Your Monthly Dose of English - Best of December 2019 [Fixed]

access your free language gifts right now before they expire here's what you're getting this month first the movies and TV shows cheat sheet want to be able to talk about your favorite shows and films this conversation cheat sheet teaches you 50 plus words and phrases to help you do just that second the ultimate listening video master course how are your listening skills sharpen them up with this video master course download it right now third 20 phrases you'll need for the doctor learn how to schedule appointments talk about your symptoms and much more this one-minute lesson gives you 20 must know phrases fourth want to be able to handle everyday tasks in your target language like sending and receiving mail then this next one minute lesson is for you you'll learn most of the words and phrases you'll need at the post office fifth learn how to impress native speakers with this one-minute lesson learn how to give natural compliments like the food is delicious and this is a beautiful country six free language learning audiobooks get free access to our huge library of beginner level audiobooks save them to your device and listen and learn they're yours to keep forever and finally the deal of the month if you want to finally master the language with lessons by real teachers and our complete language learning program get 51% off all basic premium and premium Plus plans with our special Black Friday deals to get your gifts and language learning resources click the link in the description below download them right now before they expire first question this week comes from Silas hi Silas Silas says hi Alicia how's it going I'd like to know the meaning of the expression weird flex but okay and how do I use it in a sentence okay this is a bit of recent slang weird flex but okay focuses in on the meaning of the word flex so if you are interested in like health or like muscle training or anything like that you might know the verb to flex so to flex is what we do when we want to show off a ma so we have been training so when we flex a muscle we put energy into the muscle to make the muscle like stand out we want it to look bigger like we want to show off that muscle so when we flex a muscle we're trying to show it off we're like excited about that thing or we're proud about it or something like that so flex here in this expression weird flex does not refer to muscle it doesn't refer to the body but actually something else that the speaker or the writer is trying to show off so it's something that seems strange so in the example of muscles and muscle training like the person who wants to show off wants to show their muscles but when we use the expression weird flex someone is trying to show off something that seems strange and then we add but ok at the end to me I don't really understand but all right so to give an example of this if I on Twitter right like I spent $3,000 on socks this month who and I talked about how excited I am I'm like showing off that I spent $3,000 on socks someone might respond to me weird flex but okay so that means like it's strange that you want to show off that you spent $3,000 on socks like that's a really strange thing to be excited about but okay so to give another example your friend might tell you something like I have the biggest collection of rocks in my whole neighborhood and you might say weird flex but okay so again it's like that's a strange thing that you want to show off but okay whatever it is like it's not hurting anybody it's just a little bit weird that you want to show that off or you want to brag or boast about that thing so that's what weird fluke but okay means you see this one a lot online I hope that that helps you thanks very much for this interesting question okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from Riggins Riggins hi Riggins Rehana says hi Alicia I'm Riggins from Haiti I'm good at English but due to a lack of practice I've kinda lost my touch because I'm sick and tired of the learning process so I'd like to know how to keep my English up please okay first I'm sure that you're not the only person like I lose motivation all the time I would say that if you are having trouble keeping your motivation up you should try looking for a different way to practice or a different way to use English so for example if there's a hobby that you have in your native language you could try doing that in English or maybe there's a book or a movie that you are really interested in or that seems cool and you want to understand that in English I would suggest trying to find something that's not like a traditional textbook or it's not a traditional way of learning like going to a class and doing worksheets and that kind of thing I would suggest actually trying to use English in your everyday life to like do your work or to study something or to accomplish a hobby maybe you make a new friend who can speak only English so I would suggest finding something outside of a traditional learning setting to do I think that that might help you a little bit with your motivation that has helped me a lot in the past actually making friends with people who cannot speak my language has been hugely motivating for me and I tried to study the vocabulary words that they often talk about and I try to learn from their speech patterns too so I would suggest trying to find something to do with other people as much as possible that uses English so I hope that this helps you and helps other people with their motivation issues it happens to all of us at some point in time but I hope that these tips can help thanks very much for this question okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from Amit Farooq hello Ahmed Ahmed says what is the difference between May and can okay historically May is used to ask for permission can is used to express ability to do something or lack of ability to do something so that's the historical use of May and can in today's English however lots of people use can to ask for permission to do something we do not however use May to talk about ability so let's take a look at some examples can I go to the restroom may I go to the restroom can I leave early today may I leave early today so in today's English these all refer to the same thing they're all requests to use the restroom or to leave early in today's American English I would say that using May tends to sound a little bit more formal than using can if you ever want to be sure to sound polite and to make sure you're communicating clearly you can use May but in most day-to-day conversations we use can 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 Yovani hi Avani Yovani says hi Alicia my name is Giovanni I'm from Venezuela I've always wanted to know the meaning of this sentence don't get twisted even though it's not used very often Thanks yeah you're right this isn't such a common expression I found only a few references to this expression and they were typically from music actually so this expression could mean like don't get angry or don't get upset or don't get nervous so it