Learn English in 2 Hours - The Best of 2019

want to speed up your language learning get access to all of our best PDF cheat sheets for free just click the link in the description and sign up for your free lifetime account right now American accents these are different American accents that you will hear in TV in movies and if you visit the USA perhaps in different regions as well so we're gonna share and try our best to share what these accents might sound like but forgive us in advance if it's not perfect anyway let's begin you want to start us off alright sure well guess I'll go in alphabetical order and my first one is Boston alright a nice Boston accent is a sort of classic strong American accent and they're really famous the famous thing that boss the Boston accent does is it drops the Rohtak are that are that follows a vowel so the classic example is if you have a car you park your car and Harvard Yard but you don't say it that way so your pocket car and have it Yad that's the that's the classic Boston example and that's probably all I can do of that oh I've got another one that my mom used to use for the boston accent er has the same thing what's your which was let's go up to 33rd and 3rd Street and listen to the boys chew it that that are sound it totally it's totally different from the way that we're speaking now yes so it's hard I think if you're not expecting that no it's shocking actually it's interesting because I think a lot of accents in the US and a lot of places are often regional right therefore a whole region and sometimes they're very specific specific to a city and I think Boston is that case it's very specific to very kind of small location mmm is this this city in the Northeast yeah you I think you do see that in movies actually a lot definitely yes for sure it's interesting to me the way that different accents are associated with different like stereotypes of people mm-hmm in movies things like that so in movies or on television often times that Boston accent is associated with a kind of like tough no-nonsense - yeah and I'm sure there are tough no-nonsense people in Boston I'm sure there are people that are not so tough and tolerate a lot of nonsense that is probably true true anywhere what do you have for us all right I I'm gonna choose I'm gonna start where I was born and a place that I love to make fun of all the time the Californian accent I say the Californian accent but there's not just one so there may be my favorite accent to make fun of is what's called the valley girl accent the valley girl accent is known for making all statements sound like a question and having a very whiny manner of speech there's also this sort of weird thing that seems to be not specific but very common in speech among young women particularly from California and that's something called vocal fry' mm-hmm where women will like drop the pitch of their voice in order to well just kind of create a different manner of speech there are a variety of reasons why people do that and I didn't actually know but I do it I just grew up talking that way though I never occurred to me I should use this kind of speech in a certain like situation or just I just grew up speaking that way but in recent years vocal fry' has been the subject of discussion and some things I've read but anyway so a typical California Valley girl if I can give an example as like today I was going to work yeah and I saw this guy and he was like really really scary and I didn't know what to do so this very like whiny way of sharing stories and explaining things in not and actually in that series of example questions or sorry in that series of statements nothing I said was a question but everything had that upward intonation so those are a few things that are kind of characteristic sort of characteristics among women this way but men on the other hand there's this image of the surfer dude from California and it's typically like young men who speak this way and they'll be like yeah bro what's up like let's head to the beach sort of thing this very how would you describe that it's like it's it's like if you could imagine your voice being relaxed and yet rough at the same time sure that's kind of what it sounds like do you ever like to make fun of Californians in the way they speak it's my favorite accent to make fun of well I don't like to make fun of accents as a rule Alicia no no I do well I should say to mimic two minutes fun it's my favorite accent to mimic is a fun accent to mimic and maybe this I think this accent as as well has certain associations with it maybe a lot of people might associate stupidity or dumbness with a Californian accent which is unfortunate because that's not always the case there are there are dumb people from everywhere not only California but this is an accent that often associate that with right is unfortunate right that's true because of the manner of delivery and also like apparent like right now this is vocal fry' I'm not even thinking about it but like dropping your voice into a lower register but apparently people associate that with stupidity like that people are specifically young women are trying to alter their voice to see more intelligent or something like that right I don't even think about it honestly so it is quite interesting but California has a range of accents arranged in different ways of talking so that's just one there you go anyway back to your side of the table absolutely we're still in alphabetical order which I like and I am going to do a Chicago accent now for you Chicago accent very kind of stereotypical Midwestern accent I think there is a wider kind of Midwestern accent and Chicago accent is maybe a subset of that it's not just like the wider Midwestern accent but there's a Chicago accent - I don't know this accent super well but I chose this one because it's an accent that I used to see and one of my favorite Saturday Saturday Night Live sketches when I was a kid which were the the Bears fans mmm the Bears they're from Chicago and they loved the Chicago Bears and that's that's the accent so kind of just draws out what does it do Chicago draws out a lot of vowel sounds a lot of Midwestern accent draws out vowel sounds and makes them a little higher on your palate I guess there's the bears bears yeah and so bears so it's a little more like open and back and up with the vowels mm-hmm mm-hmm I could not do a Chicago accent to save my life Chicago tag oh there you go it's hard it's really hard yeah it's a nice accent I like it the Chicago accent has associations with like a working-class accent mm-hmm but maybe that's just right I don't know right yeah that's a good one I couldn't I don't think I could do it I don't want to try saying much more than Chicago because that's just sort of what I would have tracked right it's tough thank you okay come on okay although north of that then so the next one that I prepared is I called it Minnesota so Minnesota is a state that is north of Chicago Chicago is in Illinois the state of Illinois so this is sort of the same region but this is further north so you're heading towards Canada so there are a couple of places like we talked about Wisconsin is another state that might have a similar accent here but Minnesota similar to Chicago has this very drawn-out vowel sounds and it's okay I guess I'll just try and let's let's see one thing that we all know how to say is like oh yeah sure you yes sure you bet oh sure oh sure Lisa oh oh Irish Minnesota accents its it sounds very cheery yes I think so too it's kind of what throws people off very friendly I shouldn't say throws people off but it's like it sounds kind of joyful just on its own so anything you say in like a Minnesotan accent it sounds just more happy it sounds very sincere to me ah yeah like if I if I hear a Minnesota mom saying oh sure you betcha got some hot dish I know it's casserole but they say hot dish hot dish okay yeah it's very sincere and warm and friendly thank you hey see ya around advance right I'm not sure exactly exactly how far this accent goes in the region if it extends into Canada for example like Canada is like when we talk about a Canadian accent we use words like ending sentences with a that kind of thing like oh yeah Canada that sort of thing but the a lot of Canadian accents differ from American accents to in the vowels rounder longer vowels compared to sort of a general American accent and I think Minnesotan accent our Upper Midwest accents are towards that end of the spectrum as well so I think Minnesotan accents are similar to to maybe a central Canadian X I think the most famous example of a Minnesotan accent is from the movie Fargo yeah Coen Brothers movie which is Fargo is not in Minnesota it's in one of the Dakotas right North to South Dakota North Dakota Ferguson South Dakota one of the Dakotas okay but that accent is a very classic Minnesotan accent right the characters use right and I was thinking about that too and in choosing that accent to describe because and this is part of the reason why I said it sounds kind of cheerful is that that movie is it's a suspense movie it's a it's a murder mystery but everyone is speaking in this kind of cheerful sounding voice and that really lends that kind of gives this really kind of strange mysterious feel to the film yes there's a good contrast there I think you're right I never thought about that yeah I agree with you yeah all right anyway that's a bit about Minnesota I don't know if it was good enough but anyway let's go into your next run my last one is southern accent and now southern accents also there there's a lot of variety in southern accents different states in the South different parts of those states have different southern accents but there's also a sort of general southern accent I'm from the South I grew up in the South but I do not have a southern accent but I like to try and pick out when I hear southern accent I like to try and guess where people are from from hearing their accent but I'm not always right so there's sort of a general southern accent and there are pockets of specific kind of accents in the south and I also think there's a big distinction in southern accents between like a rural southern accent and the more urban or City southern accent the city accents are a little bit more saw they're softer a little more genteel and the rural accents are twanging year I would say so for example a gentle southern accent would be something hey y'all what's your heart it's something like that whereas a twangy accent would be hey y'all mmm what's your heart must sharper sharper a little more Rodie maybe okay okay but there's a there's a drawl and an elongation and a slowness to a southern accent yeah that I think is very nice right and I think going back to what you mentioned about the Boston accent in the way the are sounds in particular change I think that you can hear that with kind of like like you describe the more city version of a southern accent like I think back to like when my grandmother would use the expression she she would say oh lordy Oh instead of saying oh my god like that was the southern way of saying lordy right hurt that was a way of saying oh my god but she would say as you just said Oh lawdy like the R sound when we spell that word on paper it's lor dy but when she pronounced it it was like l8w mm-hmm dy Lord that was that was the way she made an O and an R sound right - so this is very soft slow it slow accent a lot of the sounds kind of blend together it's it's a night I think it's nice accent most of the time but unfortunately a southern accent also has associations that are generally kind of negative in other parts of the country a lot of people here a southern accent and think that a person with a southern accent is maybe uneducated not very smart and again I think that's very unfortunate because that's not always the case I think that is an unfair stereotype associated with the accent for sure okay then let's all go for my last one a bit to the west of you I suppose though this could probably be blending a little bit with southern accents I feel I chose Texas for the next accent so Texas borders Mexico and I would I was thinking about