and years for example so in five minutes in three years in a few seconds if you want to talk about a period of time you can use in to explain that so we use in for a lot of different cases the last thing I want to talk about though is a situation where you don't need to use a preposition at all when you use this plus weekend like this weekend or this morning or this evening or this month this September this October you do not need to use a preposition in this case we'll practice in just a moment but this is a very common mistake if you use this before one of these expressions you do not need to include a preposition so please be careful okay so with this information I want to try a few example sentences that I've prepared here the first one is I have to leave something something five minutes five minutes is a period of time so we know the correct preposition is in I have to leave in five minutes is the correct answer here next what are you doing something something December December so we know December is a month we should use in in this case what are you doing in December of course by the way with this sentence we could say what are you doing this December to be very specific but in this case for a preposition we should use in okay next sentence I'll meet you at the restaurant 6:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. is a time a time so we know that we should use at at 6:00 p.m. that's p.m. okay next your plane leave something something two hours so two hours again is a period of time a period of time therefore we should use in your plane leaves in two hours is the correct sentence here okay next they're going to France something something this summer here is a big hint word this therefore no preposition is needed in this case they're going to France this summer no preposition here okay next he's meeting us in the station something something noon so noon I've used the word noon here but noon is a time it means 12:00 p.m. yeah so because it's still a time we should use at at noon is the correct sentence here okay next can you meet me at the cafe something something 2 p.m. so 2 p.m. here we have another time at 2 p.m. is the correct answer here ok next I like going hiking something something weekend's weekend so we learned over here that we use on to talk about weekend's weekend's in this case multiple weekends so I like going hiking on weekends is the correct answer in this case finally it's hard for me to wake up something something the morning the morning so we saw here morning is used with in hmm so in the morning is the correct answer for this sentence so with a little bit of practice and as you use these phrases not just with a single preposition but as you use these in longer sentences and as part of phrases it will become easier to remember which is which and which one you should use at which time so I hope this was useful for you thanks very much for watching this episode if you have any questions or comments please let us know in a comment below this video thanks very much for watching and see you again soon right today we're going to talk about prepositions of location and movement so let's get started okay so the first preposition of location I want to talk about is at we use at to talk about exact specific locations so some examples of this are at the supermarket at the table at her desk this means a person or an object is at that specific place so for example I'm at work right now I'm at the office these are specific points where people or objects can be located so please use at to talk about a specific location okay so let's go on to the next preposition of location for now in we use in when we want to talk about in closed locations so locations which are surrounded or when we're surrounded by something else something else is all around us or we are enclosed within something so some examples of this are in the pool we are enclosed or surrounded by the pool in the closet completely enclosed by the closet in your bag your items are enclosed by your bag and in the water so when swimming in the ocean for example we say in the water I'm in the water for example now I'm in the office I'm in a room I'm in my home city for example so these are different ways we can use the word in when we are enclosed or surrounded by something please also remember that in is used for countries and cities I live in Bangkok I live in Europe for example so please remember to use in for countries and cities as well as for locations that are enclosed or when you're surrounded by something else okay so let's talk about the next preposition of location the next preposition is by we use by when we want to express something is near something else near or close to something else so for example by the park or by the coffee shop by your computer by the table these mean near something else we don't know exactly is it maybe next to in front of behind we don't know but it means simply near something else so for example I'm by the whiteboard right now I'm by a chair I'm by a table these are ways we can use by to express near or close to okay so the next preposition I want to talk about is a preposition of movement actually the next two are prepositions of movement the first one is in two so in two is something we use to express movement from an open location to a more closed location so for example in to the bank walk into the bank or into the refrigerator put food into the refrigerator or into the suspects home the police moved into the suspects home in each case in two shows moving from an open location to a more closed location so because in is here you can imagine we are moving to an enclosed location we could say jump into the pool for example or go into the closet put something into your bag or go into the water so in this way we can kind of think of in and to being closely related but two shows us the movement the relationship that there's some movement happening there okay so let's talk about the opposite then of into which is out of so because we use in to to talk about movement from a more open place to an enclosed space out of is used to talk about movement from an enclosed space to a more open space so for example out of the house or out of the washing machine taking clothes out of the washing machine out of your purse take something out of your purse so moving yourself moving a person or moving an object from something that is enclosed to a space that is more open we use out of in this case okay so now we know about five new prepositions of location and movement let's try some example sentences okay the first one she's sitting something something the table the table so here we have the table I talked earlier about this at the table with at yeah however we can use by the table as well at the table and by the table have slightly different meanings though both are correct at the table means she is sitting in a chair directly in front of the table she's sitting at the table by the table however could mean she's next to the table or she's just near the table by is a little bit less clear at is very clear here to be very clear say she's sitting at the table to be less clear maybe she's somewhere near the table used by okay so the next example sentence is our company's headquarters is something something la la la meaning Los Angeles here so we have a city name yeah a city name Los Angeles we know that we should use city names with in so the answer here is in in LA okay the next one he lives something something at the supermarket so the supermarket is a place and here we have the verb lives he lives we know it's not in because people do not live in supermarkets probably not at he lives at the supermarket also doesn't make any sense people do not live at supermarkets however we can use bye-bye so he lives by the supermarket to mean he lives near the supermarket okay so next one when we walked something something the bank it was raining okay so here we have the verb walked and we have the bank so there's a motion happening yeah walking and then the bank the preposition we should use here it's probably in two though out of it could also be possible when we walked into the bank it was raining when we walked out of the bank it was raining both sentences are okay in this case it just depends on the action you want to communicate okay next one I need to run something something the supermarket for milk okay so here there's an objective for milk this person wants to buy milk so they need to run something something the supermarket so let's use into moving from outside the supermarket to inside the supermarket a more enclosed space into into the supermarket okay next one is I have to be something something the office until 6:00 p.m. so here we have a specific location the office the office so office is an enclosed space yes which means we can use in I have to be in the office until 6:00 p.m. but with work and with office spaces we can also use at it's an exact location I have to be in the office or I have to be at the office until 6:00 p.m. both are correct here okay next I forgot to take my phone something something your bag okay so take this take motion here is a really good hint there's an action happening so there's a very good chance we are moving something from a from an enclosed location to a more open location so I forgot to take my phone out of your bag out of your bag is the correct answer here finally I want to get something something town so town is yes it's a location like in my town or at my town however a big hint here is get get we use get to reflect movement sometimes and this phrase is a good one to remember get out of town get out of town so get out of town means leave town go to a different place outside of town so I want to get out of town is the correct answer here okay so those are a few prepositions of location and movement I hope that this was useful for you if you have any questions please be sure to leave them in a comment below this video thanks very much for watching this lesson and we will see you again soon I wanna speak real English from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at English class 101.com today I'm going to talk about say tell and speak I'm going to talk about the differences between when we use these and also give some examples of how to use them as well so let's go okay the first one I want to talk about is say say so we use say when we want to have a very neutral feel to what we're talking about we use say when we report speech we're reporting information reporting something we heard reporting something someone else said to us so as I just use the past tense of say is said please be careful it is not say IDI say IDI it should be said the spelling changes said he said she said we said they said okay so when we want to report speech we can use the past tense like I've just done for example he said dinner was delicious this is a past tense statement so maybe previously before the conversation someone he said this statement dinner was delicious think of this like a quote dinner was delicious he said dinner was delicious another example you said you were tired you said you were tired so again before the conversation the other person said he or she was tired but here to report you said you were tired and we use the past tense say said to do that okay one more with the present tense then remember we use the present tense when we're talking about general facts or things which are always true regular actions so in this case I've used present tense I said I never say mean things so here I have present tense this is a general fact in this case I never say mean things so again a very neutral way of talking about verbal communication okay so that's how we use say an introduction to how we use say then let's talk about how to use till we use tell a little bit differently from the way that we use say so we use tell when we want to show kind of a one-way nuance there's sort of one-way communication happening so by that I mean that someone is passing new information or giving new information to another person something I do not already know I'm having someone tell me someone is going to tell me new information so we use this in past tense a lot the past tense of tell is told he told me she told me they told me this gives us the nuance of new information something