prefers to being in like a negative condition so twist it if you imagine like a towel do we have we do yeah for this explanation let's imagine like a towel so a regular just plain towel when we hold the towel looks like this but if we twist the towel like this it's under tension like it's under pressure so if we imagine ourselves as like the towel like we're under pressure we're really tight we're really tense we could be angry we could be nervous we could be upset about something so if someone says to you don't get twisted it's like chill out like don't be upset don't be angry relax in other words so I would guess that this is what this word means or what this expression means rather but as you said this is not such a common expression we don't say don't get twisted really in American English you might hear people say something like just chill out as I've said or maybe like don't worry or there are a couple of other slightly more rude expressions that we use too 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 Malik hi Malik Malik says is this sentence correct the color of shirts of players could you explain more about two possessive nouns in a row thanks in advance yeah great question this is kind of tricky so in this situation we would say the color of the players shirts so a key here is that we're using players and we're using an apostrophe after the S in players that apostrophe is acting as a possessive apostrophe so we have two ways of creating the possessive in English we can use of as in the color of the players shirts and we can use the apostrophe s form so for example Alicia's would be Alicia apostrophe s the apostrophe s shows something is belonging to me that's my thing Alicia's phone so in this situation we have players players here we're talking about shirts that belong to players so it's not just one person when a noun ends with an S we make the plural possessive form by adding an apostrophe to the end of the word and we do not add another s so in this singular form when I said Alicia's phone for example Alicia is one person so I write Alicia apostrophe s in this example however because we're talking about a group of people players we don't use an apostrophe s because the word already ends in s and it sounds kind of strange just try to say like players is something like that so to avoid this we simply write players with s and an apostrophe at the end so this shows the plural form that means plural possessive apostrophe there it's very natural to use that apostrophe form of the possessive when we're talking about something that belongs to a person so again in my example when I said Alicia's phone it sounds quite natural to use that apostrophe s to show possession as a person in the plural form two players shirts it's a shirt for shirts that belong to a player so when we're not using a person when we're using like an object it might be a little bit more common to see an of pattern used there in this case it's color of the shirts so color is like a characteristic that belongs to the shirt or in this case shirts so here it sounds natural to use the of pattern because there's not a person here we're talking about the characteristics of an object color of the shirts so of can be used to talk about like characteristics of things and the apostrophe s form can be used to talk about like things that belong to people let's look at one more example though that uses no people so for example the color of the seats in the cars or the color of the cars seats so we could use either of these patterns I personally would probably use the color of the seats in the cars because we can clearly see like the levels of belonging first we have color and the color belongs to the seats and the seats are in the cars so I think that sounds much nicer you might see that color of the cars seats sentence though as we talked about it's a little bit less natural maybe to use the possessive apostrophe there with car because it's not actually a person I think you might use that though I don't think it's incorrect to use that but I personally would prefer to use something that kind of clearly shows the hierarchy the level of belonging or the levels of belonging as in the first example the color of the seats in the car first question this week comes from Reza hi Reza Reza says hi Alicia what's the difference between in the beach at the beach and on the beach are they all correct okay first in the beach is not used at the beach and on the beach are both okay we use at the beach when we want to talk about the general location we use this when we're sharing pictures of ourselves visiting the beach when we want to talk about a place to meet and so on so if you for example take a photo and you want to post it to Instagram you might use the caption Here I am at the beach or today I'm at the beach with my friends we use at the beach to talk about the specific location where something is happening we had a barbecue at the beach and so on on the other hand we use on the beach to talk about activities that happen on the surface of the beach so this is activities like lying in the Sun to get a tan for example or looking for shells on the beach so these are things that happen on the surface of the beach like you play volleyball on the beach these are things that happen like on the sand you can think of it as the surface of the beach so when you want to talk about a specific location use at the beach let's meet at the beach or I saw my friend at the beach when you want to talk about an activity that you do on the surface of the beach you can use on the beach for example I found this beautiful shell on the beach or I'm going to lie in the Sun on the beach so at the beach okay on the beach okay in the beach not used I hope that that helps you thanks for the question okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from Sabina hi Sabina Sabina says hello Alicia I would like to know the difference between come back get back and go back if there are any ok first let's talk about come back so come back means to return to a place you were just at but we use this when we're talking from the perspective of a person who remains in the original location so if I am here in front of the camera and son our camera person leaves I might say no comeback meaning please return to the place you were just in I'm still in this place but I don't want you to go I want you to come back return to the place you were just in so come back in this way means to return to a place you were at originally please keep in mind this is different from come back which does not have a space to make a comeback means to return to a place of former glory or a former like kind of celebrity status so for example an actor or an actress who has not appeared in movies or TV for quite some time might try to make a comeback and appear in something big and exciting in order to regain their former status that is spelled come back with no space to come back however has a space between come and back so that's an important distinction between these words now let's talk about get back get back and have a couple of different