this actually in preparing this card and I was kind of thinking it's interesting that you don't hear more of an influence at least I should say at least among like white English speakers in in Texas and in that region like there's not more of an influence in terms of like the way Spanish speakers talk but instead the Texas accent the traditional I guess stereotypical Texas accent sounds much more similar to a southern accent I think um they have what's called the Texas drawl so a drawl is like this continuous style of speaking it's like this really well it's not always slow but it's like there are no breaks almost between words sometimes or there they're like kind of rolling the words together so we make like clear distinctions admittedly a little bit exaggerated for this show but making clear distinctions between words but in Texan in Texas accents you might not hear such a clear distinction so some kind of maybe famous things that people say in Texan accents like even the way the state is pronounced we say Texas but Texans might say Texas Texas oh yeah I don't know sure why not don't mess with Texas right that's better I can't do it very well it's like it's it's there's a cadence to it mmm which is nice I am struggling to make it to make that sound it's without embarrassing myself like it's like the image that that kind of speech conjures like I think you imagine like a cowboy like don't you hear somebody who speaks this way it's it's like a big guy to write like a slow kind of maybe actually kind of gentle I have an image of like a slow sort of gentle cowboy it sounds really weird it's just a stereotypical image I think of someone who speaks I think the sterile Texan accent yes yeah sorry - no I think that the the stereotypical southern acts excuse me I think that the stereotypical Texan accent also it inserts a lot of these like glide sounds there's a lot of neat like why and and gliding and blended vowels in there so when you say like don't mess with Texas don't mess with Texas you know you're putting in a little why to kind of wedge that vowel apart right yeah instead of get sort of get ya get ya that's a good one then that sort of e sound gets in there heat up y'all y'all yeah a lot is there's there's some cross there's some influence for the southern accent in Texas as well it's a different accent but the two are often mistaken they're very similar yeah and these are just a few accents really there are so many and like some small regional variations as well absolutely so these are just a couple examples of maybe the ones that stood out but it's quite I feel anyway it's quite difficult to really replicate another accent if you're not used to using it that much it's true it's hard and I don't know about you but it I've been very self-conscious me too doing all of these here hopefully they're accurate I think we're gonna just get completely roasted in the comments me how terrible our accent good view but if you want to know more about these accents I would recommend just do a quick youtube search to see what people actually sound like using these accents because you know maybe we can do a Boston accent or like a Californian accent okay but if you really want to see a good example of someone speaking in that way just do a quick youtube search and maybe you can find some some better resources some actual native speaker resources we often get asked on this channel what kind of English are we speaking people usually ask is this American English is this British English and the answer is American English we speak American English on this channel both of us are American English speakers but we have different accents actually we sound fairly similar in most ways but I am from the west coast I was born in California and then I was raised in Oregon so I have a very mmm West Coast I suppose accent but I think that that has also been influenced here in there by the people and the accents that I've spent my time around so it's mostly West Coast I would say there's not really one specific region for me right how would you define your accent I would say I have a fairly standard American accent and so I grew up in the south as I said but I don't have a southern accent when I go home my family's still all in the south when I'm not in the South now but when I go home some of my southern accent creeps out and I kind of let it creep out a little bit honestly because it helps show people that I'm from there I mean accents in a way are like a membership card to to a community and so I let myself in accent come out a little bit when I'm home but otherwise this is my normal accent sort of standard American accent and a standard American accent is sort of like the newscaster accent it's the it's the the flat overarching accent that you could find in any part of the country so people from Boston might not have a strong Boston accent people from California might not have a strong California accent they might have more of a standard American accent that you might people might pick up from just watching TV growing up which is maybe what happened with me but I also know that I have one interesting thing about accents we've been talking a lot about pronunciation but word choice is also a big part of accents the different words people use for different things like for example in Minnesota it's hot dish but other parts of the country it's casserole and things like that and some of the words that I use that I have in my lexicon in my vocabulary my internal vocabulary are very New England's because my parents are from the East Coast and so I say I pronounce your your mother or excuse me or your mother or father's sister is your aunt I say aunt how do you say the word for-4 fur really yeah like I'm gonna go to the store for some milk they say fur I might say for if I'm saying it quickly but I'm more likely to say for I would say I think well I'm going to the store for some milk I definitely safer interesting so how do you pronounce K and E W K and E W new yeah I think I say new as well but i I've heard some people kind of they recognize the K sound and make it more of like a new new sort of sound okay I just say new no like in you I knew it I pronounced it yeah yeah but like dialects for sure yeah yeah they are a huge part of language as well not just accent there is one fierce debate that has raged for a long time fierce debate means a strong heated discussion that has raged for a long time meaning it has continued for a long time soda pop coke Cola those four words are used in different regions of the US a pop you left off pop or did you say pop I said pop did you say pop okay okay so soda pop coke Cola those four words all mean fizzy carbonated drink when I grew up in California and in Oregon we used pop okay we used pop absolutely not coke because in my mind coke is a brand and that is specific to one item only what did you use coke coke because I'm from the south that's how people say coke because coke is a southern brand it's from Atlanta but when I moved out of the south and I moved to the west coast when I was 18 I realer I taught myself to say soda I started so what you started saying soda when you move to the west coast yes in growing up in the South I would go to a restaurant when I was a kid you know with my parents and what do you want hon I'll have a coke please what kind you know sprite whatever that though all of those things are coke any soda was coke I think that that's changing now maybe maybe more people are saying soda in the south but I definitely said coke growing up changed I changed to coke I think I said pop alot sure fun vocab for you for the day mm-hmm if you look at a map say you have a map of the United States and down here you've got coke and over here you've got soda and over here you've got pop the border between those zones isn't isogloss what isogloss isogloss yes and isoglosses the term used to demarcate between regions based on dialect it's interesting that's your that's your word of the day though I'm interested that's it see it's literally something you could draw a line down it's not there's a lot of crossover and so you can see isogloss maps if you just get on google and you view Google you know United States isogloss maps you'll see different maps for different terms in different words and sometimes you'll see quizzes like these Facebook quizzes kind of things where how do you pronounce this word what do you call this insect and so on and based on how you answer its those quizzes are pretty accurate at predicting where you're from isogloss is the word is o GL o SS so if you google isogloss you know United States or American isogloss map something like that you can find some very interesting images that show you how different words are pronounced or different words that are used for the same thing in different parts of the country and the lines are not sharp there's a lot of a blending and gray area where those lines meet interesting hmm so maybe if you find an accent that you like and you want to know more about that you can use one of those studies isogloss study some isoglosses never know it sounds interesting cool thanks for telling I didn't know about that first time I'd ever heard of an ISIL glossed map are you going very cool all right well I guess we'll wrap it up there so those are a few accents from the USA again these are not by any means the only accents in the USA definitely have a look at some other videos online if you want to know more about these accents and definitely check out isogloss maps as Davie recommended to learn a little bit more about each region where different accents are spoken and phrases for gossip let's go oh my god so the first phrase is oh my god so so oh my god so is a introductory phrase you can use to start your topic with like a surprise factor so you say oh my god and then so is your transition phrase so for example oh my god so I have to tell you about this movie I saw or oh my god so I saw my neighbor in the shopping mall this morning or oh my god so did you see my new dog it's kind of weird usually it's about a person not about a dog but who knows you won't believe what happened to me the other day the next expression is you won't believe what happened to me the other day you won't believe what happened to me the other day meaning something happened to you and you think it's going to be a surprise to the person listening to you you won't believe what happened to me the other day so it's a very fast phrase because it sounds like you want to share very quickly like you won't believe what happened to me you can drop the other day if you want or you said you can say you won't believe what happened to me this morning you won't believe what happened to me last night you won't believe it happened to me this weekend you won't believe what happened to me over my winter vacation so that you won't believe what happened to me gets very very quick and short so examples you won't believe what happened to me the other day I've ran into my ex boss or you won't believe what happened to me the other day I tripped and fell down a flight of stairs or you won't believe what happened to me the other day I got a new parrot sure I don't know maybe one of you can use that guess what the next phrase is very short the next phrase is like an exclamation so an excited statement and a question guess what guess what so guess what is inviting the listener to guess what happened to you yes what the full question would be guess what happened or guess what happened to me but we only say guess what so guess what and sometimes the listener guesses and sometimes the listener just says what usually the listener just says what ask so meaning you should continue the story so if you say guess what I quit my job or guess what I saw my best friend with a new guy I haven't seen before another example guess what I got a new car something like that so some kind of shocking like difficult to guess situation I haven't told you about this yet the next expression is I haven't told you about this yet I haven't told you about this yet so have not becomes haven't I haven't told you about this yet so maybe you've told you have told other people but this