I'm learning something I'm hearing for the first time I can use tell or told in past tense also one point about to tell the object in many cases is a person so by that I mean after the verb till the item coming after it in the sentence is usually a person so the person receiving the information so please tell me please tell her please tell him the person indicated here or the group of people indicated here after the verb tell that's the person or the group of people receiving the information learning the information okay so let's see I told you to call me here I have the past tense I told you to call me so you this is the receiver of the information I told you to call me I asked you to call me here okay so this is the report some some command we can use tell and told to give commands I told you to call me I gave you the new request to call me in other words okay one more a request this time can you tell me where the bathroom is so here tell me so this is a request for information can you tell me where the bathroom is I don't know where the bathroom is please give me new information please tell me where it is okay here we also use present tense yeah so when your geek when you're making a requests please make sure to use the present tense can you tell me something one more why didn't you tell me the party was cancelled another question why didn't you tell me so you didn't give me new information about the party why why didn't you tell me bla bla bla we can use this pattern for if you miss information or if someone forgot to tell you something if someone forgot to give you information that you needed you can say why didn't you tell me bla bla bla to make a different sentence you could say why didn't you tell her or why didn't you tell them why didn't you tell our boss some other examples a positive sentence could be why did you tell him why did you tell her for example if someone tells a secret so we can use tell to give new information to pass new information along okay so that's tell so the next verb that I want to talk about today is the verb speak so will you speak to mean a conversation yes so speak has the nuance of a conversation but it has the nuance of a more formal tone we would use speak in more formal situations like a business meeting or a work setting for example or for maybe a more serious conversation but we can use speak with either with or two so I mean speak with someone and speak to someone so the difference between these two is very very small if you say speak with my boss it sounds like you expect a conversation with your boss speaking with someone sounds like there's information passing back and forth between the two of you speak to your boss sounds more like for example you're going to say a lot of things you're going to give a lot of information and your boss will participate a little bit but there's more nuance of giving information than passing information back and forth so if you want to make a more conversational nuance use with speak with someone if you want it to sound a little more one side a little more one way you speak to someone okay so we also use speak four languages like I speak English I speak French I speak Japanese I don't speak German I don't speak Thai so please you speak four languages as well the past tense of speak is spoke please be careful it is not speak to please use spoke the past tense is spoke I spoke English every day when I lived in America for example so please use spoke as the past tense here also the past participle form is spoken spoken so we'll see that in a little bit maybe okay so some example sentence is you should speak with or to your boss so here you can choose with sounds more conversational to sounds a little more direct you should speak with your boss you should speak to your boss okay past tense sentence I spoke with my manager I spoke with my manager we shared information last have you spoken to HR have you spoken to HR here's a present perfect tense sentence I've used spoken here okay good so that's a nice maybe a wrap up of a few different verbs that are commonly confused when talking about speech let's go to some example sentences all right the first example sentence is my friend something something me my cooking was bad okay my cooking was bad this is probably new information for a person another hint we have me there's a person here in the object position of the sentence so we can guess this should be the verb tell however we have this hint my cooking was bad was bad a past tense so we should use the past tense form of tell told here okay next one they something something I have to work tomorrow so here I have to work tomorrow this is maybe just information it sounds like somebody passed some information to me so if I want to think of this as like reporting speech I would use the verb say in the past tense so I know this should not be tell because there's no object here I know it should not be speak because there's no width and there's no two here either so I know this should be they said I have to work tomorrow of course this sentence could be they told me I have to work tomorrow it sounds more like a command in that case here they said I have to work tomorrow it's very neutral and just a simple report of speech okay next one he really needs to something something with his client so here is a big hint word we have the word with here and we also have client here which shows maybe a business or a work setting therefore we can guess the verb should be speak he really needs to speak with his client okay great next one have you something something your mother the news the news so here news is a big hint new information new information and we have a person a person in the object position a person is going to receive new information so have you told your mother the news is the correct sentence here so have you told bla bla bla is actually a really good sentence for you to remember have you told your mom about that have you told your dad about that have you told your dog about your new park I don't know so anytime you want to pass information or ask a question about information being passed please use tell to do that like we've done here have you told someone okay let's go to the next one we something something about this at the last meeting so again meeting here is a big hint that it is a work or a more formal situation we see that this is the last meeting so something that has finished already so let's use past tense spoke we spoke about this at the last meeting we spoke about this is the last meeting here I have introduced something slightly different from this speak with or speak to if you want to mention a topic rather than about a person we can use about a topic speak about something hmm we spoke about this at the last meeting we can use speak to introduce a topic as well so please note that this is an option okay let's go to the next one you always bah bah bah nice things nice thing so always here I have a word which indicates a regular action something that is always true we talked about an example over here though I used never here however the grammar is still the same we should still use the same grammar nuance the same grammar point here so let's use the present tense say you always say nice things so someone always says positive things or someone always makes very positive comments like for example everybody in the comments on these videos everybody always says very nice things we can use always say to talk about something that a person always says ok finally the same thing he always something something the truth ok now this is tricky I've used always here I used always in the previous one as well but the thing I want to point out is this the truth at the end of the sentence there's a set phrase in English we don't use say we actually use tell with the expression the truth he always tells the truth so the expressions tell the truth and the opposite tell a lie we always use the verb tell with this you might hear I sometimes hear non-native speakers of English they say a lie or say the truth but this is not natural please be sure to use tell the truth or tell a lie we always use tell in these cases so please be careful of that ok but we've talked about a lot of different ways to use these three verbs and I hope that it's a little bit more clear now when to use them especially say until many people have a little bit of confusion between these two but speak is also quite useful as well thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon bye hi everybody my name is Alisha and today I'm going to talk about the difference between some and any so let's get started okay the first point I want to talk about with some and any is how to use some and any in terms of where to put these two words in a sentence so we use some and any in the same position in a sentence we use some and any before the noun or before a noun phrase so please be careful don't use some or any after the noun you should be using some and any before the noun okay so given this let's take a look at how to decide whether you should use some or you should use any in your sentence all right first I want to talk about some we use some in positive statements so these are statements that do not have a negative in them we use them for positive statements a few examples here are I need some butter here some is before the noun in the next one we have some food some comes before the word food the noun a positive statement third they had some good ideas so good ideas is used as a noun phrase here good ideas some comes before that noun phrase so these are a few examples of positive statements we can use some in positive statements that's the first point I want to make second point I want to make is here it's about requests we use some in a couple of different question patterns one of them is making requests when we want to make requests we can use some in the request for example can I have some time off we use some here because it's a request making a request to your boss for example in this case we should use some can I have some time off second will you give me some space will you give me space this is another request we can tell will you give me this is a very good hint that someone is asking for something else a request should you some finally can he take care of some things for me can he take care of some things for me in this case it's asking for someone's help in a situation so it's a request we should use the word some great ok so the second point I want to talk about is using some four offers to make offers we should use some again offers like requests are a question this is a question pattern where we should use the word some to make the question so in the first example would you like some wine we use some here in the pattern would you like this is a really good pattern to know would you like some bla bla bla would you like some wine would you like some beer would you like some a few other things we'll see in just a moment but we should use some here because it's an offer type question one more example do you want some cheese so these two patterns would you like and do you want they really are expressing the same thing the difference is in the level of formality would you like is more formal than do you want these two questions really they have the same point there's they're offering something but the the level of formality is what's different here okay last one do you want some more time do you want some more time so here again and offer a more casual offer with do you want and again we have some plus more time so please make sure to use some before the noun or before the noun phrase and use it in your offer questions as well as your request questions so those are the two types of questions I want to talk about today when we're using some also please remember we use it in positive statements as well okay so with that let's continue on to any I want to talk about any next any is sort of the opposite in terms of statement making from some we use any in negative statements so for example I don't have any here I have don't do not the negative here I don't have any money therefore is correct we should use any in a negative statement another example they didn't get any new clothes they didn't again here's our negative they didn't did not so we should use any