Learn English in 90 Minutes - The Best of 2020

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 kick off the first word is kick off kick off to kick off means to start something it usually has the nuance of something big like a big project like we're going to kick off a new project next year or let's kick off this new policy in january or what time should we kick off the party as well we can use it for parties too but for business it means to start a project to start something new and it sounds like the beginning to something big so kick off to kick off something means to start something set out the next phrasal verb is set out set out means decide or determine or choose something so we usually use set out to mean to decide something within a project for example we need to set out some guidelines for this project or we need to set out some rules for dress code in the company or what do you think about setting out some new guidelines for company parties for example so set out means to decide something and determine something usually like a policy rule guideline check in the next phrasal verb is check in so check in means update or give a status report to share new information check in about something we usually say to check in about blah blah blah so for example what time should we check in about the project or do you have time to check in about this later or when can i check in with you we can also use it uh to refer to a person so can i check in with you about this later or will you check in with me later we usually say check in with please be careful this is different from check-in to a hotel totally different meaning here at work check in with someone or check in about something so check in with someone means to give someone an update to share new information with them check in about means to share new information probably with someone like in a meeting about a specific project so you can use check in with or check in about something go through go over the next one is go through or go over we can use go through or go over these both mean to review something like i want to go through your essay with you or i want to go over the latest draft with you i want to go through our new policies with everyone in the company i want to go over some changes that are going to happen so it means review usually like review plus maybe explain it means to do this in detail usually too so introduce some new ideas review some old ideas perhaps and have a chance to discuss things so to go through or to go over is sort of to examine to review to look at some information with somebody so we can also say i want to go over this with you later or can we go through this together later so it means to look in detail to examine something clock in clock out the next pair of expressions really is clock in and clock out clock in is to check in at your office to clock in means to begin your work day officially to register the time you begin work and to clock out is the opposite to register the time when you leave work when you finish work for the day so when you you maybe depending on your office you have to clock in in other words register or record the time you begin work or arrive at your office and clock out so record the time you leave your office so in a sentence we could say i always forget to clock in to work or what time did i clock out yesterday i totally forgot or it's important to clock in and clock out at the same time every day start up okay so the next phrasal verb is start up start up means begin to begin something please be cautious start up something like start up a new policy or start up a new project means to begin a new project however you may see the noun expression no space between start and up startup maybe you can hear the slight difference in pronunciation when i say the phrasal verb start up there's a disconnect between the words like we need to start up a new project for example however startup is a little bit different startup as a noun means a usually small new company it's big in the news these days startups so startup companies are very small companies they are just beginning that's the nuance of a startup company that's the noun phrase a startup however to start up something sounds a little bit different like we should start up some new projects this year it's more used for like policies projects uh maybe a new product launch um we should start up some new things for example but it means to begin to begin something call back the next phrasal verb is call back call back call back means to return a phone call to return a phone call is call back so some common examples are just uh i'll call you back later or please call me back when you have time um you can separate a call and back like i just said please call me back when you have time you can separate the person receiving the call you can separate call and back and put the person receiving the call between call and back so please call me back when you have time or i'll call you back so this person between call and back is the person receiving the call so uh you should call her back later or um why don't you call your mother back tonight for example you can separate these two that's fine one more example sentence would be i need to call my clients back this afternoon send over the next expression is send over send over means to email or to physically mail something to send over it means to send to someone else's office or to send to someone else's computer send it over there is the idea sending it away from you over to a different building or to a different department please send this over when you have a chance so again just as with callback we can use the expression send over separately we can separate these two words uh please send this over please send the files over please send the documents over or please send over the documents both are fine we can use both of them here so send over just means mail or send something in another example sentence hey can you send over the updated files clean up clean out the next phrasal verb is really a pair it's clean up or clean out we can use clean up and clean out these are a little bit different but i put them together because they both use the word clean so to clean up something means to tidy or to make it nice again to clean up something like you need to clean up your house we can also use this at home meaning like to wash windows or to to wash dishes or to to make something tidy and clean to get rid of germs to keep germs away to clean up your house to clean up your office to clean up your desk there's a similar phrasal verb however clean out to clean out means to remove everything from some location so if i say i'm cleaning out my desk it has the nuance of i'm removing everything from my desk maybe i'm leaving my job for example maybe i've quit or maybe my desk just has a lot of things i don't need but clean out has the nuance of removing a lot of things we can also use this phrasal verb at home like clean out your closet i'm cleaning out my closet so it cleaning out my closet in that case it means removing everything from your closet the same nuance applies to your desk so to clean out your desk at work means to remove everything you can also use this for the refrigerator like i need to clean out the refrigerator it smells really bad so meaning take everything out clean it and maybe put some things back so clean up is just too tidy clean out is like a deep clean of something make up for the next phrasal verb is make up make up usually make up for please be careful not makeup as in like things that we put on our face to change our appearance makeup but make up for something so to make up for means to compensate to compensate so if there's been a problem in a project for example like a delay or a schedule change or some some unexpected thing happens and you need to compensate for that you need to make some changes to fix that problem you can use the phrasal verb make up for so for example our project was delayed because our president got sick for example we need to make up for lost time so we follow make up for with the item that is the problem so in my example sentence we need to make up for lost time lost time is the problem we lost time it should be a noun phrase we lost time on the project we need to compensate for it so we need to make up for lost time or we need to make up for the mistake that we made last week or we need to make up for lost sales last quarter for example angry first is the word angry angry so angry is the most basic word you can use i feel angry she is angry he is angry it's the basic level of a negative and slightly aggressive feeling my dog looks angry my boss was angry um we use it to talk about that feeling so in a sentence my mother was really angry with me furious next is furious furious so furious means very angry so instead of saying i'm very angry you can say i'm furious this sounds much stronger it's one word it means very angry but it sounds like much stronger than just very angry so angry is aggressive and negative furious is like the next level or maybe two levels up so like my boss was furious at the team for their mistake or my neighbors were furious with me for my huge pool party last night or i was furious with my brother for locking me out of the house for example uh one more my teacher is furious with us today mad the next word is mad mad mad is like going back down to that sort of basic level angry and mad or pretty much the same thing mad sounds like a word a little kid would use though like i'm so mad right now or i'm so mad i can't do this or it's like it's it's like unhappy with a little bit of aggressive so it means angry really but um a lot of adults don't really use the word mad it sounds more childish the word mad does like i'm really mad right now or i'm mad at you or she's mad at