meanings to get back can have the meaning of to take revenge we use this in a situation where someone has done something wrong or something has happened that is bad to us and we want to get revenge on that person we use the expression to get back at that person like I'm going to get back at my roommate for destroying my date or I'm going to get back at my coworker for ruining my meeting so to get back at someone means to take revenge on someone so like to return a bad action to get back we can also use get back as a warning so this means like step away from a dangerous place so imagine for example you are near the edge of a cliff or you're near a river that's very dangerous if you're near the river very close to the edge of the river and it looks really dangerous someone might say to you get back which means move away from the edge of the river move away from this dangerous position you might hear this in movies a lot like in action scenes especially one character might say no get back meaning move your body physic in a backwards motion or in a backwards direction from this dangerous thing so get back also has this meaning and then one more point about the expression get back you might know this expression from like the famous Beatles song they say get back to where you once belonged this has a similar meaning of comeback like I talked about earlier so to get back to a place means to regain your position somewhere like if you're playing a video game and you die and you have to continue the game again to get back to the position you were at you would use that verb we do not use come back in that way because we use come back for like celebrity status or like same that kind of thing to make a comeback we might also use that in sports when we want to talk about going back to a position we were at before but it's not like a super cool position you're just kind of regaining lost time you can use to get back so the last word in your list is go back go back so to go back to something is used in very specific situations it's usually used in like presentations like PowerPoint presentations or like if you're showing someone photos or something like that and you want them to return to the previous page or to the previous item so if you're doing like a PowerPoint presentation for example and someone in your audience says like oh can you go back to the last slide it means can you return so this go back means return we can also use go back to mean return to a physical place we were in like I talked about with come back at the beginning of this answer but we use go back when were the person that's returning so in my earlier example about the camera person leaving the room during the shoot the camera person might say I'm going to go back into the room so go back can have a few different uses come back go back and get back are all quite different though so please try to keep this in mind okay I hope that that helps you understand the differences between these words thanks very much for your question alright let's move along to your next question next question comes from Dewey citta again hi Dewey Dewey says what says take someone or something for granted mean okay so to take something or someone for granted means to assume or to expect that someone or something will always be there to support you like you forget to show appreciation for something so a good example is like my boyfriend or my girlfriend took me for granted that means my boyfriend or my girlfriend assumed I would always be there to support them to help them to give them what they need to do whatever it takes to assist them in some way so this has a very negative meaning about it because each person chooses who to support and in what way to support those people and so when we don't get appreciation we may feel very bad about that so if I say my boyfriend took me for granted or my girlfriend took me for granted it would show that I have a negative understanding or a negative view of that situation that person did not express appreciation for my support and so I feel upset about that so to take someone for granted is not a good thing to take someone or something for granted is considered a negative thing so please don't do this okay the reason that this seems quite negative is it's almost like the person who is taking someone else for granted is like expecting a free service almost so if I say oh my boyfriend took me for granted it's like he's just expecting me to for example cook for him or to support his work or something like that without showing any appreciation or any kind of recognition to avoid this kind of situation you show your appreciation to the people who support you this is a pretty easy way to make sure that you never make someone feel like they have been taken for granted so I hope that this helps you with the understanding of this phrase thanks very much for the question okay let's move along to your next question next question comes from tram nuyen hi tram tram says dear Alisha I hope you're fine I'm a fan of your podcast could you please give me some rules or tips for pronouncing proper nouns such as human names geographical names and so on it's hard to say these names properly if you haven't heard them before thanks yeah really good question I would suggest using YouTube especially if you're looking for a famous place or if you're looking for a famous person I would suggest searching YouTube to find some videos about that place or about that person so in many cases you can just find like a presentation or you can find maybe something about tourism in that area and that will give you the correct pronunciation of that places name or that person's name keep in mind though that even though there are words that are spelled the same in English they don't always have the same pronunciation this is especially true with names a great example is my name it's spelled al is H a I pronounce it Alicia some people might choose to pronounce it Alicia so that's up to personal preference you have to ask the person what they want to be called in those cases so it's up to you to ask that person so those are kind of specific cases with names if it's a famous name or a famous place you should be able to find a resource on YouTube if you really want to be sure about your pronunciation if however you're just reading a name in a book and it's a character in a book I would say make your best guess this happens with native speakers all the time especially in like fantasy novels where the names of characters are kind of strange they're unusual kind of fantastic if you can't read the name and you're not sure about the pronunciation that's totally okay just choose a name choose an understanding or choose a pronunciation that works for you to understand the story this is what native speakers do as well and then in conversations we compare our pronunciations if there's anything that happens like that if there's like a character a name that we don't know we ask each other how do you say this name how do you save this person's name and then you can kind of decide on the correct pronunciation in your group in that