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gifts of the month hi everybody welcome
back to ask alicia the weekly series
where you ask me questions and i answer
them maybe
okay let's get to your first question
this week first question this week comes
from brian acuna hi brian brian says hi
alicia i've noticed some expressions
that use as plus adverb plus as for
example as soon as can you tell me about
the adverbs that i can use this with and
explain all about it sure okay first
let's look at a couple of basic ways
that you can use this pattern so we'll
talk about as soon as a little bit later
because it's a little bit different but
we can use as plus adverb plus as or as
plus adjective plus as to show that
something is equal to something else for
example
sarah sings as beautifully as kim
jeff is as tall as dave
so these examples mean that person a and
person b are equal in terms of something
in the first example sentence sarah and
kim sing equally beautifully in the
second example sentence jeff and dave
have equal heights so as plus adjective
or as plus adverb plus as refers to two
things that are equal in some way so
that's one way of using this
as soon as your example is a bit
different from this we use as soon as to
mean that one action will be done or one
action will occur immediately after
another action for example we'll leave
as soon as you finish your drink so that
means that one action leaving will
happen immediately after the other
action finishing a drink so we'll leave
as soon as you finish your drink means
we'll leave immediately after or just
after you finish your drink so this is
kind of different we're not using it to
make a comparison or to say that
something is equal to something else
this is kind of a set expression which
means immediately following something
else
another expression that uses this as
plus something plus as pattern is as
long as as long as so as long as means
only if for example i can go to the
party as long as i finish my homework so
another way to say this is i can go to
the party only if i finish my homework
meaning if i do not finish my homework i
cannot go to the party so as long as is
another way to do that another pattern
is with few and with little and we use
this when we want to emphasize small
quantities of things we use as few as or
as little as for example
as few as 60 people attended the seminar
as few as half of the students passed
the class and as few as six students
attended the class
so this means that like six or sixty or
whatever the number is
was like a small amount compared to
maybe what was expected so we use as few
as or as little as to express that keep
in mind that this doesn't really matter
regarding uncountable or countable nouns
we use this with both on the other hand
when you want to talk about large
amounts of things you can use as many as
to do that so for example as many as 1
000 people volunteered for the event or
as many as 60 students entered to win
the contest so that kind of emphasizes
that a large amount or perhaps more of
something than expected
happened or occurred as much as is
another expression that follows this as
something as pattern but as much as has
some different uses than as many as we
can use as much as to refer to something
that is equal as i talked about at the
very beginning to this answer as in she
earns as much as he does or she drinks
as much wine as he does so that refers
to equal amounts of something we can
also use it to talk about like
activities we enjoy or activities we
feel something for for example he likes
cooking as much as he likes watching
movies so that expresses equality
there's also one kind of strange use of
as much as which is in examples like as
much as i like the new guy at the office
i don't think he's going to stay at the
company long
or
as much as i want to go to that new
restaurant i don't have a budget for it
this week so this use of as much as
means like despite or even though so
like despite how much i like that new
guy or even though i really like that
new guy i can't see him at the company
for very long or something like that so
we use as much as usually at the
beginning of a clause to mean despite or
even though so this is a quick
introduction to some very common as
something as patterns some of which use
adverbs but i hope that this helps
answer your question thanks very much
okay let's move on to your next question
next question comes from
amar hi amar amar says hi alicia is
there any difference between these day
by day and by the day
minute by minute and by the minute hour
by hour and by the hour
yes there are some differences first
let's look at one group of these let's
look at day by day hour by hour and
minute by minute we use these
expressions to mean that something
happens gradually something maybe
changes gradually a condition or a state
changes gradually over a period of time
so for example
day by day she worked on her project
until it was finished or
minute by minute she grew hungrier and
hungrier hour by hour he got more and
more worried so each of these
expressions shows how much time passed
like what was the length of time of that
activity in the first example sentence
day by day it means that she worked on
her project over a period of days in the
second example sentence over several
minutes she grew hungrier and hungrier
in the third example sentence over a
period of hours he got more and more
worried so we use this pattern to show
like the gradual progression of
something or gradual change in something
we can use the second pattern you
introduced this by the day or by the
hour or by the minute to do it but we
need to change the sentences slightly
for example her project progressed by
the day
she grew hungrier by the minute
he became more and more worried by the
hour
so when you're using this by the day or
by the minute or by the hour pattern you
need to make sure that the subject of
your sentence is the thing that is
changing so in some cases the thing that
is changing might be separate from like
the person who is doing the activity
this is especially the case for the
first example sentence when using that
day by day pattern i said day by day she
worked on her project until it was
finished that's fine but when i'm using
this by the day pattern i need to make
the thing that is changing the subject
of my sentence so in this case her
project progressed by the day so that
means her project the thing that is
changing
progressed so that means it moved
forward by the day so this pattern
personally i don't use this one so much
i think i might use the first style a
little bit more commonly the final point
for my answer to this question is about
the second group of expressions we can
use these when we're talking about
prices for goods or for services so
let's imagine that we are renting an
office space
to rent the office space by the day it's
70
to rent the office space by the minute
it's 20 cents and to rent the office
space by the hour it's 10
so we use by the minute or by the hour
or by the day or maybe by the week
perhaps in some cases do you talk about
prices for time periods of things so you
may see this if again you're like
renting a space or you need to
buy some goods or a service or something
and the available prices are in units of
time so this is another case where you
might see this so i hope that this
answer helps you thanks very much for
