Learn English in 90 minutes - The Best of 2018

wanna speak real English from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at English class 101.com hi everybody and welcome back to top words my name is Alisha and today we're gonna talk about 10 ways to help improve your pronunciation this is gonna be a good one I think so let's go sing along to a favorite song alright so the first tip for improving your pronunciation is to sing along to a favorite song so if you should add though this favourite song should be in your target language so if you're studying English pick a favorite English song and sing along to that song or try to sing to the song just from memory too so singing along to your favorite song can help you with pronunciation can help you with the rhythm sometimes of the language you're trying to learn so it can be really fun and it can be a good way to practice your pronunciation in a sentence I like singing along to my favorite songs read out loud the next tip for your pronunciation is to read out loud so reading out loud you can choose something that's interesting for you and you're in English if english is the language you're studying so pick something maybe it's a news article or maybe it's a book you're interested in maybe there's an author you're interested in find something in your target language in English and try reading it out loud so don't just read in your mind but read the words out loud speak them so that you can get comfortable pronouncing those words and you can try reading the same passage or the same sentence multiple times to make it smoother so this can be a really good tip for and I think it also improves your natural ability to pick up grammar too because if you're reading something like in a book for example you can kind of pick up the natural rhythm of grammar and you also slowly get a feeling for the correct ways that words should connect together so this I think is a really good tip in a sentence I sometimes read out loud to practice pronunciation that's true repeat lines you hear in TV shows the next tip is to repeat lines you hear or the words you hear in TV shows or movies things like that so this means not only words don't only repeat single vocabulary words yes maybe you find a vocabulary word that is really interesting or it sounds funny or something like that but by repeating a full sentence or a full line in a TV show or in a movie you're putting the words together so not just one word but making a whole sentence so feeling kind of the flow of your language that you're studying so this can be a better way to actually practice making sentences and repeating sentences instead of just words so you can repeat after characters and TV shows I sometimes do this when I'm like watching Japanese TV ah and then I try and spit it back out it's hard to do sometimes when it's like the first time you've heard a word or the first time you've heard a grammar point but you can still understand that sentence it's interesting so try to say it and it's kind of fun actually I think in a sentence try repeating lines from TV shows to practice practice speaking in phrases not single vocabulary words the next tip this is very similar to my TV show tip is to practice speaking in phrases not in vocabulary words not just single vocabulary words even if you're not repeating lines from TV shows when you practice speaking don't just speak in noun so sometimes for example I'll hear people just use noun like they'll use a noun and maybe a verb like I tomorrow beach something like that and yes we can probably guess based on that how like the the meaning the speaker's meaning but you need to practice making a whole sentence so yes you know those words I tomorrow and beach and the listener can probably guess what you mean but you need to practice all those little words in the middle like like I'm going to the beach tomorrow so make a full sentence practice making full sentences don't only prac single vocabulary words make the whole line it's really good sometimes I think my students get irritated like they'll like I forced them to practice full sentences like so I'll say like mmm have you ever been to Germany and they'll say yes I'm like okay for the purposes of practice can you make a full sentence and they'll say I have been to Germany like that's an extreme example but like I try to push that you know making the full sentence it's it's silly sometimes but just trying to do that okay so in a sentence speaking in entire phrases is helpful for practicing the rhythm of a new language speak a lot with your teacher and ask them to be strict with you on words okay so the next tip is to speak a lot with your teacher and ask them to be strict with you so this is kind of two tips in 1 1 speak with your teacher so if you have a teacher make sure you're speaking in their class if you if wherever possible sometimes I'll have students join my class and maybe they feel shy or whatever and they don't speak very much but please speak with your teacher so that your teacher can correct you your teacher can give you at least if they're a native speaker or maybe even if they aren't a native speaker your teacher can give you corrections and if you don't speak your teacher cannot help you in most cases so please speak with your teacher and if you like you can tell them please be strict about my pronunciation so sometimes people will say please help me with my pronunciation specifically and then I can stop them every time they make a mistake and we practice that sound especially 80h sounds like that like using using your mouth a little bit differently can be really uncomfortable for some people but if you're a teacher can point out those things like th sounds the this that B's those those th sounds ending ER sound practicing those with your teacher can be a really good way to work on your pronunciation hmm so in a sentence speak a lot with your teacher they can correct you and help you improve try recording yourself speaking and lay it back the next tip for practicing your pronunciation is to try recording yourself speaking and listen to it play it back and listen to it so this it might sound a little bit strange but when we're speaking maybe we don't hear certain things that certain maybe our little idiosyncrasies or our the little special things that we do when we speak maybe we don't hear them as we speak but when we listen to ourselves later we notice them so for example when I watch this video when I watch any of these videos I notice little things that I didn't notice at now when I'm filming the video so the same can apply to your pronunciation when you listen to yourself speak you might hear something that you don't notice when you're speaking so this can be a good way to to kind of remove yourself to go outside your body a little bit and listen to yourself from the listeners perspective so this might be a tip to try in a sentence sometimes you hear yourself more clearly on a recording do shadowing exercises all right the next tip for pronunciation is to do shadowing exercises so a shadowing exercise there are text books and and I think resources on the web so on the website I'm actually I think you could use the website any English listening or anything in your target language when you listen to that as the speaker is speaking you quickly repeat back what the speaker is saying so as you're listening to it you repeat it almost immediately so you're trying to to match their pronunciation as closely as accurately as possible this is called a shadowing exercise so I've seen some cases where people are textbooks will recommend doing you know 15 minutes of shadowing each day or something like that or maybe you can do a shadowing exercise listening to a podcast or listening to the news or something you might find on the website here so that's a really good way to work on your pronunciation and to get familiar with using those sounds kind of more naturally the way a native speaker would so this can be a good tip to improve your pronunciation in a sentence try shadowing a native speaker to improve your pronunciation chat with native speakers so yeah the next tip is to chat with native speakers so chatting with native speakers of course is a great way to make friends be to pick up new vocabulary see to get familiar with grammar and slang but also it can help your pronunciation not all native speakers speak with exactly the same pronunciation so you might hear slight differences depending on the country depending on the region in the country and native speaker comes from so there are many different kinds of pronunciations or many different there are many different pronunciations but when you chat with native speakers you can kind of understand the different pronunciations that are out there and maybe it can help you be more consistent in your presentation in your pronunciation too so this could be a good way to improve your pronunciation but of course it's important in general for learning a language I think in a sentence chatting with native speakers is an important part of learning a language do pronunciation drills the next tip is to do pronunciation drills so if you know that there's a sound if you know that there's something that you always struggle with try drilling it so a drill to drill something means to repeat a lot so you might hear this word used for like like sports and fitness like you drill a skill you which means to practice something a lot and intensively so if you know that there's like the th sound it's really difficult for you maybe take ten minutes and do a pronunciation drill on those sounds for you know every day for a month or something so if you know that there's a specific sound that's difficult for you consider trying just some very specific pronunciation drills so that can mean just making that sound repeatedly or maybe reading at out loud that has a lot of that kind of pronunciation I think you can find a few different ways to drill to practice intensively those parts of pronunciation that are difficult for you so in a sentence try doing pronunciation drills for the sounds you have trouble making find words that are particularly interesting to you so I think maybe this is the last tip is to find words that are particularly interesting to you so maybe there's a word that sounds really funny or maybe you found a really long word in English or a really interesting word a word that has an interesting history whatever if you can find words that are interesting to you then maybe you can put some extra emphasis on pronouncing them correctly so if you're actually enjoying the words that you're learning then