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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 comes from sun kara elia hi sun
kara sun kara says i could do it now if
you like what does could mean in this
sentence does could mean ability in the
present or possibility
and what does likely to happen mean in
english okay yeah it's something maybe
that people would use to say something
is possible now i feel like we would
probably say i can do it now if you like
and it would sound like i can do it now
if you like perhaps a person would use
could instead of can to make it sound a
little bit more formal but it just means
it's possible for me to do this now if
you like i could do it now if you like
do you have time to finish checking my
paperwork today
yeah i could do it now if you like
so that's a situation where you might
hear this used could will sound a little
bit more formal i think than can so
regarding your second question about the
phrase likely to happen it just means
there's a good chance of something so
there's a good chance that something
will happen in the future for example
the company says the new project launch
is likely to happen in june our regular
summer party is not likely to happen
this year
so i hope that this helps answer your
questions thanks very much alright let's
move on to your next question next
question comes from fabio hi fabio fabio
says hello alicia i'd like to know about
some american dictionaries which one do
you recommend okay yeah my favorite
dictionary is webster's dictionary it's
called the webster's collegiate
dictionary as well so if you can't
access the physical book i highly
recommend merriam-webster's online
dictionary they are my favorite resource
to use i use them pretty much every week
to plan these lessons to plan other
videos it's a great resource
so of course you can look up words and
you can find example sentences and
pronunciation there
but they also do a really nice job of
sharing interesting articles about like
word history about new words that are
coming up and you can also do quizzes on
their website they post interesting
information on their twitter feed so i
highly recommend merriam-webster's
dictionary that's my favorite one so
just google for merriam-webster and you
can find it really really easily there
are a couple of other official american
dictionaries the other two like big
dictionaries there's one that's called
the american heritage dictionary that's
one that i personally have not used and
my understanding is that that's a very
like conservative approach to
uh standard english so that dictionary
originally came about because the person
the publisher felt that
merriam-webster's approach was like a
little bit too open like they were
merriam-webster was allowing like too
many new words to come in and they
weren't being strict enough about what's
correct and incorrect and so on so the
american heritage dictionary was like
this conservative response to that you
can still find the american heritage
dictionary online today if you want to
check it out
there's like example sentences and
definitions and images and things you
can use to learn more about words there
there's also the new oxford american
dictionary again i have not used this
one personally but that's based on the
oxford english dictionary meaning uh
british english so that's as the base uh
has had like some updates to make it
like an american english dictionary so
that's another resource that you could
consider using but my personal favorite
as i said is webster's dictionary that's
a great great resource to use in terms
of online dictionaries
like i said merriam-webster is good i
also like to use the cambridge online
dictionary because in addition to
searching or to being able to search for
word meanings you can search for grammar
as well so if there's a grammar point
you're not familiar with they have a
grammar search tool
you can also listen to pronunciations of
words in british english and in american
english and they have lots and lots of
example sentences so i use those two
probably the most the american english
cambridge dictionary and the american
english merriam-webster's dictionary so
those are a few dictionaries for you to
check out i hope that that's helpful
thanks very much for the question okay
let's move on to your next question next
question comes from
aurangzeb hi aurangzeb i hope i said
that right
aurangzeb says can we use wanna gonna
and gotta informal english writing or
speaking
i don't recommend it in formal writing
no i don't
you might hear
uh ghana
in formal speaking like when we're
speaking quickly but generally using
wanna sounds too casual so wanna is the
reduced form of want to and that even
just want to i want to he wants to might
sound a little too casual
instead we would use i would like to in
more formal situations i would like to
reduces to i'd like to i'd like to
gonna you might hear it in speech i
would not use it in writing but gonna is
the reduced form of going to and so
that's okay to use i'm going to he's
going to some other things that you
could use in place of that are like i
plan to or i intend to so these refer
more formally to your upcoming plans and
finally gotta is the reduced form of got
to or have got to or have to
um so this one is okay to use in the
non-reduced form like i have to do
something that's okay
got to might sound a little bit too
rough if you want to sound like
extremely formal you could say i have a
responsibility to do something
so
the short answer is no i would not use
these informal writing you can listen to
the other people around you to hear if
they use these words in speech because
in some cases that might be okay but in
writing i would not do this no okay so i
hope that this helps answer your
question thanks very much for sending it
along let's move on to your next
question next question comes from
zachary hi zachary zachary says hi
alicia i have two questions first is
there a difference between a bit and a
little bit
second do you never pronounce the t at
the end of a noun if there's an s after
the t in the plural form for example
event
events ah okay
first of all no there's not a difference
between a bit and a little bit they have
the same meaning but native speakers
often like to extend the sound little to
really emphasize how small something is
for example can i have a bit of cake
can i have a little bit of cake
so little like extending that sound
makes it sound like the piece we want is
even smaller it sounds super casual and
kind of goofy kind of funny but this is
how it's used so the meaning isn't
actually any different but we like to
kind of make an emphasis phrase or an
emphasis kind of like feel with it
regarding your second question um we do
actually pronounce the t here in events
events it's not a hard
sound it's more like a
s
so it's like the tongue touches the back
of the teeth quickly and then makes it s
sound
so you can kind of try to imitate the
sound of like a symbol in a drum set
that's the same exact sound so like
events events tense tense dense
sense
vents
these all nts sounds
the t sound is pronounced but it's just
not it's not even
it's all together we don't say event
it's all together it's
so if i don't make the t sound it sounds
totally bizarre it sounds like events
evens which would make like a z sound so
the t is pronounced it's just kind of
softened events events
so practice making that s s sound and i
think that this sound at the end of
these words will become a little bit
easier to say all right so i hope that
that helps you and good luck with your
continued pronunciation practice let's
move on to your next question next
question comes from alexi hi alexi alexi
says how correct is the expression and
this weather had been happened in the
sense that sometimes the weather was bad
in the past
uh to express that idea maybe try saying
this bad weather has happened before so
something has happened before we use has
been before a verb in the continuous
tense to express like a continuing
condition or we use has been before an
adjective to express like a condition
like a recent continuing condition so
like for example this bad weather has
been going for days or like the weather
has been terrible lately so we would not
use has been happened we can use has
happened like this bad weather has
happened before that's fine or we can
use has been continuous has been
adjective form so i hope that that helps
you thanks very much for the question
all right that's everything that i have
for this week so thank you as always for
sending your questions remember you can
send your questions to me at
englishclass101.com
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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
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