before our noun phrase which is new clothes here finally we didn't make any cookies here didn't is in the negative form again a past tense statement plus any before our noun here in this case cookies so please use any when you want to make a negative statement okay the last point I want to make today is about questions we use any with questions yes but we do not use any in requests and offers we just learned that we use some to make requests and offers so in other questions like information questions asking for information not for a request not for an offer but asking for information for example we use any in these cases so let's take a look the first sentence do we need any salt so this is an information question yes or no do we need any salt we should use this here this is matter request this is not an offer so any is the best choice for this sentence in the next example we have does he have any markers again this is an information question the person speaking is asking for information not making a request and not making an offer so we should use any here okay so the final example here is did she give you any tips so our noun phrase here is tips and he comes before that and we notice also this is not a request this is not an offer so we should use any it's an information question we're asking for information so let's keep this in mind we use any four questions which are not requests and not offers think about it as asking for information only you're not making a request for help not making a request for an item but if you're looking for information you should probably use any to make your question okay so let's take a look at a few examples sentences that I've prepared the first one here is do we have blah blah blah milk so here I'm looking for information I'm not making a request I'm not making an offer I want information so I should use any in this case do we have any milk is the correct sentence here the next one can I have love Oh black cake here I'm looking for something I'm looking for cake I want cake I'm making a request I know that requests are paired with some so I'm going to use a sum in this sentence can I have some cake is the correct sentence the correct question the next one I really need something something money I really need something something money so this is a statement not a question and there's no negative here so we should use the positive sum I really need some money is the correct sentence here all right let's take a look at the next sentence I don't have a baa-baa pets here is a negative and we see this is not a question so we know we should use any because we use any for negative statements this don't do not shows us that we should use any here okay next one do you want something something pizza so here we have a question and it looks like this is an offer so there's this do you want pattern which we talked about right here do you want so we should use some this is an offer question do you want some pizza making an offer you should use some next sentence wanna get bubble bought food after work again we have a question and we have this pattern wanna get wanna get this is a very very casual form of do you want to get do you want to get we've dropped do you want to and we use the very casual wanna here so it's again an offer question want to get some food after work okay next sentence he doesn't have blah blah blah friends so a statement yes but we see a negative here doesn't or does not is the negative form so we know that we should use any in this pattern in this sentence he doesn't have any friends okay final question here maybe a difficult one are you sure you don't want dessert are you sure you don't want dessert so this isn't quite an offer it's like a very very soft offer yes but this person is sort of asking for information are you sure you don't want dessert they're asking for a yes or no kind of and there's a negative here there's a negative don't I do not so it's a good idea in this sentence to use any are you sure you don't want any dessert this sounds a little bit negative you're sure you don't want any dessert if you want to make a straightforward offer like would you like some dessert that's okay it sounds a little bit better because there's a negative here with don't to use any in this sentence this is a little bit tricky but I think it's I think it's okay to use alright so those are a few basic points about when to use some and when to use any please remember some is used for positive statements requests and offers any is used for negative statements and questions which are not requests or offers like information questions want to speak real English from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at English class 101.com hi everybody my name is Alisha and today I'm going to talk about the difference between for and since I'm also going to talk about how to use a go so let's get started okay the first thing I want to talk about is the word for we use the word for before a period of time so before a period of time can mean minutes it can mean years it can mean days seconds hours a period of time or length of time we use the word for before that phrase to talk about the length of time that something happens so for example for 10 minutes we use it before 10 minutes for 5 years 5 years as a length of time for a day a day is also a length of time for a lifetime one one whole lifetime a person's whole lifetime can be a period of time we use four before in this case there's also four an eternity and eternity we can use this to mean a very very long time it's sort of an exaggerated phrase but for an eternity means a very very long time these are all lengths of time then and we should use the word four before we want to express them okay so let's talk about something a little bit different then the word since since is used before a specific point in the past we often use since with present perfect tense maybe you've seen another video that we did about the present perfect tense and how to make present perfect tense sentences we often use since in present perfect tense sentences for is also used in present perfect tense sentences but the two are used a little bit differently since is used to talk about a specific point in the past a specific point in the past may be where something happened or something began so for example since last night this shows us that since last night last night something happened or something started and it's continuing so since shows us that something has been continuing or the effect has been continuing since a point in the past it began at a point in the past and continues or the effect continues until the present since tells us all this information another example since 2014 so this is the point in time 2014 is the year at which something changed or an action started or the effect of an action began so we can use since in this case another point in time can be a season like winter since winter since summer since autumn we can use since before a season we also have points in time in the day since this morning since this evening since last night was my first example here we can also use morning this morning this morning today as a point in time finally I have one more example since last week so points in time there are a lot of different points in time but just be careful length of time uses for point in time uses since and since shows us that there's some action that's continuing or the effect of some action continues until the present so please be careful period of time point in time for instance ok so the next point that I want to talk about is a go there are a couple of different ways that we can use a go and the first one I want to talk about is one we use for past tense statements or past tense situations so we use a go to talk about points in time where actions or changes occurred so for example three years ago I got a new job or five minutes ago I ate lunch or two days ago I saw my friend or two jobs ago I didn't have much experience so all of these statements are used to talk about a past tense point in time where something changed or some action occurred so we use a go in this way with the past tense to mark a change or something happening so there's the second use of ago that I want to talk about we can use a go with since and a time period this is something we often use in present perfect tense statements like we talked about here with sense what I mean by that for example is since + time period plus a go so for example since three years ago or since five minutes ago or since two months ago so here you'll see we're using a I'm period I know I said to use time periods with four but this can be kind of a useful pattern because if you use the word since on accident but you want to express a time period instead you can save yourself by adding a go to the end of it so if you're if you're working on making a sentence for example and you you're speaking and you accidentally use the word since even though you know you want to use a time period save yourself by attaching a go to the end so since three years ago something has occurred something has been continuing so because since is here it shows us like we talked about with sense here the action or some effect of that action is continuing from this point in time so we can use this pattern as well since time period ago okay so this is a lot of information let's try to make a few sentences I've prepared a few example sentences so let's take a look alright the first one we've lived here blah blah blah three years so how do we know which to use first we see we've we have we have lived here this is a present perfect tense sentence we've lived here plus three years so I see a time period here that means I should use four because we need to use four before periods of time so we've lived here for three years is the correct sentence good okay let's look at the next one then they've been studying blah blah blah 2014 so here I see a point in time a point in time a specific point in time and another really good hint is the grammar here I see the present perfect progressive or the present perfect continuous tense here they've meaning they have plus bin studying this shows a continuing action so all of these give me hints about which one I should use they've been studying since 2014 is the correct answer here next one he left the office five minutes something something okay here we see this is a past tense statement he left so left is the past tense form of the verb to leave so we see here a period of time five minutes yes but after five minutes is our space meaning we need to use ago five minutes ago we always use a go after the period of time okay next one I've been reading this book bla bla bla last week so again we see this bin reading this present perfect continuous tense shows us an action has been continuing this shows a continuing action or a continuing effect so we know we should use since I've been reading this book since last week so last week as we talked about here is our specific point in time let's take a look at the next example sentence it's a little bit tricky it's a little bit difficult here we see the same bin waiting the same present perfect continuous or present perfect progressive tense this shows us that an action has been continuing yes but I've used the word ages here so ages is sort of a casual expression which means a very long time that means it's a time period this is not a specific point in time ages is not a specific point in time it's actually a time period so we should use for here you've been waiting here for ages for a long time is what this sentence means okay last one they've been dating something something about two weeks something something okay so here there are two spaces where we can use a word that should probably give you a good hint it'll be this sense and ago but let's talk about why here again we have this continuous form they've been dating dating is the continuous or the progressive form of the verb to date so we have about plus two weeks so there's a period of time there yeah in this case then we should use since about two weeks ago so two weeks ago they started dating they've been dating since about two weeks ago we can use both of these sentences to express the amount of time they have been dating okay so those are a few points about