I think it'll become more important for you to express that accurately in your speech and so focusing on those words maybe and and in pronouncing those words correctly perhaps that can help you apply that same pronunciation in this interesting word maybe the pronunciation of that word or some of the parts of that word you can find that in other words in other places throughout your target language so if you enjoy a particular word and focus on expressing that word pronouncing that word accurately it can help you maybe apply that pronunciation in other parts of the language so give it a try in a sentence take extra care to pronounce words of particular interest correctly that's the end so those are ten tips to help you improve your pronunciation if there's anything else that you do to work on your pronunciation or if you have any questions please leave us a comment and let us know about it please make sure to like this video - if you haven't liked it already and also subscribe to our Channel as well thanks very much for watching this episode of top words and we will see you again soon bye hi everybody and welcome back to english class 101 coms youtube channel my name is Alisha and today I'm going to give a short explanation of the difference between look watch and see so let's get started okay the first verb that I want to talk about is look we use look when we simply want to explain that we are moving our eyes to something just moving the eyes is to look at something there's no expectation that the item or the object we are looking at is going to change there's no expectation that some change is going to happen we're simply moving our eyes to something finally when you use look and an object follows the verb you need to follow look with at so for example look at that look at me look at that - look at her look at him all of these use at because an object follows the verb look so look at that thing when you use an expression like look over there there's no object there so only when there's an object after the word look you need to use at to connect the two okay so remember look is used when you're simply moving your eyes to something okay let's talk then about the verb watch so we use watch when we want to focus our attention on something so focusing your attention can be on something happening in front of you like a performance can be movie TV but the nuance with watch is you are watching something that is changing or moving something is going to happen there's an expectation of change or movement evolution in some way we use watch in those cases focused attention on something that is changing or something that is moving is when we use watch then finally see the verb see is used when we just notice something we happen to notice something maybe a person has come into the room and we see that person we notice something but we're not necessarily focusing so maybe we see it our eyes catch it but we don't focus on that thing that is when we use so to recap we use look just to move our eyes to something we use watch for focused attention on something that is moving or something that is changing and we you see when we just notice something but we don't necessarily focus on it okay so this is the basic use of these three verbs but there are a couple of exceptions so here I have special cases especially for performances so for example movies TV shows concerts sporting events and so on these have slightly different rules we will only use watch or see for these cases please do not use look in these cases please use watch or see if you're having trouble deciding when to use watch or see a good rule or a good guideline is if it's something outside the house something outside your home your apartment use the verb see if you're at home doing something at home like watching a movie for example use the verb watch so for example over here you would see a movie in a movie theater see a baseball game watch a DVD at home or watch the awards show at home so these are at home actions and these are outside the home action so we use C and watch in these cases okay but let's try to choose the correct verb in these example sentences that I've prepared so first one tonight I'm going to something-something game of Thrones Game of Thrones is a popular TV show so we should use watch because we learned that watch is used for things outside or I'm sorry because we learned that watch is used for actions at home things we do at home it's more natural to use watch I'm going to watch Game of Thrones ok the next sentence I want to something something that new movie new movie probably means going to a movie theater so we should use the verb see I want to see new movie is the correct verb here something something up ahead traffic is terrible so up ahead means in front of you in front of the car in this case it's car it's traffic related so up ahead in this case the speaker is asking the listener to move his or her eyes in front of them to to go up ahead with their eyes so you can use the verb look look up ahead traffic is terrible so move your eyes up ahead is the command okay next one last night I stayed in and something something a football game so stayed in means stayed home I stayed at home we use the expression stayed in so I stayed in and watch this is an at home action past tense I watched a football game last night okay next one I can't wait to something something my favorite band next week so again this is a performance outside the house my favorite band so we'll use see I can't wait to see my favorite band next week okay next sentence when I something something into the forest I something something a deer okay there are two verbs in this sentence we're going to use looked so when I moved my eyes into the forest I moved my direction my my my eyes moved in the direction of the forest and I something something a deer so we noticed something I saw a deer I saw a deer a deer entered my eyes as a weird way to say it but that's the nuance here I happened to notice I wasn't focusing but I saw this in my eye I saw a deer okay let's look at a really difficult one I something something up from my book and something something you you were something something a video on your phone okay so similar here I something something up I looked up I moved my eyes up from my book so I was reading I moved my eyes up from my book and something something you so here I noticed I saw past tense I saw you then here you were something something a video on your phone a video on your phone so maybe we need to use the verb watch because the person has focused their attention on their phone on the video you were watching past progressive tense you were watching a video on your phone so here in this situation we have all three verbs finally let's use it in a question when did you last something something your roommate so when did you last notice your roommate we would use the verb see when did you last see your roommate when was the last time you saw your roommate you noticed your roommate so these are some great examples of sentences where it might be difficult to guess should I use look should I use see should I use watch but keep these rules in mind so remember when you move your eyes to something use look don't forget to use at when an object follows the verb to when you want to focus your attention or talk about something that's changing and moving use watch like movies and TV shows when you want to just talk about noticing something but not focusing your attention use see so this is a basic introduction to the differences between look see and watch I hope it was useful for you if you like you can try to leave a comment with one of these verbs in your sentence or if you have any questions please let us know as well thanks very much for watching this video if you liked this video please be sure to hit the like button and subscribe to our channel if you haven't already also check us out for more at English class 101.com thanks very much for watching and I'll see you again soon bye hi everybody my name is Alisha welcome to know your verbs in this episode we're going to talk about the verb see so let's get started so the basic definition of C is to perceive with your eyes so this really means to use your eyes to get information you use your eyes to look at things to maybe understand things to gain knowledge by looking at things by using your eyes focusing your eyes on things you can learn things or gain information gain knowledge so this is to perceive but the basic the basic definition though is just to perceive with your eyes to use your eyes to perceive to gain information to gain knowledge okay let's see the conjugations for the verb C C C's saw seen seeing let's talk about a few additional meanings of the verb see first one to form a mental picture of to form a mental picture of means to use your mind to create an image so see has the meaning of creating an image in your mind for example I can see my childhood home clearly it was one story and had a big yard what do you see when you close your eyes so in these examples sentences we're not actually using our eyes to see something in this use of the word see we are imagining it and in our minds we are making a picture so we're not actually using our eyes to see these items instead maybe there are things we saw in the past and we are imagining them mentally we are creating a mental image of something so when I say I can see my house clearly my childhood house it means in my mind I can form a clear image of the house in my mind in the question what do you see it means when you close your eyes what's the mental image that appears in your mind so see is used to create mental images to refer to creating mental images here next is to examine or to watch so in this use of the verb see there's sort of the nuance of an expectation we want to use our eyes to watch something as it changes or to examine a change as it happens to examine a behavior let's see how the team does in today's match I can't wait to see what the neighbors do when they realize we bought a pool in the example of let's see how the team does in today's match we are talking about using our eyes our actual eyes perhaps if we are actually watching the match if we go to the game where we see the match on TV perhaps we are using our eyes however if we don't go to the match and we read the score from the game or we hear on the radio something about the game or we hear the results of the game we can still use the verb si si has this nuance of examining something so we're expecting some results so let's see in this case doesn't only mean using your eyes to examine it can mean to