case so in some Czech YouTube for famous places talk to people individually if you have questions about their name pronunciation but if it's just something you're reading in a book and it doesn't really affect other people if you just need to know a character name pronunciation make your best guess so I hope that this helps you thanks for this question okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from Douglas otávio hi Douglas Douglas says hi Alicia I saw the phrase let's hope in a movie what does it mean PS the movie was the American assassin yeah so let's hope is usually said after a desired outcome so for example speaker a might say this restaurant is really popular but I think we can get a reservation and speaker B might say mmm let's hope so let's hope is short for let's hope for that outcome that you just mentioned so you have to go back to the previous sentence and the conversation in this case I think we can get a reservation that's the thing that the speaker wants that's the desired result speaker B is agreeing with speaker a by saying let's hope which means I also want that outcome I hope that we can achieve that outcome so let's hope connects to the thing that was previously said so let's look at one more example that uses this phrase speaker a might say the Sun is going down but I think we can finish our hike by sunset speaker B could say let's hope meaning I hope that we have the ability to finish our hike by sunset so it connects to the previous phrase in the conversation so I hope that this helps you understand the expression and job interview questions and a few responses to those job interview questions so let's go tell me a little about yourself statement number one is tell me a little about yourself or tell me a little bit about yourself this is a very common interview introduction question or the first question in an interview tell me about yourself is just an open question please share or basically introduce yourself this usually means you should share what you studied in college your work experience any like personal projects you've tried to do or have successfully done other experience you think is relevant so this is an invitation for you to give like a general introduction about yourself in an example sentence well I got my bachelor's degree in biochemistry how did you hear about the position how did you hear about the position how did you hear about the position this question means how did you learn about this job that you are interviewing for how did you find this job opening so how did you hear about the position this is where you can explain maybe where you found the information about the job so you found it on the Internet in the newspaper you heard from a friend you were contacted by a recruiter so there are a few different ways that you can share with your interviewer how you found the position how you heard about the job in a sentence I found an advertisement about the job on the Internet why are you interested in this position next is why are you interested in the position why are you interested in the position this is your chance to explain why you want this job why are you interested in this position so usually you should not say for the money or because this is a really I don't know there are a lot of attractive people at this company I don't know you should say something in response to this question about your career goals or maybe something specific about the company that you like or something very specific about the job that is available there and how you feel your skills are a match for that job so explain why you're interested in that position the reason you decided to apply for that job in a sentence I think I'm a good fit for the company and its goals why should we hire you the next interview question is why should we hire you why should we hire you so this is your opportunity to explain why you feel you are the best candidate for the job so if you have any special qualifications you have certifications you have specific experience you have a specific goal in mind this is the kind of question you can share that information in response to why should we hire you because I can speak six different languages and I know how to create a website in ten minutes I don't know so if you have some kind of special qualifications you can share those qualifications in response to this question in another example sentence I'm a goal-oriented person who likes to work at a fast pace what do you consider your strengths and weaknesses the next question is a common question what do you consider your strengths and weaknesses what do you consider your strengths and weaknesses or what are your strengths and weaknesses so strengths means strong points things you are good at weaknesses is your weak points things you are not very good at so you can you should be honest to a degree but be careful so this should be in a professional setting keep that in mind it's a professional setting if you want to talk about your weaknesses don't say like I eat too much chocolate or don't say like I love sleeping or whatever talk about your professional strengths and your professional weaknesses and also with your weaknesses it would be a good idea to talk about how you improve those weaknesses or how you work with your team members or work in a company to try to reduce the effect of those weaknesses so for example I'm very detail-oriented but I often take on too much at one time so like in my case that's the case like I'm very detail-oriented but I often take on too much so do too many things at one time so I could explain ok so I'm very detail-oriented but if I'm trying to take on too much I truck maybe I say I communicate with my co-workers about what should be prioritized and that helps me organize my time better so when you introduce your weakness talk about the ways you kind of you try to reduce the effect of that weakness that can be one technique so your good points and your bad points in this question tell me about a time when you overcame a challenge at work some interviewers may ask this question tell me about a time when you overcame a challenge at work so it's not really a question they're asking you to tell a story so tell me about a time when you over a challenge at work so they want to hear an example from your professional experience about how you solved a problem what did you do to solve a problem at work they want to know what kind of problem it was and how you approach the problem and the results of that problem so you could say for example our company party was scheduled for the day before Christmas but the restaurant exploded and I had to find a new place to have the party I don't know that's not a course a crazy example but giving your employer an idea of how you solve problems and maybe the kind of mental state you have when you solve the problems can be helpful in making a hiring decision so in an example when I was having trouble communicating with a client I reached out to a co-worker for support what are your career goals the next question is what are your career goals your career goals so not necessarily