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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
nagarjuna hi nagarjuna nagarjuna says
what is the difference between being and
having okay
let's start with the word having we use
the word having in set expressions that
use the verb have
for example i'm having a good time
or
i'm having trouble with this
he's having a shower at the moment can
he call you back
okay so then being has a lot more uses
than having we use being to talk about
temporary conditions we can use this
before adjectives keep in mind that when
we use being before adjectives we're
using it to describe something that's
temporary in cases where we use the same
adjective without being it's describing
something that is a regular condition
so let's compare these two sentences
he's weird
he's being weird
the first sentence he's weird is a
simple present tense sentence there's no
being here that shows us that weird is a
regular condition so he's usually weird
he's always weird
the second sentence though he's being
weird uses being in the progressive
tense so that shows us it's a temporary
condition it means at this moment he's
weird only this moment so usually he's
not weird but for right now he is so
when you see being used before
adjectives in this way it's referring to
this temporary state or this temporary
condition so we can use being before a
noun as well but we use it to talk about
an ongoing condition such as our job we
want to talk about like the state of
being something that's like always like
the same for us that's usually our job
or something that's unchanging that's a
regular condition for us so we can make
sentences that have the same meaning
that just use be in different ways for
example
is being an artist difficult
and
is it difficult to be an artist
both of these sentences use the verb to
be
the first one uses being and just refers
to the ongoing condition of an artist so
is it difficult to be an artist and is
being an artist difficult those have the
same meaning they're just slightly
different grammatical structures we can
also use being before verbs when we do
this we tend to use it in passive voice
and we use verbs in the past participle
form when we do this in present tense
it's referring to an action that is
ongoing now
when we're talking about past tense
situations it's referring to an action
that was continuing in the past so an
unfinished action in the past sometimes
there will be an interruption that we
can see in the sentence later in the
sentence
but in some cases it's just referring to
an unfinished action for example present
tense
we are being watched
my lunch is being eaten by someone else
so these show ongoing unfinished actions
that maybe we can see or we know about
but they're continuing so we can use
being to talk about those so we use have
or having in the progressive form in set
expressions that use have 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
faisal
says how can i talk very quickly in
english um
don't worry so much about speaking
quickly or like as fast as you possibly
can like everybody speaks at a pace
that's natural and comfortable for them
but if you want to work on improving the
smoothness of your speech something that
you might try is just reading text out
loud so something that you can do to
practice is find like an interesting
news article or maybe a blog or even a
short story to read
something that's got a little bit of
length to it you don't want to read just
tweets
but something that you can read that you
can follow along with practice reading
this out loud so don't just read in your
mind practice saying the words and
connecting the words to one another so
you can do this first like slowly that's
fine it's fine to read slowly at first
but then come back to the same article
practice reading that again like later
in the week or a couple days later and
practice making the sounds a little bit
faster so do this a couple times until
you're comfortable with the grammar
points until you're comfortable with the
vocabulary words and then when you're
fine you can move on to another article
challenge yourself with another article
that uses different grammar points
different words and so on something that
i find interesting and fun kind of to do
when i practice this way is to try to
take recordings of myself so maybe on
one day i'll practice for like an hour
or i'll study for an hour or something
and at the end of my practice session i
will record myself and then i can listen
to or watch the recording later and see
maybe what parts weren't so good or what
parts i was good at then at my next
practice session i can do the same thing
and compare it to my first practice
session after a few weeks of this then i
can look back at my first practice
session compare it to my last practice
section or a session rather and see how
much i've improved so this is a really
good way at least i've found to kind of
track progress so this is something that
could maybe help you as you try to
improve your rate of speech so again
don't worry so much about speaking super
fast like it's going to sound unnatural
if you're just pushing yourself
to speak super quickly all the time so
just try to find a comfortable pace that
allows you to communicate clearly and
smoothly so i hope that this helps you
thanks very much for the question all
right let's move on to your next
question next question comes from yusof
hi yusof yusof says how can i politely
ask my teacher if it's okay to exit the
classroom uh if you would like to leave
your classroom you can say something
like may i leave the room or can i leave
the room so some people are really
strict about the difference between may
and can historically may has been used
to ask for permission can has been used
to talk about possibility or ability
rather
