want to speak real english from your
first lesson sign up for your free
lifetime account at englishclass101.com
hi everybody my name is alicia and today
i'm going to talk about prepositions of
time i'm going to talk about a few
prepositions we use when we're talking
about time and time periods so let's get
started
okay so the first preposition of time i
want to talk about is on we use on for
days for example on sunday on monday on
tuesday
and we use on for the weekend like on
the weekend or on weekends
these are the two cases where we use on
as a preposition of time i like to
something something on sunday i like to
something something on weekends we use
on in these two cases
the second preposition of time i want to
talk about for today is at
so we use at when we want to talk about
a time and by time i mean o'clock like
seven o'clock at nine o'clock at 10
o'clock we can also use at with am and
pm like at 2 am at 7 pm we use at to
talk about a specific point in time a
specific
number for example
we also use at with the expression at
night at night i like to something
something at night i usually something
something at night we always use at in
this case
then
i have one more here the weekend you'll
see i used the weekend for on here but
in british english i speak american
english in british english you might
hear at the weekend instead of on the
weekend so at the weekend is something
you might hear depending on where you
are or depending on the people with whom
you study but for me i prefer to use on
the weekend
okay
let's talk about
in next so we use in for a lot of
different cases as you can see we use in
for months like in september in october
in november
we use it for seasons like in summer in
spring in fall
we use it for expressions uh like in the
morning in the evening in the afternoon
as well in the morning in the afternoon
we also use in for periods of time so
minutes hours and years for example so
in five minutes in three years in a few
seconds if you want to talk about a
period of time
you can use in to explain that so
we use in for a lot of different cases
the last thing i want to talk about
though is a situation where you don't
need to use a preposition at all
when you use this
plus weekend like this weekend or this
morning or this evening or this month
this september this october you do not
need to use a preposition in this case
we'll practice in just a moment but this
is a very common mistake if you use this
before one of these expressions you do
not need to include a preposition so
please be careful okay so with this
information i want to try a few example
sentences that i've prepared here the
first one is i have to leave something
something five minutes five minutes is a
period of time so we know the correct
preposition is in i have to leave in
five minutes is the correct answer here
next what are you doing something
something december december so we know
december is a month
we should use in in this case what are
you doing in
december of course by the way with this
sentence we could say what are you doing
this december to be very specific but in
this case for a preposition we should
use in
okay next sentence i'll meet you at the
restaurant 6 pm 6 p.m
is
a time a time so we know that we should
use at
at 6 00 pm at 6 00 pm okay next your
plane leave something something two
hours so two hours again is a period of
time a period of time therefore we
should use in your plane leaves in two
hours is the correct sentence here okay
next they're going to france something
something this summer here
is a big hint word this therefore no
preposition is needed in this case
they're going to france this summer no
preposition here
okay next he's meeting us in the station
something something noon so noon i've
used the word noon here but noon is a
time it means 12 p.m yeah
so because it's still a time we should
use at
at
noon is the correct sentence here
okay
next can you meet me at the cafe
something something 2 p.m so 2 p.m here
we have another time at 2pm
is the correct answer here
okay next i like going hiking something
something weekends weekend so we learned
over here
that we use on to talk about weekends
weekends in this case multiple weekends
so
i like going hiking
on weekends is the correct answer in
this case
finally it's hard for me to wake up
something something the morning the
morning so
we saw
here morning is used with in
so in the morning
is the correct answer for this sentence
so with a little bit of practice and as
you use these phrases uh not just with a
single preposition but as you use these
in longer sentences and as part of
phrases it will become easier to
remember
which is which and which one you should
use at which time so i hope this was
useful for you thanks very much for
watching this episode if you have any
questions or comments please let us know
in a comment below this video thanks
very much for watching and see you again
soon bye
today we're going to talk about
prepositions of location and movement so
let's get started okay so the first
preposition of location i want to talk
about is at we use at to talk about
exact specific locations so some
examples of this are at the supermarket
at the table at her desk this means a
person or an object is at that specific
place
so for example
i'm at work right now i'm at the office
these are specific um
points where people or objects can be
located so please use at to talk about a
specific location
okay so let's go on to the next
preposition of location for now
in we use in when we want to talk about
enclosed locations so locations which
are surrounded or when we're surrounded
by something else something else is all
around us or we are enclosed within
something
so some examples of this are in the pool
we are enclosed or surrounded by the
pool
in the closet completely enclosed by the
closet in your bag your items are
enclosed by your bag and in the water so
when swimming in the ocean for example
we say in the water i'm in the water for
example now i'm in the office i'm in a
room um i'm in my home city for example