him or something like that it sounds a little bit childish the word mad so another example sentence i'm so mad i lost my keys upset the next word is upset upset this is a really useful word we can use it to mean angry yes but upset means just that you are different from the regular like your regular personality your regular level of emotion like your calm state if you feel disappointed or you feel sad or you feel angry you can use the word upset to describe that it means you're just not in the right place you're not quite in balance upset so we can use the word upset actually as a verb it's kind of an old meaning but like if i use my water bottle my thermos whatever as an example the verb upset means to move something from its correct position like so in my case i could say like i upset my water bottle when i moved my arm so i moved it from its correct position we can use the word as an adjective then too i'm upset meaning my emotions have been moved from their original or their correct position so we can use it to mean angry too like i'm so upset with my boss right now or i'm so upset with myself as well so we usually say like i'm upset with something or someone in another example sentence i'm really upset pissed off okay warning next one is a little bit rude a little bit rude but you might hear it in uh in british english and you'll hear it in american english as well um it's it's sort of light on the scale of rude words but um the expression is pissed off pissed off so to say i'm really pissed off it's a casual word but it's uh it's considered a rude word i would say it's considered a curse word in some families so to mean i'm pissed off is like it's usually for um a fairly small thing that creates a lot of anger so maybe if for example someone in your team or one of your friends makes a really really silly mistake or just just there's no reason for this mistake but it creates a huge problem you might say ah i'm so pissed off at that person right now or i'm just so pissed off my feeling is that so it's typically not for a really really serious problem i suppose you could use it in that way but it usually has this like a very casual slangy rough feeling about it so do not use this at work don't use this with people that you respect it is not a polite phrase but you might hear it actually in tv shows and in movies and in other media pissed off i'm really pissed off right now so please be careful that's what it means in a sentence sounds like the neighbor is really pissed off seething with rage next expression is seething with rage seething with rage so i included a rather formal kind of like spooky sort of a little bit scary expression here so like seething it sounds like your whole body is just filled it's like it's your body is almost moving because of how angry you are so rage is a noun rage means a very very high level of anger so we talked about the word furious near the beginning of this lesson furious is an adjective rage is a noun so anger is like an aggressive unhappy feeling anger as a noun rage is like a few levels up there so seething your body is seething with rage it's like your body is shaking it's like your body is almost moving out of control because you are so angry so this is a really serious issue this is a serious level seething with rage however this is not an expression that's commonly used in speech we would use this in writing more often than not you might hear this in writing or perhaps in maybe formal expressions i don't think i've ever used this expression myself to talk about my experience or my feelings but perhaps i could talk about it if maybe maybe i see a fight happen for example i could say whoa that guy is like those guys were like seething with rage for example so i don't know to me it sounds a little bit too formal to use for everyday conversations but if you if you're writing a story for example or you're reading a story and you want to really communicate a strong level of anger you can say seething with rage in a sentence that guy at the bar was seething with rage he was scary okay next one livid the next word is livid livid livid is an adjective i am livid right now so livid means angry but i think livid is like between angry and furious so livid to me has the impression of maybe like extremely angry and maybe you'll you'll shout and or like your voice the volume of your voice will pick up like just live it um about something so yeah very angry about a mistake about something bad that happened um so it's i don't think it's quite at the level of furious uh maybe it's just a little bit below furious but um like my boss was livid when he saw the reports from last month for example so like maybe shouting or screaming or something like that so it's not in my head anyway the image is that there's like a high-volume reaction um someone who is livid maybe has a very loud voice in that case in another sentence some guy at the station was livid over a ticket charge lose one's temper okay the next expression is kind of a set expression to lose one's temper to lose your temper so temper is like think of temper as your anger control your anger control so for you to lose your temper it means you lose control of your anger and you begin to shout or scream or cry maybe to lose your temper is to lose control of your angry feelings so this is a very common expression like my boss lost his temper with the management yesterday or my mom lost her temper when the dog ran into the house with dirty feet or i don't know i lost my temper when my computer wouldn't start this morning for example so you lose control of your anger in another sentence she lost her temper when her computer crashed and her work disappeared go off on someone the next expression is go off on someone to go off on someone this is a very casual expression very casual that we use in american english in past tense we'll say he went off or she went off on someone so to go off uh the idea is like you can maybe think of it as go off like a bomb uh if it helps like like a bomb could go off like a bomb could explode so to go off on someone is like to lose your temper at someone um so it's losing your temper at the direction or in the direction of some person but we use the expression on that person so my boss went off on me today for all of my mistakes over the last month i don't know that's not true or like my neighbor went off on the delivery guy for being three hours late um i don't know something that causes another person they lose their temper at someone or something in another sentence my boss went off on one of my co-workers this afternoon have a heated argument the last expression is have a heated argument have a heated argument so here the word heated is in there heated like hot so meaning hot like aggressive so a high level maybe like a high temperature argument so to have an argument and to have a heated argument are similar heated just sounds like it's there's a little more intensity in the argument so you can have an argument or you can have a discussion whatever argument sounds stronger than discussion heated argument therefore is perhaps the next level of that kind of discussion or argument so um the neighbors are having a heated argument over there or i heard my boss and the ceo having a heated argument in the conference room one more sentence i got into a heated argument with one of my friends re the first prefix is re re r e re means again so we see the word re in like redo or replay or re-imagine or recreate for example so it means to do the base word again so whatever you see re in front of or not everything but if you see re before a base word like that it can mean to do that thing again so in a sentence i have to redo my homework anti the next prefix is anti anti or you might hear anti as well anti or anti both are fine um but it means against or in opposition to or like kind of the opposite of something so against against anti so we see this in like um antifreeze or antisocial or anti-inflammatory or antibiotics so they all mean against something um so like the word antifreeze for example means like against freezing so it's a it's antifreeze is a product that prevents a liquid from freezing for example an antibiotic is a medicine that we take to kill like bad microorganisms in our body germs in other words so we see bio in that word so relating to like biology antisocial refers to someone who does not like social situations they are against social situations an anti-inflammatory another type of medicine is against inflammation so inflammation can mean like swelling or like turning you red for example so anti means against something we see anti before words which mean like opposing or against that thing in a sentence my boss is anti-overtime dis so the next prefix is dis dis so dis essentially this means not so we see this in words like disrespect or disapprove or disconnect or like disagree for example so these words all mean not plus the base word so like disagree for example means to not agree or disconnect means to not connect so something is not connected to the other thing disrespect means to not respect something for example so dis means not plus that base word in a sentence a good editor should be disinterested x the next prefix is x x x means former former so something that was once true is not true anymore we see this very commonly in relationships so for example my ex-husband ex-wife ex-girlfriend ex-boyfriend ex-boss so all of these mean my former something my former boyfriend my former girlfriend my former boss my former roommate for example in a sentence the x-ceo was in the news this week mid the next prefix is mid mid so mid means like in the middle of or during something so we can see this in a word like uh midnight or mid-summer for example or mid-morning so meaning in the middle of or roughly in the middle of something