when to use for cents and a go we also talked about some grammar points that you can use these words with if you have any questions about those check out some of the other videos we've made on this channel especially about the present perfect tense they can help give you some more background about those grammar points hi everybody my name is Alisha welcome back to English class 101 comms YouTube channel today I'm going to talk about the difference between speak and talk to commonly confused verbs so let's get started okay the first verb I want to talk about is the verb talk we use talk in casual speech in everyday conversations if you want to talk about a simple topic or a casual discussion with friends or you just want to report a conversation that happened or a discussion that happened you can use talk to explain this simply and casually in most everyday conversations I use talk you'll hear talk a lot when you are listening to conversations about discussions on the phone we use it to explain phone conversations a lot we use it to explain simple meetings with people friendly interactions over coffee for example talk is used in most everyday situations so if you're reporting on something that's pretty casual you should use the word talk to explain that also if the person you are talking to is not someone who you have a professional relationship with it's pretty good to use talk in that case if you use speak you might sound a little too formal we're going to talk about this in just a moment though so please try to keep in mind the talk should be used in everyday conversations to report everyday conversations and in more casual situations okay we can also use talk the verb talk with to or with by this I mean we can say I want to talk to someone or I want to talk with someone these are for me very very similar we use them in very similar ways if you want to be extremely specific I would say that perhaps there is a small nuance of a difference between talking to talk to and talk with if I say I want to talk to someone maybe it could be a more one-sided conversation like I want to talk to my friend I expect my friend is going to talk to me as well but I feel like that has a little more of a one-sided conversation feel then using talk with if I say I want to talk with my friend I want to talk with you about it with to me sounds a little bit more like doing something together with someone else so again this is a very very small difference and perhaps this is just my style and how I like to use these words but for the most part we can use them interchangeably we can use them in the same way and you're not going to really have any communication problems depending on the words you choose but just for your information this is how I sometimes use - and with with the verb talk and with speak - as I'll explain later okay finally about conjugations for the verb talk to make the past tense of the verb talk talk is in Eirik I'm sorry start again okay finally about conjugations with the verb talk to conjugate the verb talk into the past tense and the past participle we simply add Edie to the end of the verb so talk becomes talked this makes past tense and past participle so a very easy conjugation for the verb talk so we're going to use this in some example sentences later let's take a look though at the verb speak okay so we talked about we talked about how the verb talk is used in more casual situations everyday conversations everyday discussions speak however is used in more formal situations if you want to create a more formal nuance or to have a more formal tone when you speak with someone use the verb speak so I just used the verb speak to sound a little bit more formal in this explanation for example if you would like to sound a little more formal try using the verb speak instead of the verb talk this is really useful in business situations at work you can use this in business emails as well or in any kind of writing where you would like to sound a little more formal this is more polite than talk as you might have guessed so talk has a more casual nuance speak has a more formal nuance about it as with talk we can use this with - or with so speak to someone or speak with someone I want to speak to my boss I want to speak with my boss like I talked about with talk we can use the two pretty much in the same way very very similarly I would say there's a very small nuance again talk - might sound a little bit more one-sided one person is reporting information perhaps and with perhaps sounds more like an exchange of information but again this is a very small difference in perhaps just a way that I think about how to use - and with with these verbs but you can use them essentially in the same way speak to or speak with someone finally there's one other key difference between speak and talk and that is about languages when you are explaining your language ability for example I speak English I speak Japanese I don't speak Chinese we should always use the verb speak please don't use the verb talk to explain your language abilities so a sentence like I talk French is not correct please use I speak French speak is the correct verb to talk about your language abilities or to talk about your inability as well so please be careful there lastly a couple conjugation points about this verb then so speak in the past tense speak is an irregular verb speak becomes spoke in the past 10 spoke so please be careful here also to make the past participle form speak becomes spoken have you spoken to someone I've never spoken with someone so there are two conjugations we need to consider for today's practice spoke and spoke in past tense and past participle tense okay so now that we reviewed a couple points about the difference between talk and speak let's take a look at a few example sentences and maybe we can decide which verb is a better choice in each of these okay first one he's something something to his manager our hint word here is the word manager this implies it's a work situation so it's probably a good idea to sound a little more formal let's use spoke past tense he spoke to his manager of course you could say he speaks to his manager but we don't have much other information here so maybe a simple sentence he spoke to his manager he's nice let's see the next one you should ba ba ba to your parents so here we have parents and also you should this this kind of gives us the feeling that this sentence is maybe a casual advice situation so how about talk it sounds more casual so talk sounds better you should talk to your parents again talk with your parents is also okay here alright let's look at the next sentence haven't they blah blah blah to you about this so here we have haven't have not a negative form here haven't they blah blah blah to you about this in this sentence there is no clear hint word is it a casual situation is it a formal situation so in a sentence like this because we don't have enough information about the situation both talk and speak are actually okay but we do need to conjugate the verb correctly so that it matches this haven't at the beginning of the sentence so we can say haven't they talked to you or haven't they spoken to you about this both are correct in this case haven't they talked to you haven't they spoken to you it just changes the level of formality of the sentence okay let's take a look at the next one I really wanted to something something to you again it's a little bit difficult to determine is this a formal situation or a casual situation I would guess I've included the word really here typically really is only used in casual situations or it's better to use a word like really in less formal situation so I think that talk is a better choice here I really wanted to talk to you hmm nice all right next one she is something something with clients at the moment so here the hint is clients indicating it's a business situation or a more formal situation and here we have the grammar she is she is this implies progressive or a continuous grammar sentence so she's something something clients gives us the hint it's more formal let's use speak but again to change it to the progressive form she's speaking with clients at the moment sounds nice okay let's look at the next sentence then what were they blah blah blah with that guy about okay so here I've used with again we can use to or with but I've included guy as a hint word here guy sounds a little bit more casual we use guy in may be more casual discussions everyday discussions so we probably want to use talk in this case a more casual choice here we have we see its past what were they something something with that guy about but we know this should be a past progressive tense sentence - what were they is indicate something continuing what were they talking with that guy about what were they talking with that guy about great alright next one you guys should have blah blah blah about it last week again we see this you guys you guys implying something more casual you guys should have so again this is probably a sentence where we need to use the verb talk because it's a more casual situation we could use the verb speak if you like but again it's going to sound a little more formal here we have you guys which sounds casual so mixing casual and formal might sound a little strange so here for to match our grammar you guys should have talked about it last week is the nice sentence here okay let's look at the last one then she's never Loblaw to me so she's this is an interesting contraction be careful it's not she is never never is a big hint here yeah we know that never we use never a lot in present perfect tense sentences so she's here does not mean she is instead this is the contracted form of she has so here she has never something-something to me in this sentence we don't know if it's a casual or a formal expression so we can choose either verb so she has never talked to me it's correct or she has never spoken to me she's never talked to me she's never spoken to me both are correct just depending on the situation and depending on the nuance you would like to communicate you can choose the better form or the better a verb accordingly so these are a few cases where a speak and talk it might be a good idea to choose one or the other but I would recommend just keep in mind if you want to sound more formal please choose the verb speak if you want to sound a little more casual use the verb talk in most cases we will use the verb talk but maybe at work it's a good idea to use speak instead also don't forget to use speak to talk about your language abilities to thanks very much for watching this episode and we will see you again soon right today I'm going to talk about the difference between active voice and passive voice in this lesson I want to explain a few ways that I think can help you decide how to choose between active voice or passive voice this will be hopefully useful for your speaking and for your writing skills so let's get started okay the first thing I want to talk about is the active voice English uses a lot of sentences in the active voice we like to use active voice a lot in speech and in writing so we use active voice when we want to place emphasis on the subject like the person or the thing that is doing an action or causing an action so the emphasis here is on the subject we know the subject of the sentence in the case of the active voice and we want to emphasize that the person who is doing an action for example you want to emphasize that you know who is doing the action use the active voice so an example could be a thief stole my bag in this situation we know a thief stole my bag here the simple past tense is used and we have my bag as the object here so everything is clear everything is known in this sentence I'm going to talk about a different style a different way to explain this sentence in just a moment but we can use the active voice to explain a situation like this another example my coworker deleted an important file so here's another situation we know who did the action my coworker in this case simple past tense deleted here shows the action that happened the action that occurred and what was deleted an important file here so again I'm going to talk about a different way to explain this sentence in just a moment but these are