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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
pualam hi pualam pualam says hi elusia i
would like to know the differences
between the verb to be and to become for
example which one is correct i want to
be a teacher or i want to become a
teacher thanks
um both of these are correct actually so
in this case to be and become have the
same meaning but become tends to sound
more formal like if you say i want to
become a teacher it sounds a bit more
formal than saying i want to be a
teacher it's also easier to say i want
to be a teacher so you can use them in
the same way when you're talking about
becoming something else or when you're
talking about something
turning into something else i want to be
can be used in more casual expressions
another example would be like i want to
be rich someday or i want to become rich
someday so
i want to be rich sounds more casual
it's more commonly used than i want to
become rich but they communicate the
same idea so i hope that this helps you
thanks very much for the question okay
let's go on to your next question
next question comes from israel diaz hi
israel israel says what's the difference
between used to or used to and used for
okay well it kind of depends on your
sentence so
used to or used to like i said that when
i read the question so depending on the
sentence uh this word or this phrase
rather can take different meanings so
used to
can
mean something that you did in the past
like i used to play golf or i used to
eat pancakes for breakfast every morning
or i used to go to the forest to go
hiking with my family every summer i
used to do something that refers to a
past activity that's no longer true
used to however talks about the purpose
of something so like this phone is used
to make calls or like this camera is
used to record video so we use used to
before a verb so this thing is used to
do that so that's talking about the
purpose of something then used for is
similar it's also talking about purpose
but we're following the expression with
a noun instead of a verb so like this
phone is used for phone calls this
camera is used for videos so we're
following the expression with a noun
instead of a verb so depending on the
sentence used to or used to they're
spelled the same
will be read differently and it will
have different grammatical functions
used to and used for have the same
purpose but we have to make slight
changes to our grammar after that
expression so i hope that this helps you
understand the differences thanks very
much for the question okay let's move on
to your next question next question
comes from dongfang again hi dongfang
dongfang says hi alicia i'm an english
learner from china what does it mean
when someone says i'm not practicing the
law anymore i heard this sentence in one
of my favorite dramas called better call
saul
i understand the sentence but i'm a
little confused about the word practice
here is this a common use yeah this is a
really nice question great catch so
practice is a very special verb that we
use in certain jobs certain professions
so commonly this is doctors and lawyers
that use this word so they use the word
practice before their field of expertise
and it just means do or to be active in
their practice so in this case and
better call saul it's practicing law or
i'm not practicing law that means i'm
not actively doing like legal work right
now i'm not active as a lawyer right now
a doctor could say like i've been
practicing medicine for six years that
means i've been active as a doctor for
six years so practice here does not mean
like
practicing doing something it means
actively participating in that job so
again this is very specific for a couple
of different jobs like lawyers and
doctors so very specific word nice catch
and thank you so much for this question
hope that helps you okay let's move on
to your next question next question
comes from silverway hi again silverway
silverway says hi alicia what does i'm
blown away mean oh yeah okay i'm blown
away can mean i'm surprised or like i'm
shocked so it's kind of it tends to be
more of like a positive expression like
i'm blown away by all the questions you
guys send or like i was blown away by
how good that dinner was or like i was
blown away when i saw that my best
friend had decided to get a mohawk so
it's like something is surprising or
shocking or both maybe
and you can actually use it for negative
situations as well you can also use this
in past tense like whoa that blew me
away that movie blew me away so it just
means shock surprise um if something bad
happens like someone is really rude you
could say like wow that person just blew
me away or like i was so
surprised at how rude that person was so
i hope that that helps you understand
the phrase to be blown away thanks very
much for the question all right let's
move on to your next question next
question comes from pruthfi johnny hi
pruthfi says hi alicia what is the
difference between lot of and plethora
of um plethora is kind of a formal and
rarely used word so a plethora of
something means lots and lots of
something yes but we tend to use it for
like
extravagant situations so like for
example the researchers discovered a
plethora of treasures in the egyptian
king's tomb we really don't use this so
much in everyday speech it sounds too
formal
in most cases but again if you're
talking about something that's like
really kind of big and extravagant you
might use the word plethora to describe
that a plethora of something so i hope
that this helps you understand the word
plethora thanks very much for the
question so that's everything that i
have for this week thanks as always for
sending your questions remember you can
send them to me at englishclass101.com
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english studies thanks very much for
watching this week's episode of ask
alicia and i will see you again next
week bye bye
have you seen the movie the three amigos
steve martin yeah do you remember
a plethora of pinatas
there's a whole scene there
whatever they talk about
they're talking about a party that's
coming up and they're like did you get
the pinatas for the party and they're
like c c
and then and then they're like how many
pinatas did you get would you say that
you got a plethora of pinatas and you're
like oh
it's a plethora
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