in this company but in your career overall in the interview it's probably a good idea to include the company and where you are currently interviewing in your career goals but keep in mind like you should be explaining a goal or you should be sharing a goal that is in line with the company's work so if your goal is to open a cupcake shop but you're interviewing for like an IT job where you're going to be like I don't know installing Windows 10 on people's computers maybe this doesn't really match so make sure that your career goal and the job you're interviewing for align those two should be kind of aligned it'll help your interviewer and it will help you I think so in an example sentence I want to create a global advertising campaign strategy so maybe you're interviewing for a marketing job for example you could say that's your career goal I would love to design a global marketing campaign strategy for example where do you see yourself in five years the next question a very common one where do you see yourself in five years where do you see yourself in five years this question means after five years five years from this point in time what is your vision for you what is your vision of yourself professionally so what do you want to have achieved after five years so a good tip for this question is to explain where you will be having made contributions to the company where you are interviewing so if I'm interviewing an apple and apple says where do you see yourself in five years Elisha and I say I see myself at Microsoft like that sounds really bad so try to share your your goals for yourself in a five-year period but again try to align them with the company where you're interviewing and explain like how you plan to contribute to the company and develop yourself professionally that can be a really good way to answer this question for example I see myself in a managerial position in this company working on multiple projects for multiple markets why do you want to work here the next question is why do you want to work here why do you want to work here so similar to why are you interested in this position that one's like that question is very much about this job in particular but the question why do you want to work here means why do you want to work in this company like in this place specifically so share something about the company that you like or share something some reason the company is attractive to you as a candidate so maybe it's the location or maybe it's the ability to work overseas or maybe it's an international environment or maybe you can use your English skills some reason why you're interested in working at this company specifically share that after this question so example I think there's a lot to learn and I think there are opportunities for promotion do you have any questions for me last one the last question is very common do you have any questions for me do you have any questions for me interviewers will often ask this question at the end of an interview inviting the candidate to ask questions about the company it is usually a very good idea to prepare some questions for the interviewer so it's it's also a good idea to research your company or research the university or interviewing four before the interview so if you have questions about the company company policy that sort of thing it's a great chance to ask your interviewer generally however it's not a good idea to ask specific questions about pay or vacation in the interview as you can be seen as maybe - being - money or to vacation focused that might come a little later if you say what's the salary for this job like unless it's a situation unless it's a kind of a closed situation that might be too direct a question but instead ask some things about the company ask your interviewer what it's like to work there what your interviewer thinks is good about working for the company or maybe what your interviewer thinks the company's planning to do over the next few years ask something of your interviewer so it shows that you are interested in that company and that you want to learn more and participate more with that company so make sure to have some questions prepared when your interviewer asks do you have any questions for me so example question what do you think is the most rewarding part about working here ten internet and texting phrases these are acronyms so words that are made from the beginning letter of other words you'll see let's get started okay lol the first word the first acronym is lol you could read it as law if you want lol stands for laugh out loud or laughing out loud we use this in text and on the internet when something is funny you receive a funny picture lol you see something funny in a video lol you read something funny lol so lol is used to express laughter in a sentence what a funny picture lol go8 e next is go8 e it spells goat but it actually means greatest of all time greatest of all time goats this is this acronym goat you can use this after something that you think is really great like the best of something the amazing of something you have an amazing I don't know amazing lunch and you take a picture posted on Instagram geo 80 like this salad something like that or like a in this sentence I made of that Beyonce performance Geo 80 like greatest of all time so you think something is the best you can use Geo 84 that okay FYI next one is fYI fYI is used in text and internet communications but we also use it in speech we can also use fYI in speech it's okay in business as well fYI means for your information for your information blah blah blah just giving you some information so anytime you want to provide extra information you can use FYI so fYI the BBQ is still on tomorrow though it's gonna rain or fYI I'm leaving in 30 minutes so if you need to talk to me do it now or in this sentence fYI I have to leave early today BRB the next one is BRB BRB BRB means be right back be right back I'm going to go away for a moment and come back very quickly so be right back means very soon I'm coming back be right back BRB sometimes especially young people use BRB in speech as well like they're leaving the room for a moment at Mare Bay and then they come back to so some of these words are used actually in speech particularly among young people in a sentence I'm gonna grab a snack BRB oMG the next one is extremely popular the next one is OMG OMG means oh my god oh my god oh my god so very very useful expression you can use oMG for surprise for anger for sadness for any extreme emotion causes surprise causes some whenever whenever you want to use oh my god to express an extreme emotion you can use this so you see something funny oMG lol you can buying these like the first word lol oMG lol that video haha you can use hey hey hey and hahaha for laughter by the way I use that H eh eh e or HHH a so you can use that or you can use lol but oMG oh my god that's what we use to express that feeling that OH shock feeling oMG so in a sentence we could say oMG I can't believe it oh my god I can't believe it okay what the next one is w UT actually sorry this one is not an acronym