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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 ali reza
hi again ali ali says hi alicia what's
the difference between where have you
been and where were you
there's not a big difference here
if you've been waiting for someone for a
long time like you expected someone to
be at a place like at a meeting or maybe
a restaurant or a cafe and you have been
waiting for a long time you might use
where have you been to mean where were
you from this point in the past until
now like i expected to meet you so we
might use where have you been in a case
like that we might use where were you in
a situation where we're asking about a
finished situation or something that's
done it's it happened in the past like
for example if you
miss class one day you are supposed to
go to school but you're sick and you go
to class the next day your classmate
could say where were you yesterday so
that sounds like yesterday something
happened and they want to know about
that situation at that point in time
only so this is a little bit different
from where have you been which means
like there was some expectation that you
would be there and you were not so in
some cases you can use both yes like for
example if you are late for a meeting
and your co-worker asks where have you
been like you're an hour late you could
use that or the co-worker might say like
where were you you're an hour late
those are some cases like where it's
kind of up to the speaker to decide a
little bit
but generally if someone has been
expecting you for a period of time
they'll probably use the where have you
been pattern if it's just a past action
a past situation it's over it's done you
might use the where were you pattern
instead so i hope that this helps you
thanks for the question okay let's move
on to our next question next question
comes from shu hi shu shu says hi alicia
your lessons are helpful cool my
question which one is correct most of
the movie takes place in la or
most of the movies take place in la nice
question actually both sentences are
correct
and they have very different meanings so
let's take a look the first one most of
the movie is set in la means the
majority of this movie only takes place
or happens in la
with the plural most of the movies take
place in la it means most movies in this
specific group happen in la
so to give an example of this let's
imagine like a movie series there are
three movies in the series and the first
two movies movies one and two take place
in la and in san francisco a little bit
movie number three takes place in new
york city
so when we want to talk about movie one
for example we could say most of the
movie takes place in la so that means
the majority of movie number one happens
in la not all of it because a little bit
happens in san francisco
but the majority of the movie happens in
la so we say most of the majority of
most of the movie takes place in la
if however we want to talk about the
series this three movie series and we
want to talk about where the series
happens we could say
most of the movies take place in la so
that means most of the movies meaning
two of the three movies are set mostly
in la so that means movies one and
movies two are mostly in la movie three
is in new york city so it's in a totally
different place so in that case we're
talking about a group of movies most of
the movies in this group in this series
in this case take place in la so both of
your original example sentences are
totally correct yes but they just have
very different meanings so think about
it are you talking about one specific
movie and what things are happening in
that movie or are you talking about a
group of movies so this example is just
about movies yes but you can apply the
same idea to many other situations too
so 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 angel hello again
angel angel says hi alicia and team
could you please explain the meaning of
the word whatsoever sure okay whatsoever
means at all or of any kind so you could
replace whatsoever in a sentence with of
any kind and it would still make sense
we tend to use this a lot in negative
situations like when we're saying you
cannot do something so it's used a lot
for like rules or policies or whatever
for example
students may use no devices whatsoever
he gave no hints whatsoever about the
new product
we had no help whatsoever with our
homework
so in each of these example sentences we
could replace whatsoever with of any
kind and it would still make sense so
again this is not so commonly used in
everyday speech because it's used a lot
to talk about policies and rules and it
kind of sounds a little bit on the
formal side a little bit but if you're
ever not sure just try replacing
whatsoever with of any kind and see if
it makes sense so that's what whatsoever
means i hope that it helps you thanks
for the question okay let's move on to
your next question
next question comes from
cydosa tohir hello cydosa uh cyroza says
hi alicia can i learn english with
lyrics from songs um yes to some degree
sure we get this question every once in
a while so here are a few reminders
first of all please remember that the
lyrics to songs may not always be
grammatically correct while yes we can
communicate ideas and we can communicate
feelings through songs songs do not
always use perfect grammar second keep
in mind that in many songs there are
like slang vocabulary words they're
inappropriate vocabulary words or
offensive vocabulary words used also the
vocabulary words by one artist or by one
singer may not be used in everyday
speech very much or may not be used in
the people
like in conversation with the kinds of
people you are used to speaking with so
for example if you really
like i don't know country music or if
you really like rap music but a lot of
the people that you talk to really like
pop music or rock music or something
like that you might find that like they
don't use the same words or they're not
commonly like using the kinds of
expressions
that your favorite singers are using so
that's something else to keep in mind
another thing to think about is the
rhythm so in songs it's great it's very
important to have a certain rhythm so
that people can enjoy music but this is
very different in many cases from the
way that we actually speak in everyday
life so if you can understand a song
that's great but that doesn't mean that
you can apply the same rhythm when
you're speaking so like rap for example
most people don't speak in the same way
as they sing or when they perform like
rap songs so that's another thing to
keep in mind finally remember that even
if you can fluently sing a song it
doesn't mean that you can fluently
communicate in english so maybe you can
remember all the words to your favorite
song that's great that's fun it's a
great study tool a great motivator for
sure but that doesn't mean that you can
automatically use all of those words or
you can communicate well in english with
those things that you've learned they're
kind of like supplements they're like
extra bonuses for your study so don't
use
only song lyrics like they can be really
helpful and they can help you to
identify with culture and make friends
and stuff but i would suggest maybe
using that a little bit using lyrics
from songs a little bit and it's
important to keep those reminders in
mind that i talked about do so i hope
that this helps you and good luck with
your studies okay let's move on to your
next question next question comes from
maxine hi maxine maxime says hi alicia
how do i use regardless and regardless
of thanks a nice question
we use regardless at the beginning or at
the end of a sentence you may also see
it used to like connect two ideas in the
middle of a sentence some examples well
i left my phone at home regardless i'm
going to enjoy my day
our team is under a tight schedule
regardless everyone is happy
i see you've prepared a lovely meal i
have to leave regardless
on the other hand we use regardless of
before a noun phrase
regardless of the manager's decision i
think our team did a great job
we should respect other people
regardless of their race so regardless
of is used before a noun phrase
regardless without of typically comes at
the beginning or at the end of a
sentence 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
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them to me at englishclass101.com
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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
bye bye
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