specific person maybe you have not told that person your news or some information yet but this yet implies you are planning to or you want to tell them this so it's it's kind of creates a little suspense I haven't told you about this yet so we could use this like I haven't told you about this yet I'm going to France next summer or I haven't told you about this yet but I broke up with my boyfriend last night or I haven't told you about this yet but I'm throwing a big party for my coworker this weekend can you come other examples I haven't told you about this yet I saw my boss out for dinner with someone who's not his wife Oh oh my god that's not true I haven't told you about this yet I heard that the company is gonna go bankrupt Oh also not true okay so those are some pretty juicy juicy gossip that's an expression we use we say juicy gossip is something that's like really really interesting gossip or a really interesting story about people we say juicy gossip for that have you heard about the next expression is have you heard about blah blah blah have you heard about can be followed with a noun phrase have you heard about a person you can use a person or have you heard about a situation you can use both you can use an object - so have you heard about the new iPhone or have you heard about the new office policies you can use that for pretty much anything you want to inform your listener about so have you heard about is usually said very quickly have you heard about so the U becomes shortened - yeah have you heard about have you heard about bubble blah so have you heard about the new secretary have you heard about our new boss sir have you heard about my co-worker quitting his job have you heard about the neighbors above us they're moving so you can use people here for a gossip expressions or you can use objects in this expression just to introduce something new very useful phrase have you heard about my mum sorry mom I don't know why you came into that one okay so the other day the next expression is kind of like the beginning to a story so maybe this can be for gossip maybe it can just be like a story something interesting or maybe boring that happened to you the expression is so the other day so the other day so the other day the other day here means not today some other day which day it doesn't really matter it's not really important but we say the other day some day in the past this expression is used for so we can say so the other day I was sitting at my desk in the office when my manager came and if he could speak to me dun dun dun or so the other day I was shopping and I ran into my ex-boyfriend or so the other day I was renting a car and the former President of the United States came into the car rental shop what all right so the other day just some day in the past so I was talking with and the next one you can use maybe for gossip sometimes but also you can use for making plans it's so I was talking with someone and bla bla bla so I was talking with someone means you were having a conversation at another time with a person and you want to kind of report information or share something from that conversation with the person listening now so I might say so I was talking with Risa and I think that we should plan a party for this weekend what do you think so I was talking with my team about this and I think that we should make some changes so that's a very kind of everyday work situation use of this phrase but you can also use it for gossip like so I was talking to my best friend and I think I'm gonna move or I was talking to my parents and I think it's best if we break up oh so it can be for plans it can be for gossip it can be for just any conversation plus a report what's up with the next expression is kind of a little like mysterious then the expression is what's up with bla bla bla usually what's up with person for gossip meaning there's like the nuance here is there some problem where it seems like something's wrong with this person they're unhappy they're sad they're angry some kind of negative emotion we use this so it's like what's up with Stevens I haven't heard from him lately what's up with your brother he seems really upset or what's up with your neighbor why is he so noisy or what's up with your boss he's so strict so it sounds like there's some problem we usually use this intonation what's up with what's up with none to introduce somebody who has a problem we don't say what's up it's not that it's not that sort of hello um expression it's a it's an expression for a problem you can also use a noun phrase that is not a person here like what's up with this new office policy or what's up with this new rule at work or what's up with this new item on the menu at this restaurant it's super weird so what's up with wah wah wah has sort of a negative nuance you can use it for people to talk about strange behavior what's up with you have you heard from lately the next expression is have you heard from blah blah blah lately have you heard from person lately have you heard from steven's lately I haven't seen him have you heard from your mom lately have you heard from your dad lately have you heard from your brother lately have you heard from your landlord lately I don't know why you hear from your landlord but have you heard from someone lately there is sort of enix like a little bit of an expectation that you are in contact with the person involved in this sentence like you have some relationship maybe it's a family relationship romantic relationship professional relationship there's some relationship with this person and lately it's like have you heard from them recently lately in the last few days in the last few weeks so you can use this if for example you are looking for someone or you're worried about someone you can use this here you can also use it just just to check in about some other person without asking that person directly so like if I want to ask about I'm using risa in my example Risa is our Japanese Channel host if I want to ask about how Risa is but I don't want to ask Risa I know maybe she's busy or I don't know for some reason I cult to talk to her I can ask like a co-worker I'm gonna say hey have you heard from recent lately it seems she's really busy or have you heard from so-and-so lately it seems they're busy so if I want to ask about another / sin but I don't want to bother this person or that something makes it difficult I can use have you heard from bla bla bla recently or lately to ask about them very useful phrase I have to tell you about next expression ah the next expression is I have to tell you about blah blah blah I have to tell you so have to becomes hafta I have to tell you about it has a nice hmmmmm sound I have to tell you about papa bah or I have to tell you about something so I have to tell you about my weekend I have to tell you about Stephens I have to tell you about my mom I have to tell you about my boyfriend how'd she tell you about my girlfriend whatever it is some person used at the end of this sentence creates a nuance like there's exciting news about that person or I have to tell you about this thing that happened you can use a situation at the end of the sentence to but you're using I have to at the beginning of this sentence so that sounds like it's really important like I feel it's so important it's my responsibility to tell you because this is so exciting of course you can use this in more boring situations as well like I have to tell you about the new office policy you can use it in that way with a very flat intonation but for gossip purposes use I have to tell you about Papapa that sounds really good so what do you have to tell somebody about I have to tell you about this new idea I have for a business or I have to tell you about what happened to me last night okay so there are these really exciting ways that we can introduce things that happened or that we can talk about people or whatever okay want to speed up your language learning get access to all of our best PDF cheat sheets for free just click the link in the description and sign up for your free lifetime account right now the difference between someone everyone and anyone and somebody anybody and everybody let's get started by looking at the meanings of these words and how we use them okay let's begin with someone and somebody to begin with you can remember someone in somebody and anyone and anybody follow very similar rules as some and any if you've seen the video on our channel talking about some and any maybe you remember the that I'm going to explain here you can check that video for some extra information about those grammar points too so let's start with someone and somebody we use someone and somebody in positive statements so a simple statement not a question in other words when we make a positive statement we use someone and somebody in that sentence structure we also use these two words in requests and in offers so keep in mind these are two categories of questions so a request question or an offer question let's take a look at some examples of this now first of all there's someone at the office so here I've chosen someone there's someone at the office this is a positive statement so not a question just a statement it's a positive here the next example can you send someone to help me can you send someone to help me this is a request so a specific type of question a request question can you send someone to help me the third example sentence is an offer would you like to talk to somebody would you like to talk to somebody so here we have request offer positive statement we can use someone or somebody in each of these examples so I've used someone someone and somebody here but actually we can change each of these to the other choice both are fine in each of these example sentences I'll talk more about the difference between one and buddy a little bit later for now however let's move on to the difference between anyone and anybody okay so this is a key difference between someone and somebody anyone and anybody this is used in negative statements these are used in negative statements someone in somebody used in positive statements so this follows the same rule as some and any so in negative statements and we use any and anybody in information questions so that means that not requests not offers but you're looking for some kind of information we use anyone and anybody in these cases so let's look at a few examples of this first I don't think anyone is at the office don't think anyone is at the office so here we've used anyone because it's a negative here's my negative it's in the do not so not right here this is my negative therefore I've used any one here one more example sentence a question this time has anybody seen my keys here I've used anybody I've used this because this is an information question I'm looking for some information I don't have now this is not a request it's not an offer so I shouldn't use someone or somebody I need to use anyone or anybody I'm looking for information this third example sentence is the same why hasn't anyone returned my calls here anyone and I'm looking for information in this case a why this is a why question so again not a request not an offer I'm looking to find something new I'm looking for information so I should use anyone again just as I talked about with someone and somebody I can change this anyone anybody and anyone to the other word it's fine to use the other word here for example anybody anyone anybody that's perfectly fine again I'll explain more a little bit later here but remember anyone and anybody is used in negative statements someone somebody used in positive statements this is one key difference okay but let's move along now to everyone and everybody everyone and everybody this will fall out kind of a different rule than someone and anyone we use everyone and everybody to refer to all people related to a situation or related to a group so this could mean a class it could mean every person in an office that could mean in a city in a country so it just depends on the group or the situation we use this word when we want to talk about all people related to that group or related to the