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hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and i answer them maybe first
question this week comes from satish
ganesan hi satish satish says hi alicia
how are you what is the difference
between i have got to and i got to um it
depends on the situation and it depends
on the type of english the speaker is
using by that i mean american english or
british english i have got to
is more commonly used in british english
than in american english it's used to
explain our responsibilities like i have
got to go to work or i have got to
go to the bank he has got to finish his
reports today
when we reduce i have got to or just
have got to it sounds like i've got to
i've got to american english speakers
tend to reduce this sound even more in
fast speech so it sounds like i gotta i
gotta as in i gotta go to work or i
gotta do some laundry so this does sound
a lot like i got to but it actually does
not mean i got to it still refers to
that i have got to do something
we use i got to
when we're talking about something
special or we're talking about a
privilege or an exciting opportunity we
were able to participate in so we use i
got to before a verb to show our
appreciation to show our gratitude for
the opportunity for example i got to
ride in a helicopter today i got to stay
at a fancy hotel last night
so i got to
can sound a lot like i gotta but the two
actually have different meanings we
don't use agata to talk about something
we feel appreciative for we use igata to
express a responsibility in a casual way
so try to keep this in mind i gotta and
i got to have different functions i hope
this helps you understand the
differences between have got to and got
to thanks very much for the question
okay let's move on to your next question
next question comes from
afifi hi afifi afifi says what do these
phrases mean
take for granted and
grant a wish okay um to take something
for granted means to expect something
but that thing is something that's
special or it's like a privilege it's
something that we should not expect so
to take something or to take someone for
granted is a negative thing some
examples
my boss took me for granted when i quit
my job nobody could do all my work don't
let your boyfriend take you for granted
you're a great person and very
supportive
so to grant a wish means to make a wish
come true to fulfill someone's wish to
fulfill something that someone wants so
an example would be like the genie
granted wishes for aladdin in the
popular adventure story or my company
granted my wish and bought me a new
computer
so to take for granted refers to
expecting something that you should not
expect something special or a special
privilege
to grant a wish refers to having a wish
fulfilled something that you wanted like
a special dream or desire came true so i
hope that this helps you understand the
differences and the meanings of these
expressions thanks very much for the
question okay let's move on to your next
question next question this week comes
from ayub hello ayub um ayoob says hi
alicia my name is ayub i'm from algeria
and i'm learning english but my problem
is translation
what do i do to learn and speak
correctly i don't translate so sometimes
i make mistakes in my reading and
writing okay
first i think it's a good thing that you
don't translate because if you try to
translate from your language your native
language
directly into english it can cause you
to create some unnatural sentence
patterns so i think that's great it's
fine
not to try to translate everything
directly
second it's okay to make mistakes making
mistakes is part of the learning process
but for a few tips maybe to help you as
you try to move forward
and to help you as you don't use
translation techniques
i would suggest focusing in on like one
point at a time like one small topic or
one small grammar point so for example
if you use our videos you might start
with like a grammar video for example
like the simple past tense video you
watch the simple past tense video and
you learn some patterns that use the
simple past tense
then you write those by hand you say
those sentences out loud so you can get
comfortable with the sample sentences
that are in that video
then after you're comfortable you take
the same verb from the video and try
making a new sentence with some
different details so for example in that
video my example sentence my first
example sentence was he brought a towel
and sunglasses to the beach so we can
focus in on the verb brought there the
past tense of bring and make new
sentences with new details that keep the
verb so for example
we brought food and drinks to the park
or she brought coffee to the office so
you can focus on the sentence pattern
you know and just change the details so
that's one way to kind of expand more
personally too on the things you're
learning i think you could do the same
thing with some vocabulary videos like
our top words videos for example if you
choose the video that's about like
american foods you could try using the
vocabulary from that to create new
sentences you could even combine it with
your past tense video studies so for
example the word chocolate chip cookies
is one of the vocabulary words in the
american foods top words video you could
say we brought chocolate chip cookies to
the park for example so in that way
you're using a grammar pattern that you
already know from one video and you're
combining it with vocabulary that you're
learning from another video so in this
way you can kind of begin putting
together
keywords and key phrases
as you learn them but again i think it
might be a good idea to try to focus in
on just one point at a time to learn it
comfortably and then expand finally then
the last and arguably most important
point here is to remember to practice