this is not an acronym it's a misspelling actually so the pronunciation of this is what what so a very strong u sound this comes from the word what wh eighty what what but we use a misspelling in the on the internet and with text and stuff to imply like kind of a dumb feeling like when you when you want to say what like you're confused about something but the situation is very very dumb or it's just um it's hard to understand or confusing or doesn't make sense you can use what like a very it has like a very like kind of dumb sound the same you sound in dumb is in what so it's like what instead of what which has a stronger a sound so we use what in in situations where yeah something doesn't make sense so like my roommate didn't come home last night what so it's something that's a little bit confusing that might be a little more of an extreme example actually in this sentence your roommate wants a dog but doesn't want to pay for it what so again this is something that's used more in text it's hard to make the sound accurately in speech I suppose it's it's hard to detect but when you spell what incorrectly w UT it gives the impression that the situation doesn't make sense it's it's kind of stupid or strange and it shows you are confused it shows something doesn't make sense to you so this is more common well actually this is primarily used this is mostly used in text only we don't use it so much in speech okay bTW the next one is bTW bTW means by the way by the way young people will use BT Dubbs or yeah BT Dubbs instead of bTW in conversation by the way is just giving extra information about something so like anytime you would use by the way in conversation you can use bTW on the internet I don't recommend this for business emails or business writing but in like on Twitter or Facebook Instagram so on you can use bTW to mean by the way very convenient in a sentence bTW can you give me back the money you owe me afaik the next one is afaik afaik means as far as I know as far as I know this expression means with the information I have here is my understanding of the situation so as far as I know means my understanding is blah blah blah so as far as I know our barbecue is going to happen at 3:00 tomorrow or as far as I know the meeting is still on for today or as far as I know I'm dog sitting for my neighbor this weekend so according to my information this is the situation as far as I know a a I K okay one more afaik we're still meeting on Sunday iirc the next expression or the next acronym is i RC III RC means if I recall correctly recall means remember if I recall correctly so meaning if my memory is correct this is the situation if I recall correctly spider-man's real name is Peter Parker or if I recall correctly donuts have no calories lol so if I recall correctly um Tokyo at the capital city of Japan so this is like if I remember correctly or if my memory is correct this is what I think or this is the information iirc so you might see this like on message boards and discussion boards in particular here one more sentence iirc we're supposed to meet in front of the station diem the next one is DM DM means direct message direct message so this is very common on like Twitter and Facebook and Instagram very common on social media and other social media portals DM direct message so for example on Twitter we can send public messages among users but to send a direct message means other people cannot see that message so a DM is a direct message to someone so in a sentence you could say DM me your email address 10 words for talking about sleep let's go to wake up the first word is to wake up to wake up is to open your eyes probably in your bed or the place where you are sleeping to wake up is to to become conscious to become awake every day you wake up presumably hopefully in a sentence I woke up three times last night to get up to get out of bed all right the next word is to get up or to get out of bed so that means to physically move your body from your bed out of bed to stand up from your bed to get out of your bed we say to get up or to get out of bed in a sentence I got up at 8 o'clock this morning to snooze the next word is to snooze so we have to snooze and alarm and also to snooze so to snooze means to take a short sleep to have a short sleeping time or to snooze and alarm is when your alarm goes off in the morning you have a button most alarm clocks have button you can press so the alarm will turn on again in like you know five or ten minutes or something so to snooze an alarm is to like to ask your alarm to wake you up again a few minutes later that's to snooze so we have to snooze an alarm and to snooze meaning like a short light sleep in a sentence I always snooze my alarm at least once that is usually true to oversleep the next word is to oversleep to oversleep means to sleep too much or to sleep late actually no it doesn't mean to sleep late to sleep late means just to sleep until a late time in the day oversleep means sleeping beyond the time you wanted to get up so for example if my alarm is set for 8 o'clock but I wake up at 9 o'clock I overslept I slept beyond my wake-up time so we can use oversleep to talk about times when you sleep too much you sleep more than your body needs you to so maybe your body needs depending on the person like six to nine hours or so but if you sleep like 14 hours we can say that's over sleeping you're sleeping too much hmm that's the nuance here in a sentence I overslept on my first day of work nap the next word is nap nap is a short sleep so a nap is maybe 30 minutes one hour just a short sleep a short rest so a lot of people will take a nap in the afternoon for example or maybe children actually take naps for example in preschool or when they're very very young they have a an afternoon nap a short sleep like yeah just a like an hour or so I imagine in a sentence I love naps actually I do like naps I don't like naps because when I take a nap it becomes asleep it's always like I wake up four hours later and I'm like okay well I've destroyed my sleep schedule dream the next word is dream dreams so dreams are those those vision those images you see those experiences it seems like you have when you are asleep in a sentence I always have weird dreams nightmare so the next word is nightmare nightmare is a word which means bad dream or scary dream negative dream so children maybe have nightmares a lot they wake up crying or they're really upset by nightmares monsters terrifying things happening and so on in a sentence do you ever have nightmares to go to bed the next word is to go to bed so before we talked about to get up or to get out of bed this is the opposite to go to bed means to get in your bed to to try to go to sleep to go to bed in a sentence I usually go to bed fairly late to hit the hay to hit the sack the next expression is kind of a I don't know a slang expression we have to hit the hay and to hit the sack these both mean to go to bed they both mean to try to fall asleep but we just use them in more casual situations the image here of hit the hay is with your body hitting hay like laying down in hay