during that time period midnight means in the middle of the night or mid-morning it's like in the middle of the morning so all of these refer to mid something we can also use it for like an action like mid-meal for example or she was a mid-presentation when the phone rang for example so mid means in the middle of something in a sentence i was mid-breakfast when i heard the news ill the next one is ill ill so ill means again not or it's like a negative prefix it means uh the base word but not that base word so we see this in words like illogical or illegible or illegal for example so these all mean not plus the base word so illogical means not logical ill legible illegible means unable to read legible means readable illegible means cannot read that thing unable to read that illegal means not legal in other words so an action that is against the law so ill means not in a sentence highly illogical captain that's a star trek reference the next prefix is also means not it means not words that fit this pattern for example could be impossible or impeccable or improbable or imperfect for example so again it means not so imperfect means not perfect uh impossible means not possible so im means not it means not in a sentence this is impossible the next prefix is in in so again in also means not it's a negative prefix that we use there are a lot of words that start with this in meaning not so like inconsiderate incapable inconceivable inappropriate so they all mean not plus the base word for example like the word inappropriate means not appropriate so behavior that is not appropriate in a certain situation or incapable means not capable someone cannot do something they are expected to do so in means not plus our base meaning the opposite then of that meaning in a sentence he's incapable of running the country ear the next prefix is ear ear so the pronunciation is ear even though it's ir ear for example we see this in like irresponsible or irredeemable or irregular so again this means not something so irresponsible means not responsible irregular not regular irredeemable is something that cannot be made up we cannot redeem that thing so ear is another negative prefix meaning not or no in a sentence your behavior was irresponsible none the next prefix is non-non-n-o-n so n-o-n is a prefix again it means not or against or like i shouldn't say against so none also means not something so for example we see it in a word like nonsense or like non-sequential or non-sequitur so these are words that all mean like not something so for example non-sense means no sense essentially not sense uh non-sequitur so sequitur the base there is like think of the word sequence we see that same sort of base in sequence as we see in non-sequitur and that actually comes from the latin meaning like to follow something so it non-sequitur means like it does not follow so a non-sequitur means something that just it's not part of the conversation it's like a random comment is a non-sequitur so it does not follow non-sequitur is one so non means not or no in a sentence this is nonsense break fracture the first word is break or fracture so these two verbs are used interchangeably actually they both refer to a broken bone or a fractured bone so two pieces of bone become separated or a bone becomes broken so fractured it comes apart so to break a bone in present tense is i broke a bone in past tense fracture is a regular verb which means the past tense is fractured so in a sentence i broke my wrist when i fell snowboarding that's true that's true i broke my wrist when i fell snowboarding and that inspired today's lesson spraying the next word is spraying spraying to spraying something refers to a refers to hurting or to injuring a ligament so a ligament are these sort of like fibrous things like kind of uh they connect they're the parts of the body inside your body they connect bones to muscles or bones to or to like organs they hold the parts of the body together inside so a sprain is damaged to a ligament a sprain so we can say um for example to sprain a part of the body a specific part of the body um some common examples come from sports injuries like he sprained his ankle playing basketball last week or i sprained my wrist uh working in the garden or something i don't know but i think a sprain happens when you push the like the joint or you push that part of the body beyond the possible or the reasonable range of motion so my example sentence i already said it but he sprained his ankle at the basketball game last week bruce the next word is bruise bruise so a bruise refers to taking like a taking an impact something that's not a sharp impact it's usually like a blunt impact i suppose i don't know kind of depends but anyway a bruise we can use it as a noun or as a verb actually uh to bruise something means you damage usually like uh this the a certain area of skin and blood collects under the skin creating like a black or blue or maybe even like greenish color purple maybe to use it as a noun we can say that that spot is a bruise we refer to that damaged area as a bruise to use it as a verb however we can say i bruised my arm or i bruised my leg so to bruise something means to cause damage but it's like under the skin we can see the color change because of the damage the blood collecting there so that's to bruise something in a sentence i bruised my arm when i ran into the door cut the next word is cut cut so cut is done with a sharp object a cut a cut refers to an injury which causes blood to emerge usually unless it's a very shallow cut shallow is the opposite of deep so a cut is caused by a sharp object so a knife is probably the most common thing that comes to mind when talking about cuts though another very common type of cut is is called a paper cut as a noun so uh if you've ever tried to take a piece of paper and the pa the piece of paper has kind of made a small cut on your hand that's called a paper cut a paper cut so it's that kind of slice motion that injures the body is a cut all right in a sentence be careful not to cut yourself when using a knife wound the next word is wound wound so a wound is just a place of injury on the body um we have a couple of different words we can use to be specific about wounds they're like an open wound and a closed wound i suppose you could say but usually people say things like don't touch open wounds so an open wound is usually like a fresh wound so something has been recently damaged on the body recently injured and the wound is fresh maybe we can see blood or maybe we can see into the body or something that's considered an open wound so a closed wound would be perhaps a wound which has been fixed by a doctor or for small wounds like maybe the body has created a new layer over the top of the wound that's called a scab you you scabs ew but that's that's not an open wound then but we should still care for it so a wound is a place on the body that is injured in some way a wound um that's used as a noun we can also use wound as a verb which means to hurt something like um i wounded my arm but wound is not so common i think in everyday speech instead we use the verb hurt i hurt my arm but i'll talk more about this later so in a sentence don't touch open wounds injure the next word is injure injure so i've been talking a little bit about the word injure to injure means to hurt a part of the body so to injure your arm to injure your head to injure your neck these mean to take damage on that part of the body to injure something um so it's typically a bad thing to injure something the noun form of this word is injury injury so i have an injury we use this word more with uh like perhaps sports i guess military yeah i guess so um but for for every day like just small i don't know for small injuries i suppose like paper cuts for example or like maybe a cooking accident i suppose we don't really say injury we will say we'll use the verb um hurt actually again i'll talk about that word a little later but injury injury is damaged taking damage to a part of the body in a sentence she injured her shoulder this morning tear the next word is tear tear be careful this word is spelled t-e-a-r it looks like tear but used as a verb it is tear tear to talk about an injury so a tear if you can imagine like a piece of paper when we want to uh separate it into two pieces we can tear the piece of paper now imagine that same idea but with a muscle in the body so a muscle tear refers to that kind of damage to the muscle so quite painful i think you can imagine so to tear a muscle uh requires yeah some serious recovery time i imagine i have never torn a muscle yeah that's a good point the past participle form is torn torn have you ever torn a muscle uh or the past tense the past tense is tor i tore my shoulder muscle last week i don't know awful awful in a sentence tearing a muscle is painful pull pull pull so we use pull again with muscles but this is different from tear so to tear a muscle refers to this kind of break motion so to pull a muscle means to stretch a muscle too much so it the muscle is like just taken beyond uh its limits essentially and so it kind of causes some discomfort there's kind of a bad feeling in the muscle uh in a sentence i think i pulled a muscle ouch dislocate dislocate dislocate so here we see the word locate referring to location and dis dis which means not in other words so to dislocate something refers to removing a part of the body from its correct position and shifting it slightly so this is something that you hear with joints so a joint is a part of the body where two things come together so for example a shoulder we can talk about the shoulder and dislocate together so if we say a sentence like i think i dislocated my shoulder maybe the correct position of part of the shoulder is to fit into another bone like this but maybe