speaking out loud so don't just write
sentences down or type sentences on your
computer make sure to practice speaking
the sentences and make sure to ask
questions to practice saying questions
as well so i hope that this helps you
thanks very much for this question and
good luck with your continued studies
okay let's move on to your next question
next question comes from
m abdul rahman hello abdul abdul says hi
alicia here are my questions how can i
eliminate my native accent when i speak
english people guess my country after i
say a few sentences and two i have two
kids aged nine and four is it advisable
to start them with your class for
speaking practice thanks
regarding your first question one
getting rid of an accent takes practice
for sure and keep in mind that probably
most non-native speakers of english do
speak with a bit of an accent and it's
not a communication problem in most
cases also
if it is a communication problem you
just ask for confirmation actually even
native speakers don't speak clearly
sometimes too
so i wouldn't worry so much about
completely removing your accent
but if you do want to practice
pronunciation a bit i would say if
you're studying alone to try
listening to yourself first and
comparing your voice to a native
speaker's voice so that you can identify
the parts in your speech that are
different from that even native speakers
so one thing that i think could be
helpful if you're studying alone as i
said and you don't have a teacher to
correct you is to record your own voice
and listen to yourself saying something
that you can replay in media so for
example if you choose like an english
topics video from this channel and you
listen to me or michael or davey you can
hear us saying something
listen to that just one sentence or two
sentences is okay
then record yourself and try to say it
exactly the way you heard it
then
listen to your recording and compare it
to the original recording and see what's
different is there a vowel sound that
you're not pronouncing the same way as
the native speaker is there a consonant
sound that's difficult to hear is the
connection of words so when you can find
the places that are different in your
speech
that are like different from the way the
native speaker says them then you can
focus in on those sounds and work on
improving those sounds first over time
you'll gradually gain more and more
practice with making these specific
sounds
and to work on those specific sounds you
can try searching for some videos we
have a few pronunciation related videos
on our channel
but you can look for some information
about how to more clearly pronounce
vowel and consonant sounds online so i
hope that that helps you regarding your
second question about using our lessons
for your kids i would say that
it might be a little bit challenging for
very young kids because the content the
lessons that we make on this channel are
kind of intended for people who have
studied some english before in their
home countries or they're at a bit of an
intermediate level so i think lessons
like maybe the whiteboard videos or
these videos would be very difficult for
young kids to understand
but i think because they have a parent
who is learning english as well you
could choose some of the phrase based
top words videos so when i say phrase
based i mean the kids have the
opportunity to learn like a full
question or a full pattern and you can
help them to fill in the blank so i
would say you can choose phrase videos
and practice together with your kids or
you can choose
videos that have like a lot of everyday
information like maybe food related
vocabulary videos those might be good as
well too so i think that if you can
practice with your kids and use videos
like those it could be a fun way to
begin using english around your house so
thanks very much for the questions i
really hope that that helps you okay
let's move on to your next question next
question
comes from
rubon hello rubon rubon says what is the
usage and meaning of i am supposed to do
something and i am not supposed to do
something please explain okay so i am
supposed to do something refers to an
expected behavior
so that means it's something that like
your friend your family member your
co-worker your boss expects you to do
it's an expected behavior so examples
i'm supposed to call my parents every
sunday
we're supposed to finish work at eight
so the idea with supposed to is that if
that behavior does not happen someone
might be upset someone might be angry so
supposed to reflects an expectation
somewhere not supposed to is used to
refer to a behavior someone expects us
not to do we should not do that behavior
someone expects i will not do that
behavior if i do that behavior i will be
in trouble so again this is from someone
outside me my family member my co-worker
my boss they expect me not to do
something for example i'm not supposed
to stay out late
he's not supposed to eat junk food
so in situations like the second example
there it's kind of because like that
activity or that behavior could be
harmful somehow so in some supposed to
is for behaviors we expect not supposed
to is for behaviors that we do not
expect and are probably not good ideas
to do so i hope that this helps you
thanks very much for the question okay
that is everything that i have for you
guys for this week thank you as always
for sending your questions remember you
can send them to me at
englishclass101.com
ask hyphen alicia of course if you liked
this video please don't forget to give
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if you have not already and check us out
at
englishclass101.com for some other
things that can help you with your
english studies thanks very much for
watching this week's episode of ask
alicia and i will see you again next
week bye bye
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