I believe historically because hay was used to stuff things that people slept on so that's why we have this expression to hit the hay with your body same thing for to hit the sack so a sack full of something soft to sleep on is where this expression comes from in a sentence I think I'm gonna hit the hay to fall asleep the next expression it is to fall asleep to fall asleep you're in bed and you finally you lose consciousness you you stop being aware you are asleep in that moment we say you fall asleep in a sentence it takes me a long time to fall asleep all right okay let's begin with the basic definition of the verb cell cell means to give money in exchange for an item or a service to sell something examples I sold my car we're selling our house let's look at the conjugations for this verb present cell cells past sold past participle sold progressive selling okay so now let's talk about an additional meaning for this verb so a different meaning for the verb cell is to convince someone of something or to convince someone about something to persuade someone of something examples you've sold me on this idea he's terrible at selling himself he always fails interviews so to sell is like to convince someone of something we see that in the first example you sold me on this idea you convinced me that this was a good idea in other words you've persuaded me about this thing so you were successful in convincing me something of something that you want me to believe you sold me in the second example sentence he's terrible at selling himself so to sell yourself in that case means to convince someone else that you're a good choice or you're a good option to sell yourself in this way in this context means you're trying to convince someone persuade someone that maybe you're a good candidate for a job for example so this meaning is like to convince someone of something usually that something is good really to convince to sell someone on an idea or to sell yourself to sell oneself as well so there are a lot of variations that I want to talk about for this verb now so let's look at some variations for the verb cell the first variation is to sell out to sell out actually there are two different meanings for this so let's take a look at the first one the first meaning of to sell out means to compromise for the sake of an advantage so this is often used in like arts and entertainment so an artist will compromise his or her work in order to get some advantage usually money examples my favorite band sold out many politicians have sold out over the last few years so both of these examples refer to someone changing their artistic viewpoint or changing their opinions changing their behavior in order to receive some advantage in the first example sentence my favorite bands sold out it sounds like the band stopped doing something that made them unique and instead for example joined a label or joined a company and they are now following the company's orders in exchange for money in the second example sentence politicians have sold out it's like the politicians have changed their opinions or their behaviors in exchange for some money or some kind of compensation so this is changing your ideas for advantage let's move on to the second variation for how to use sell out to sell out means to run out of inventory so you sell everything you sell completely all the stock all the inventory of something there's nothing left examples we sold out of shirts this morning they're worried they're going to sell out of products so to sell out means to have nothing left of anything so one point of caution to sell out while there are these two different meanings of compromising your artistic ideas and not having any inventory of a product because you've sold everything in cases like the first example sentence in the first meeting we talked about my favorite band sold out depending on the context that can mean the band's sold out of concert tickets for example if a band or an artist is coming to a city or some other performer is coming to do an event that can refer to like the event selling out or maybe a product offered by the band selling out so listen carefully to the context if it's a criticism of the artist or the performer it's probably referring to the artist compromising their ideas if it's talking about like an event a performance and like no tickets being left or no products being left then it's probably about no inventory so pay attention to the context here to understand the correct meaning of sell out in these cases okay let's continue on to the next variation which is to sell someone or something short to sell someone short to sell something short this expression means to not consider something as valuable as it actually is examples don't sell yourself short don't sell your friend short I think he has hidden talents so you can see that I'm using don't at the beginning of both of these examples we commonly use don't with this expression don't sell yourself short don't sell someone else short means don't devalue yourself or don't devalue another person or another thing in other words explain the true value of yourself or explain the true value of that thing don't sell yourself short don't sell your friend short so recognize the actual value in the thing you're discussing the next variation is to sell one's soul to the devil so sometimes we'll drop this to the devil we use the expression to sell your soul or to sell one's soul this expression means to agree to do something which is usually negative in exchange for some kind of advantage usually money or some other kind of I don't know compensation so examples of this she sold her soul when she signed the contract he's going to sell his soul in exchange for Fame so in these examples sentences we see that someone has made a decision that is very serious we know that because we see the expression sell your soul or sell one's soul so when we imagine like a soul is kind of like the core perhaps of a human being and we're selling it it's like the most important thing we could sell it's like the most valuable thing we have so to sell it implies a very important or big decision in the first example sentence when it says she sold her soul when she signed the contract it's like she lost a key part of herself she gave a key part of herself to this company perhaps when she signed a contract in exchange for some kind of advantage in the second example sentence the he in the example he wants Fame and he's going to sell his soul he will give something in order to get famous in other words so these are sort of situations that also imply a negative thing that the other person has agreed to do so maybe in the second example sentence he's agreed to do something negative or something that's suspicious in exchange for Fame so there's there's a negative nuance here for sure the basic definition of the verb pole is to move something usually towards your body this motion to pull examples of this he pulled his coffee mug across the table she pulled the lamp string okay now let's look at the conjugations for this verb present pole poles past hold past