situation so let's look at some examples okay first one everyone in our class graduated so here everyone in our class graduated refers to all the people in our class so everyone in that group of people in this case the group is the class so all people in the class another example it was great to see everybody at the Reunion so everybody here shows us again all people and this could be a class reunion it could be a family reunion a company reunion so this just means it was great to see all the related people so the people related to the situation at this reunion event one more example then everybody had a great time so here everybody shows us everybody in the situation so maybe everybody who attended the event had a great time everybody who attended the party had a great time this is quite a common expression after an event of some kind so again as we saw with the first two groups we can actually change each of these words to the other word so everyone can be replaced with everybody same thing here everybody and everybody can be replaced with everyone so I want to end this lesson with a quick introduction or a quick overview to the difference between these two endings one and buddy what is the difference here really one the words that end in one someone anyone and everyone they sound more formal than the words that end in buddy so we can actually use these interchangeably interchangeably means we can mix and we can choose which one we prefer so that means the meanings are the same like their purpose is the same it's just up to us to choose so why would we do this why would we choose one word and not the other word you can choose according to the syllables if you remember syllables is the number of beats a syllable is a beat of a word so for example somebody somebody has three beats someone has only two beats two syllables this is important when you are writing especially like writing poetry writing lyrics for music or maybe you're trying to write a nice essay for example we are listening for which words sound nice to our ears so sometimes the word somebody sounds nice sometimes the word someone sounds better so it's up to us meaning we can decide we can choose which word we prefer to use so you just have to listen and kind of feel which you prefer there's no difference in meaning it's just a sound preference and a little bit of a formality difference so I hope that this lesson helped you understand the differences between these words a little bit as I said if you want some more information about the difference between some and any you can search the YouTube channel for that video as well first question comes from Flavia high-flow BIA Flavia says hi Alicia can you explain why you use if I were you instead of was yeah so the pattern if I were you is an example of what's called the subjunctive mood so the subjunctive mood is something that we use to talk about unreal situations so things that are not true so we use if I were you to talk about the unreal situation the Unreal present situation which refers to like the fact that I am NOT you like that's not a true situation so we use this subjunctive pattern if I were you to talk about that if I was however would begin a simple past statement so something in the past but maybe the speaker is not so certain about that past thing so for example if I was wrong I'm sorry or if I was noisy last night I apologize so that means the speaker has some uncertainty about the past like if I was noisy last night like I don't know if I was but maybe I was if I was I apologize so those are past situations that could be possible they're not necessarily like unreal but we want to maybe express like an apology or we want to express some kind of uncertainty about something that might have affected someone in the past so maybe I was noisy last night or maybe I was wrong for example I don't know but if I was then I apologize or I'm sorry so we use this if I was for these simple past tense statements so actually you will commonly hear native speakers using if I was you but it's not like that's gonna cause any communication problems actually so yes the technically correct pattern to use if I were you but there are so many people that say if I was if I was that it's not like a communication problem so technically yes it's incorrect to say if I was but you're not gonna have any problems if you use that pattern instead so that's the basic difference if I were you refers to an unreal present situation if I was something refers to uncertainty about a past situation or a past event so I hope that this helps you thanks very much for the question okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from Carol hi Carol Carol says Alicia I'm stumped by trying to distinguish the difference in meaning between evaluate and assess could you help me yeah great question and actually native speakers have trouble with the difference between these words too so let's talk first about the word evaluate so a great way to remember the difference between the words eval and assess is to consider that inside the word evaluate is the word value so when we evaluate something we are assigning or we are giving some value to that thing or to that person this can mean like the price of something this can mean the significance of something this can mean like the condition of something so some examples we evaluated this camera and gave it an 8 out of 10 score our company's software was evaluated by a tech website and given a low rating so in each of these example sentences a certain like level of value is assigned or is given to something or to someone so when we evaluate we're doing it in order to give value or it's like to assign or to find the value of something so it could be a score it could be a price so let's compare this to the word assess the pronunciation is assess assess so the word assess then has the same feel of evaluate but the purpose of assess is to understand something better so we don't assess something in order to assign a value to that thing we're assessing something in order to understand it better so like we try to understand deeper like information or like to learn more about the details of something we assess something so like you might assess a situation that means you look deep into the details to better understand the situation some more examples we need to assess the security of the company's data he assessed his housing options before making a decision so this is the difference between evaluate and assess if you're ever not sure just to remember that the word value is inside evaluate to help you remember that evaluate is used to assign value to something so I hope that this helps you thanks very much for the question ok let's move on to your next question next question comes from yes sir hi yes sir yeah sir says what is the meaning of the expression word I've seen it in some movies and I can't figure out what it means yeah word is like a strong expression of agreement among close friends you can also use it to like ask really or is that true if you use kind of like a question intonation so like word so you might also hear it used in a situation where someone does something that like you really admire or that you kind of respect or you think is impressive and you like you might hear someone say like word in response to that so that kind of shows support or that you were impressed or you admire that thing I feel like in a lot of cases it's just used as a simple expression of agreement or understanding for example we're gonna watch the game tonight word personally I don't use this word that much because it is kind of like a cool word and I'm not really like a cool like hip-hop street culture kind of person but if you want to use it I would recommend using it among very close friends and in very casual situations so I hope that this helps you understand it thanks very much for the question alright let's move on to your next question next question comes from bray antalya hi Bryan Bryan says hi Alicia can you please explain to me the meanings and uses of the word happen specifically in these cases do you happen to my sister happens to be a lawyer etc I'm confused yeah this is a nice question okay to begin with I want to introduce a few very common patterns that we see with the word happen let's take a look do you happen to have would you happen to know if it just so happens that my sister happens to be okay so kind of the theme with this use of the word happen is chance or by chance of something so let's take a look at the first two patterns here these first two are question patterns so the first one was do you happen to have and the second one was would you happen to know if so another way to say these is is there any chance you have or is there any chance you know so you're asking very politely like is there a poss bility is there a chance of this thing so we use this form of happen to make very formal or like very soft requests so this is really useful when you're like speaking to a stranger so if you can imagine like you're a tourist and you need some help in a city that you are unfamiliar with you could say to a nearby person like excuse me do you happen to know where I could buy a coffee around here or excuse me would you happen to have the time so that's like you're making a very like soft request that's like saying is there any chance or is it possible at all that you have this information or you could do this for me so it's a very soft request form so let's take a look at the other two sentence patterns that I introduced here these are some statement patterns so again these do mean by chance but for these kinds of statements the context is actually really important the situation is important so for example it just so happens that I got two free tickets to that concert you were talking about last week so it just so happens means like by chance or like something happened like that was very coincidental it just so happens that this situation fits nicely with something else in my life right now so it just so happens I got these free tickets and this relates to having this discussion with you about a concert last week so those two things kind of fit nicely together it's a nice little coincidence so it just so happens that is used to do that so the other example pattern that you introduced my sister happens to be a lawyer is probably something you would see in a situation where a person is looking for a lawyer and the person who says that sentence is introducing that like oh no I need a lawyer do you have any recommendations and person B might say oh my sister happens to be a lawyer so that's like saying by chance my sister is a lawyer like coincidentally like matches your situation nicely that's kind of the feeling of happens to in this case happens to be a lawyer so yes you could say like oh my sister is a lawyer that's fine as well but it doesn't have that same nuance of coincidence so kind of think of happens to or like happens to be as meaning by chance in these statement situations and when you're using it as a question it creates like this formal very gentle like is it possible to type request so I hope that that helps you understand using the word happen or happens in cases like these thanks very much for the question okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from cloudy hi cloudy cloudy says what's the difference between these words admire a door and idolize Thanks okay let's compare let's make some example sentences first I admire Beyonce I adore Beyonce I idolized Beyonce okay so first let's look at I admire Beyonce so we use admire for people usually people that we respect so maybe we respect that person's work or we want to be more like that person or we think they've done like great things they're very talented so if I say I admire Beyonce it means like I respect her I respect her work so we use admire to mean like something or someone that we respect the second sentence I adore Beyonce uses the word adore which means you love something so when we say I adore something we can use it to talk about like people usually people in our lives sometimes we use it to talk about like our favorite activities as well like I adore