Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video I
am going to answer your questions on: What is the difference
between "by" and "with"? Many students make mistakes with "by" and
"with", so in today's lesson I'm hoping to help you with this so you won't make so
many mistakes and you'll understand: What are the differences
between these two words? Okay, so to start with I
have here some questions. I want you to think: Which ones are
correct and which ones are not correct? I also want you to think
which sentences... Why are they correct? Okay? So, why are they correct and
why are they incorrect? So my first sentence: "I learn
English by watching engVid." Compare this to: "I learn
English with watching engVid." Which one do you think
is the correct form? Do we use "by" or
do we use "with"? Okay. If you said: "I learn English by
watching engVid." you are correct. Okay? And I will explain why in
the next part of this video. So: "I learn English
with watching engVid." no, we don't use that. Okay, so what about
the next two? "I write with a pen.",
"I write by a pen." Which one do you think is the correct
sentence, and which one is incorrect and why? Okay, if you said: "I write
with a pen." you are correct. In this case this
is the correct one. And: "I write by a pen."
this is-enh-incorrect. So, before we talk about some of the
differences, let's talk about the similarities. How are "by" and
"with" the same? Well, they both answer
the question: How? Okay? So they're both the
answer to the question: How? How do you learn English? I learn English by
watching engVid. I learn English by reading
my dictionary every night. That's probably not a good idea, but I
learn English by talking to people. Okay? So that's answering
how you do something. Similarly with "with", it also
answers the question: How? How do you write? Well, I write with a pen. How do you eat dinner? I eat dinner with a fork. Okay? Or I eat dinner with chopsticks. So they both answer the
same question: How? But they are a little bit different, so
let's look at these differences now. Okay, so let's look at some
example sentences with "by". "I turn on the computer by
pushing the on button." Okay? So this is, again,
answering the question: How? How do you turn on the computer? Well, I turn on the computer
by pushing the on button. I want you to take a moment
to look at this sentence. What comes after "by"? We have here "pushing". "Pushing" is a verb. Okay? So I'm just going
to underline this. So we often use... After "by" we often have a verb when
we're explaining how something is done. Let's look at another example. "I keep healthy by exercising." So, again, after "by" you'll notice
we have a verb: "exercise". Okay? In this case it's "exercising". So, one of the first things to notice
is after "by" we often have a verb. I have here: "by verb",
but that's not all. If you look at the verb,
what form is the verb in? Well, take a moment. What do "pushing" and
"exercising" have in common? They both end in "ing", so I'm
going to write here: "ing". Okay? So we use "by", after "by" comes
a verb, and then comes "ing". You know: How do you keep clean? I keep clean by showering. How do you study? I study by... Well, not hanging out with my friends,
that would be terrible for studying. I study by reading
over my notes. Okay? So after "by" we
have the verb and "ing". So let's do one together. "I learned karate (or karate)
by _________ YouTube." What do you think
the verb would be? We could say: "by watch". Is that right? "...by
watch YouTube"? No, we need the "ing", perfect. "I learned karate by
watching YouTube." Okay? So, again, this is very useful because
any time you're explaining how, if you have a verb and "by" then you can
explain how you do something. Okay, now let's
look at some of... Some more differences
between "with" and "by". So before I begin teaching you more about "by"
and "with", I just want to say that these are the general rules, and there are always
times in English when rules are broken or when there are exceptions. Okay? And so these are the most basic
of the rules with "by" and "with". Okay, so now let's look at when
we're talking about a noun. We've just talked about using "by" with a verb
ending in "ing" to answer how to do something. Well, we can also
talk about how... When... By using a noun. So, to remind you what a noun is, it's usually
a person, a place, a thing, or maybe an idea. So let's look at some examples. Oh, before we get to some examples, one of
the major rules when we come to "by" is we often use it with communication.
Okay? So when we're talking about how we
communicate, we usually use "by". We also use "by" a lot when we're
talking about transportation. There are also a lot of other exceptions,
but the main ones that I want you to know for now is when we're talking about
transportation and communication. So, for example: "I will
contact you by email." "Email" is an example of a noun. Okay? So this is not a verb. In this case this is a noun. "I will contact you by email." And email is a form
of communication. We can change this to: "I will contact you by
phone.", "I will contact you by Messenger.", "I will contact you by pigeon." That would never happen, but just an
example of what I mean by communication. "I will message you by text." Okay? So, again, these
are communicated-based. Then we use "by" for transportation
when we're talking about nouns. So, what are some examples
of nouns for transportation? We have buses, subways, bikes,
boats, airplanes, ferries. Okay? These... Motorcycle, taxi, Uber. These are all forms of transportation
and they're all nouns. So we can use "by" when we're
talking about these nouns. "I will go by bus.", "I came by car." You'll also notice something. When we use "by" and we're using a noun,
we don't usually have the article there. So I don't say: "I will go by
a bus." or "I came by a car." It's usually without
any article. "I will go by bus." So there's no
"the", no "a" here. "I will go by subway.", "I will go
by airplane.", "I will go by bike." Okay? So, again, we often use "by" with nouns when we're
talking about communication or transportation, and then there are some other times we talk
about them, various exceptions also, but this is the main rule. So now let's look at "how". I mean not "how", "with". Let's look at "with". Okay, so now let's
talk about "with". So just like "by", "with" answers the
same question: How do you do something? Okay? So the question is: How? So I have here some examples. How do Italians talk? Well, you know, they talk in different ways,
but: "Italians talk with their hands." for example. How do you point? "I point with my fingers." Okay. So, these are some
examples with "with". So when we were talking about "by", we looked
at "by" followed by a verb and followed by nouns, and we talked about how the nouns usually
have to do with communication or transportation. With "with" we use it
usually with a noun. So, again, a noun is a person, place, or thing,
like "hands" is a noun, "fingers" is a noun. And we usually use "with"... And again I'm saying usually because there's
a lot of other cases we use it, but this is the main rule. We use "with" with
body parts, with... When we're talking about tools
or different instruments. Okay? So, for example: "Italians
talk with their hands." So we have "with" here and we
have a body part: "hands". Maybe, you know, people who are
deaf often talk with their hands. "I point with my fingers.",
"I point with my toes." Okay? So, again, we have
another body part: "fingers". "I think with my brain.", "I smile with my
teeth and lips.", "I run with my legs." Okay? So we use it
for body parts. We can also use it when we're
talking about tools or instruments. So when I'm talking about instruments
I'm talking about things we use. "I cleaned the floor..." How? How did you
clean the floor? "Well, I cleaned the
floor with a mop." So a mop is like a
tool or an instrument. You can say: "I cleaned the floor with a
broom.", "I cleaned the floor with a dustpan.", "I ate dinner with a fork." So this is answering:
How did you eat dinner? "I ate dinner with chopsticks.",
"I ate dinner with a spoon." Okay? How did you cook? "I cooked with a microwave.", "I cooked
with a pot.", "I cooked with an oven." You know: How did you camp? "I camped with a tent." So we use this a lot of the times when we're
talking about body parts, tools, or instruments; things that help you do things. Okay, so we've covered
a lot of ground here. We've covered "by" with verbs, we've covered
"by" with nouns, and we've covered "with" with nouns. So I want to invite you to come check
out our website at www.engvid.com. There, you can actually do a quiz to practice
everything you learned in this video. Okay? You know, there's a lot of information here
so I really hope you practice these things. I also want to invite you to
subscribe to my YouTube channel. There, you can find a lot of other resources about
grammar, pronunciation, conversation, listening, and all things English. So until next time, thank you
for watching and take care.