examine maybe the results of an hour are the results of something to examine the outcome of something in the second example sentence let's see how the neighbors react we see the same thing so it's the same it's the same sort of nuance we are expecting a reaction we are going to watch for a reaction from the neighbors when they realize we bought a pool so we want to examine their reaction we want to examine an outcome we can use the verb see though maybe we use our ears like if the neighbor says oh my gosh they bought a pool that's sort of examining your you're waiting for a reaction there we can still use the verb let's see the expression let's see to talk about that so let's see what happens next for example next one to make sure to make sure please see that this task is finished he saw that all the arrangements had been made in these sentences the verb si is used to mean make sure or to confirm something to ensure something in the first one please see that this task is finished we could replace the verb see with make sure please make sure that this task is finished so that's a very clear sentence please see is just a shortened way of saying make sure please see that this task is finished please ensure that this task is finished we can replace the verb here the second example sentence is the same he saw that all the arrangements had been made so he made sure that all the arrangements had been made and in these example sentences si is replacing the expression make sure or ensure so we can use C to mean the same thing it's just a shorter way of saying make sure next to find acceptable or attractive what do you see in him what do you see in her I don't understand what you see in this restaurant it's terrible what are the qualities you perceive in that person or the qualities that you can detect in that situation what are the good points you identify there we can use the word see to sort of communicate that quickly and easily so what do you see in him what do you see in her is a much shorter way of saying what do you find attractive about him or her what do you find appealing about him or her or what characteristics of that person attract you to that person saying what do you see in him what do you see in her is a much shorter way of saying what qualities do you find attractive in that person the same thing in the restaurant example I don't understand what you see in this restaurant means I don't understand what it is that you like about this restaurant I think it's bad so instead we shorten it to I don't understand what you see in this restaurant so see means finding something attractive or interesting or appealing in some way now let's talk about some variations so some slight changes or some additions to the verb see that changed the meaning first is see-through see-through see-through means to understand the true nature of something to understand the real characteristics of something he saw through my attempts to work with him and asked me on a date my boss saw through my lie and scolded me for faking sickness so here we see the use in the past tense in the first example sentence he saw through my attempts to work with him meaning he saw the true nature of what I was doing so he saw through my attempts to work with him and asked me on a date so in the situation maybe the person the speaker was trying to spend time with the he in this situation and was asking maybe to work together a lot but he in the situation saw through saw to the true nature of the speaker's request saw the true characteristics or the actual desire there and asked the speaker on a date so in this sentence we understand that there was a different motivation so something below the surface of the of the initial action that was happening so the the other person in the situation understood the other motivation the motivation below the surface motivation and so we use saw through or see through to communicate that so I he saw through my attempts to work with him and he understood there was something else I wanted to do in the second example sentence my boss saw through my lie and scolded me for faking sickness so again we see in past tense my boss saw through my lie so saw that I was lying in other words saw through my lie so saw the true character of my lie saw the true nature of my statement and scolded me so my boss understood I lied and scolded me for faking sickness so I got in trouble be as I was faking an illness faking sickness my boss saw through my behavior saw the true character understood the true nature of my of my statement next is see eye to eye see eye to eye this means to have a common viewpoint or to agree we don't see eye to eye most of the time I'm glad we see eye to eye about this so maybe this one is an easy one to visualize so to see eye to eye with someone else means you agree with them you share a viewpoint with them so you can kind of imagine maybe two people standing across from one another and if they see eye to eye maybe they match their line of sight matches much in the way that their viewpoints or their opinions match exactly exactly so they have kind of the same viewpoint they can see eye to eye so they're there their eyesight maybe matches their opinions match so to see eye to eye and we can say I'm glad we see eye to eye about this meaning I'm happy we agree about this or in a negative we don't see eye to eye most of the time means we don't agree most of the time or we have different opinions most of the time all right so I hope that this video helped you level up your knowledge of the verb see a little bit if you have any questions or comments or if you know another way of using the verb see let us know in the comments section below the video thanks very much for watching please make sure to like the video subscribe to the channel and check us out at English class 101.com for more good stuff thanks for watching this episode of know your verbs and we'll see you again soon bye we'll see you again soon we end every video on this channel almost with see you again soon but of course I don't actually see you you see me we imagine you we have we form mental images in our minds of all of you watching in the camera there all those hundreds of thousands of you guys that's kind of terrifying see that one want to speak real English from your first lesson sign up for your free life account at English class 101.com I'm going to use the Force to make you watch this whole video hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them maybe you can send your questions to me at English class 101.com / ask - Alisha first question from Harley passes hard Harley pusle pusle pasar II hardly asks what is the use of get + adverb or preposition for example I get down this is a question about phrasal verbs with get we can use a lot of different things after the word yet in your example to get down we use it when dancing for example like I want to get down this weekend it's sort of an old-fashioned expression though to get down we can use a lot of different words after the verb yet though for example get into to get into something means to become interested in something you might hear to get at like get at me or get at your professor to get at means to reach out to or to communicate with but it's a very casual expression you can say get after like I need to get after my homework for example it means to like chase after or try to do something also to get in like to get into a club to get into a restaurant to get into a party the nuance is that something is challenging but you can gain access to that thing like I got into the party last night but I wasn't on the list there are a lot of different uses of the word yet I can't talk about all of them in this video because there are so many so if you're curious about the various phrasal verbs that we can use with the word yet check out a dictionary that's a really good place to start next question next question comes from long and long and asks what is the difference between simple past tense and past continuous tense or past progressive tense simple past tense we use for actions that started and ended in the past so the beginning of the action and the end of the action happened in the past so for example the sentence I ate breakfast is a simple past tense statement I ate breakfast ate is a simple past tense the past continuous tense however or the past progressive tense is something we used to talk about an action that was continuing at a specific point in time in the past if I want to use the past progressive tense I can say I was eating breakfast using that continuous tense using that progressive tense implies I want to explain something else that happened at that time or maybe I want to add some more information so for example I was eating breakfast at 8 o'clock this morning or I was eating breakfast when the phone rang or I was eating breakfast and watching TV at the same time I was eating breakfast while studying today by using the past progressive I am explaining that an action was continuing at a specific point in time as in the example I was eating breakfast at 8 o'clock or I can use past progressive to show one action was happening at the same time as another action in the past if I use just the simple past tense I'm just saying a simple fact in other words this action happened I ate breakfast at 8 o'clock if I want to emphasize the continuous nature of the action for some reason like I was eating breakfast at 8 o'clock I can use the past progressive tense in that case it might be in response to a question like what were you doing at 8 o'clock this morning so if someone wants to ask maybe what you were doing at a specific point in time like someone is suspicious if you like what were you doing last night you can say like oh I was having dinner with my friends last night but past tense simple past tense is something we use for actions which start and finish in the past but progressive the progressive tense in past can be used to emphasize the continuing nature of that situation or that action next question next question comes from yes in yeah yes II yes in from very sorry what's the difference between on time and in time is it you arrived just on time or you arrived just in time we use on time to refer to doing something at the correct time doing something at a scheduled time so for example I need to to work on time meaning at the correct time or did you make it to your appointment on time in time however is used when we want to kind of give a nuance of rushing or hurrying for something I need to leave my house now to get to the airport in time for my flight I need to study for my test now if