arts and crafts perhaps but when we use it to talk about people it's usually for people that we have a close relationship to so like Beyonce superfan might say like I adore Beyonce I just love her so that means that they feel like a close connection to that person or like they really really enjoy it in this case the celebrities work so to adore something can be used in that way also within families like parents could say they adore their children so to adore means to love something and have a very close connection or you feel like you have a close connection with someone then the final example sentence was I idolized Beyonce I idolized so to idolize that verb has the word Idol inside so Idol actually has it like a religious kind of connection so an idol was something like to be worshiped so like a god or a goddess figure sort of thing so to idolize something means to kind of have that thing as like above you so you have like this image in this case like Beyonce I idolized Beyonce that means she's like above everything like we really appreciate her like we think she's just amazing and she's like above everybody else so to idolize someone is like has almost like this image of worshiping someone so maybe like a super super super Beyonce fan could say like I idolize Beyonce I want to be like her like I want to do everything a fan can do so maybe that's idolized in this case so probably the most common words here are admire and adore idolize is not used nearly as much as these two but that's the difference between those words so I hope that that helps you understand want to speed up your language learning get access to all of our best PDF cheat sheets for free just click the link in the description and sign up for your free lifetime account right now let's begin with the basic definition of the verb set so the basic definition the basic definition is to put something in a place or in a position some examples of this I always set my keys on the counter set your bag next to the table okay let's look at the conjugations for this verb present set sets past set past participle set progressive setting all right now let's look at some additional meanings for this verb so the first additional meaning of the verb set refers to the position meaning like the place or the time that a story happens so some examples the movie is set in New York City my favorite book is set in the distant future so in these examples we see the verb set is used to refer to the place or the time when a story happens so in the first example I say the movie is set in New York City means the story takes place in New York City so set means takes place in the story happens in New York City but we use set to explain them my favorite book is set in the distant future so this refers to a time so the setting the point in time when the story happens is in the distant future so distant future means far far far in the future into the future not the past the future so in the distant future this story happens in the distant future but we use set so my favorite story my favorite book is set in the distant future so here we see it used to refer to the location or the time when a story takes place the second meaning for today is to cause someone or something to be in a condition so this is a very open this is a very broad meaning let's look at a few examples some common examples here first you set my house on fire the performance animal was set free okay so in the first example very dramatic example I said you set my house on fire so here I said set and then the object here is my house you set my house and then the condition is on fire so on fire means it's burning you know flames bad my house is gonna you know crumble to pieces you set my house on fire means you caused my house to be in the condition of on fire you caused my house to be flaming that's bad of course in this case but set refers to causing an object to be in that dition we see the same thing in the second example sentence the performance animal was set free so free here we see is the condition the animal a performance animal probably in like a zoo or a water park or something was set so caused to be free caused to become free so the performance animal was not free before it was set free it was caused to become free so we can see a set is used to like cause a change in condition in something these are a couple examples of how to do the third meaning for today is to establish something so to establish something like a policy or a new click condition a record something like that so examples of this the school is setting new rules for next year they were about to set a new record okay so here set is used to mean establishing something in the first example sentence I said the school is setting new rules for next year so that means the school is establishing now the school is in the process of establishing new policies for the next year new rules so setting I've used in the progressive tense means establishing or creating in the second example sentence they're going to set a new record means they're going to establish they're going to create a new record so we use set in this case to set a record let's go to the fourth meaning for this verb the fourth meaning here is to get something ready for use so like we setup the camera or we setup the iPad we setup the lights for this you know filming operation here so set up is a very very common way of using the verb set to set up something other examples I spent all day setting up my computer will you set the alarm for 8:00 a.m. so in my second sentence there you heard I said will you set the alarm for 8:00 a.m. so that means it's like I'm preparing the alarm in that case I'm not like preparing mmm something for use I'm preparing a function in that case so we don't say will you set up the alarm for 8:00 a.m. we'll just say the alarm for 8:00 a.m. we would say set up the computer because I want to use it I'm not setting a function of the computer we could say set the clock on the computer we would not say set up the clock we would say set the clock so set the clock is like establishing the correct time to set up something is like to prepare it to be used so set up a computer good set up a software fine but set a clock set an alarm it's like to decide a time or two like establish some kind of functionality we don't need to use up in those cases so this will be in addition to meaning number four I want to say just a quick note about how it's often used okay so with this meaning when we use the verb set to refer to getting something ready to use like with a computer for example we'll often follow set with the preposition up so for example I want to set up my computer or I spent all day setting up my computer in my original example sentence so you might see set plus up it's commonly used with up not always if you're talking more about functionality like set an alarm or set the clock then you don't need to use a preposition but when you're talking about preparing something for use you'll often see that up the preposition up is used in addition to set so to set up something so one more example might be to set the coffee pot in the coffee maker so you're preparing it for use but we don't say set up the coffee pot we say set the coffee pot in the coffee maker to prepare it for use let's talk about some variations of how you can use the verb set first one to set back to set back to set back means to cause a delay in something example I broke my wrist and set back my project schedule that's true this mistake has set us back two weeks so here we're seeing set back to set something back causing a delay so I broke my wrist and set back my project schedule so I broke my wrist and caused my project schedule to be delayed I caused a delay in the project as a result of breaking my wrist so to cause delay in the second one this mistake has set us back two weeks so this mistake has set us back so meaning caused us a delay by two weeks so set us we see the object there is included in the verb the phrasal verb set us back so what was set back us in our project and whatever it is we're working on this mistake has set us back two weeks we were caused to be delayed by the mistake so to set back us well we can also use it as a noun a set back the second variation is to set out to set out this actually has two meanings it can mean to begin a journey especially like a walking journey to set out for something it can also mean to begin an activity so let's look at some examples first they set out early in the morning he set out to build his own company so in the first example sentence they set out early in the morning means they left they began their journey early in the morning so this is especially the case for like walking journeys it's not only for walking journeys but it kind of has the feeling of a little more like bodily journeying somehow so like we set out on our bike ride or something like that there's something kind of bodily happening I guess if that makes sense then in the second example he set out to build his own company so set out means like he started the activity of building his own company is what that means or like she set out to become the top in her class for example so she started the activity of working to become top in her class so to set out to do something is to start working towards something so to start an activity usually with some like goal in mind to set out to do something ten phrasal verbs for eating and drinking so let's get started drink up the first phrasal verb is drink up drink up drink up is a happy is a cheerful phrase we use that means let's start drinking or let's enjoy drinking or please drink so you can use it when everybody gets their drinks you can say alright our beers are here let's drink up it means it has the nuance of drink a lot like you can also use it like as a challenge to someone like someone who loses a bet or loses like an argument you can say drink up is kind of a challenge it's sort of like a friendly command4 drink so in sentence our beers are here everybody drink up take down the next phrasal verb is take down take down as in take down and order take down is a phrasal verb that these staff like waiter or waitress will use at their restaurant they may come to your table and say can I take down your order they may also say can I take your order of course but to take down is like to take your order and write it down on a notepad for example in a notebook so take down your order you might hear this so in a sentence when you're ready I can take down your order ring up the next word is ring up ring up we use ring up to mean total to total something to total a bill to total the amount of something at a restaurant or shopping - for example so again this is a word that waitstaff the staff the restaurant may use so when you finish your meal they will ring up your bill they will ring up your total and you will pay that amount at the end of your immune so in a sentence I'll ring up your bill at the cash register set down the next phrasal verb is set down set down so we use set down for items which we are carrying and then we or we place on a table so usually there's like a downward motion if you're carrying something like you can use it for a backpack if you want to like to set down to to drop something to leave something but to put it in like on a table to put it in a place specifically there so we can use set down at a restaurant like please set the plate down on the table or can you set down my drink over there or I'll set down your order over here so set down means to place something something you were carrying to place it on a table or to place it on a desk so set it down in a sentence please set down the plates carefully cut up the next phrasal verb is cut up cut up we use cut up to mean cut but cut up usually means to cut all of something so if you receive like mono chicken or beef or pork or some large item you need to cut we say cut up to mean cut the entire piece to cut everything you receive so in a sentence make sure to cut up steak into small pieces for example it's easier for children to eat or I take a long time to cut up my meat for example so cut up means cut everything