the question okay let's move on to your
next question next question comes from
van on hi venon van on says i'm very
confused about the conversion of adverbs
of time in reported speech for example
the rules say today needs to be turned
into that day
tomorrow becomes the next day and
yesterday becomes the day before why is
that
also why do people who are learning
english as a second language need to
learn about reported speech and direct
and indirect speech but native speakers
don't
first question i wouldn't say that these
are rules there's not a rule about using
tomorrow or yesterday or the next day or
whatever what's important when you're
reporting speech is to consider the
relationship between your conversation
to the present point in time so for
example if you and i had a conversation
before i started recording this video
about like some plan we have for two
days in the future and then i want to
report that to our mutual friend the
next day so tomorrow now
i would say hey i talked to van
yesterday or van told me about this
yesterday or i want to talk to you about
tomorrow's plan i talked to van about it
yesterday so what's important is the
relationship between that conversation
the conversation where you're reporting
something and the actual conversation
that you're referring to so that
relationship is what's important so i
wouldn't say like the next day i would
say tomorrow because it's quite natural
it is natural to use the next day uh if
it's like
something that was in the past or it's
not easy to use tomorrow or yesterday so
if we think about a different example
like if i want to talk about a meeting
that happened two weeks ago then i would
probably use that day or the next day so
for example i could say on that day my
manager said my project was a great
success the next day i received a
promotion so in that case on that day
refers to the day of the meeting so
maybe i don't need to be specific then
the next day refers to the day following
the meeting i cannot use tomorrow in
that case because tomorrow is
referencing only the day after the
present so tomorrow has a very specific
use the next day refers to the next day
in the story so we can't use tomorrow or
yesterday loosely we can use the next
day or the day before or the day prior
to talk about like past events or even
future events as well too but tomorrow
today and yesterday are very like
constrained so it's kind of strict our
use of those we need to use those when
referring to the present point in time
so please keep this in mind so don't
worry about like following a specific
rule for reporting speech in this way
think about your relationship to the
conversation you're having now and the
conversation about which you are
reporting that's what's important here
so this will get easier with time and
with practice and if it's helpful you
might take a look at a calendar
while you try to think about how to
report speech and it might kind of help
you visualize
how to explain things in the best way
regarding your second question native
speakers do learn about reporting speech
and reporting like indirect and direct
speech we just learn it naturally as
speakers of any language do so this is
something for everybody to learn and
that everybody uses i hope that this
helps you thanks for the questions okay
let's move on to your next question next
question comes from
khalil hi khalil khalil says hi alicia
how do i get better at pronouncing p and
b
in words like probably responsible
purple back pack
bath path and so on ah well you already
know that these letters or these sounds
are challenging for you so the next step
really is to practice i would say when
you practice pronunciation to
if it's something that you can't quite
get the hang of like you feel like
you're trying really hard but you can't
quite make the sound try practicing a
bit in front of a mirror and look at the
way a native speaker says those sounds
so google or find on youtube a video of
someone saying these sounds so it's not
just listening but you want to actually
see someone making these sounds and try
to make your mouth make the same motions
as the native speaker so this might feel
a little bit uncomfortable at first like
when i teach pronunciation lessons with
my students they feel like a little
uncomfortable or they laugh because we
have to use like sounds in english that
they don't use in their native language
and it feels strange to them so if it
feels strange that's okay like try to
push yourself to make a new sound so for
example when you're making a p sound
you need to really like pull your lips
in
to make that p sound so you can't make a
p sound with a b sound uh mouth position
so it's going to sound like
you need to make a
gesture sort of or a motion with your
mouth so try practicing in front of a
mirror and see if you can make your
mouth motions match the motions of a
native speaker and if you have trouble
pronouncing the whole word like probably
in one go try breaking it down into
syllables so prob
lee and then try to connect the
syllables together so ugly or prob
something like that so break the words
down until you feel comfortable that
you're pronouncing them correctly so i
hope that this helps and good luck with
your pronunciation studies thanks very
much for the question okay let's move on
to your next question next question
comes from phoenix hi phoenix phoenix
says hi alicia i am phoenix from vietnam
could you explain the difference between
bar pub beer club and beer garden thanks
a million okay sure a bar is a place
where alcoholic drinks are served bars
can be casual they can be very luxurious
perhaps they have a few snacks but
usually snacks are like maybe nuts or
maybe like dried fruit or something like
that so a bar is a place primarily
usually for alcoholic drinks a pub is a
bit more of a casual place a pub has
kind of a neighborhood feel it's usually
not like a luxurious place uh the
probably most popular drink in a pub is
beer and you can get food at a pub it's
usually not super healthy
it's usually like fried foods or like
meat or maybe stews that kind of thing
so it's often this very like hearty kind
of home-style cooking at pubs a beer
club a beer club is not something that
we have at least in the u.s that's not a
word that we really use in english
that's not a word we use in english at
all together a beer club separately that
could refer to a group of people that
gets together to drink beer or maybe
they have some kind of membership system
where they exchange beer i don't know so
it could be a beer club people who enjoy
beer together
we do have the word beer bar which
refers to a certain type of bar that
serves just specialty beer so that is a
word a beer bar you might also hear the
word beer pub which is like a more
casual beer bar finally a beer garden is
a place outside usually like a festival
or some other kind of event where people
can drink beer outside so it's just like
kind of like what it sounds you can
usually drink beer in like a grassy area
outside so that's called a beer garden i
hope that this helps you thanks very
much for the question all right 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
ask hyphen alicia of course if you liked
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much for watching this week's episode of
ask alicia and i will see you again next
week bye
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