so these are different ways we can use
the word in when we are enclosed or
surrounded by something please also
remember that inn is used for countries
and cities i live in bangkok i live in
europe for example so please remember to
use in for countries and cities as well
as for locations that are enclosed or
when you're surrounded by something else
okay so let's talk about the next
preposition of location the next
preposition is by we use by when we want
to express something is near something
else near or close to something else so
for example
buy the park or buy the coffee shop
buy your computer buy the table these
mean near something else we don't know
exactly is it maybe next to in front of
behind we don't know but it means simply
near something else so for example i'm
by the white board right now i'm by a
chair i'm by a table these are ways we
can use by to express near or close to
okay so the next preposition i want to
talk about is a preposition of movement
actually the next two are prepositions
of movement the first one is into so
into is something we use to express
movement from an open location to a more
closed location
so for example into the bank walk into
the bank or into the refrigerator put
food into the refrigerator
or into the suspect's home the police
moved into the suspect's home in each
case
into shows moving from an open location
to a more closed location so because inn
is here you can imagine
we are moving to an enclosed location we
could say uh jump into the pool for
example or go into the closet put
something into your bag
or uh go into the water
so in this way we can kind of think of
in and to being closely related but two
shows us the movement the relationship
that there's some movement happening
there okay
so let's talk about the opposite then of
into which is out of so because we use
into to talk about movement from a more
open place to an enclosed space
out of is used to talk about movement
from an enclosed space to a more open
space so for example out of the house or
out of the washing machine taking
clothes out of the washing machine
out of your purse take something out of
your purse so moving uh yourself moving
a person or moving an object from
something that is enclosed to a space
that is more open we use out of in this
case
okay so now we know about five new
prepositions of location and movement
let's try some example sentences
okay
the first one she's sitting something
something the table the table so here we
have the table i talked earlier about
this at the table with at yeah however
we can use by the table as well at the
table and by the table have slightly
different meanings though both are
correct
at the table
means she is sitting in a chair directly
in front of the table she's sitting at
the table
by the table however could mean she's
next to the table or she's just near the
table bye is a little bit less clear at
is very clear here to be very clear say
she's sitting at the table to be less
clear maybe she's somewhere near the
table use by
okay so the next example sentence is our
company's headquarters is something
something la la la meaning los angeles
here so we have a city name yeah a city
name los angeles we know that we should
use city names with in so the answer
here is in
in la okay
the next one he lives something
something the supermarket so the
supermarket is a place and here we have
the verb lives he lives we know it's not
in because people do not live in
supermarkets uh probably not at he lives
at the supermarket also doesn't make any
sense people do not live at supermarkets
however we can use buy buy so
he lives by the supermarket to mean he
lives near the supermarket okay
so next one
when we walked something something the
bank it was raining okay so here we have
the verb walked and we have the bank so
there's a motion happening yeah walking
and then the bank the preposition we
should use here
is probably into though out of
could also be possible
when we walked into the bank it was
raining when we walked out of the bank
it was raining both sentences are okay
in this case it just depends on the
action you want to communicate okay next
one i need to run something something
the supermarket for milk okay so here uh
there's an objective for milk this
person wants to buy milk so they need to
run
something something the supermarket so
let's use into moving from outside the
supermarket to inside the supermarket a
more enclosed space into into the
supermarket
okay
next one is i have to be something
something the office until 6 p.m so here
we have a specific location the office
the office
so office is an enclosed space yes which
means we can use in
i have to be in the office until 6 pm
but with work and with office spaces we
can also use at
it's an exact location i have to be in
the office or i have to be at the office
until 6 pm both are correct here
ok
next i forgot to take my phone something
something your bag okay so take this
take motion here is a really good hint
there's an action happening so
there's a very good chance
we are moving something from a from an
enclosed location to a more open
location so i forgot to take my phone
out of your bag out of your bag is the
correct answer here
finally i want to get something
something town so town um
is yes it's a location like uh
in my town or at my town however
a big hint here is get get we use get to
reflect movement sometimes
and this phrase
is a good one to remember
get out of town get out of town so get
out of town means leave town go to a
different place outside of town so i
want to get out of town is the correct
answer here
okay so those are a few prepositions of
location and movement
i hope that this was useful for you if
you have any questions please be sure to
leave them in a comment below this video
thanks very much for watching this
lesson and we will see you again soon
bye
want to speak real english from your
first lesson sign up for your free
lifetime account at englishclass101.com
today i'm going to talk about say tell
and speak i'm going to talk about the
differences