dislocating the shoulder means like it moved this way or i don't know how to dislocate a shoulder but either way the correct position is here the dislocated position is maybe here or here i don't know so the bone is not broken there's no crack there's no break there it's just a shift in position so the word we use is dislocate to dislocate something in a sentence he dislocated his shoulder and popped it back into place hurt hurt to hurt something i've talked about this verb a few times already in this lesson but to hurt means to injure or to wound it's like the very general verb that we can use to describe all damage to the body so hurt generally means kind of a small injury like ah i hurt my finger i slammed it in the door or i think i hurt my arm playing tennis last week we usually use this for kind of minor injuries not such big injuries so in this case for example if i say i hurt my wrist it sounds a little too minor actually this is probably a more severe injury i would probably say yeah i i broke my wrist i would use something very specific instead of hurt to refer more generally to just small everyday damage to the body you can say hurt we also use this word to refer to pain in the body too like ow my arm hurts ow my wrist hurts instead of saying painful we use the verb hurts more often so it's less natural to say my wrist is so painful instead we say my wrist hurts it hurts is better than painful so try that out in a sentence i hurt myself a lot on accident i have an idea the first expression is i have an idea i have an idea this is a really general expression you can use to introduce a new idea this is pretty casual but you can use it in slightly more formal situations as well i have an idea let's get thai food for lunch or i have an idea let's go to the beach this weekend i have an idea let's take a nap in this example sentence i have an idea let's start a company i've been thinking the next expression is i've been thinking i've been thinking you can use this to say i've been thinking and then begin an idea or you can say i've been thinking about topic i've been thinking about topics so i've been thinking about finding a new job or i've been thinking what do you want to do for summer vacation so you can use it in a couple of different ways i've been thinking about or i've been thinking both are okay so in this sentence i've been thinking about baking a cake all day here's a thought the next word is here's a thought here's a thought so again this is a word you can use to introduce an idea here is a thought in other words here is an idea a thought from my mind here you are here's a thought so you can use this to introduce an idea you have had here's a thought why don't you get a haircut in this example sentence here's a thought why don't you take tomorrow off what do you think the next expression is what do you think what do you think very common way to ask for someone's opinion what do you think we connect the words do and you quite closely in this expression what do you think what do you think sounds much more natural than what do you think so try to use what do you think so this is uh this is just a general way to ask for someone else's opinion about anything really in a sentence i kind of want to eat something spicy for lunch what do you think you want to know what i think the next expression is you want to know what i think so this is sort of a like a challenge almost like it's asking the other person do you want to know my opinion do you want to know what i think because i'll tell you only if you want to know so you want to know what i think or you can drop wanna and say you know what i think so that you becomes ya you know what i think you know becomes you know so you know what i think or you want to know what i think so it's a little bit of a challenge a little bit of an introduction before you actually share your opinion in a sentence you want to know what i think it's a terrible idea i've thought about this a lot the next expression is i've thought about this a lot i've thought about this a lot in this expression we're actually using the present perfect tense i've thought i've thought so that's i have thought about this meaning i started thinking about this in the past and my thinking has continued to the present i've thought about this a lot so this implies this tells the listener it's something that has been on your mind for a while i've thought about this a lot so your opinion is based on all of this past thinking so something you have been thinking about for a long time in a sentence i've thought about this a lot and i really think you should quit the company i have no idea i have no idea i have no idea means i don't know but i have no idea means zero i have no information no ideas i can't think of anything absolutely nothing no idea i have no idea so this is typically used in response to a question for information like where's your brother i have no idea like what did you do with the keys i have no idea so some things like you just you have no information absolutely no information you can say i have no idea i don't know please note though that the idea part of the sentence is in the singular form i have no idea we'll talk about why in just a moment but i have no idea to refer to having no information about something in another sentence the best hotel in the city i have no idea i have no ideas the next expression is i have no ideas i have no ideas so here different from i have no idea we're using the plural form ideas ideas meaning someone is asking you for a proposal someone is asking you like to create something to make something perhaps so um they're asking for a suggestion and if you don't have any suggestions nothing to propose you can say i have no ideas i have no idea so what do you want to do this weekend i have no ideas or what do you want to eat for lunch i have no ideas really so if you don't have any ideas nothing to propose you can use this with an s at the end of ideas in another sentence something to do this weekend i have no ideas i don't know the next expression is i don't know i don't know so michael and i talked about this in an episode of english topics many years ago but i don't know is i don't know the casual contracted version of i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know so we use this when we don't know the answer to something i don't know or when we just want to kind of like relieve pressure or when we're when when we're out of things to say as well i don't know so when we're like not feeling sure not feeling confident as well we can use this phrase in a sentence why are you asking me i don't know i knew it the last expression is i knew it i knew it so here we're using the past tense of no the verb to know something meaning to understand or to comprehend we're using the past tense new i knew it so we use this expression when we guessed correctly about something or when something we thought was true uh is proven to be correct so i knew it i knew it so this is typically said with a positive positive voice you hear this a lot in movies as well i think all right in a sentence you had my keys i knew it let's begin with the basic definition of this verb the basic definition of the verb to put is to place something in a location examples put your bag over there don't put your feet on the sofa let's look at some conjugations for this verb now present put puts past put past participle put progressive pudding let's talk about some additional meanings for the verb to put the first one is to write to write examples put your name on this line she put her name on the list so when we say put in this way we refer to writing so you're adding some information to a written document or a typed document as well so it can mean to write or like to type information so put your name on this line means like write your name or type your name on this line in the second example sentence she put her name on the list it means the same thing she wrote her name on a list or she added her name to a list in some way it means writing information okay let's go on to the second additional meaning the second additional meaning is to use words to express something to use words to express something examples how should i put this you're putting it quite simply so we can replace the word put with express like how should i express this in the first example sentence but we use put because put sounds much less formal than express how should i express this it sounds way too formal way too polite instead we say how should i put this we use that uh expression when we're not quite sure how to say something like we're maybe talking about a sensitive topic and we don't know the correct words to use or it's difficult to explain you can say how should i put this in the second example sentence you're putting it quite simply it means you're expressing things quite simply so maybe it's a complex situation but the listener is explaining things or expressing things maybe too simply so the speaker in this case could say you're putting it quite simply okay let's go on to the third meaning the third meaning is rather open and kind of vague which is to cause to be in a situation to cause to be in a situation let's look at some examples this change puts the whole company at risk your terrible driving puts us all in danger so in these examples we see put is used to refer to a situation that some group of people or some person is caused to be in so in the first example sentence this change puts the whole company at risk this change causes the whole company to be at risk in a situation of risk in a condition of risk we use put to refer to that to refer to being caused to be in the situation of risk the second example sentence is the same your terrible driving this is the reason why the people are in danger in this example sentence your