a couple ways we can use active tense or active voice rather when all the information is known some more simple sentences I ate dinner again the subject the verb and a and what was being eaten here in this case I ate dinner very simple sentence here he took me to a movie so we know the subject the action who is receiving the action in this case it's me here she made dinner again very very simple sentences we can make simple sentences in just three words for example with the active voice it's very very easy to use active voice we just need to know the subject what they did and who received the effect or who that action occurred to to put it in a strange way so we can use active voice to explain a lot of things in a very very short way but sometimes active voice is maybe not the best choice so let's take a look at passive voice and see if we can compare a few things here when we talk in the passive voice or when we write in the passive voice we do it because we want to place emphasis on the object of an action something which is receiving the action we want to place the emphasis on that or we use it when the subject is unknown or unimportant so to give a few examples let's look here my bag was stolen here my bag this is the thing that an action has occurred to so and you can think of it like the bag is the one or is the object that is receiving the action here my bag was stolen my bag was stolen so we have to use a different grammar to explain in passive voice so the difference here my bag was stolen the difference between this sentence and a thief stole my bag is that we don't have a clear doer of the action we're not talking about specifically who stole my bag but rather the important point here is that my bag was stolen it doesn't matter who or we don't know who stole the bag but I want to emphasize this situation in this case passive voice is much much better than active voice because I don't know the subject perhaps let's look at one more example an important file got deleted so here you'll see got we use God a lot this past tense got to a rather past participle got in in passive voice a lot it gives kind of more of a nuance of something negative occurring it gives sort of the feeling that a negative outcome has happened as a result of the situation so you might see got deleted or got plus the verb in this case so here I've used got deleted I'll show you one more in just in just a second so here an important file got deleted let's compare this to the active voice my coworker deleted an important file in the active voice I know who deleted the file my coworker deleted the file in the passive voice however I don't mention my coworker so maybe I don't know who deleted the file I don't know who completed the action who did the action so I can drop that name I can drop my co-worker I can drop the name of the person who did the action I want to emphasize the situation the the file the important file got deleted that's what I want to emphasize in this case I should use the passive voice this sounds much much better if I want to emphasize the important file if however I want to emphasize my coworker for example I'm angry with my coworker I could say my coworker deleted an important file in this case the emphasis is my coworker in this sentence the important file is the emphasis so this is a really key point between the difference between active and passive forms ok let's look at a few more examples so next one your lunch got eaten so again I've used this got here yeah I've used got plus eat in the past participle form of the verb so as I talked about in this sentence got deleted we use got to show kind of a negative outcome something we didn't want to happen necessarily this is very common in passive voice so your lunch got eaten by whom we don't know somebody ate this person's lunch but we don't know who did the action so we can omit that person and we can simply emphasize your lunch your lunch here this is the focus of the sentence your lunch got eaten ok let's take a look at one more sentence their window was broken their window was broken we don't know how the window was broken maybe it was a person maybe it was a burglar maybe it was bad weather maybe just a strange accident we don't know how or who broke the window so we can omit we can remove any identifying information about who or what completed the action instead we focus on the window their window was broken this is the focus of this sentence finally let's look at one more flowers were delivered to the office in this sentence we don't know where the flowers came from who ordered the flowers we don't know any information about the situation but we simply want to report something we saw at the office for example we can use the passive temps to do that the flowers were delivered to the office so in in each of these sentences we don't know or it's not important who did the action or what did the action but we want to emphasize the object of the action we want to emphasize the the person or the item receiving the action in this case in active voice however we want to emphasize the person doing the action of the thing doing the action so please keep this in mind when you're trying to choose between active voice and passive voice if it's a known subject or if you want to emphasize that subject more strongly than the item receiving that action use the active voice if you don't know the subject or if you want to emphasize the object of the action use the passive voice I hope that those were a few good points I hope that those are a few helpful ways to help you remember how to use active voice and passive voice but if you have any questions or comments let us know in the comment section or try to make a few sentences if you like thanks very much for watching this episode and we'll see you again soon bye today I'm going to talk about uncountable nouns I'm going to talk about a few points related to uncountable nouns and some words we can use with uncountable nouns I'm going to talk about the ways we can use units to count parts of uncountable nouns and I'm going to talk about some quantifiers and some questions which we can use with this grammar point so let's get started okay so the first point here about uncountable nouns uncountable nouns are nouns we cannot count so count a bowl means able to count this prefix on means not the negative so not countable nouns we cannot count we cannot use one two or three to count numbers of these nouns with uncountable nouns we can use some determiner so determiners are for example or an or the this that my his and so on with uncountable nouns we can use for example this and that and we can use possessives like my his her our and so on however we cannot use a or an with uncountable nouns this is because a and an are used for the singular forms of nouns and we don't have a singular or plural form necessarily for uncountable nouns so we cannot use or an because these two articles are used for singular forms so please be careful of this some determiners like this and that are fine and possessives are okay but not a or an okay also when you want to make a general statement you should use no determiner no determiner so know this know that know the or whatever unless you want to make a statement a general statement about a specific group or a specific object a specific mass entity for example we'll talk a little bit about this later okay so let's take a look at some common uncountable nouns then I've also included here though they're units so by units I mean ways to count the parts of these nouns so we cannot count these nouns because they're sort of they're thought of as like a mass they're thought of as kind of a group or yeah a group or an assembly of many many different parts so we don't count the the group itself the mass itself however we can count the parts within that group so let's take a look at the first example maybe the most one time so time is an uncountable noun we don't count one time two times or three times we don't do that however we count parts of time measurements of time so for example all of these are countable nouns seconds minutes hours days weeks months years decades millennia these are all the countable nouns we use to couch the parts of time we cannot count time we can count the parts of time only let's look at one more example money so money we cannot count money one money to money three money we don't you do that instead we count the parts for example cents dollars yen pounds euro pesos for example we use the currency the type of money and the denominations the pieces are the parts within that that that currency to count so we cannot count money but we can count the the type of money we can count currency amounts okay another couple that are fairly common are beer and wine so drinks for example we don't count beer necessarily as a group we can say one beer to refer to one drink of beer we can say that however but in general for liquid when you see a lot of liquid we don't say one beer to beer instead we counted by the serving so for example with beer we use glasses pints half pints mugs kegs growlers these are a few ways that we can count beer these are all countable nouns a similar rule applies to wine we don't say really one wine two wines we can use that to mean one single drink but there are sometimes different ways that we need to explain one so we use these words glasses or bottles or decanters so we use decanter of wine bottle of wine in these cases not one wine or two wines make sure to say like bottle or decanter to refer specifically to the type of measurement you another very common example is clothes so clothes is kind of a category of items it's a type of item there there are many different kinds of clothes so we count for example shirts sweaters socks shoes hats pairs of pants we don't say one clothes too close three clothes instead we count these smaller items inside the category of clothes okay just a couple more examples food is another very very big one so food itself we don't really say one food to food three food instead we count inside food for example snacks drinks salads appetizers pizzas breadsticks cakes whatever so the the food the dish itself we couch the dish but not food as a category finally air is another one we don't count air with numbers we can count parts of air but if you want to know we can use for example molecules to talk about components pieces of air if you like so these are just a few examples of uncountable nouns and some of the units we can use to count the parts within those uncountable nouns ok next let's head over to how to make a few questions so similar to countable nouns we can use uncountable nouns to make information questions to make requests to make offers but one key point here is when you're asking a quantity question with an uncountable noun you need to use much so when you're using a countable now and you should use how many plus the plural form if you're using an uncountable noun you need to use how much plus here now how much time how much money how much beer for example there's no s to add at the end there's no plural form that we need to think about just the uncountable noun and any other information how much beer did you drink how much time do you have for example so please use much when you're making a question with an uncountable noun a second do you plus a verb any plus your uncountable noun so we change this verb in the sentence depending on what we need but this is a general information question like do you need any time or do you need any new clothes for example so we just use the uncountable noun here at the end of this phrase to make an information question another common pattern would be a request so can I have some bla bla bla can I have some wine can I have some food of course you can use a unit here if you like if you want to be specific but if you want to be general mmm like can I have some more time on this project we can use an uncountable noun in this sentence pattern as well of course there are many different sentence patterns but these are a few questions that might be helpful for you ok let's look at the last thing for today quantifiers quantifiers so we use quantifiers to talk about amounts of nouns in this case I'm going to talk about some quantifiers we can use to talk about the amounts of uncountable