I want to be in time for the party later you should probably leave now if you want to be in time for the movie in time for something else so I want to do action a to make my schedule meet this other condition this other thing I would like to do with this other thing I need to do in time for has the nuance of a deadline we can use this expression in like a panic like oh my gosh I'm not going to make it in time like to submit a paper I'm not going to make it in time in time means like before the deadline whereas on time has the meaning of completing an action or completing something at a scheduled time next question the next question comes from gearson Silva hi what is the difference between shade and shadow oh great this is a great question both of these words can be used to refer to a place that is darker than its surroundings because there's an object that is blocking the light we can say there's shade over there or there's a shadow over there in that sentence they are used the same however shadow refers to the dark shape only so a person can cast a shadow we use cast the verb cast with a shadow I cast a shadow when I stand in the Sun for example shade however as a noun refers to or has the nuance of a kind of shelter so shelter provided by some other object shelter from the light shelter from the Sun so we would say stand in the shade because shade has the nuance of shelter we would not say stand in the shadow shadow does not carry the nuance of shelter in the way that shade does interestingly enough though shade and shadow are both used as verbs as well to shadow of something needs to follow something closely to shadow someone at work means to follow someone at work and try to understand their job for example shade is used as a verb to mean to create shelter from light for example the canopy shaded us from the Sun shade also has some interesting uses you might hear the slang phrase to throw shade throwing shade is a really interesting slang expression that we use which means to communicate disrespect or to communicate like contempt bad feelings for something when you're speaking generally in most cases when you want to talk about a dark cool area we should say shade stand in the shade when you want to talk only about the dark area that dark object use shadow next question actually two questions from Danny hi Danny Danny's first question is you talked about lit as slang yes I talked about lit in episode 2 so 1 episode 2 I've asked Alisha can you please talk about the verb light and using it an active and passive sure light means to start a fire so to light a fire to light a candle some examples of active and passive voice with this verb then why don't we light some candles for dinner tonight all the candles in the restaurant were live on our camping trip my neighbors lit a fire and we brought hamburgers to me a fire was lit in the campsite while we were gone I was going to light a fire but I fell asleep so to light means to start a fire he lit the house on fire we can say to light la blah blah on fire so there are a few different examples of using the verb light in active and in passive past tense future tense as well so I hope that that's helpful Danny's second question can you talk about ride and its uses like take someone for a ride can I take a ride Ryan is another verb that has a lot of different uses you use the example to take someone for a ride means to drive together with someone to go for a ride has the nuance of doing something just for fun it's just for fun I want to take a ride to a location I want to take a ride to the mountains this weekend or take a ride to the beach but to take someone for a ride means to invite someone to drive somewhere with you in a car that's one way to use ride you can also say give me a ride can you give me a ride so this is a request I don't have a car my friend has a car I want my friend to take me in their car to a location I can say can you give me a ride to the movie theater can you give me a ride to the lake give me a ride is a request so give me a ride in your car so there are a lot of uses of ride if you want to see all of them or if you want to see more of them I recommend checking a dictionary there are quite a few and I can't talk about them all in this video so please check a dictionary next question okay next question is from sin femme of M what does your too good to be true mean is it good or not maybe you've heard this in a famous song you're too good to be true can't take my eyes off of you in that case it's a good meaning a different way to say this expression is you are so good you are so amazing that I can't believe you're real so in other words something must be wrong there must be some problem with you it's not possible for you to be real because you are so good you are so great so you're too good to be true it's like wow I'm amazed by you so it's a good expression if however maybe in a more uncommon situation someone said like this guy is too good to be true like maybe reviewing a job application for example this girl she's too good to be true like if it's said in that way maybe there's something suspicious about that person this doesn't seem right there's just too much good information here there must be some problem with this person depending on the intonation it can portray either a very positive meaning or a very suspicious meaning in most cases however it's a positive meaning so if you heard this in a song for example it's probably a very positive kind of romantically nuanced phrase thanks very much for that question femme next one next question Rabia Arshad rate Rabia Arshad Rabia are ferrous iron what's the difference between can and may I saw this on the dining like a champ cheat sheet and noticed these words were used for requests what's the difference can and may for requests in modern English men modern American English are used the same if I use them in a state can refers to ability may refers to permission please just be careful can and may are only used in the same way to make requests in modern American English next question is from Taylor oh hi again Taylor are where are you from and where were you born the same oh great question where are you from where were you born nope not necessarily not necessarily where where you born is only the place where you were physically brought into the world maybe your hometown the place you identify as your hometown is different from the place where you were born maybe you were born in Spain but you grew up in the USA your family moved after that so you could say I was born in Spain but I grew up in New York City if someone asks you where are you from it might be a good idea to say I was born in blah blah blah but I was raised in blah blah blah in a different place if the two places are different next question next question is from Hassan Hassan says how do we use Dada in the negative form so we did a live stream about half two and got two and need to on the YouTube channel and on Facebook a while ago Dada is a contraction a very casual contraction of got and two it's not a real word gada is just the sound that we make when we say got to very quickly like I gotta go to school today or I gotta finish my homework or I gotta get to sleep I'm so tired in American English we do not use gotta in the negative instead we use have to or need to I don't have to go to work tomorrow I don't need to go to work tomorrow I don't need to go to sleep right now but American English does not use Dada in the negative form next question next question is from Saddam I need to improve my spoken English and my vocabulary how do I do that I think there's a tool on the website where you can record your voice speaking English and compare it to a native speaker saying the same thing so I think that's a that's a feature on the website so check that out if you haven't been it's in English class 101.com there should be a recording function there where you can record your voice and compare to a native speaker and keep practicing that until your voice and your pronunciation matches the native speakers pronunciation so you'll see like little waveforms there even on the recording page so you can try to match your voice to a native speaker so of course practicing with native speakers where possible repeating so creating your own speech is important to practicing with like recording tools voice recording tool when you record yourself you suddenly hear so many problems in your speech so recording yourself can be another good tool but in terms of building your vocabulary first I need to define a goal what do I want to talk about if I want to talk about food I should look for materials in my target language talking about food and I should study those so think about what it is that you want to do and try to be specific try to narrow your goal down to you know what are the words that I need to do and try focusing there and then maybe you can widen the focus to other interests here and there too but start maybe with the things that are going to help you communicate the things that you really want to say so always think about your goals what do I want to learn how to say next question from Ricardo villa row oh hey Ricardo welcome back is it correct to learn several languages at the same time ooh is it correct I can't answer that whether it's correct or not so I've heard that if you want to try for whatever your reason is if you want to try to study more than one language at the same time it's better to try to choose languages that are quite different so that there's less chance of you making mistakes or getting confused in your studies the other thing that I think I would say is if you're studying more than one language at the same time your progress might be a bit slower than if you studied just one language yeah is it correct I don't know I can't answer that that's up to you to decide so those are all the questions that I want to talk about this week thank you so much for submitting so many interesting questions I really appreciate it if you haven't submitted a question yet you can check it out the submission page is at English class 101.com slash ask - Alicia so check that out send me your questions if you liked the video please make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel too and it's out of English class 101.com for some other stuff we talked about a few things today that you can find on the website so definitely check that out so thanks very much for watching this episode of ask Alicia I will see you again next Saturday bye bye bonus vocabulary word for today spoiler spoiler a spoiler is secret information key information about