terrible driving puts us all in danger your terrible driving causes us all to be in a condition of danger it's very clumsy but we use the verb put to make this quite short and easy to say your terrible driving puts us all in danger okay there are so many variations so many phrasal verbs to use with put yeah so check a dictionary for more these are just a few i'm going to introduce but check a dictionary for this the first variation for the verb put is put aside to put aside so to put aside means to stop thinking about something to seize or to pause an activity while you do something else examples put aside your worries and relax for a day i put my phone aside and tried to focus on my work so in both of these example sentences we see that one thing is kind of being moved away from the focus so for example in the first example sentence put aside your worries it means like stop thinking about your worries like put those to the side in your mind like like uh don't think about those things for a while so in the second example sentence i'm talking about my phone where i'm saying i can literally put my phone aside put my phone to the side of the thing i'm doing and focus on my work i put my phone aside so we can use this to talk about a concept in our minds or to talk about a physical object as well okay let's go on to the next variation so the next variation is to put someone down it means to disrespect someone or to make fun of someone to make them feel bad about themselves some examples don't put down your classmates it's rude his boss keeps putting him down in front of his co-workers so in both of these examples we see situations where one person is being disrespected by another person so don't put down your classmates it's rude so this in this case the listener is maybe a kid in school who is disrespectful to his or her classmates so a parent or a teacher might say don't put down meaning don't disrespect your classmates don't be mean to your classmates don't make fun of your classmates so you know be kind to them in other words don't put down your classmates you could also say don't put your classmates down if you like that's fine too in the second example sentence we see a work situation like his boss always puts him down in front of his co-workers means the boss disrespects this person in front of his co-workers so it's a disrespectful situation okay but one point about this the expression to put someone down refers to disrespect with regard to humans however when talking about animals like we had to put the cat down we had to put the dog down it means usually due to some serious sickness or some serious injury or illness the owners of the pet usually a pet or the animal decide that the pet should have doctor assisted death so to put down an animal means to choose to allow the animal to die peacefully instead of suffering so we used that expression i had to put my cat down this is a much more soft expression than the doctor killed my cat which is essentially what happens but it's because of some kind of suffering or some kind of illness or injury the owner wants to prevent we use the expression to put an animal down in those cases we do not use this for people we don't say i had to put my brother down though we do actually have an expression for babies which which we use when we put babies to bed like i'm going to put down the baby for bed we do have that but please be cautious of the differences between animals and humans with this expression to put someone down has very different meanings okay let's go on to the next variation which is to put up with to put up with means to tolerate something examples i don't want to put up with this crazy schedule anymore don't put up with their bad behavior in these examples put up with refers to tolerating or being able to stand something or continuing to live with something in the first example sentence i can't put up with this crazy schedule anymore means i don't want to live with this crazy schedule anymore i can't stand it i don't want to do it anymore in the second example sentence don't put up with their bad behavior it means don't tolerate their bad behavior so put up with something means like to continue living with something and we often see it in the negative form as in don't put up with something let's begin with the basic definition of this verb the basic definition of carry is to move while holding or supporting something examples can you carry this bag i always carry a pen okay let's look at the conjugations for this verb present carry carries past carried past participle carried progressive carrying now let's talk about some additional meanings for this verb the first additional meaning is to move a person or an object from one place to another example veins carry blood throughout the body the bust carried the children to school so here we see objects and people being moved from one place to another through or via or by something else and we use the verb carry to describe that in the first example sentence veins carry blood throughout the body veins are the like you can see them on your arm usually blue colored they're the kind of like pipes i guess you could say like imagine them as pipes that carry blood so blood travels through the body through these veins so we can say veins carry blood through the body so veins are the method through which blood moves throughout the body so veins are carrying the blood we kind of can imagine in that way they're caring they're responsible for carrying the blood so we can say that veins are kind of responsible for moving blood around the body we can use the verb carry to explain that in the second example sentence the bus carried the kids to school the bus is the method of transport for the kids so the kids are moving from one place to another place the bus is the method of movement so the bus carried the kids to school we can use carrie to talk about this transportation the second additional meaning is to have a gene or illness examples rodents are known to carry rabies some people carry diseases they don't know about in the first example sentence we see rodents are known to carry rabies so rodents are like small like rats or mice those kinds of dirty sort of creatures wild creatures rabies is a disease a serious illness that like causes you to behave strangely and your body has really strange problems too i won't talk about rabies that much not so important here but rodents are known to carry rabies so the um the small like the biological parts the things that cause rabies they carry that illness rodents are known to carry so it doesn't mean carry like a backpack really but carry a gene or carry an illness carry a sickness inside the body in this case rodents are known to carry the sickness that is rabies inside their bodies in the second example sentence some people carry diseases they don't know about it means some people have diseases in their body but they don't know about the disease so you can imagine like we carry the disease we hold it in our body and we move around but we don't know about it we use the verb carry to talk about this let's move on to the third meaning the third additional meaning is to make something a success to make something a success examples his leadership carried the team through a difficult time her performance carries the show so in both of these examples we see that someone carried something so someone caused something to be successful because of their actions or because of their leadership as we see in the first example sentence so his leadership carried the team through a difficult time means the team was successful in a difficult time because of his leadership but we use the verb carry to mean that so we can kind of imagine that this one person in this case his leadership his leadership and his abilities to be a good leader in other words were kind of the thing that carried the team so we can imagine the whole team is on top of this one guy's leadership skill so he is responsible for making the team a success in a difficult time so we use carrie to explain that in the second example sentence her performance carried the show it means her performance was so good it was so important that the show was a success because of it so without her performance maybe the show would not have been successful but her performance was really really good her performance made the show a success her performance carried the show the fourth meaning of this verb is to reach a distance to reach a distance this can be like sound or it can be something physical some examples of this the sound of the thunder carried 20 kilometers ash from the volcano carried into the air so here we're not actually carrying a physical object in the first example sentence it's sound traveling so the sound of thunder carried 20 kilometers it means we were able to hear the sound of thunder 20 kilometers away from the source so the sound carried in other words we use carry to refer to sound traveling a distance in the second example sentence ash from the volcano carried into the air it means the ash from the volcano moved into the air we could even say like the ash from the volcano carried into the next city for example so it traveled into the next city it traveled some distance but we can use carry to talk about that as well let's move on to some variations for this verb so the first variation is to get carried away to get carried away this means to get too excited or too involved in something usually it has like a positive meaning we get carried away because we're excited about something but let's look at some examples first i got a little carried away baking last night he got carried away listening to music both of these examples are pretty innocent in the first example sentence we see i got a little carried away baking last night it's like i baked too much last