so if you want to be super strict may is
better but may could sound a little bit
more polite so may i leave the room is
okay it's probably a good idea to
include the reason you would like to
leave the room for example may i go to
the restroom or may i go to the office
or may i go to the health center i don't
feel well
so if you want to include a reason you
can do that may i go to some place so
this is how you would politely ask your
teacher if it's okay to exit the
classroom i hope that this helps you
thanks very much for the question let's
move on to your next question next
question is from artemium hi artemium
artemium says hi alicia is it required
to put the indefinite article in front
of an adjective that follows an
uncountable noun for example hot milk or
neat writing or good education thanks
aha no in most cases actually using the
indefinite article in this way would be
incorrect to refresh everybody the
indefinite article is uh or an and we
use indefinite articles before countable
nouns in the singular form but i do want
to talk a bit about these examples that
you've introduced the first example that
you introduced was the phrase hot milk
so the only way that i can think of that
we would use an indefinite article
before an expression like this is if hot
milk is a menu item you go to a
restaurant or coffee shop and hot milk
is on the menu and when you order you
say a hot milk please or one hot milk
please in that case it's okay the reason
for this is because hot milk as a set
phrase is understood as one unit so even
though milk is an uncountable noun yes
we understand hot milk is like one mug
or is one cup of something like that's
one item i can order in that case using
the indefinite article is okay it's
natural it's much better in fact than
saying can i have some hot milk which
sounds very weird there in that case
when we're ordering something we
understand hot milk to be one unit like
one cup one glass in that case fine no
problem so another example of this might
be at like a bakery if you go to the
bakery and you'd say i'd like a
sourdough bread please so in that case
sourdough bread is understood to be one
unit one type of bread like a menu item
in that case fine no problem your second
example your second example was about
the expression neat writing so this is
one that i would not use an article
before i would say in some very rare
very uncommon cases
especially in like formal or maybe
religious texts some people would use
the word writing to refer to like a
script to refer to a text using writing
in this way to refer just to written
text sounds quite formal so in today's
english we would probably just say a
neat piece of writing we would not use
the indefinite article in this case
finally then your last example was the
expression good education so the reason
that this one is a little bit tricky is
because we have an idiomatic expression
to get an education to get an education
means to receive education but in this
idiom we use the article we use the
indefinite article and before education
so because this is an idiomatic
expression it's a set expression we
preserve that indefinite article and
just move it in front of good so in your
example good education we could say to
get a good education that would be fine
in that case because it's an idiom and
because it uses an indefinite article
originally we keep it there some
examples that use this idiom
she got a good education at her
university
it's important that you get a good
education
okay so in sum if you're looking at
adjective uncountable noun phrases that
are understood as a unit it's okay to
use an indefinite article and it's okay
to use an indefinite article when the
uncountable noun is part of an idiom so
i hope that this helps answer your
question thanks very much okay let's
move on to your next question next
question comes from takuji sasamoto hi
takuji takuji says hi alicia please
teach me how to use you know in
conversation okay
depending on the positioning in the
sentence and how we feel when we say it
meaning how our voice feels when we say
it it can have slightly different
meanings when we position you know at
the beginning of a sentence it feels a
little bit like by the way so for
example
you know there's a three-day weekend
coming up
or
you know i have a big bonus coming in
this summer so in these sentences it
means like by the way and from the tone
of my voice it's like there's something
exciting there's some exciting new
information i want to share there you
know
if we position you know at the end of a
sentence it tends to sound like a
question
and we use it to like get agreement from
people around us so we're like talking
about a difficult situation and we're
trying to get agreement from the people
around us for example i don't want to
upset my parents you know
or
i'm just not ready to move to a new city
you know
so in those cases we use you know to get
listener agreement so we're saying you
know as like a short version of don't
you know what i mean or do you
understand what i mean so you can think
of you know used in that way with that
upward intonation to be looking for like
confirmation so that's actually a pretty
good rule if you hear you know used with
that upward question intonation it's
probably a good hint that that's looking
for agreement the speaker is looking for
agreement if you hear it with that
downward intonation you know
it's probably sharing some new
information that by the way feel so i
hope that this helps you thanks very
much for the question okay so that's
everything that i have for this week
thank you as always for sending your
questions remember you can send your
questions to me at englishclass101.com
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alicia and i will see you again next
week bye bye
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