your media your book your movie your TV show if you see the phrase spoiler alert somewhere it means the next piece of text the next information the next thing in the video is going to be secret information about the story so if you have not seen the movie if you have not seen the TV show or you have not seen the book you might find information you don't want to read yet so spoiler means something that will spoil or something that will ruin the story for you so no spoilers about Star Wars until we've seen it yeah use the Force to study English hey everyone how's it going guess what we just reached 1 million subscribers all thanks to you guys ok I am so nervous okay ah play oh my god there's even the next phrase we'll look at you proud magician take a six years ago I swear words [Laughter] praying mantis love Irish wish I can say it better now hey Oh howdy actually been a videos to Jesus from doing oh my god Michael everybody asked where Michael is he's like teaching kids in Russia now I think don't don't shower and use a scrunchie thank you this is special cardboard I'm gonna put some glitter on it my life I don't even know what I'm talking about cuz I'm Luke Skywalker more like Luke sky faller Luke Skywalker's more likely sky falling Wow everybody this is a link a linguish oh my god this Halloween shoot from last year I'm very happy go forth and bring the children bit me what a jerk great spot in the Legion floor let's go check it out oh you shot me as we doing impression of mosquitoes oh my god I'm sorry you guys have to work with me so I want to say a special thanks from me and from our whole team here at English class 101.com thank you all so so much for watching our videos for subscribing to the channel for sending your comments for participating in our live streams for sending questions to the Q&A we actually we wouldn't be able to do all of this stuff without you so thank you so much it's been a crazy several years but it's been really really exciting and we've been able to make a lot of things thanks to you guys watching so we really hope that you continue to watch our channel we have lots of really new and exciting things coming up so we hope that you stick with us you hope that you keep watching and you keep participating and learning with us it's been so much fun so far I know I've learned a lot and I really appreciate all of you and all of your support so thanks so much I can't believe that we hit a million subscribers I never would have imagined that but again I'm so grateful and I'm so excited and I hope that we can continue making lots of good helpful stuff for everybody around the world hi everybody and welcome back to top words my name is Alisha and today we're going to be talking about ten ways to ask for help help me help me ask for help let's go can you can you blah blah blah so can you give me that pen can you turn off the fan can you give me a sandwich for lunch I forgot mine in this sentence can you send me your email address so very simple requests you can use can you blah blah blah with them could you give me a hand with the next expression is could you give me a hand with blah blah blah meaning I need you like I need physically I need your hands to help me maybe or I need something I need you to help me with something could you give me a hand with this computer could you give me a hand with this furniture so it's you can use it to talk about like moving something heavy or you can also use it for like a task like could you give me a hand with this report I don't know this information so you can use it for ya physical tasks or for mental tasks too could you give me a hand with something in this sentence could you give me a hand moving this sofa can you show me how to the next expression is can you show me how to can you show me how to bla bla bla this means please teach me something so can you please show me how to use this computer can you show me how to use this software can you show me how to book a ticket so these are all ways to ask for help with how to do something this is a very useful expression I think can you help me out with the next expression is can you help me out with can you help me out with something so before we talked about can you give me a hand with this is very similar can you help me out with some tasks you can use it for physical activities or mental activities here so can you help me out with this project can you help me out with cleaning this house I don't know in this sentence can you help me out with my homework I need help the next is I need help la blah blah so you can use the expression I need help that's fine but if you want to be specific which I recommend I need help blah blah blah I need help with my homework I need help doing the dishes I need help cleaning the yard I need help something something something very clear very direct it's a little bit casual I suppose but yeah you can use this in most situation where you need help the sentence I need help making dinner tonight could you the next expression is could you so the first expression we saw in this lesson was can you you can also use could you Timmy could you sounds a little bit more formal than can you so can you love wha is it's a good kind of neutral everyday way to ask for help could you sounds just a little bit more polite a little bit more formal so could you please send me that file could you please stop smoking here in this expression could you send me the project files will you so the next expression is will you so this is used kind of for light maybe you just thought of something you just thought of something you need help with so it's probably a small task or a small favor that you need so for example will you get some milk at the store on your way home it's like something you just thought of for the future so will you help me with my homework will you give me a moment of your time it's something very small very quick so in this sentence will you let me know when you're free how do I the next expression is how do i how do i this is somewhat similar to the earlier expression we talked about can you show me how to love love law but this one is how do I and how do I get to the beach from here how do I get to the station how do I turn on this computer how do I make new friends how do I study English all of these are ways to ask for help or ask for advice ask for directions this is a very nice and easy to remember way to ask for help how do I something help the next expression is just help so I've here sometimes students say please help me or just help and I want to point out that these expressions are usually used in emergency situations for example there's an accident or there's a dangerous person near you or maybe you're injured or hurt some emergency so please help me alone sounds to a native speaker may be like a serious situation or an emergency situation help is similar to so of course if you're an emergency situation absolutely you should use the words help and please help me or just help me as well too but be careful because they sound very serious I don't recommend using them for like light casual everyday situations where you need help instead please use one of the other expressions we talked about in this lesson so help is great for emergencies but maybe only for emergencies so yeah in a sentence maybe for example in the kitchen there's that you have a small accident in the kitchen you can shout to your roommate or your family member help me and they'll come running if something to check and see if you're okay I need your help with the next expression is I need your help with blah blah blah the expression I need your help with sounds like you are required for this task I need you maybe you have special knowledge or special experience with this thing or you are better equipped like you can do a better job than I can with this task so I need you for some reason so I need your help preparing this information I need your help reaching that tall glass like that's a really what I like I'm short so if I need something up high I might say to a tall person I your help reaching that glass up there you can use this yes someone is better at doing something than you are you can say I need your help with Papa buff in this sentence I need your help with this project that's the end so those are 10 words and 10 phrases really that you can use to ask for help if you have any other ways you'd like to ask for help or if you have any questions about this video or ways to ask for help please leave it in a comment and let us know about it if you liked this video please make sure to hit the thumbs up button and also subscribe to our channel if you haven't subscribed already thanks very much for watching this episode of top words and we will see you again soon bye wanna speak real English from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at English class 101.com hi everybody and welcome back to english topics my name is Alisha and I'm joined again by hi I'm Davey welcome back and today we're going to be talking about ways to remember ten times more vocabulary so these are gonna be some methods that we think are helpful in remembering vocabulary and studying vocabulary and applying your new vocabulary so let's get started alright my first method here is to keep a diary and use the new words that you are studying so this tip and actually my other tips as well all have a similar kind of strategy which is you have to build new vocabulary into your existing framework of vocabulary so learning a language is difficult and you need a certain amount of words to be able to start using the language but once you start to build a really solid foundation it's easier to build more words on top of it and so doing something like keeping a diary will help you build those new words into the structure the existing vocabulary set of words that you already have mm-hmm um so you have to use it and you have to use it with words that you know and keeping a diary and using those new words is a good way because it keeps you in a habit it's meaningful for you you know you're right about right about your day right about your life so that way those words have meaning for you mm-hmm I totally agree I had the same the same tip essentially which was to use the words you're studying to create and I had speech or text either one create something with the words that you're learning so a diary is a great example of how to do that make sure you're not just studying the words but you're actually creating something new using those words that you've put in your head if it's only input and never output there's gonna be a block there I think I've