night the idea is that i was too excited about my baking and i baked too much or maybe i stayed up too late making something i got carried away with it i did too much of it because i was so interested in this thing in the second example sentence he got carried away listening to music it maybe means he spent too much time listening to music maybe he forgot to do his homework or he forgot to go to work or he was late for work or something because he was carried away he was so interested in listening to music he forgot something or he did too much of it in other words so this generally just means that you're too excited about something or too involved in something so it can have a positive meaning the next variation is to carry over to carry over means to continue into the next period to continue into the next period examples unused data will carry over into the next month my airline miles carried over into this year so these two expressions both use like points or miles or some kind of data in the first example sentence it's like a mobile phone contract unused data will carry over into the next month if for example i have one gig of data available on my mobile phone every month but i only use 500 megabytes i have 500 megabytes remaining that's my unused data that amount carries over to the next month that means i have one gigabyte plus 500 megabytes of data to use in the next month so carry over means that amount continues to the next period we see the same thing in the second example sentence my airline miles carried over into this year meaning my airline miles from the previous year carried over or continued into this year so maybe i didn't use those miles last year but they continued into this year and i can still use them so carrying over means continuing something we see it a lot in like credit card contracts or like mileage plans or data plans anything with data points numbers we might see that sort of thing the basic definition of the verb catch is to gain hold of something that is traveling through the air moving through the air usually examples she caught the ball catch this let's look at the conjugations for this verb present catch catches caught past participle caught progressive catching now let's talk about some additional meanings for this verb the first additional meaning for this verb is to find or see someone doing something wrong some examples i caught you trying to steal from the company safe have you ever been caught eating late at night so in both of these example sentences we see behavior being discovered that is wrong in some way in the first example sentence i caught you trying to steal from the company safe someone was discovered trying to steal from the company's safe that was a bad behavior so we use the verb catch in this case past tense caught i caught you meaning i discovered you i saw you doing this thing that was bad we see the same thing in the second example sentence but it's phrased as a question have you ever been caught eating late at night so eating late at night is kind of considered to be unhealthy is not typically a good behavior so we can use the verb catch in this case caught have you ever been cosh a past participle form to express this question have you ever been caught eating late at night let's move on to the second additional meaning for this verb which is to be held or stuck to something so examples my jacket got caught on the door i caught my hair on a hook so both of these examples refer to something on our bodies like the first example sentence is about a jacket but we can use it for clothing so it's like if your clothing gets caught on something this is my shirt is caught on my finger right now i would say so it's stuck here i can't move it so i have to release it from my finger we use cot to talk about that my second example sentence was about my hair like i got my hair caught on a hook or i caught my hair on a hook it's somehow stuck or attached to something else so we use catch to talk about this of course we can use it with other things like headphones for example like i always catch my headphones on doorknobs that is true like the doorknobs to like or door handles like my headphones like will wrap around as i'm leaving the house and like ah i can get stuck on that that happens all the time so you can use it to talk about your body parts your clothing or just other objects too that get held in place on accident with catch i got something caught on something else the third additional meaning for this verb is to be able to hear something to be able to hear something examples i didn't catch what you said she couldn't catch any of the announcements in the noisy train station so this means to be able to hear something in the first example sentence it's a negative i didn't catch what you said in other words i was not able to hear what you said i didn't catch what you said or i didn't catch that means i couldn't hear you in other words in the second example sentence it's about a noisy train station where a person cannot catch the announcements can't hear the announcements i can't quite catch what the announcements are saying so that means it's difficult to hear or it's difficult to understand the announcements because it's a noisy environment so catch can mean be able to hear something okay the fourth additional meaning for this verb is to start burning like to start a fire specifically examples his house caught fire late last night the curtains caught fire because they were too close to a candle so to catch fire means to start fire to start something burning to catch fire is the moment that a flame appears somewhere so catching fire is not um like kind of the smoldering coals not like the glowing coals in something but it's actual flame so to start a fire it's like that moment of wow like there's suddenly heat and there's suddenly you know like a candle for example the candle we can light a candle on fire though i should say we tend to use the expression catches fire or something caught fire because of an accident so we don't say like um i went camping and the wood caught on fire we use caught on fire for like something that was maybe not on purpose so in my two example sentences the first one his house caught on fire late last night he wasn't planning for his house to go up in flames but it happened in the second example sentence it's curtains too close to a candle so there's kind of this nuance of an accident a bad accident if you don't want to imply an accident if you want to show that something was on purpose you can use the verb light past tense lit like i lit a fire with a lighter or let's light a fire in the barbecue for example so to light a fire is on purpose for something to catch fire sounds like oh it was maybe an accident or not on purpose let's move on to some variations for this verb now the first variation is to catch someone's eye to catch someone's eye this means to attract attention usually for a positive reason examples that sail caught my eye an advertisement for a wine party caught his eye so this is kind of a strange expression when you think about it like to catch someone's eyes like kind of gross like you imagine like someone's eyeball catching an eyeball but actually it just means drawing the attention of the eye so in the first example sentence it's about a sale the sale caught my eye so meaning i saw an advertisement for a sale my eye was attracted to the advertisement for that the second example sentence is the same an advertisement for a wine party caught his eye so there's some wine party tasting wines whatever for whatever reason it attracts his eyes it attracts his vision so he looks at it we say it caught his eye attracts attention usually for a positive reason so the second variation is to catch up with to catch up with so this is an expression that means to talk about life since the last time you met some examples i caught up with a friend from elementary school let's catch up again soon so catching up with someone refers to talking with another person or talking with other people about the recent events in your life so from the last time you saw someone what have you done so if you haven't seen someone since elementary school as in the first example sentence you talk about all the things that you have done since elementary school so maybe that's a long time for some of you or if it's somebody that you have seen recently you could try using the second example sentence let's catch up again soon meaning maybe after a few weeks or a month or so you want to meet that person again and find out what they did so this is a nice expression that's like you want to know what the other person is doing or what they have done since the last time you saw them let's catch up the basic definition of this verb is to put something in a specified location examples i placed my cup on the desk she placed her earrings next to the bed let's look at the conjugations for this verb present place places past placed past participle placed progressive placing now let's talk about some additional meanings for this verb so let's look at the first additional meaning of this it's to make to make this is commonly used as to make an order or to make a bet let's look at some examples of this place your bets she placed an order for 50 plates of fried rice so here we see place being used to mean make the first example sentence place your bets that's an example of a sentence you'll hear at a casino so dealers card dealers inside casinos will often begin a card game by saying place your bets to the people who are playing which means make your bet or decide on an amount of money you want to play for this game they use the verb place place your bets maybe you'll hear make your bet but i think place your bet is probably the most common expression used in the second example we see placed an order