want to speak real english from your
first lesson sign up for your free
lifetime account at englishclass101.com
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 sanju hi
sanju sanju says hi alicia i would like
to know how to use adverbs and their
correct position in sentences and i also
want to know the different kinds of
adverbs we can use in sentences okay
adverbs are tricky yes so for this i'm
going to focus on two kind of broad
types of adverbs one i'm going to talk
about the ones that we use to modify
just verbs or to modify like adjectives
and phrases and second i'll talk about
adverbs that we use to modify whole
sentences so first let's take a look at
adverbs that we use to modify like verbs
and adjectives so these types of adverbs
they make the meaning more specific so
like they make the meaning of a verb a
little bit more restricted so it becomes
a more specific sentence so an example
she walked slowly in this sentence
slowly is the adverb slowly modifies the
verb walked so we're learning here how
did she walk she walked slowly so she
walked slowly as a more specific
sentence than just she walked let's look
at another example we arrived late
in this sentence late is the adverb the
verb that it's modifying is arrived so
instead of just saying we arrived we can
say we arrived late this gives us more
specific information about the situation
we're learning when did they arrive we
arrived late so late is the adverb here
one more example this view is very
beautiful
here very is the adverb in this case
it's modifying an adjective not a verb
the adjective is beautiful so we want to
ask the question how beautiful was the
view
very beautiful so in this way we can
modify verbs we can modify adjectives
and even phrases in this simple way so
with that in mind now let's take a look
at adverbs that can be used to modify
entire sentences so sometimes these
adverbs can be used to modify just verbs
yes but they can also be positioned so
that they modify entire sentences an
example
sadly
we lost the match
here sadly is the adverb it modifies the
sentence we lost the match
interestingly we never received a call
from our client
here interestingly is the adverb it
modifies the sentence we never received
a call from our client
so the positioning here is kind of
important you can position the adverbs
at the beginning of the sentence or at
the end of the sentence
but i would make one point
if you're going to position the adverb
at the end of the sentence use a comma
before the adverb so if you do this
without a comma and you make a sentence
like with the first example situation we
lost the match sadly it might sound like
the team members were actually like sad
in the match so that might like create
some confusion if you put a comma though
before your adverb at the end of the
sentence it makes things much clearer
for your reader the same thing applies
in the second example situation we never
received a call from our client
interestingly it's kind of confusing
like you might think like you never
received an interesting call from your
client it might create some confusion so
adding a comma there can help make
things clearer so if you want to do that
you can put it at the end of the
sentence i personally prefer in most
cases to put the adverb if it's a
sentence modifying adverb i prefer to
put it at the beginning of the sentence
to prevent any of this confusion while
yes you can make some changes in their
positioning if you're ever not sure
where to place the adverb place it as
closely as possible to the word that
it's modifying so for example the first
example sentence was very simple she
walked slowly but if there's more
information like she walked slowly and
we want to talk about a road to
it's much clearer to say she walked
slowly down the road than it is to say
she walked down the road slowly so in
that second sentence slowly and the verb
that it's modifying walked are very far
apart in the sentence so in very complex
sentences it can get confusing it's
better to keep your adverbs and the
words that they modify close together if
possible so i hope that this helps you
understand a bit about placement of
adverbs and how and where we use them
thanks very much for sending this
question in okay let's move on to your
next question next question comes from
diana hi diana diana says hi alicia
which one is correct write something in
the chat or on the chat for example the
youtube chat during the live stream
thanks oh yeah use in so this is
something i think i say during the live
stream like send us your messages in the
chat or i see something in the chat or
write that in the chat send your example
sentences in the chat when you want to
talk about chat rooms online on youtube
whatever please use the preposition in
to do that 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 casavarez vera
darajan hi again casavarge casavarge
says hi alicia when can we use hi
dear and other salutations in emails
thanks nice question so if you're
emailing a close colleague or a close
co-worker there are three that i would
recommend you can use hello first name
hi first name or hey first name i would
use hey only with colleagues or with
co-workers that you are very close to it
sounds quite casual and it might sound a
little bit impolite it might sound a