experienced that where it's only input for words that I'm trying to learn or expressions I'm trying to learn and until I learn to create with those new words with those new expressions it doesn't stick I can't actually use it until I'm I'm comfortable using it like it takes it takes a long time in my case yes yes so absolutely so creating making a diary whatever it is for you a blog could be another thing like a second language blog I don't know a Twitter feed maybe an Instagram account social medias great way to do that these days yeah lots of people do that lots of people actually follow or lots of people who follow this channel also have like like Twitter feeds or Instagram feeds that there have devoted to their English studies I've noticed that so like I like people will follow me and I'll see like oh they're studying English and they specifically only tweet in English which is really cool so they just as you're saying they use that as a way to keep like an easy diary of their day in their language you can tweet at people or tweet using those new words you can also search you could do a Twitter search for words that you're using and see how other people use them and that will help you look learn the context of those words as well yeah so there's a lot that you can do especially yeah with these new tools as well social media is a great tool nice all right yeah the same one for one issue all right okay my next tip is to devote 30 minutes a day to vocabulary so again this is just a rough number but I've noticed that when I'm studying vocabulary if I just devote in my case I would devote 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening just to studying vocabulary and my vocabulary would improve steadily slowly but steadily and then when I don't do this in times when I get busy or I stopped studying in the morning and in the evening I noticed I just plateau I flatten out so if you take like 30 minutes a day morning and evening I find is best in my case is best for me to study vocabulary review the vocabulary that you had studied the previous day for example that can be extremely helpful one to remember the words that you studied you know in the week prior or whatever and to just to make sure that you continue to pick up new words so even if you're not doing anything work-related like that allows you to use English or to use your target language you're still able to through your studies pick up new vocabulary words that you might encounter in the future so this is something that I have found and I'm guilty of not always following this rule but this is something I have found that really does work well and there are a lot of tools to do this - so like flash cards and like vocabulary word banks whatever is useful for you right yep yeah do you study your vocabulary I do I study a lot of vocabulary and I completely agree with you it's something you have to have built into your routine and as you said you you do this in the morning or in the evening it's good to know that about yourself what time of the day is good for you to study that kind of things that you'll help retain it for me it's morning as well and afternoons actually mm-hmm in the evenings I'm a little fuzzy maybe but yes I try and study a lot of vocabulary mm-hmm but it doesn't always stick I don't always use it I have to use it for it to stick yep I agree angry okay nice what's your next tip my next one again is similar to the tip that I said before all my tips have to do with kind of building that that net or that scaffolding and it's to use with thesaurus so this would be if you're doing something like writing a diary or using Twitter or just what you want to study the meanings of words and get a sense for the nuance or the different shades of meaning between words that have a very similar meaning use something like the Saurus because if you learn if you can learn five or ten different words that means sad or happy those words will start to stick together in your mind you'll associate those words with each other and that makes them easier to call because again you're building a framework you're building a net of different word meanings in your mind the more vocabulary that you have built so I think using it the source when you're writing can be really helpful for understanding not only the differences in meaning but helping those related words to stick right and I think that that's a tip that if you can apply that effectively and learn like in your example of many different words that have similar meanings like about like words sad or like words that mean happy for example if you can do that it's going to make your writing and your speaking much deeper in meaning you're going to sound much more fluent if you can use deeper vocabulary words if you always rely on the same vocabulary words it's going to limit you a lot in your reading and in your speaking yes so if you can use it thesaurus effectively to understand the series of words that have similar or associated meanings it's going to open up a lot of opportunities for you totally great one okay thank you nice ones what do you have next my next tip is this is something that I use actually it is reading things in your target language related to your work and your hobbies so one of the things that I struggled with it when I was studying when I do study one of the things that's difficult for me is that I have trouble I have trouble identifying or maybe understanding how I'm going to use the things in the textbook in my life like how often do I need to call my pen pal or my I don't know my exchange partner whatever I know I need to maybe study English or for this job sure but if I read about my hobbies in my target language if I'm studying English and I want to read about my hobbies in English I'm much more interested in that topic and I'm going to learn the vocabulary words a lot more quickly so for example in my case what I found really useful going back to the SNS example is I I was interested in music or I am interested in music and so I would pay attention to like my favorite musicians what are the kinds of words that they're writing what are the sort of phrases that they use how do I use those same words phrases to talk about the things that they're talking about so because I was using people that I was interested in as my base for my understanding I was able to pick up those words those specific words that I needed for my hobbies in my life much more quickly like it would have been difficult for me to go to my teacher and say hey how does a like how does a musician explain this feeling or what what's the best word I could use to describe this or that aspect of performance it was something very specific to my interests and so by going directly to the people who were using those words in expressions I could find them immediately over time it took a little bit of time to get used to the way they spoke or the way that they wrote on the Internet but I could pick up things that I wanted to know and words that the people around them we're also using so this was something that I found very very useful and I continue to find useful so things that are specific to you specific to your life and the things that you need to do and that you want to accomplish in terms of your language goals right and at least with regard to hobbies maybe not work as much but could be but especially with hobbies you'll be more motivated to read about that in English or in your target language because that's something that you'd read in your your first language anyway and so to be motivated to read that will help you because if you're interested in it you're motivated to do it you'll read more you'll get more language and then you'll get language that you'll use in that situation you know for example if you are a skier you know if you love to go skiing and you read skiing magazines in English and then when you go skiing you're in a situation where you can use those words so I think I think that's a really good tip facing vocabulary around your hobby or your work right right nice okay what's your next one and next one is similar to the last one but maybe a little bit different take on it and it's word association and of course using something like a thesaurus helps you make word associations but what I meant with this tip is to do exercises to help you with word association so you know drawing like bubble Maps idea Maps linking up vocabulary words with similar words playing a word association game with a study partner you know just if I say a word and then you know your partner gives a word back to you that makes them it makes them think of another word and that's a nice way just to to drill vocabulary but also as I was saying before to build association between words which which helps those those words stick in your mind mm-hmm so different word association games I should say I see okay so maybe we can try one so when you say you said you would say a word and then the the partner playing the game would just respond with a word that they associate with the first word you could set rules on it you could say similar meaning opposite meanings you know you could do antonyms or synonym or right oh there's another game that I remember I used to play when I was a kid which was going through the alphabet my family and I used to play us on road trips we had to think of words that began with each letter of the alphabet so for example it would be like an animal so we had to think of an animal that started with an A like anteater and then you'd go to B but you had to say ay first before you can move to be so anteater buffalo an anteater buffalo cat and go through each letter of the alphabet with that category of course Q and X always got a little bit difficult that's a nice idea though too because that's a memory game and remembering vocabulary requires a strong memory so that's that's a nice way to kind of build those skills together okay so there are a lot of things I think you can do to improve your word association for sure but of course these aren't the only ways to remember vocabulary but perhaps some things at least that have helped us and that are maybe easy for people to do anybody can do these everybody I think watching this video will have access to the tools they need to do these sorts of things so please feel free to give them a try if you have not already so thanks very much for watching this episode of English topics if you like the video please make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already also check us out at English class 101.com you can find some tools that are similar to some of the tools we talked about in