cut into the next phrasal verb is cut into so to cut into means just to make one slice into something usually we use cut into four like the first slice like we use it maybe to check that a something is properly cooked sometimes so like to cut into a chicken or to cut into turkey we usually use this for the first slice so the first experience like when I cut into the chicken all the juices came out it looked delicious I'm excited to cut into my Thanksgiving turkey this year or I'm really looking forward to cutting into that steak later it looked great so cut into is kind of that first cut that initial cut where you can see maybe what the what the meat looks like or you get you get a sense of how the rest of your meal is going to taste so cut into the first slice I want to cut into my dinner later stop up the next phrasal verb is stop up stop up so to stop means to soak with liquid to soak with liquid to stop up therefore it's like to to soak to soak liquid from like a bowl or from a cup or something but we use this with bread usually so if you're eating soup for example and there is leftover soup in your bowl you can take bread and soft up soak up the liquid from your soup with bread so to stop up liquid so to soak and pick up something is the image here so to sob up bread so for example I like to stop up my soup with bread or I like to stop up extra sauce with a biscuit for example so usually there's some bread and some sauce or liquid we use with this phrase cool down the next phrasal verb is cooled down cooled down means to let something become lower temperature naturally so to let something cool down really means to allow something to gradually go to a lower temperature if you make a pie for example it's very hot when it comes out of the oven so oftentimes the recipe will say allow to cool down and serve for example so meaning after the pie is taken from the oven you should let the temperature cool you should let the temperature come down before eating so to cool down is like reducing the temperature but just naturally over time so in a sentence make sure to let your mashed potatoes cool down before you try to eat them heat up so the next phrasal verb is heat up heat up we use heat up usually to talk about microwave use or oven use so it's taking a cold food or maybe a frozen food usually just a cold food kept in the refrigerator put it in the microwave and turn it on to heat the food to make it warm again so to heat up is like to move the heat level up to increase the temperature of the food we use the phrasal verb heat up to do this so for example I like to heat up my pizza before I eat it my leftover pizza or you should heat up yesterday's soup it would be really good to have that tonight or maybe we should heat up something quick for dinner tonight so heat up means to increase the temperature of a cold thing chow down so the next phrasal verb is sort of a slang expression it's Chow down chow down means like to eat really excitedly it's it's not a phrasal verb I personally use very much but you can use it to express your enthusiasm for something so it's typically used for like sort of junk food type things or like really really um everyday foods like in in the USA it's like sandwiches or hotdogs or like something you might get it like a sporting event will say like I want to chow down on a sandwich later I want to chow down on some pizza after this so to chow down is like enthusiastically eat like you're not thinking about being polite you're not worried about looking nice while you eat you're just enjoying eating very enthusiastically so like oh let's chow down on some pizza later for example so or for example like we're gonna chow down on some barbecue this weekend it'll be great first question this week comes from Saad hi Saad Saad says hi Alicia I want to know the difference between all every and each ok this is a big topic I made a whiteboard video about this recently and it will be out on the channel eventually but here's a quick introduction let's begin with all all means 100% of something so we use all when we're talking about a group so many of something and 100% we want to focus on the group with all some examples all the questions in this series come from viewers all my family members live in another country we use every when we want to talk about the parts of a whole we use this with the singular form of an so some examples every person in our class passed the test every member of our team received an award so in these cases with every we see that there are individual parts to a larger whole - like a group and we want to mention the individual parts yes but in relationship to the whole we use every to do this in the singular form each then focuses on the individuals so we're not focusing so much on a group but we want to really focus on the individual we can use each with the singular form and with the plural form of a noun examples she wears earrings on each ear each person in our group gave a presentation so another point with each is that we use each when there's only two of something if there's more than two you can use every or maybe each depending on the situation just make sure if there's only two like ears for example or arms or legs make sure to use each using all or every will sound strange because we're focusing on large numbers so that's a quick introduction to the differences between these words I hope that that helps you and please watch for the whiteboard video to come out soon okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from valina hi valina valina says hi Alicia I would like to ask you about the difference between no wonder and wondering and how to use it in sentences okay let's start with no wonder so no wonder it means that's why that's why so we use it when we kind of solve a mystery sort of it's like a small mystery like no wonder this happened or no wonder something in the past when we're wondering that's the progressive tense of the word wonder it means we're thinking about something like there's something we're curious about or something that we would like to know but wondering is kind of like light thinking I guess you could say so I'm wondering about my future maybe so it's kind of you're dreaming or you're imagining something perhaps he's out of the country no wonder he didn't answer my phone call you're out of salt no wonder your food tastes bland excuse me I'm wondering where the restrooms are I wonder what's going to happen next week so in the last example sentence there I used wonder in the present tense meaning it's just something that I'm thinking about for the future you could say I'm wondering about next week that's fine if you're actually doing it now with someone but wondering refers to an action happening now in this moment so I hope that that helps you understand no wonder and wondering thanks for the question all right let's move on to your next question next question comes from sweet devil hi again sweet devil sweet devil says hi Alicia and my question how do I pronounce these words in fast connecting speech of it of her of his okay well first with the her and his examples that H sound almost disappears like it becomes very reduced of her and of his I'll give some examples in a moment with of it the two kind of connects they make a V sound patterns that might use something like this are not so common in everyday speech but these are a couple cases where you might hear it your sandwich looks delicious can you give me some of it that was a great performance did you make a recording of it so in these examples you can hear of it becomes of it of it did you make a recording of it can I have some of it so it's like a V sound there let's move on to the other two with the H sound whichever movies have you seen pictures of are really interesting so here you can also hear that that H sound becomes very very soft and we have that same sound with of pictures of are really interesting which of her movies have you seen the same thing happens with of his how many of his books have you read what do you think of his work so we have that same look again with of and the H sound is very very soft it's like I'm just exhaling the sound of his of his of her as well of it so kind of a theme here is that the F becomes a quick v sound almost and we're sort of just releasing air to make the H sound with his-and-her examples of it of her of his so I hope that this helps you with this pronunciation point thanks very much for the question okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from zou higher highs all higher zou higher says what is the difference between persuading and convincing great question yeah many people use these interchangeably but there is a key difference to convince someone means to change someone's mind to change someone's way of thinking so it refers to giving someone information with the intent of changing the way that they think to persuade however is giving someone information or telling someone something with the aim of causing them to take an action so to convince is referring to someone's thinking to convince someone of an idea to persuade someone is to cause them to take an action like to persuade someone to give you money for example so convinced ideas persuade actions some examples we convinced my parents that we were responsible enough to take the car out for the night I convinced my team of the importance of social media we persuaded management to buy us new equipment I'm going to persuade my parents to loan me a few hundred dollars for a vacation so here you can see convinced is used to talk about a way of understanding or a way of thinking persuade is used to talk about getting someone to do an action to take an action so I hope that this helps you understand the difference thanks very much for the question okay on to your next question next question comes from Luis raise your e hi Luis Luis says hi Alicia my question is what's the difference between hint and clue in your videos you say for example here we have a hint could we use clue instead ah yeah for sure in a case like this you could use hint and clue in the same way clue is something that I feel is used more when we have like a mystery or there's kind of like a puzzle to solve you might also hear it in like detective stories so if like a detective is investigating something and looking for evidence when they find something they might say oh this is a clue in there like mystery solving process but clue that's I mean it's a great example if anyone has played the game clue absolutely your job in that game is to collect information to collect evidence about a murder that happened so that's your job you're collecting clues so that's sort of the feel of the word clue you're trying to solve a mystery so when I said it's okay to use clue to replace the word hint you can kind of imagine that like a sentence could be like a puzzle especially if you're learning so you're trying to solve the mystery of the meaning or the grammar of the sentence so if you can think of it that way it's okay to use the word clue I prefer to use the word hint and yes I do use that word a lot in our videos because hint has the feeling of something that's communicated indirectly so I'm not saying something clearly or maybe my example sentence doesn't say something clearly but I'm looking for these small like bits of information that kind of tell me indirectly something so when I say here we have a hint it's like I'm kind of referring to this indirect information I'm getting from this sentence someone's vocabulary choice for example could give me like a hint about that person's emotions for the day so it's an indirect way of receiving information is a hint so I prefer to use hint but I think it's fine to use the word clue let's look at a few more examples sentences that maybe can show some of the differences in how these words are used also I want to point out that both hint and clue can be used as nouns and as verbs we found a clue at the scene of the crime a fingerprint we don't have any clues as to who robbed the store this announcement from the CEO might include some clues about upcoming policy changes can you give me a hint about your surprise party