nouns so we can use first at the end of the spectrum here at around like zero I've kind of made a scale here from zero a like know of something there's no amount there's zero of something to a lot of something 100 at the other end I've made kind of a scale of a few quantifiers so here we can say no I have no time we can use don't plus a verb plus any like I don't have any time hmm also is over here at the zero part we can say I have almost no time meaning very very little time for example so very little and almost no would go about here here we can say not much I have not in parentheses because you just need to use the negative form I don't have much time or I don't need much to drink for example so we can use much here but we need to use a negative in this case we can also use hardly any with uncountable nouns so I have hardly any time to work on this project or I have hardly any wine in my refrigerator for example we can use a bit of mm I have a bit of beer to drink a small amount so I have a small amount of time this afternoon if you're free we have a decent amount of so oh there's a decent amount of time this afternoon if that's better for you we can use some as well Tom again is kind of vague it's not so clear the quantity with some but if you just want to refer to having some have it making it available you can use some so like we might say I have some clothes I want to throw away we can use lots of and a lot of so I drank a lot of beer last night or I drank a lot of wine last night might be a common sentence you can hear we can use quite a lot of quite a lot of so I have quite a lot of time this weekend let's do something we have the casual tons of and a bunch of too so I have tons of time or I have a bunch of new clothes to try on for example and we can also use all all so you could say who drink all the beer or who ah let's see there's another example mmm someone took all my clothes for example we can use all with uncountable nouns as well so again these are just a few examples of some expressions you might hear with uncountable nouns you'll see - as with countable nouns we can use some of these as I've marked with a green star here some of these are okay to use with countable nouns and uncountable nouns so if you get stuck you can try to remember which ones are are okay for both countable and uncountable nouns for example lots of and a lot of some is good almost no is pretty handy pretty useful as well another point here I want to mention this is a problem that many students have is using much in positive statements of quantity for example I have much money I have much time we cannot use much in this way we should use I have a lot of time I have quite a lot of time much is used with negatives so I don't have much time for example I don't have much money we can only use much for a quantity statement with a negative form so please don't use much to make a positive statement about quantity please be careful this is a very common mistake all right but those are a few points I wanted to make about uncountable nouns today thanks very much for watching this episode and I will see you again soon I want to speak real English from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at English class 101.com hi everybody my name is Alisha today I'm going to talk about countable nouns I'm going to talk about how to make the plural form of countable nouns I'm going to talk about a few question patterns you can use with countable nouns and I'm going to talk about some quantifiers for countable nouns so let's get started okay so the first point maybe the most important point first of all is that countable nouns are nouns which we can count we use numbers 1 2 & 3 and we can count the numbers of these nouns they are countable able to be counted that's the first point for today's lesson second countable nouns have a singular form single here you can see single is the base one singular form and a plural form plural meaning more than one so the words themselves have a singular form one of something and a plural form more than one of something a couple of notes about singular form and plural form however singular form nouns we have to use a determiner so for example determiners are like articles like or an or the or we could use this that my his her for example we need some kind of determiner something that gives us information about a singular noun we must use a determiner with a singular noun so we have to say a dog or his dog or my dog we cannot simply say dog in this with a singular form so please be careful if you use the singular form of a noun you need to use a determiner ok let's look at the plural form my nose the plural form here is that no determiner is required so you don't always have to use a determiner here with the plural form the dogs his dogs her dogs for example but if you're referring generally to a group no determiner should be used so this is a very common mistake for example if talking about all teachers or all doctors or making a general statement about a group of people for example no determiner should be used we should not use the doctors or the teachers unless you're talking about a specific group of doctors or a specific group of teachers if you want to make a general statement about all people are all countable nouns in one category no determiner should be used so please be careful okay so these are two points about the singular form and the plural form so please be careful of this okay let's continue on to how to make the plural forms of nouns there are a few different rules to consider here so first the regular way to make a plural noun is to just add an S to the end of the noun so for example dogs we have an s computers and cars so these are simple simple plural form nouns we just add an S to the end of the noun to make the plural form however there are some cases where the spelling will change slightly and the pronunciation will also change slightly the basic S sound is still there however it's an es sound so it's noun plus es when do we do this we do this with nouns that end in X in ch SS s or SH this is kind of difficult to remember I think that if you practice if you read a lot and if you speak a lot you'll gradually come to understand this this is something I personally never studied as a native speaker but through practice through reading a lot too I gradually came to and stand which nouns take ES and which nouns do not but some examples here foxes Fox ends in X so it takes es in the plural form classes class ends in SS so we take ES for the plural form finally sandwich sandwich ends in CH so we add es very important so not sandwiches with a with noe but we need to use an e in the word sandwiches please be careful ok finally there is one more different spelling for plural nouns here we have noun plus IES if the noun ends in a why a why we we drop the Y in the plural form we cut the Y and add IES so a few examples of this are countries we have IES know why here we have candies again know why IES and copies so know why and IES so these are three ways to make plural forms adding es or an es sound or just a simple s so depending on the noun you would like to make plural you need to kind of remember these rules or at least think about them a little bit and until you kind of get used to making nouns correctly okay but I want to go to something a little bit more challenging which is nouns which have irregular plural forms so these are countable nouns but they don't follow the s rule we can't just add s to make these nouns plural let's take a look at a few so one for example is person the noun person we can say one person however the plural form is people two people three people four people please keep this in mind another very common one especially for pronunciation is woman to women and man to men please be careful of your vowel pronunciation here in particular woman and women the first vowel o here does not change in terms of spelling but in pronunciation it does change women sounds much different than this Giller form woman so please be careful sometimes poor pronunciation can cause difficulties in understanding or poor communication so this is a great pronunciation point both woman and man so man becomes men a very clear vowel sound change there so these two are a couple to be very very careful of and to practice as well some nouns however do not change in the plural form some nouns for example fish fish does not change we use fish and fish in the singular and the plural form if you are curious about how to know whether you're reading something or hearing something about singular fish or plural fish in most cases you can guess based on the situation based on the context if it's very very difficult then I suppose the author might include a number before the word fish like to fish or three fish but in most cases this isn't an issue the same thing applies to sheep actually sheep the plural form of sheep is also sheep there is no change here but we can count them as two sheep three sheep four sheep for example okay a few more the singular form of child becomes the plural form children please be careful their foot becomes feet tooth becomes teeth and one more interesting one mouse mouse becomes mice in the plural form two mice three mice four mice so these are just a few examples of some of the irregular plural forms you can find with countable nouns this is not everything for sure but these are some very common examples I think okay let's continue on to a few question patterns with countable nouns so the first one I have is how many blah blah blahs please keep in mind when you are asking a quantity question with countable nouns you need to use how many please do not use how much with a countable noun we use how with uncountable nouns so how many plus an S sound don't forget this S sound many people forget how many pens how many dogs how many children in that case there's no s sound but if you are using a noun with an S sound please make sure that s sound is very clear but in any case you need to use the plural form after how many okay a couple of other examples maybe you've seen our other YouTube videos about any and some so here I have an example do you verb any plural form so here again there's that s sound if your noun ends in an S make it very very clear when you pronounce it so do you have any pets for example or do you need any strawberries for example so here I've got verb and I've got any plus s so this is maybe making an offer or asking for information something you need some kind of information if you're asking this question I wouldn't be an offer but asking for information this is the kind of question you might be able to use with countable nouns finally to make a request as we talked about in the some video any in some video can I have some plus the plural form so can I have some cookies for example or can I have some cupcakes for example so again please make sure your s sound is very clear at the end of this sentence all right the last thing I want to talk about for this lesson is quantifiers so quantifiers we use with the plural form please do not use quantifiers with the singular form we use quantifiers to talk about amounts how much or how many of something for countable nouns we're going to talk about how many of something we have or don't have for example so we can use know with a quantifier so I have no pets for example we can say that or I have any pets here I have don't plus verb plus any so I don't have any pets or I don't need any cupcakes I'm thinking about cupcakes today so I don't need any blah blah blah so we can replace the verb here with the verb of your choice there's almost no almost no I've kind of put this up a little further on this spectrum from the zero to 100 so it's very close to zero so I have almost no pancakes left in my kitchen for example so not very many in other words just above that maybe would be hardly any hardly any so there are hardly any children in school today for example maybe around here on the spectrum a couple of a couple of the word couple is here it has the nuance of two two so there are a couple of dogs in the park for example just above a couple of might be a few a few a few in my mind sounds like maybe three or four for example like there are a few birds in the tree outside the office several sounds to me like