this episode so please take a look at those you can sign up in just a few minutes thanks very much for watching this episode of English topics and we will see you again soon bye bye Wow sit back down I have to do the SUBSCRIBE message one thank you I'm very sorry okay sorry for shouting at you Happy New Year let's talk about present perfect tense hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them maybe as always remember you can submit your questions to me at English class 101.com / ask - Alicia first question this question comes from Zahra play Alicia I have a question about present perfect tense in my native language there isn't a tense called present perfect tense I am confused because I don't know the differences between present perfect tense and simple past tense well let's begin with an in-depth explanation of these two grammar points and the differences between them okay to begin let's begin with a simple timeline here we have the past now which is the star on the timeline and the future so we're going to focus on the past and the now points let's focus on those so first let's look at the simple past tense we use the simple past tense for actions which started and ended in the past so at a point in time before the present a point in time before now in other words on our timeline then let's imagine there are two points a start point and an end point for that action ok so here I've made a start point and an end point on the timeline so in the past you can see there are two points the start and the end of the action both are in the past you'll see both of them are in the past that's the first point about the simple past tense also these are for actions that we did at a specific point in time we can assign a specific point in time to these actions for example this morning last year last week yesterday there's a specific point in time we can attach to these actions okay so let's talk now about the present perfect tense present perfect tense has a couple of different uses the first use of present perfect tense I want to explain is using the grammar point to explain a life experience let's take a look at how visually this is different from the simple past tense so now on the timeline in blue you can see this sort of dotted line that I made with a question mark so the dotted line begins in the past and it ends now it ends at the current point in time this is because we use present perfect tense to talk about things that happened at some point in the past but the specific point is unimportant or unknown we don't need to explain when the action happened we only want to state we have had or have not had that experience so we use this when we want to talk about our life experiences for example travel experience or work experience like I have never been to France or I've eaten fuh my parents have never been outside the country for example we use this to talk about life experience but we don't include a specific point in time when we talk about these experiences it's just some time before the present the specific point in time is not important in that sentence you might follow up this sentence with a specific point in time in which case you use simple past so let's talk about one more use of the present perfect tense this is the one we use with the words for and since and we can also use the continuous tense with this use the black line on the timeline here shows an action that started in the past and continues to the present or it's an effect of an action that continues to the present we use this to talk about our studies for example or the places where we live like I have been studying English for three years or I have lived in Brazil for ten years for example so remember that we use the words for and since along with this form of the present perfect tense we use for before a length of time like I've studied for three years I've lived in Brazil for five years and we used since before a period of time so I have lived I've been studying since 2009 or I have lived here since 2013 for example so please keep this in mind the present perfect tense is used for actions that started in the past and continue to the present simple past tense is used for actions which started and ended in the past next question this question comes from Maxine hi Maxine what's the difference between one year and a year for example I've lived here for a year or I've lived here for of one year in this sentence no difference honestly when you're talking about time periods a year and one year a minute one minute they don't mean anything different they mean the same thing thanks for the question though next question next question comes from Wang Zhang it Quang Jiang it which one is correct I work out for one to two hours a day I work out for one or two hours a day I drink coffee two to three times a day I drink coffee two or three times a day ah both of these are correct actually in this case there are very very small differences between these 1 to 2 hours a day means between one and two hours if you say I've worked out for one or two hours a day it means it's determined like one hour only for a workout or two hours only for a workout so the difference here is are you determining are you deciding 1 hour or 2 cups of coffee or 3 cups of coffee or is it between those two amounts so using 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 means between those two amounts using four shows it's either A or B but not between those two this is the difference between 2 and or next question next question comes from Huang Sena Wang Wang say not once ina I'm very sorry I'm very sorry I've never been to Japan I've never been to Japan before I've never eaten horse I've never eaten horse before my question is if you put before at the end of those sentences does it mean you are in Japan right now or you are eating horse right now no not necessarily think of before at the end of the sentence as before now I've never eaten horse before now in other words you could use this beef just before you eat horse or just before you go to Japan if you like as an emphasis phrase but it doesn't necessarily they really mean that you are in Japan now or that you're eating horse now you could use it in that way sure but it doesn't necessarily mean it if you'd like to emphasize it like if you're about to eat horse for example and I've never eaten horse before you could show your interest or perhaps to show maybe some anxiety or nervous feelings about what you're about to do but know it does not necessarily mean you are in that place like for example you could just be having a conversation have you eaten horse before no I've never eaten horse before it could just be a conversation about it but really before it just means before now next question next question comes from Russia Russia Russia Russia okay where do we use wanna and gonna and how ahh this question is about the casual contracted forms of want to and going to so what to becomes wanna going to becomes gonna in casual speech we use them in exactly the same way we would use I want to I'm going to he wants to she wants to he's going to she's going to we use them in exactly the same way which means we use them in casual situations like I want to take a day off or I'm gonna go to the beach this weekend or do you want to see a movie tonight we use them in exactly the same way we use want to and going to but we use them in speech typically we don't write these unless we're writing very casual messages like text messages to our friends or something next question next question comes from garrison Silva again Gerson when can I use the expression take for granted take for granted this is an expression which we typically use in the negative like don't take something something for granted don't take walk a block for granted it means don't forget to appreciate this thing or this person so for example don't take your parents for granted or don't take this opportunity for granted these expressions mean don't forget to appreciate these things or don't just disregard your parents or don't read disregard this opportunity to recognize the importance of something so if you are given a good opportunity for example or someone gives you good advice or a very nice gift perhaps we would typically use this with the negative don't take something something for granted you don't forget to show your appreciation for that thing or for that person next question next question next question comes from Daniel silver oh hi Daniel Daniel asks what is the difference between wish and desire greetings from Paraguay hey what is the difference between wish and desire wish is used to express a a wants when you want something that is different from the present situation so we often use it with I wish I were or I wish I could something we we want or an ability we want but that we do not have now something for the future so I wish I could speak seven languages or I wish I had a million dollars or I wish I were taking more time off every week for example something that is different from the present condition the present situation we use wish or I wish it would call me for example I wish you would or I wish you could to express something that is not happening now desire on the other hand desire tends to be used more formally and it also can carry more romantic nuances it's not used as much conversationally as the word wish is wish is used to express once things that we want that are not true now desire is used more in romantic situations like to desire another person or he desired more of her time for example but it sounds unnecessarily formal I feel you might use it in a in a more formal like a business context like our client desires more information about the situation that could be a different use of the word desire but in general it sounds a bit more formal and a bit more romantically charged at times depending on the situation when it's used if you're talking about a person as well like if you say for example I desire you it sounds them actually quite odd at least in American English if you want to use the word desire I think in romantic situation it might be applied in a phrase like he was filled with desire or she was filled with desire used more as a noun than as a verb so I would recommend not using desire so much to talk about your wants as it can sound a little bit too formal or can give perhaps the wrong nuance to the situation but wish is used to express a a hope for something or wanting something that is different from the present situation so I hope that helps next question next question from Han Yong he hanpan eonni eonni we're sorry hey Alisha what's the