little too casual if you don't know the
other person very well if you use one of
these plus like mr or mrs or ms or
something like that it sounds a little
weird like it might sound a little bit
kind of
off balance if you use hey mister so and
so like some professors i know and some
like instructors at least in the us
don't mind that kind of thing but in
some cases it can sound a little bit
strange if you're ever not sure what
level of formality to go with like
should i use hey should i use high
should i use hello just go with hello
like hello first name for someone that
you know fairly well hello is nice
you can use hello mr or hello mrs hello
miss as well so hello is kind of the
standard level
for more formal salutations you can use
deer yes i use deer when i'm writing to
someone
that i feel is a bit above me and maybe
i don't know that person
if you want to make it even more formal
use dear mr ms misses whatever plus
their last name don't use first names if
they have a title you should use that
title as well but in general i think
most email correspondence usually uses
hello or dear
in one of those patterns that i've just
mentioned those are probably the most
standard ways to greet people in emails
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 reuben hi reuben
rubin says can you explain the
difference between the words garbage
rubbish and trash yep they mean the same
thing garbage rubbish and trash mean the
same thing but rubbish is used in
british english we don't really use the
word rubbish in american english also we
tend to use the words garbage and trash
when we mean garbage can or trash can we
don't always say where's the garbage can
we might just say where's the garbage or
where's the trash but we mean where is
the garbage can or where is the trash
can so trash and garbage can also be
used as very rude words to talk about
people that you dislike so you might
hear this in media i personally don't
like to use those words to talk about
people but you may hear it sometimes
rubbish as well as trash and garbage can
also be used to talk about things you
think are of poor quality so like oh man
this phone case was trash or oh man this
shirt is trash something that's a very
poor quality you can use garbage trash
rubbish but again british english uses
rubbish we don't really use this word in
american english so i hope that that
helps you they mean really the same
thing when you're talking about waste
thanks very much for the question hope
that that helps you let's move on to
your next question next question comes
from
ageless polite i'm not sure if i'm
saying that right i apologize if i'm not
um but ageless says uh hi alicia what
does the phrase knuckle under mean also
what is the correct usage of i with was
and when is were used with i thanks
interesting i have never actually heard
the expression knuckle under but i
researched it and knuckle under means
like to submit or to yield so like when
someone is like pressuring you or trying
to get you to do something and you
finally give up and you like agree okay
fine i'll do that thing you give in
that's called knuckling under to knuckle
under is like you can imagine that like
someone
uses their knuckle so this part of the
body is called the knuckle you can kind
of imagine someone applies their
knuckles
to apply pressure to someone to get them
to do something so this might be a
helpful image when you finally agree to
that thing you like go under their
knuckles like they've pushed you into
this situation or into a task that you
really didn't want to do or it was
difficult to agree to so that's the
meaning of knuckle under some examples
we won't knuckle under to their demands
keep pushing them they'll knuckle under
regarding your second question about
using i was and i were the short answer
is that we use i was to begin simple
past tense statements we use i were to
begin statements that are not true they
are unreal statements for example i was
a teacher five years ago
and if i were a teacher i would teach
math so in the first example sentence
it's a simple past tense statement i was
a teacher five years ago i use i was to
show that in my second example sentence
if i were a teacher i'm explaining
something that is not true it's an
unreal situation so in this case we
imagine i am not a teacher but so i want
to explain if i were a teacher i would
teach math so when we introduce these
unreal situations we use i were so for
some more example sentences and some
more discussion about this topic please
check out episode 54 and episode 70 of
this series so i've answered similar
questions from other viewers about this
same topic so i hope that that
information is helpful for you thanks
very much for the question okay that is
everything that i have for this week
thanks as always for sending your great
questions remember to send them at
englishclass101.com
ask hyphen alicia of course if you liked
the video don't forget to give it a
thumbs up subscribe to the channel if
you haven't already and please do 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
want to speed up your language learning
take your very first lesson with us
you'll start speaking in minutes and
master real conversations sign up for
your free lifetime account just click
the link in the description