she placed an order you can substitute make here you can say she made an order for but to place an order this is just a different way to say it to me place an order sounds a little more polite than make an order like you could use both on the phone i suppose like i'd like to make an order for i'd like to place an order for both would be okay to me place sounds maybe a little bit more polite but it means to make something to make an order or in the first example to make a bet the second additional meaning is to recognize to recognize this meaning as you'll see in the example sentences is often in the negative form let's look at some examples i feel like i've seen that guy somewhere before but i just can't place him i can't place this quote who said it so here we see place being used to mean like recognize or we can't quite understand the origin of that person or that thing in the first example sentence we see i just can't place him we're talking about someone's face so if you know someone's face but maybe you can't remember the name or in this case you don't remember where you met that person or your connection to that person you can say i just can't place him meaning i don't know why i know this person but i recognize his face so here we see the negative this is commonly used in the negative i can't place him in the second example sentence i can't place this quote means i don't know where this quote originated from or i don't know where this quote came from so maybe it's a famous person who said the quote but i just can't remember who that is i can't like recognize i can't uh recall where this information came from i can't place this quote so this means to recognize in these cases okay the third additional meaning is to put in a certain condition or state examples the court placed him under arrest she was placed on a strict contract so in both of these example sentences we see some condition being set in the first example we see placed under arrest placed under arrest means the person involved was put in the condition of arrest placed under arrest in the second example sentence she was placed on a strict contract it means she was put into a condition of a strict contract so we use placed to refer to that so to place can mean to put someone or something into a state or into a condition the fourth additional meaning is to find someone a location to live or work examples we haven't placed the young man yet they're placing the family next week so in these example sentences someone is looking for a spot to live or a spot to work for another person there are two groups or two parties involved here in the first example sentence we haven't placed the young man yet it means the speaker or the group involved with the speaker is looking for a location for the young man in the situation to live or work so what is the situation this does seem kind of strange perhaps but in some countries maybe it's similar in your country there may be kind of like protection services especially for children and for families who have had like legal trouble or trouble with like dangerous people in their lives and they need to be relocated to a new city or to a new workplace so there are services for families like that for individuals like that that's a situation where we might use this word we also might see this in like schools for example if you are looking for a location looking for a classroom looking for a dorm or something for a student so one person is responsible for finding a place for finding a location for another person we can use place to talk about that in the second example sentence they're placing the family next week it means they're completing the placing process so that means they have found a place they have found a location for a family and are going to take the family to that location next week so to place is to find a location for someone let's move on to some variations for this verb the first variation is to find one's place to find one's place this means to determine how to fit in socially okay examples of this i think i finally found my place she's having trouble finding her place at school so here we're seeing examples that involve someone finding their social position so to find one's place means to find a nice position a position that's appropriate for them in their society or within their life in the first example i think i finally found my place we see past tense found my place which means i've discovered this position is best for me in the second example sentence she's having trouble finding her place at school it means she's having trouble positioning herself within the society that is her school like she has her school life and she hasn't quite discovered yet the best uh location for her the best way to fit in with the people around her so this refers to your societal position in your small or big society the next variation is to know one's place to no one's place this refers to understanding your status in society and it's typically used to refer to people who are below others as well like we typically don't use this to talk about people who are above us we might use it to talk about ourselves in reference to being below someone or someone from a higher position might talk about the people below them oftentimes with a kind of disrespect let's look at some examples he made sure his workers always knew their place i know my place that restaurant is way too nice for me to visit so here we see examples of people behaving or being expected to behave in accordance with their social status in the first one he made sure his workers always knew their place the nuance here is that he is like some kind of boss or like authority figure and the others the workers which we see workers indicates they're below him they know their place so in other words they know that their role they know that their status in society is lower and he wants to make sure they know that so this has a bit of an air of disrespect about it in the second example sentence it's a person talking about himself or herself i know my place that restaurant is too nice for me meaning i know that i am societally of a level below the level required to visit that restaurant so in other words i shouldn't go there it's too nice it's too expensive it's too fancy for me i know my place is below that restroom so interesting very interesting listen to the dialogue what do you do i'm an artist listen to it again what do you do i'm an artist first of all you need to learn how to say what do you do what do you do listen to it again what do you do what do you do now how do you answer this question this is the pattern you'll need i'm a i'm in your occupation i'm a and your occupation for example i'm an artist i'm an artist i'm an artist here are a few more professions you can use with the same pattern police officer police officer police officer teacher teacher teacher doctor doctor doctor engineer engineer engineer now listen to some examples what do you do i'm a teacher what do you do i'm a doctor what do you do i am an engineer okay now it's your turn do you remember how to say what do you do what do you do imagine you're a doctor do you remember how to say doctor doctor doctor say i'm a doctor i'm a doctor now answer the questions saying that you are a doctor what do you do i'm a doctor now imagine you're a teacher do you remember how to say teacher teacher teacher say i'm a teacher i'm a teacher now answer the question saying that you are a teacher what do you do i'm a teacher now imagine you're an engineer do you remember how to say engineer engineer engineer say i'm an engineer i am an engineer now answer the question saying that you are an engineer what do you do i am an engineer first question this week comes from sithi hi sithi sithi says hi alicia what is the difference between figure out and find out in terms of meaning and when to use etc okay nice question so first let's look at figure out to figure out means to solve we use figure out when we have a challenging problem or we have like a complex puzzle something that we need to do research on or we need to investigate into a little bit in order to find a solution so to figure out means to solve for example i can't figure out what's wrong with my computer i figured out why the house smelled so bad someone forgot to take out the garbage we need to figure out why the software isn't working so let's compare this to find out to find out means to discover especially when we're talking about a secret or a surprise or something else that we need to hide for some reason you may also hear it used as a neutral way to say discover but you can kind of tell depending on the context so to find out means to discover especially when you're talking about a secret for example my parents found out i left the house late last night my boss found out one of our employees has been stealing hey i found out about a great new restaurant in the neighborhood want to go so we don't use these words interchangeably in some to figure something out means to solve something like a puzzle or you're finding the solution to a challenge to find out means to discover and it often has a negative meaning as when someone finds information that they were not meant to find so i hope that this helps you understand the difference thanks for the question okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from jerry's song hi jerry jerry says i usually watch tv shows to practice listening but sometimes i can't clearly hear what the characters say even though i know the words when i see them in the subtitles so how do i improve this ah that's a good question keep in mind that there are a few reasons why it might be difficult to understand a character especially in unscripted tv like reality tv where people aren't always speaking clearly the words that people choose and the way