plans management hinted that we might get a bigger budget next year here's a hint about the meaning of the sentence okay so I hope that this helps answer your question about clue and hint thanks very much for sending it okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from Mohamed Salah hi Mohamed Mohamed said what's the difference between sympathy and empathy yeah sympathy refers to seeing feelings in another person seeing emotions in someone else and recognizing those feelings because you have also experienced them so if for example your colleague or your friend like they have an emotional situation like a family member has passed away and you have also experienced that you can say you experience sympathy for that person because you have the same experience that's the noun form sympathy as a verb it's sympathize as an adjective it's sympathetic some example sentences I can sympathize with your work struggles we had a tough time last month I'm lucky to have a boss that's very sympathetic so empathy is different from sympathy in that we recognize feelings in another person but we have not experienced that situation ourselves we only recognize it and we can maybe imagine what the other person feels like but we don't have that experience ourselves so empathy is the noun form to empathize is the verb and empathetic is the adjective some examples I was so relieved my friends empathize with my need for support it's wonderful to have empathetic colleagues so I hope that this helps you understand the difference between sympathy shared feeling and empathy and understanding of someone else's feeling I hope that that helps you want to speed up your language learning get access to all of our best PDF cheat sheets for free just click the link in the description and sign up for your free lifetime account right now today I'm going to talk about the difference between which and that which and that are both relative pronouns but a lot of people confuse the two so let's talk about how to use them okay first a quick overview which first we use which in what are called non restrictive relative clauses we use that on the other hand in restrictive relative clauses so before we continue let's talk about the difference between non restrictive clauses and restrictive clauses the difference here a non-restrictive clause first of all where we use which is a clause that does not have information essential to understanding the noun it is connected to I'll show you some examples in just a minute a restrictive clause however is a clause that has information essential to our understanding of that noun so we need the information in the restrictive clause to completely understand the noun or the noun phrase it is attached to a non-restrictive clause is sort of extra information we don't need the information to understand the noun or the noun phrase it just provides some more information so let's take a look at a few examples of this the first example I have is rather extreme but it's just to show the differences between these two first the school that I parked my car next to is dangerous so here my noun is school here I've got the relative pronoun that I have the school that I parked my car next to is dangerous I've used that here because my Clause is a restrictive clause I need this information the school that I parked my car next to is dangerous if I remove this the school is dangerous the sentence is correct however the meaning changes the key here is that I parked my car there so I want to explain that specifically the school that I parked my car next to this school in particular is dangerous so that shows us that it's a restrictive clause we have to use that in this sentence because the information is essential to our understanding in this sentence however the school which has a tennis court is dangerous I've used which so which is a non restrictive is used in non restrictive clauses this shows us it is extra information the school has a tennis court do I need to know this information no it's just extra information if I remove this clause the school is dangerous the root sentence the basic sentence stays the same this is just extra information it doesn't necessarily tell us essential information about the situation so we use which to show that it's a non restrictive relative clause as I said this is a rather extreme example so let's take a look at something that's a little bit more complex okay let's look at the next two sentences first the car which I bought last year is already having trouble and the car that I bought last year is already having trouble these are very similar sounding sentences however our choice of which or that as well as the commas which I'll talk about later have changed the meaning so there are a couple key differences here one by seeing that in the first sentence that we're using a non restrictive clause here with which we see the car which I bought last year this shows us that this is extra information about the car here however we see that this is essential information the car that I bought last year is already having trouble so the speaker could be saying here with this sentence the second sentence the car that I bought last year specifically a car that the speaker purchased the previous year this sentence means therefore the speaker might have other cars the speaker is specifically meaning this specific car that they he or she bought last year in this sentence with the non-restrictive clause we don't have the same nuance the car which I bought last year is just extra information in this sentence so here the car that I bought last year this is indicating a specific car this one with the non restrictive clause it's just giving us extra information so the speaker may or may not have another car we don't know so that's all I want to say about that okay but a question that many people have is how do you know whether it's a restrictive or a non restrictive clause so this is a quick tip a quick hint for native speakers and native speakers actually it's a restrictive non-restrictive how do I know to do that remove the clause just take the clause out of the sentence is the meaning of the sentence the same is the sentence still grammatically correct is it okay if yes if the sentence is okay the meaning is the same it's a non-restrictive clause if no if the meaning changes if you lose some key information it is a restrictive clause so this is a quick hint if you're not sure whether she use which or whether to use that try this test as quick test just take it out and see if the meaning changes the last thing I want to talk about here is the use of commas so you'll notice I used commas throughout this lesson and also when I was reading they kind of create a natural pause around this extra information but when do you use them we should use commas around non-restrictive clauses so you can see I used them here and here in the example sentences we use commas around non-restrictive clauses only again this lesson comma which is being recorded comma is about which and that so when you're reading it creates a natural pause so the reader knows there's going to be like extra information there the reader can understand through use of these commas however do not use commas around restrictive clauses for example the lesson that I just taught was about how to use which and that this is a restrictive clause so I mean specifically this lesson that I just taught was about how to use which and that I should not include commas here because I'm not including any extra information all of the information is essential it's the same with all of the other example sentences I used in this lesson there are no commas included because all of the information is essential the reader needs to understand everything in one piece you can think of it that way okay so that's an overview of the differences between which and that restrictive clauses as well and a couple of comma tips too so I hope that this was a useful lesson for you first question comes from Rizal Kusa Wandy hi can result result says can you explain what modal verbs are sure so a modal verb is a verb that's used to talk about possibility or ability in English we have will and would shall and should can and could and may might and must I might come to the office later we should look for a new apartment can you help me move my sofa so we use modal verbs in English to talk about possibility yes and ability to as with can and could but we also use them in patterns relating to giving advice and asking for advice as well as making offers and requests to so there are a couple of videos on the channel that you can check out for some more information about modal verbs first you can look at the must for possibility whiteboard video there's also a video about wood especially using wood for future tense situations that's coming out very soon you can also look at the will vs. going to video on the channel for some future tense expressions there are some other videos about modal verbs coming out and some other information about may and might and must in live streams so please take a look around the channel for some more information some detailed information about some of these modal verbs and of course there'll be more content coming up soon so I hope that you check out those lessons and I hope that you can get a good start on modal verbs studies thanks very much for sending this along I hope that helps clear up what a modal verb is okay let's move along to your next question next question comes from trying hi trying trying says hi Alicia what does get rid of mean ah get rid of means throw away we often use the word get rid of when we want to throw something away quickly or when we really don't want that item or it was really unnecessary we can also use the phrase get rid of with people but this is used when we want to cut someone off of a group or an organization like when someone loses their job for example I finally got rid of my broken blender our company finally got rid of that employee who was stealing things okay so I hope this helps you understand the expression get rid of something thanks very much for sending it all right onward to our next question next question this week comes from Mohammed Al Daley heigen mahmoud mohamed says hi Alicia what's the difference between supposedly and supposably and can I use them interchangeably no use supposedly supposedly so supposedly means according to something else this is true but we use supposedly when we're like a little bit skeptical so skeptical means we don't quite believe something is true like there's a little bit of like disbelief there like maybe someone is lying or someone is hiding something so there's a feeling of suspicion but it's like saying according to this person this situation is true but we might not have all the information so supposedly is the word that means this some examples supposedly this is a good company to work for supposedly he missed his flight because of traffic so supposedly the other word you introduced means conceivable something we are able to conceive up something that we can suppose so it does not have this meaning of according to someone plus disbelief it doesn't have the same meaning as supposedly in American English speakers will use this word but it's a mistake they're intending they're planning they want to use the word supposedly but they make a mistake and use supposably instead so please use supposedly not supposedly I hope that this helps you thanks very much for the question all right let's move on to your next question next question comes from Mota had a motive oh hello mother honey well tejate says hi Alicia is it true that we use of for something that belongs to a thing or animal but apostrophe s for something that belongs to a human ah no it is not true while yes it does sound more natural to use apostrophe s for something that belongs to a human it is not a rule to use of to show possession for something that belongs to a thing or an animal some examples let's compare the cars steering wheel came off in my hands and the steering wheel of the car came off in my hands my computer screen is broken the screen of my computer is broken so these pairs