more than a few a larger number than a couple of or a few so to use several in a sentence for example there are several clocks in the office the next one I've got some here I've put some tentatively at about 50 some is very very vague some can mean a small amount or it can mean maybe a reasonable amount of something but generally it's somewhere around here on my 0 to 100 scale so you can feel kind of about how much some is yeah so for example I ate some what did I eat today I ate some salads last week or something like that so it's kind of a vague expression but we can't really guess how many are here but some can tell us just that maybe more than a few were consumed in my example sentence so some against some is rather vague maybe it's not as clear as some of other expressions but you can kind of figure it out for yourself when you'd like to use it all right the next one lots of and a lot of are about in the same point here on the spectrum so lotsa means lots of there are there's a good number of something so for example I got lots of letters in the mail last Christmas so it refers to a good number of something next up may be quite a few so quite a few of something so I got quite a few emails last week we could say towards the end here we have tons of and a bunch of these sound rather casual tons of and a bunch of again very very large quantity so I ate tons of sweets last weekend or I bought a bunch of CDs last weekend for example so a very very large quantity and finally we can use the word all with countable nouns like for example maybe all the children went to school today or all the women in the room left suddenly so we can use all with countable nouns just again please make sure to use the plural form with these so all of these are some examples of quantifiers we can use with countable nouns you'll see too I have green stars on some of these just a note the ones with green stars we can use these with countable and uncountable nouns so I know sometimes it's difficult to guess is it a countable noun is it an uncountable noun what quantifier should I use I don't know these are a few that you can use with both countable and uncountable nouns so if you're stuck if you can't remember you can try using one of these like lots of and a lot of some these are very very useful ones I think so try to keep these in mind a couple of these in mind so if you have trouble remembering which ones are for countable nouns and which ones are for uncountable nouns you can remember this okay so that's just a quick introduction to countable nouns I hope that this was useful for you if you have any questions or comments or want to try to make a sentence please feel free to do so in the comment section below this video hi everybody my name is Alisha today I'm going to be talking about the verb to be so in this lesson I'm going to talk about the use of the word to be and I'm going to introduce a few example sentences as well as give some explanations about some questions that you guys have had about the different uses of the verb to be specifically different conjugations of the verb to be so let's get started okay so the first point I want to mention about the verb to be is that B expresses a state or a condition this is some point about the way a person is or a characteristic a feature of a person an object a situation so we use B to talk about existence existence existence is like the base level of the verb the base meaning of the verb so maybe you've heard the very famous Shakespeare expression the expression from the Shakespeare play Hamlet to be or not to be this is a very famous expression which uses the verb to be but here this is this famous speech comes from the characters kind of internal monologue or the character's thoughts about whether to be to be alive to exist or not to be to not exist to be dead so in this case yes we are using the verb or the verb is used to mean existence to mean alive or not alive however in modern English today we use the verb to be in many many cases not referring to being alive or not alive but we use it as a linking verb so to be and the negative form is used to connect the subject to its other information this is the purpose of a linking verb we have a subject and some other information about the subject we use the verb to be to link those two things together so I've prepared a lot of examples and some conjugation review points that I hope can help show some of these the ways we can use the verb to be as in modern American English let's take a look first at the present tense so please remember that depending on the subject of the sentence the conjugation of the verb to be is going to change so if the subject of the present sentences I will use M if the subject is he she or it will use is if the subject is u we or they we use R so please keep these in mind of course the negative form we add not after this so I am NOT he is not you are not for example let's look at a few simple examples here the subject he for he I apply is the conjugation is he is my brother so here is my subject he extra information my brother and is this is my linking verb it connects the information together another example the neighbors are noisy please be careful I've noticed that many people forget that they're actually using a plural when they talk about neighbors or parents for example this little S here the neighbors the people who live next to me this is a plural subject so we should apply the same rule we use for they they are in this case the neighbors are noisy here is another example the computers not people here but multiple objects the computers that S sound is it marks the plural form so we have to use the same conjugation rule the computers they are essentially they are all broken here one more you are not my friend so here we have the subject you and the negative not my friend you are not my friend so in each of these we are connecting the subject with some other information using conjugated form of the verb be okay I also want to mention the infinitive form this two plus B so I talked about to be a little bit here to be meaning existence we can use to be in modern English as well so meaning there's no change to the verb but we use it in a few situations referring to existence referring to a situation so let's take a look at a few examples so here I have I want her to be my boss I want her to be my boss meaning she is not my boss now but in the future I want her to be I want her to be in the state of being my boss I want her to become my boss however we don't say become I want her to be my boss so this is maybe a desire I want for a future situation where a person her in this case is is desired to be to exist in a condition as this person's boss okay let's try another example this is a very very common example please tell him to be on time to be is used here before the expression on time so on time means the correct time so for example if the meeting begins at one o'clock he needs to be in the meeting room at one o'clock so to be in this case means be in a condition be in the state of on time at the correct time so this is a very common one tell him to be on time please be on time meaning you in your condition your status in the day should be on time so this is a great one to remember here's one more example again about time it's very commonly used for time for schedules didn't they tell you to be here at 8 o'clock so again to be meaning exist here to bring yourself here you need to exist here at 8 o'clock didn't they tell you that so again to be refers to your body your person here existing hmm so I need to be here to make these videos or I need to be in the studio to do a live stream every week I need to be somewhere so we use B to talk about our body's position or our body's location where we exist we can use to be with that ok so I've already started talking about a few different prepositions actually I mentioned I need to be at the studio or I need to be in the office for example there are a few common prepositions that we can use with the verb to be so because to be refers to our existence refers to our location for example we can use it with a few prepositions like in or at so I can say I need to be in the office I need to be at the office both are okay to use with the verb to be because they talk about or they help us express our existence our condition where we are located we can also use width to talk about people like I want to be with my family this weekend or I want to be with my husband or my wife later or I want to be with my friends every day for example so we can use with along with the verb to be so these are a couple of common prepositions you'll see with the verb to be and its various forms okay so let's continue on to a couple different grammar points let's talk now about the past tense we can use a to be in past tense just remember again the verb does conjugate here it's I was if the subject of the sentence is I he she and it was he was she was it was and with you we and they we use were you were they were we were here I've used it as an I was late to work past tense the neighbors were noisy so again as I talked about with the present tense example Nabors is plural so the rule for they applies here they were noisy same thing here I used the same sentence just in past tense the computers were all broken one more she wasn't very friendly so a negative form and please remember that you can use the contracted form instead of was not we can use wasn't it sounds a lot more natural she wasn't very friendly so please keep in mind the past tense forms as well the past tense form and the negative forms - all right let's continue on to a couple different points I want to talk about the continuous or the progressive form a couple patterns some of you have sent in questions about the the use of the word being in in sentences like these like what's the difference between including being and know being in in an example sentence so let's take a look in a couple examples we use being in this progressive form to express a temporary state so if you've watched any videos about the continuous form or the progressive form you know we use it sometimes to talk about a temporary state something that's not always true but for now it is true the same rule applies to being so if we can imagine the blue line here is a present tense statement present tense remember it's something that's always true it's a general fact the red line here is a temporary situation so here I have past present now in the future so let's look at these two example sentences my brother is annoying my brother is not really nice my brother my brother is annoying is a present tense sentence so this is a general fact for an example a general fact always true my brother is annoying I have an adjective here my brother is annoying however in this sentence my brother is being annoying right now my brother is being annoying means in this point in time only for this short period of time only right now my brother is being he's in the condition his status his existence is annoying right now if I said my brother is annoying right now it's okay but being annoying it sounds a bit more natural to a native speaker my brother is being annoying right now let's look at one more example my computer is not cooperative I've used the negative not cooperative so this is a little bit of a funny sentence it suggests maybe my computer can think for itself so cooperative meaning my computer is not working very well in other words but here I've used the adjective my computer is not cooperative so maybe I have an old computer so every day in this sentence in a present tense sentence my computer is not cooperative it doesn't work very well however if I want to use being here I can say my computer wasn't in past tense maybe my computer wasn't being cooperative today so in this sentence we see today only my computer was not being my computer was not functioning my computer was not existing in a cooperative state its condition was not cooperative for me in that day so here I've used being my computer wasn't cooperative today is okay as well but we can use being it sounds it kind of emphasizes the existence it emphasizes that temporary condition here so this sounds really nice my computer wasn't being cooperative today try to use this if you like so again