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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 elektra hi
elektra elektra says hey alicia i'm
elektra from greece could you please
explain gerunds to us sure a gerund is a
verb in the ing form so using it in this
way makes it a noun we can use it as a
noun in a sentence for example
she likes cooking or he hates hiking so
in these sentences the words that end in
ing are gerunds in the first sentence
cooking in the second sentence hiking we
can use gerunds and the infinitive forms
of verbs sometimes interchangeably so
the infinitive form of a verb is to plus
the base form of the verb for example
she likes to cook or he likes to hike a
very common question is when do i use a
gerund when do i use an infinitive and
the question is quite big it's way too
big to answer in this series the reason
is that there are many different groups
of verbs that tend to take gerunds or
that tend to take infinitives but there
are exceptions all over the place so
it's quite challenging to make a rule or
a guide specifically for gerunds or
specifically for infinitives so this is
a quick introduction to what a gerund is
it's a verb that takes an ing ending and
is used as a noun in a sentence 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
el hassan ahmed hello el hassan el
hazaan says i sometimes hear people say
better instead of improve as if it is a
verb is that formal for example think
about how to better yourself
also i heard someone say more better and
it sounded strange to me i mean can i
say he is more taller than me i don't
think i can thanks a lot okay yes
exactly to better means to improve and
yes it does sound a little bit more
polite a little bit more formal like you
should better yourself you should
improve yourself or she aims to better
her students meaning she aims to improve
her students so yes you can use better
to mean improve in this way just make
sure you use it as a verb to answer your
second question though more better as
you've said yes is grammatically
incorrect and you're also correct you
cannot say he is more taller than me
that's also incorrect so the reason that
you might hear something like this is
because native speakers often like to
make grammatical mistakes on purpose to
sound funny like to sound childish or
like to make a joke so a very popular
one is to use the expression more better
like ah that's more better it sounds
kind of cute like a child who hasn't
learned all of the grammar rules of
english yet they might say more better
instead of just better so this is maybe
like a way that someone could joke
around or just try to sound more
friendly or kind of cute in their
speaking thanks very much for the
question i hope that this helps you okay
let's move on to your next question next
question comes from
tatsu hi tatsu tatsu says could you tell
me the difference between correct and
right sure if you're talking about the
opposite of wrong as in like the answers
on a test then correct and right are
both fine to use you can use either of
them if you're talking about the
opposite of left then you have to use
right you cannot use correct for that we
also talk about things that are
societally proper that are societally
good with the word right we do not use
correct so for example if you say like
oh my gosh my medical fees from my
hospital stay were so high that's not
right so we use right to mean like
that's not good or that's not fair
that's not like a good thing in our
society we also use the word right to
mean like basic human rules in a society
again too
so for example
in the usa people have the right to
silence so that means a basic rule that
people have in the u.s is the ability to
keep their silence about something so we
cannot use correct in that case so these
are the various uses of correct and
right i hope that this helps you thanks
for the question okay let's move on to
your next question next question comes
from mit mitmit
says hi alicia why don't native speakers
use specific times in present perfect
but they do use specific times in simple
past tense ah because when we're using
the basic form of present perfect we're
not focusing on when in the past a
specific action occurred we just want to
talk about that life experience so the
time the point in time at which it
happened is not important or we don't
know or we don't want to focus on that
for example i have been to france or he
has eaten sushi in these situations for
whatever reason
when that happened is not important we
just want to express our life experience
so we do not use a specific point in
time and it sounds very unnatural to use
a specific point in time with that like
present perfect tense
if however you want to use present
perfect continuous to talk about a point
at which something started and then has
continued until the present time you can
and you should use a for or since ending
to it for example i have been living in
france since 2013.
or he has been studying english for
three years in those cases we need to
mark the starting point of that action
or condition so we do use a specific
point in time
let's compare this then to using simple
past tense when we use simple past tense
we want to express an action that
started and it finished in the past and
so we do use a specific point in time
for example i went to france last summer
or he ate sushi last week so in sum if
you want to just share a general life
experience use the regular present
perfect tense if you want to talk about
something that started in the past and
continues to the present use present
perfect continuous and include a
specific point in time at which your
actions started or began or like when
your condition started if you want to
talk about something that's done that's
over and you want to talk about the
specific point at which that thing
happened use simple past tense 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
late jerry hi late jerry late jerry says
hi alicia a lot of people use double
negation lately is this a kind of
innovation can we use it is it
grammatically correct for example can't
nobody tell me nothing nice question
yeah some people who are very strict
about grammar like now and historically
consider double negation to be like
incorrect or they think that it's a sign
of poor education or something like that
but that's not the case double negation
has existed in english for a long time
and it exists now so in some dialects in
english double negation or multiple
negation
is used more commonly than in other
dialects so for example i don't really
use double negation in my speech but in
certain parts of the u.s or in certain
parts of england
people may use that kind of speech so i
would suggest that if it's not natural
for you if you didn't grow up with it if
it's not something that you or the
people around you regularly use it's
probably going to sound very unnatural
for you to use that so your example
sentence was can't nobody tell me
nothing
that is not a sentence i personally
would use but someone who speaks a
different dialectic english that uses
this kind of negation might if i wanted
to say that sentence i would say
something like nobody can tell me
anything that's how i would say it so
using the other sentence would sound
very unnatural for me that kind of
speech is not natural for me so it
sounds perhaps rude maybe or offensive
for me to use that i would say just try
to be aware of the people who are around
you if you are learning english in a
place where double negation is common
then perhaps it's natural for you to use
a bit of it as well
if you're just kind of trying to mimic
something that maybe you heard on tv or
in music or in media or something like
that it's probably going to sound very
unnatural
so yes it is used yes it is featured
actually in some dialects of english
that doesn't mean that it's natural for
everyone to use if this kind of speech
is hard for you to understand don't
worry this is just another part of
language learning and this is a specific
way that some people speak in english so
while yes it does go against like
traditional grammar rules i suppose that
doesn't mean that the communication is
any less valid so try to keep that in
mind and again if it's difficult for you
to understand people who speak this way
that's okay just with time and practice
you will gradually come to know
what that sentence means or what that
speaker is actually saying so i hope
that this helps you thanks very much for
an interesting question okay that is
everything that i have for this week
thank you as always for sending your
questions remember you can send them to
me at englishclass101.com
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watching this week's episode of ask
alicia and i will see you again next
week bye
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