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 a new rag
Pratap Singh high on rock on rock says
hey Alisha this is an arrival India
hello could you please tell me the use
of these types of marks question mark
exclamation point and so on used in
combination together could you give some
examples take care
mmm yeah these combinations of question
marks and exclamation points are used in
very casual messages like text messages
or on social media or maybe in very
casual emails so we use these together
like a question mark and an exclamation
point together when we want to express
surprise and shock and a question all at
the same time so some mixture of those
feelings so some examples of when you
might use this could be you forgot my
wedding rings on my wedding day or you
crashed my car so in those kinds of
situations you want to communicate like
shock or a really strong anger and you
want to ask a question so in those cases
we combine our exclamation point with a
question mark so it doesn't matter if
you use exclamation point question mark
or the reverse you can choose the order
that you like some people also choose
for example to use like exclamation
exclamation exclamation question or
maybe they do a question question
question exclamation that's up to you so
they do that for emphasis they feel I
want to emphasize the question part more
or I want to emphasize the shock or
surprise more so that's up to you but
just keep in mind that this is very
casual this is not something that's
officially recognized in style guides
it's not something that you typically
see in like a professionally edited book
or in a magazine it's used in very
casual situations but this is very
common so if you want to communicate a
question and some kind of shock or
surprise or other extreme feeling you
can use these two marks together so I
hope that that
see you thanks very much for the
question okay let's move along to your
next question next question comes from
Peter hi Peter
Peter says hi I have two questions okay
first what's the difference between
replace with and replace by for example
one people replace computers by phones
two people replace computers with phones
three computers are being replaced by or
with phones okay let's stop here let's
start with your first question then we
use replace with when we're talking
about getting a substitute for something
that is old for something that is broken
for something that just requires an
upgrade I replaced my old iPhone with a
new iPhone or we replaced our TV with a
projector screen so in each of those
examples situation something old or
maybe something that needed an upgrade
got replaced with something new so we
use replaced with or to replace with in
these cases when it's something is like
old or broken we use replace by when
something is filling the role of another
thing so this is commonly used when
people change their jobs or they change
their position in some way in society so
when we use a pattern like person a was
replaced by person B it means person a
went away and person B took person a's
place the president was replaced by the
vice president after the scandal company
managers have been replaced by robots so
in both of these examples sentences we
see one person or a group of people
being replaced by something else so that
means that something else is taking the
position or is taking the role of the
person or people mentioned at the
beginning of the sentence so this is the
difference with replaced with or
replaced by your final example sentence
was kind of interesting it was computers
are being replaced by or
phones so it kind of depends on the
nuance that you want to give here I
personally would use computers are being
replaced by phones because I feel that
that kind of communicates that the role
of the computer can be done by a phone
now so maybe like a very old computer
can do the same things that a new phone
can do so we could suggest that a phone
can do those things a phone can be in
the role of an old computer so I think I
would probably use buy in this case
computers can be replaced by phones or
computers are being replaced by phones
as in your example sentence so thanks
very much for that question let's go on
to the second part of your question
which was which is correct or is more
natural
for example people replace their
computer by a phone people replace their
computers by phones you should send an
email through the gmail app you should
send emails through the Gmail app okay
good question
and the answer really depends on the
goal of your communication in general
when you're trying to decide between
using the singular and the plural form
in cases like these if you're speaking
generally use the plural form so to go
back to your example sentence people are
replacing computers with phones would be
correct or send emails using the Gmail
app so using the sentence send an email
with the Gmail app would be ok if you
are talking about one specific email
case like hmm you need to email your
client why don't you send an email with
the Gmail app like test it out try it
out one time if you're talking about a
company rule though send emails meaning
all of your emails please send all of
your emails with the Gmail app so using
the singular means one time using the
plural form means generally speaking
send emails so I hope that this helps
you understand the differences between
using the plural and the singular form
in these cases thanks very much for the
question
okay let's move on to your next question
next question comes from mohammad al
daly hey Mahmoud Mohamed says
transistors proved vital in creating the
practical lasers if I want to translate
the verb proved here would it be correct
to understand it as meaning tested or