we use this for a temporary situation keep that in mind being bla bla bla being before your adjective in this case so that's one point I wanted to mention let's move on to a couple more may be difficult or advanced points I wanted to share and I want to introduce a few examples here - first present perfect tense we've talked about the present perfect tense in some other videos before but let's review when your subject is I we use have been when this subject is he she or it it has been he has been she has been it has been when we use you we and they its have been you have been they have been we have been so we can use this as we've looked at in the past I have been studying here's our our present perfect form the past participle form been I have been she has been working they have been living and then some questions have we been sleeping or where have you been living for example here you'll see we use been the past participle form of the verb here in present perfect tense so maybe many of you are familiar maybe this kind of pattern is okay for you but let's kind of look at a few examples that are a bit more difficult or a bit more advanced like the past perfect tense so here in past perfect tense we need to change from have as we've done with present perfect to have the past tense so here all of these are going to be the same verb I had been he had been you had been we keep the verb be with bin here but we can actually change all of these sentences I just talked about and past perfect or sorry present perfect to the past perfect tense just by changing the verb have here so for example I had been studying she had been working they had been living for example we can make past perfect sentences just by changing the verb here so please keep this in mind the verb to be does not change in this case but we can make some more complex sentences in this case a past perfect sentence quite easily actually with no change to the beaver alright there's one more situation or one more kind of sentence I want to mention today and that sentences that use if clauses so if something then something else these if then type statements so here's one example if more people had come it would have been a better party it would have been so here we see there's an if statement that introduces a point so here's my if clause if more people had come it would have been a better party so here I'm talking about a past situation so at the party maybe not a lot of people came to the party but if more people had to come in the past it would have been a better party so I want to introduce this because a lot of people have no problem with the if clause like if more people had come or if more people had been at the party however many people forget to conjugate the verb in the main clause it would have been so please don't forget this part it would have been don't forget you're would either here let's look at one more if you had been here earlier so here we see the verb to be is in our if Clause if you had been here earlier you would have heard my good news in this case so here the to be verb is in the if clause in that if clause at the beginning of the sentence if you had been here if your body had existed in this place earlier you would have heard my good news so here we can see it in the if clause of the sentence this is a very useful one if you had been here earlier you can use this in a surprising number of situations I think let's look at one more if we hadn't been at the beach today so here I have a negative in the if clause so hadn't been if we hadn't been at the beach today we wouldn't have seen whales for example so here I've made a kind of complex sentence with a negative if we hadn't been at the beach if our bodies had not been at the beach if we had not existed at the beach today we would not have seen what it would not have been possible to see whales so you can use this in the positive and the negative to make some very complex sentences just about existence about where you or where an object is where your body is so I know that to be can be a difficult verb to use but think about the various ways we've talked about in this lesson to use the verb to be and try to make some interesting sentences so there are a lot of different ways to use this verb but keep in mind it's so useful as a linking verb so we're connecting a subject to some key information about the subject and we're talking about our existence with this verb so give it a try if you have any questions or if you want to just try an example sentence leave it in a comment and we can check it out hi everybody my name is Alisha and today I'm going to talk about the difference between if and when some of you have asked questions about this and I've noticed that some people make some key and maybe dangerous mistakes between these two words so let's talk about when to use them okay let's talk about when first we use when when there's 100% certainty something is going to happen so for example with travel plans when you arrive in the country or when you get to my house for example or when you register for classes so 100% certainty something is going to happen I've made a timeline here as I like to do on a timeline here the image you can think about is that when if I've used a green line here it's going to happen it's definitely going to happen we use when when we know something is going to happen there's 100% certainty here this is a key point it's going to happen if on the other hand we use if if there's only a chance something is going to happen there's only a chance it is not determined it is not something that has been decided if is used for H something will occur if is not used in cases where we know something is going to happen or something should happen if is only used to express chance or possibility so on the same timeline here in red I've made a dotted line to express if there's a possibility in the future something might happen there's a chance in the future something might happen in these cases we use if so for example if you lose your student ID card if you get lost for example so please please be careful don't use if in cases where there's 100 percent certainty something is going to happen and on the other hand don't use when in cases where there's only a chance something will happen making a mistake between these two words can destroy relationships or it can just it can really cause some serious confusion so I made a few example sentences that I've actually seen some that are similar to these so let's take a look and see why making a mistake could be really really dangerous or could really damage a relationship if you make a mistake with these two let's take a look all right so first sentence ba ba bla we break up what are you going to do so if you don't know the word break up means to end a romantic relationship - to break up with someone here let's think if or when if we look at this rule if I say when if I'm speaking to my partner if I say when we break up what are you going to do if I choose the word when it sounds like in my mind to me I've decided I know 100% certain I'm certain we are going to break up this sounds very very sad and probably to my partner if my partner doesn't know my feelings so if I say when we break up what are you going to do it sounds like I've decided to end the relationship that's probably not what I want to say in this case let's use it if we break up there's a chance if we break up what are you going to do so let's use if here of course this is a very maybe serious sentence anyway but using if shows there's only a chance of a breakup when it shows it's it's definite you've decided already so please be careful let's look at another very interesting sentence something something your wallet gets stolen call me your wallet gets stolen so here if I use when here when your wallet gets stolen call me means the speaker expects the listeners wallet will be stolen that sounds very very strange a little mysterious right so if your wallet gets stolen however it sounds like there's a chance maybe the listener is going somewhere dangerous for example so in this case if is a much better choice when it sounds like the speaker has some secret plan maybe when your wallet gets stolen sounds like maybe the speaker has maybe made plans or knows mysteriously somehow that the listeners wallet is going to get stolen let's use if in this sentence here's another one bla bla bla you hear screaming so screaming means loud terrified voice if you hear a loud terrified screaming voice don't worry so if you say when when you hear screaming don't worry or if you hear screaming don't worry so I suppose if it's around Halloween for example and you're at a haunted house you could say when in this case but if you're in a regular situation and someone wants to warn you of something it sounds a bit strange to say when you hear screaming don't worry but maybe if is a better choice here if you hear screaming don't worry like maybe your friend for example is making a crazy video outside and they're going to shout a lot for example so there's a chance you may hear screaming so this one is probably better for if you hear of course in some cases like I said in like a haunted house situation maybe you could use the word when when you hear screaming don't worry but in most cases if if is probably a better choice here let's look at another one let's get a beer blah blah blah the plane lands so this sentence the nuance here is the speaker is on a plane riding on a plane in the air right now because I have the verb lands lands means to touch the land to stop flying so here let's get a beer if or when if sounds like there's only a chance the plane is going to land when sounds like there's a 100 percent chance the plane is going to Lin so it's probably a better choice to use when here we know the plane is going to land unless it's an extreme case like a plane crash hopefully not but let's get a beer when the plane lands is a better choice for this sentence okay next one blah blah blah he gets fired for this he's going to be in trouble hmm so if we use when here by the way fired means lose your job lose your job so when he gets fired for this sounds like the speaker knows he this person is going to lose his job here however if we use if sounds like there's only a chance or the speaker does not know whether or not he is going to lose his job so if is probably a better choice here of course if the speaker somehow knows information they could use the word when in this case but it's probably better to use if to show there's only a chance that this person could get fired for this situation okay let's look at one more she said she would text me when or if she had time to get together this is a situation where both if and when are possible so we can use if and we can use win here the nuance though she will text me if she has time so if she has time means there's only a chance she has time in other words if we use when she in this sentence she expects she is going to have time in the future she said she would text me when she had time when she had time so meaning she expects to have time and she's going to text the listener if however the sentence is if she said she would text me if she had time means she in the sentence this person she says she means there's only a chance she'll have time so please be careful sometimes both if and when are correct but the nuance is a little bit different so please keep sentences like these in mind sometimes especially in a sentence like the first example we looked at we can potentially make really really damaged relationships if we make a mistake between if and when so please consider this thanks very much for watching and we'll see you again soon [Music]

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Keywords: englishpod101, learn english, english language, the United States, read, write, speak, school, teacher, tutorial, lessons, compilation, how to, fast, quick, easy, fastest, easiest, english pronunciation, english grammar, basics, difficult words, intermediate, advanced, business, professional, english business meeting, meeting in the United States, work in the United States, professional english, business english, english for business

Id: eR0lPU6P1Tw

Length: 124min 45sec (7485 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 20 2020