of sentences actually mean the same thing we're just showing possession in like different ways I would say that native speakers will probably use whatever is the shortest way to describe whatever it is they want to say so probably the apostrophe s pattern is most common it's certainly not incorrect to use the of pattern both are fine to use here when you're talking about people however it does sound much more natural to use the apostrophe s pattern using the of pattern to show possession for something we own or something we have sounds very weird when you're talking about people examples my friends hair is beautiful the hair of my friend is beautiful your brother's shirt is so funny the shirt of your brother is so funny very weird so in these pairs the second example sentence that uses of while grammatically correct sounds very strange so when you're talking about people use the apostrophe s pattern to talk about their characteristics or the things that they have if you're talking about an object or an animal you can choose whichever you prefer as I said native speakers tend to use the shortest expression possible so in most cases that's the apostrophe s pattern also note that in some formal situations when we want to make something sound a bit more like grand or exciting we will use that of pattern instead of the apostrophe s pattern like the palace of the king instead of the king's palace so that's going to make it sound a little bit more exciting so in those cases and like those formal really exciting like luxurious expensive cases you might hear of used more okay I hope that that helps you thanks very much for your question let's move along to our next question for this week next question comes from BA huge hi BA huge but he says what's the difference between if I and if I will for example if I do that and if I will do that if there's a difference where is it ah this is a good question but the answer is that we use if I and not if I will actually this relates back to our first question from this week's episode about modal verbs when you're making a conditional sentence that means a sentence that uses an if clause and a main clause we do not use a modal verb in the if clause if you want to use a modal verb your modal verb needs to come in your main clause so that means if you want to make an if sentence and you want to use will you can use them in the same sentence but you have to separate the clauses that they're in that means if I something something something I will something something something that's the pattern that you need to use you cannot use if I will together in that way you have to separate these two some examples if I have the day off tomorrow I'll go to the movie theater if we save enough money this month we can go to Hawaii this summer so the second example sentence uses a different modal verb I used can there instead of will so just make sure that when you're making these conditional sentences that you don't use your modal verb in your if clause use it in your main Clause also remember you can swap the order you can switch the order so that its main clause first if clause second that's fine the same rule still applies we can go to Hawaii this summer if we save enough money this month so that's also fine you can choose whichever you prefer so I hope that that helps you use if I not if I will let's get to your first question this week first question comes from Karima hi again Karima Karima says hi Alicia could you please tell me what can't you tell means Thanks yeah we use the word tell to mean understand so in casual conversations tell means understand so it doesn't mean share information it means understand or know we use this a lot in questions so for example how can you tell how can you tell means how do you know so can you tell how can you tell this is quite a common pattern with this word we would use can't you tell in a situation where we're trying to confirm that the listener does not understand or does not notice something can't you tell so we're using the negative can't because we're confirming can't you tell so we would use this in a situation where maybe the speaker has some like change or there's something that they hope the listener notices but maybe the listener does not notice and the speaker wants to confirm for example I got a haircut can't you tell this is an expensive suit can't you tell so another way of saying can't you tell is like aren't you able to notice or aren't you able to understand so you're confirming something like I got a haircut can't you tell it's like the speaker is surprised that the listener doesn't notice so these are the situations where we would use the negative can't you tell when we use the positive form can you tell we're actually asking for information so an example is like oh no I spilled coffee on my white pants can you tell meaning are you able to notice or can you see that I spilled coffee on my pants for example I went to a really smoky restaurant for lunch can you tell so are you able to notice like because of the way I smell so can you tell is asking for information like can you see can you notice can't you tell is a confirmation question so just remember tell is used to mean understand I hope that that helps you thanks very much for the question okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from Bach Tarkan haibach guitar Bach tear says hi Alicia what is the meaning of rather I really can't use it in a sentence okay there are a couple of different ways to use rather first we can use rather to introduce preferences so a great example of this is would you rather a or B so we're introducing our options with the word rather then when we give our preference we can use rather to do that we can say I would rather a than B so this is giving us options we can use to give those options and we can use it to explain our choice you can think of rather like prefer meaning you would desire one thing more than another thing so I would rather drink coffee than tea she would rather watch a movie at home than go to a theater so rather sounds a bit more casual than prefer the second use of rather than is to use the word to mean a better way of saying something that I just said I use social media every day rather I check social media every day I don't always post so when we use rather in a sentence like this it means a better or perhaps a more accurate way to say what I just said is this so in the first sentence I said I use social media every day then I said rather which means more accurately or a better way to say that is I check social media every day so you can hear with my intonation I'm focusing on the word that I'm changing in the first sentence my verb was used I use social media every day when I use this rather pattern I'm emphasizing with my voice the change that I have made so I check social media every day that's the thing that's more accurate so when we use rather this is kind of a common emphasis pattern let's look at one more example he hates going on business trips rather he hates the paperwork required for going on business trips so in that case we're making the statement a little bit more accurate and we use rather to explain that so he doesn't hate business trips he hates the paperwork he has to do for business trips so we use rather in this way as well so those are two ways to use the word rather I hope that this helped you understand thanks very much for the question okay let's move on to your next question next question this week comes from tan Titian hi tan tan says number one what's the difference between important essential and significant and two what is the meaning of time after time year after year or day after day okay let's look at your first question important essential and significant so important means it requires attention something that requires our attention some examples we have some important news to share it's important we have a meeting soon essential means important and we cannot do without it like if we don't have this thing something negative might happen some examples health care is essential for all citizens it's essential we solve these problems as soon as possible so significant means something very noticeable or to a great degree to a great extent examples there was a significant increase in profits last year we lost a significant amount of inventory in the storm okay so that's a quick introduction to the differences between important essentially and significant now let's go on to your question about year by year or day by day and those kinds of patterns we just use these to emphasize that over time something happened so like for example year by year she improved her English speaking abilities it means like as years past something occurred gradually so day by day he grew more and more proficient at playing the trumpet for example so it's referring to something that continues over a period of time that's expressed with this day by day or year by year so if it's an everyday action you could use day by day to mean like a child growing for example like day by day the child grew stronger or if it's something that's more long-term like language studies you could say year by year our English speaking abilities grew so we're talking about a continuing action over time usually that grows or like the changes in way so we can use these kinds of expressions to talk about that progress I hope that that helps you okay thanks very much for the question let's move on to your next question next question this week comes from Bruno Donizetti bueno hi Bruno Bruno says hi Alicia please tell me what is the difference between I go and I will go okay I go begins a present tense statement so that's something that happens now like part of a schedule or just something that you regularly do examples I go shopping every weekend I go to the dentist once a year I will go is a future tense statement a simple future tense statement when you use will you're talking about something that's probably in the near future and maybe something you've just made a decision about examples I'll go with a latte please I think I'll go to the movies after work so we'll go is a future tense statement I go it's a present tense statement hope that that helps you thanks for the question okay let's move on to your next question next question for this week comes from Constantine hi Constantine Constantine says hi Alicia if there a difference between because and cause it seems to me they have a similar meaning yes yes these are the same so because and cuz have the same meaning because we write cuz without B at the beginning just to be more casual to be a little bit more friendly so you can use them in the same way I would recommend if however you are writing something like an essay or paper something formal make sure to use because so always spell the full word because on the other hand you may also find an even shorter version a rather a shorter spelling of this word c uz cuz so cuz also means because but we just use this coz because it's quick and easy to type but it's also just the way that native speakers say because in everyday speech we don't always say because so clearly we use cuz like I'm going to the store cuz I want to get something to eat so cuz see you see something you might see a lot in texts or on social media as well so yes because cause and cuz all have the same meaning because thanks very much for the question hope great work here's a reward speed up your language learning with our PDFs lessons get all of our best PDF cheat sheets and ebooks for free just click the link in the description

Channel: Learn English with EnglishClass101.com

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Keywords: Tutorial, english, how to, learn, English culture, English traditions, Englishclass101, English, English Language (Interest), learn english, vocabulary, survival phrases, important, Word (Literature Subject), words, top, compilation, ask, teacher, made easy, beginner, english lesson, best of, 2019, best of 2019, write, read, speak, continuous play, long play, auto play, autoplay, yt:cc=on

Id: tDEK0FJ-8Kg

Length: 112min 56sec (6776 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 07 2020