that they make sentences may not be perfect so please keep that in mind people in unscripted tv shows often are not speaking clearly or maybe they have a specific accent or a special way that they speak they may also just be stopping and starting in the middle of sentences and that can create some weird sounds too so try to keep in mind that unscripted tv in particular um might not sound as clear as scripted tv it might not sound as clear as like this youtube channel either so those are a couple of things to keep in mind other things that you can consider though are reductions in speech and just speed of speech so on this channel we speak at a slower rate than native pace and we also make an effort to speak very clearly to help people as they learn english but native speakers don't do this usually something in general to consider like even though characters may have accents that are difficult to understand even for native speakers something that you can consider for your english learning is to consider reductions in speech so by that i mean the connections that we make between words and the ways that we make words shorter for example i'm going to go to the store to pick up something for dinner that sentence said by a native speaker at native speed would probably sound something like i'm going to go to the store to pick up something for dinner so we've reduced a lot of those sounds together these words like i'm going to go that are very commonly used together are often reduced to i'm going to go or i'm going to go to the so think about these common reductions that you hear on tv and in movies and so on and try to practice those in addition to considering how it looks on the page so yes it's i am going to in the subtitle or i'm going to but at native speed it doesn't sound like that in many cases i'm gonna go to the is how i'm gonna go to the or i'm going to go to the sounds in native speech so another point about reductions in speech is prepositional phrases so those words like to and at and by and even conjunctions like and and but and so on those words tend to get very very short when we're speaking quickly because they're kind of giving us the structure of the sentence so you can think of these sort of structure words as being sort of the background of the sentence and the content words like the nouns and the verbs are kind of taking the focus those are sort of the highlights so these are some other things that you can think of as you're practicing your listening and your speaking with reductions so please keep these things in mind and also keep in mind as i said people speak with different accents too people from different areas of the us speak differently people from different areas of the world speak different kinds of english too so please keep in mind that in some cases it's actually difficult for native speakers as well but another thing that maybe you can work on to kind of advance your listening and even your speaking is to consider reductions so listening for those reductions and then considering how you can use those reductions in your speech as well to sound more natural so that would be my suggestion for improving your listening and improving your speaking as you practice with these reductions in your own speech too so 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 juniodide raza junaidraza hello janae junaid says hello alicia most people are confused about the difference between motivation and inspiration i know there are definitions available in dictionaries but can you differentiate these two words in detail okay sure so inspiration is something that gives us an idea so we use inspiration to create something new inspiration is something that comes naturally it comes from within us so we have an experience we see something or touch something we hear something we smell something taste something whatever we have some kind of experience and it gives us an idea so it comes from like inside us this idea comes from inside us based on this experience that we had so for example my mother's stories were my inspiration for this book or my childhood by the seashore was my inspiration for this dish so these are the things that gave the speaker an idea to create something else in the first example there the speaker's stories were the inspiration for this book so that means the speaker's mother's stories were the thing that gave the speaker the idea in the second example sentence we can imagine it's about a chef so the chef's inspiration was a childhood by the seaside so that gave the chef the inspiration to create that dish so it's something that happens and there's a natural response in a person that makes them think i'm gonna create something in contrast then motivation is something that comes from outside us that gives us a push or that helps us to continue doing something and motivation is usually for something that we maybe don't really want to do so like on this channel we talk a lot about finding motivation to study so maybe studying is not something that many people want to do but we can recognize the benefits of that so we need to find different motivations for our studies so some examples my mother's encouragement provided the motivation i needed to finish writing my book my motivation to create this dish was to share my childhood with the people who eat at my restaurant so in these sentences that are kind of slightly changed from the first pair of sentences i introduced we're talking about like the outside reason to do something so inspiration refers to something that kind of comes naturally from within you motivation is more external it's something that's pushing you or causing you to move forward or to start something to continue something and it's often for something we might not otherwise have done if this outside force had not been there i would also say that personally i think i probably use the verb forms more than the noun forms here so that means i would use something like this music really inspired me and i hope to create my own music one day or my promotion really motivated me to work harder so personally i think i tend to use these as verbs a little more often than as nouns but this is the difference in terms of meaning between the two so i hope that this helps you thanks for the question okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from tom hi tom tom says is it correct to say my favorite song of all times or do you have to use the form all time yeah nice point we always say all time we do not use all times let's look at a few more examples the greatest of all time my all-time favorite food the most popular songs of all time so you'll notice in these examples there are actually two patterns that we can use the something of all time pattern and the all hyphen time plus adjective pattern both are correct you can use both in whatever situation you choose they have the same meaning and the same feel just note that these positions and patterns are slightly different also note that we always use the singular time there we're not using times so please make sure it's always all time greatest of all time and so on 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 mifta hi again mifta bifta says hi alicia i've heard the idiom play russian roulette how do we use it thanks okay nice one this is a very dark idiom that refers to a very very dangerous game so the origin of this idiom is a game an actual game called russian roulette so in the game of russian roulette one type of gun that's called a revolver is removed of all of the bullets except for one so one bullet remains in the revolver's chamber so this is the part of the gun where the bullets are kept the bullets are held so one bullet is inserted into the chamber of a revolver and then the player spins the chamber and closes the chamber and we don't know where the bullet is then the player points the gun at their own head or at someone else's head and pulls the trigger so this is a very dangerous and very risky game so this is of course not a game that i recommend in any way but this is the origin of this idiom today this idiom means to do something very dangerous or to do something very risky so it has a very dark origin so we tend to use it to mean something very dark for example he's playing russian roulette with his career by skipping work all the time so in this example sentence the item that is kind of in danger is his career so playing russian roulette with his career so his career is the thing that is in danger we know that because it's connected to russian roulette so to play russian roulette with this thing in danger and the action the risky behavior is skipping work all the time so he's playing russian roulette with his career by skipping work all the time that would mean in a non-idiomatic expression he's in danger of losing his job at any moment because he skips work all the time one more example they're playing russian roulette with their savings by making this awful investment so again here after russian roulette we see with their savings so here savings refers to like a savings account or money in someone's savings so that's thing in danger that is the item of danger here and then the risky behavior is by making an awful investment or by making this awful investment so the they in this situation is making this terrible investment this risky investment and putting their savings at risk so to play russian roulette means to do something very risky and very dangerous and it has a very dark and negative feeling great work here's a reward speed up your language learning with our pdf 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, 2020, best of 2020, write, read, speak, continuous play, long play, auto play, autoplay, yt:cc=on

Id: a3CGNqrxjqc

Length: 96min 57sec (5817 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 29 2020