difference between maybe probably perhaps and possibly great question maybe probably perhaps possibly okay maybe probably perhaps and possibly these are all adverbs they have the same grammatical function maybe probably perhaps and possibly maybe and perhaps are very closely related maybe and perhaps are they have the same meaning but just different levels of formality maybe is like the lower level the more casual version of the word perhaps so maybe I'll go to the beach this weekend and perhaps I'll go to the beach this weekend they have really the same meaning but perhaps sounds more formal probably however is different probably expresses a higher level of possibility than the other words on this list I'll probably go to the beach this weekend is like a 75 to 80% chance the speaker is going to go to the beach this weekend possibly however possibly has more of a nuance of just that something can be done it is possible to do something we use possibly more in requests like could you possibly blah blah blah for me could you possibly send me this file possibly sounds a little too formal for casual conversations and invitations but if you're using it at work for example could you possibly meet me later this week instead of could you maybe meet me so the difference between maybe and possibly and perhaps their possible has that route yeah possible able to so maybe and perhaps don't have that nuanced possibly sounds like is it possible is it are you able to do this thing maybe and perhaps don't contain that nuance so to recap maybe and perhaps are used to express the same thing a chance of something happening perhaps is more formal possibly is used in a similar way however it refers more to simple possibility than is it is are you able to do that thing probably expresses a high chance of something thanks so much for all your questions remember you can submit to me at English class 101.com slash ask - Alicia thanks very much for watching this episode of ask Alicia I will see you again next week bye bye but now have you ever thought about how much you think about thinking hi everybody my name is Alicia welcome to know your verbs in this episode we're going to talk about the verb think so let's get started the basic definition of think is to have in the mind so something you can keep in your mind like an idea or an image some thing you keep in your head something in your mind something in your brain so to keep in the mind is think to think this is the basic definition of think so let's look at the conjugations of the verb think present tense think thanks past tense thought past participle thought progressive or continuous tense thinking think thinks thought thought thinking okay let's look at some additional meanings of the verb think first is to consider or to reflect on or to ponder it means consider something carefully or spend time considering something so ponder means to think for a long time or to think hard about something so consider carefully reflect on examples can I have a day to think about this he's thinking about what to do next so in these examples sentences can I have a day to think about this taking one day to reflect on something like before you make a decision is a pretty common thing to do before like a big decision so can I have a day to think about this means can I have a day to consider this carefully or can I have a day to ponder this in a second example sentence he's thinking about what to do next means he's considering carefully his next step he's considering carefully what he should do next so thinking is used in the progressive tense here to show that he is currently at this time considering something carefully but to consider carefully we can make shorter and use the verb thinking he's thinking about what to do next okay next is to create something by thinking or to create something by considering we usually use this with the word up Derr the verb think we thought up so many crazy party ideas in college she thought up a plan for product promotion so both of these example sentences mean to create something by considering it in your mind so in the first example sentence we thought up crazy ideas for parties in college means we design something using our brains we considered something and created an idea we created something by thinking so to think up bla bla bla so we thought up crazy party ideas so we designed crazy party ideas by thinking about them by considering things in our minds in the second example sentence we see the same meaning but for a business situation she thought up a plan for product promotion so in this case past tense she thought up she designed a plan for product promotion but when we say designed it sounds maybe like she planned something on a computer perhaps when we use she thought up it means she used her mind she considered the ideas she had and created a plan in her mind for promotion of the product so thought up uses the mind to create something next is to have as an expectation to have as an expectation to expect something I didn't think you'd arrive so quickly we thought it would take a lot longer to finish dinner so in the first example sentence we didn't think you'd arrive so quickly it means the speaker expects that the listener would take longer to arrive for the listener was going to arrive later than they actually did so the speaker the speaker in this case had the expectation that the listener was going to arrive later so they used the negative we didn't think you'd arrive so quickly so we didn't think we didn't expect you'd arrive so quickly we can replace the verb think with expect here and it creates the same meaning the same nuance really but think sounds a little bit less formal than expect so we didn't think you'd arrive so quickly the second example sentence is thought I would take a lot longer to finish dinner again we expected we had the expectation it would take a lot longer to finish dinner we can replace the verb thought past tense with the past tense expected we expected it would take a lot longer to finish dinner so in this way think we're in past tense thought is used in exactly the same way as expected here the next meaning is to consider suitability to consider suitability let's look at some examples I've never thought of him like a manager we're thinking of her for a higher position so in the first sentence I've never thought of him like a manager in this way thought means I've never understood him to be suitable for the position of manager that's a very long way of explaining this sentence but to condense everything we use the word thought I've never thought of him as a manager means I've never considered him to potentially be suitable as a manager in the second example sentence we're thinking of her for a higher position it means we're considering whether or not she is suitable for a higher position at her job or a higher position at her company so in this way thinking in the progressive tense means we are considering her suitability for a position a higher-level position so you'll notice that the two example sentences included here are related to work you'll see though that this this meaning tends to be used a lot with jobs and mu political positions so kind of something maybe promotion related so promotion related or kind of hierarchy related you'll often hear this in work situations employment situations let's look at some variations some other words we can attach to think to create different meanings first is think better of think better of think better of means to reconsider and make a better decision or make an improved decision it means to consider something again and change your decision hopefully to make a an improved decision examples I wanted to say something but I thought better of it and kept my mouth shut will think better of you if you tell the truth so in both of these sentences there's a reconsideration someone is considering something again and making an improved decision because of that reconsideration so in the first example sentence I wanted to say something we see in past tense I wanted to say something but I thought better of it so it in this case is the thing I wanted to say in the first part of the sentence I thought better of it means I reconsidered it and decided against my first inclination I decided not to do the first thing I was thinking about and I kept my mouth shut so in this case my mouth remained closed in other words I reconsidered my initial action that action I initially wanted to do in the second sentence will think better of you if you tell the truth we see it's it's used for future we will think better of you if you tell the truth meaning if you tell the truth our opinion of you will improve we will think better of you so tell the truth and will consider you again essentially and our opinion of you will improve if you do this the next variation is think much of think much of this means to have a positive view of or to approve of examples he doesn't think much of his professor we didn't think much of last night's dinner we see in the first example sentence he didn't think much of his professor means he didn't really approve of his professor or he didn't have a very positive view of his professor so a shorter wait to explain that feeling is he didn't think much of his professor in the second example sentence we didn't think much of last night's dinner this means again we didn't really approve of last night's dinner or we don't have a very positive view or a very positive opinion of last night's dinner these are rather long so we can condense it too we didn't think much of last night's dinner so I hope that this video helped you level up your knowledge of how to use the verb think if you have any questions or comments or if you know another way to use the word think please let us know in the comment section below the video if you liked the video please give it a thumbs up subscribe to the channel and check us out at English class 101.com for other good things too thanks very much for watching this episode of know your verbs and I will see you again soon oh I think that your thought about my thought is the thinking thought what this episode first is I'm thinking about summer [Music]

Channel: Learn English with EnglishClass101.com

Views: 1,029,792

Rating: 4.8748446 out of 5

Keywords: Tutorial, english, how to, learn, English culture, English traditions, Englishpod101, 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, 2017, write, read, speak, continuous play, long play, auto play, autoplay, yt:cc=on

Id: p9SL2TuxC38

Length: 97min 26sec (5846 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 11 2019