Hello , I'm Nick Shepherd, welcome to my on-line school of English.
I want to tell you a story about Erica arriving in in college.
At first she by herself, or on her own, but that changed.
And then I'll tell you how she learned to make life better for herself.
Hope you enjoy it!
Erica sat in a corner of the college cafeteria by herself.
She was new, and she didn't know anybody, and she wasn't enjoying college.
She was always on her own.
You can switch these two phrases around if you want to, like this.
She didn't know anybody.
On the other side of the cafeteria there was a young man, also looking sad, also on his
own.
His name was Tom, and he was sitting by himself looking out of the window at the gardens outside.
Erica looked across, and saw him sitting by himself, or if you like, on his own.
Feeling suddenly brave, she picked up her tray, walked across the café, and sat down
next to him.
"Hello" she said.
He started.
"Oh, hi" he said.
"I saw you were by yourself, so I came to sit with you.
I was on my own too."
They looked shyly at each other, and slowly they started to chat.
And as they chatted, they both started to feel better about college.
They started to enjoy themselves.
Information is good, but it doesn't make you happy; connections with other people make
you happy.
Now here are some words and phrases we used in that story.
First of all, by myself (by yourself, by yourselves, by herself, by themselves ...)
And, another phrase: on my own or, if you like, on your own, on his own, on their own
...)
Now those two phrases are the same as each other, mostly, and they mean "alone".
However, never say never, never say always in language.
Now for a couple of irregular verbs.
In the story you'll see "sit", past tense "sat", and "come", past tense "came"
Next one, the phrase "she didn't know anybody", the same as "she knew nobody".
But don't forget, the phrase with 'nobody' is more formal).
In conversation we usually say "she didn't know anybody".
And now, "enjoy"
You can say "he's enjoying the ice cream", or "she's not enjoying college"
Or you can say "she's enjoying herself", which means "she's having a good time"
What you can't say is "she's enjoying with him" I'll just cross that one out.
You say "enjoy yourself (at the party ...)" or "enjoy the party".
You can say "Enjoy!"
to somebody starting a meal, going to a movie, going to a concert, that sort of thing ...
And now back to Erica.
She's a curious girl; she likes to find things out for herself.
She thought it would be nice to have a boyfriend, but she wanted to find out for herself.
That was why she spoke to Tom.
Who knows what might happen?
She is an independent girl, who likes to think for herself.
So when she got her new iphone, she didn't ask anybody for help; she used on-line tutorials,
and worked it out for herself.
Now for some WORDS and PHRASES First of all, for myself, or if you like for
herself, for themselves, and so on ... That means "in my interest, for my benefit"
Here are three common examples off using "for myself":
You can find out for yourself -- that's discover something.
You can work the answer out for yourself -- it's a bit like "calculate"
Or you can think for yourself
And so Erica and Tom chatted together, and started to become friends.
OK, that's all for today, bye for now.