are there other possibilities great
question
yeah the verb to prove means to show
evidence for something or to show
evidence that something is true so
another way to say this part of the
sentence this transistors proved vital
would be transistors were shown to be
vital or like we learned that
transistors were vital so vital means
very important and transistors refers to
a part of a machine so that's not so
important for understanding the focus of
this question the verb proved so proof
doesn't really mean test no to answer
your question although it is used in
test situations so in testing situations
or like in experiment situations or when
you're trying something new you need to
test things and ultimately in the end
you want to prove something to show
evidence for something so if you're
doing an experiment you want to explain
the results of your experiments so what
did you learn you can use the verb
proved in cases like these for example
the new software proved useful for our
project our new lessons proved popular
among students so in these sentences
proved means was shown to be or were
shown to be so in the first example
sentence the new software proved useful
for our project means the new software
was shown to be useful or we learned
that the new software was useful for our
project in the second example sentence
about classes proving popular among
students proved there again means shown
to be so our new classes were shown to
be
Buhler among students or we learned that
our new classes were popular among
students so this is what proof is used
to do keep in mind though that this use
of proof tends to sound a little bit
more formal we don't use this so much in
everyday speech you may hear it from
time to time but using proof in this way
makes your speech sound a little more
businesslike so I hope that this helps
you with your understanding of the verb
proof thanks very much for the question
ok let's move on to your next question
next question comes from Daniel
hello again Daniel Daniel says hi Alicia
what's the difference between to get
yourself killed and to kill yourself oh
man this is a great question if it's a
little bit on the dark side let's start
with getting yourself killed
to get yourself killed refers to dying
because you put yourself in a situation
with a high risk of death so the death
comes from outside you something else
kills you in this situation
another person or maybe a natural
disaster something from outside you
kills you that's very bad so to get
yourself killed means you put yourself
in a situation where there was a high
risk of death occurring some examples
don't take the boat out in this storm
you're gonna get yourself killed
or if you're a character in an action
movie don't go alone you'll get yourself
killed
so in this situation get yourself killed
means something from outside your body
is going to kill you in the first
example situation it's a storm and the
advice is don't take the boat out in the
storm you'll get yourself killed
meaning the bad weather may cause you to
die it's a high risk situation in a
second example sentence from something
like an action movie don't go alone
you'll get yourself killed
means if you go by yourself there's a
high risk of death you may die so let's
compare this then to the expression kill
oneself or in your example to kill
yourself to kill yourself means to take
your own life
so that means to
use something in order to end your own
life so this is a very dark expression
yes this is commonly referred to as
suicide
so this verb is used reflexively or
rather this expression is used
reflexively this means that the subject
and the object of the verb are the same
for example he kills himself so he is
the subject and himself is the object
kill is the verb that means he is
causing himself to die so this verb is
reflexively used here this is kind of a
dark one to make some example sentences
about but let's take a look at a couple
if you're having thoughts about killing
yourself
please reach out for help and he killed
himself due to high stress in his life
so in some this is the difference
between to get yourself killed
and to kill yourself to get yourself
killed refers to being in a situation
that has a high risk of death and to
kill oneself refers to taking one's own
life
so I hope that this helps you understand
this thanks very much for the question
ok let's move on to your next question
next question comes from Anurag hi again
on arago I have two questions from you
in this one ok anuraag says hi Alicia
could you please tell me the difference
between suppose to and supposed to and
their pronunciation while speaking do we
have to use the IDI sound while saying
supposed to in sentences yeah good
question and the difference between
suppose to and supposed to is that
supposed to does not exist we don't say
I'm supposed to we always say supposed
to do so the pronunciation here may be
the issue here is that supposed which
ends with a D is connecting to the sound
in to so supposed to slowly but in fast
speech we connect the T and the D sounds
together to make supposed to I'm
supposed to go to the store today I'm
supposed to go to the bank later I'm
supposed to meet with my friend so it
doesn't sound like supposed to we do not
make
those sounds clearly indistinctly we
connect them actually so when you are
speaking as well you can do the same
thing supposed to supposed to so don't
worry about saying supposed to we don't
say that you is supposed to supposed to
so I hope that this helps you thanks
very much for the 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 English class 101.com slash ask -
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watching this week's episode of ask
Alisha and I will see you again next
week