participle pulled progressive pulling so now let's talk about some additional meanings for this firm the first additional meaning is to remove something from its place some examples my brother and I used to pull weeds every summer I pulled out a few gray hairs this morning so to pull in this case is to remove something from its original place in the first example sentence my brother and I used to pull weeds it means we've removed weeds from the ground we pulled weeds from their original place in the ground and took them out in the second example sentence it's about pulling grey hair so removing gray hairs from their original place to pull we use to pull to describe this okay let's go on to the second additional meaning now the second additional meaning is to remove something from a publication this can mean TV it can mean magazines newspapers to remove something usually because that thing is offensive or it's incorrect or it's inappropriate there's some problem with it examples pull the story from the newspaper TV show pulled the controversial photos from its segment so in both of these examples content is being removed from some kind of media source or some kind of publication because there's a problem with it in the first example sentence it's pulled the story so that means the story the entire story there's some problem with it it needs to be removed in the second example sentence it's about controversial photos controversial photos are pulled from a segment so that means there's some problem there's some issue they have to be removed we use the verb pole to refer to this usually in media situations let's go on to the third additional meaning for this verb to attract a person or people meaning to draw people in examples fake celebrities always pull big crowds we pulled in a lot of new customers at the event so here it means attracted or drew people so in the first example sentence big celebrities always pull big crowds means attract pole means attract big celebrities always draw in or attract a lot of people in other words in the second example sentence which was we pulled in a lot of new customers it means we drew we attracted a lot of new customers you'll also notice that I've used pulled in there so you can use pulled in to refer to attracting people as well to pull in so you might see that or you might see as in the first example sentence to pull big crowds okay let's go on to the fourth additional meaning of this verb the fourth additional meaning is to get information like from researching something examples pull all the files about the criminal investigation I pulled this photo from his website so this means to get information but usually with the kind of feeling of doing some research so in the first example sentence pull all the files about the criminal investigation it means go and get all the files or go do some research find all the files and get them so we're doing some kind of research or some sort of investigate and we need information we can use the verb pole to refer to getting that information in the second sentence I pulled this photo from his website it means I got this photo from his website but it sounds like I went to his website for some kind of research purpose and I got the photo there so now let's move along to some variations and other ways to use this verb the first expression is to pull oneself together to pull oneself together it means to regain your composure to become calm once again examples pull yourself together it's just a small mistake he needs to pull himself together and get back to work so in both of these examples there's someone who's kind of panicking maybe or they're having trouble staying calm and composed we can use the expression pull yourself together to mean like imagine pulling yourself pulling all the parts of yourself together again to make like this calm composed person in the second example sentence he needs to pull himself together and get back to work it means he needs to regain his calm composed manner and go back to his job so to pull yourself together means just to regain your calm state I guess you'll also notice that this is commonly used reflexively he needs to pull himself together reflexive means that the subject and the object of the verb are the same person so he needs to pull himself you'll see there or you should pull yourself together so the subject and the object are the same person the next variation is the expression to pull one's weight to pull one's weight this means to do your fair share of a job or a task to do the things that you are assigned to do your parts okay so oh this could be for work it could be for another activity a job a project whatever examples everyone needs to pull their weight on the team he's not pulling his weight on this project what happened so in the first example sentence everyone needs to pull their weight on the team it means each person needs to do his or her job each person needs to do his or her tasks each person has some responsibilities it's their job to do those things that's pulling their weight in the second example sentence he's not pulling his weight on the project what happened that means because it's negative he's not doing his part in the project he's not doing the things he was assigned to do why what happened what's problem so to pull your weight is typically something you should do at work you want to pull your weight you're fulfilling your tasks you're doing the jobs that are assigned to you it's your responsibility okay let's go on to a third variation another way to use this verb the expression is to pull rank to pull rank this means using your power or using authority to make someone do something examples my supervisor tried to pull rank on me to get me to write fake customer reviews but I refused seems the CEO pulled rank on the department manager they're working on his new project so to pull rank means to use your rank to use your position in order to make other people do something so in the first example sentence where a supervisor tries to pull rank on the speaker it means the supervisor tries to use his or her power to get this person the speaker in this case to write customer reviews that are not real customer reviews so they're trying to get this person to do something they don't want to do because of their position of power or authority we see this in the second example sentence 2 but it was a successful situation so the CEO pulled rank on the department manager we know this because the people in the department presumably are working on the CEOs new project so that means the CEO was successful in convincing the department manager to work on this project so to pull rank means to use your power or use your authority to make something happen great work here's a reward speed up your language learning with our PDFs lessons get all of our best PDF cheat sheets and ebooks for free just click the link in the description

Channel: Learn English with EnglishClass101.com

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Id: 3nna9Je1aho

Length: 66min 38sec (3998 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 15 2019