between when we use these and also give
some examples of how to use them as well
so let's go okay the first one i want to
talk about is say say so we use say when
we want to have a very neutral feel to
what we're talking about we use say when
we report speech we're reporting
information reporting something we heard
reporting something someone else said to
us so as i just used the past tense of
say is said please be careful it is not
say ed say
it should be said the spelling changes
said he said she said we said they said
okay so when we want to report speech
we can use the past tense like i've just
done for example he said
dinner was delicious
this is a past tense statement so maybe
previously before the conversation
someone he
said this statement dinner was delicious
think of this
like a quote
dinner was delicious he said dinner was
delicious
another example you said you were tired
you said you were tired so again before
the conversation
the other person said he or she was
tired but here to report you said you
were tired and we use the past tense say
said to do that
okay one more with the present tense
then remember we use the present tense
when we're talking about
general facts or things which are always
true regular actions so in this case
i've used present tense i said i never
say mean things so here i have present
tense this is a general fact in this
case i never say mean things so again a
very neutral way of talking about verbal
communication okay so that's how we use
say an introduction to how we use say
then let's talk about how to use tell
we use tell a little bit differently
from the way that we use say so we use
tell when we want to show kind of a
one-way nuance there's sort of one-way
communication happening so by that i
mean that someone is passing new
information or giving new information to
another person something i do not
already know i'm having someone tell me
someone is going to tell me new
information so
we use this in past tense a lot the past
tense of tell is told he told me she
told me they told me this gives us the
nuance of new information something i'm
learning something i'm hearing for the
first time i can use tell or told in
past tense
also one point about tell the object
in many cases is a person so by that i
mean uh after the verb tell
the item coming after it in the sentence
is usually a person so the person
receiving the information so please tell
me please tell her please tell him the
person
indicated here or the group of people
indicated here after the verb tell
that's the person or the group of people
receiving the information learning the
information okay
so let's see
i told you to call me here i have the
past tense i told you to call me so you
this is the receiver of the information
i told you to call me i asked you to
call me here okay so this is the report
some some command we can use tell and
told to give commands i told you to call
me i gave you the new uh request to call
me in other words okay one more a
request this time can you tell me where
the bathroom is so here tell me so this
is a request for information can you
tell me where the bathroom is i don't
know where the bathroom is please give
me new information please tell me where
it is okay here we also use present
tense yeah so when you're when you're
making requests please make sure to use
the present tense can you tell me
something
one more
why didn't you tell me the party was
cancelled another question why didn't
you tell me so you didn't give me new
information about the party why why
didn't you tell me
we can use this pattern for if you miss
information or if someone forgot to tell
you something if someone forgot to give
you information that you needed you can
say why didn't you tell me
to make a different sentence you could
say why didn't you tell her or why
didn't you tell them why didn't you tell
our boss some other examples a positive
sentence could be why did you tell him
why did you tell her for example if
someone tells a secret
so we can use tell
give new information to pass new
information along okay so that's tell so
the next verb that i want to talk about
today is the verb speak so we use speak
to mean a conversation yes so speak has
the nuance of a conversation but it has
the nuance of a more formal tone we
would use speak in more formal
situations like a business meeting or a
work setting for example or for maybe a
more serious conversation
but we can use speak with either with or
to so i mean speak with someone and
speak to someone so the difference
between these two is very very small if
you say speak with my boss it sounds
like you expect a conversation with your
boss speaking with someone sounds like
there's information passing back and
forth between the two of you speak to
your boss sounds more like for example
you're going to say a lot of things
you're going to give a lot of
information and your boss will
participate a little bit but there's
more nuance of giving information than
passing information back and forth so if
you want to make a more conversational
nuance use with speak with someone if
you want it to sound a little more
one-sided a little more one way use
speak to someone okay
so we also use speak for languages like
i speak english i speak french i speak
japanese i don't speak german i don't
speak thai so please you speak for
languages as well
the past tense of speak is spoke please
be careful it is not speaked please use
spoke the past tense is spoke i spoke
english every day when i lived in
america for example so uh please use
spoke as the past tense here also the
past participle form is spoken spoken so
we'll see that in a little bit maybe
okay
uh so some example sentences you should
speak with or to your boss so here you
can choose with sounds more
conversational two sounds a little more
direct you should speak with your boss
you should speak to your boss okay
past ten sentence i spoke with my
manager i spoke with my manager we
shared information
last have you spoken to hr have you
spoken to hr here's a present perfect
tense sentence i've used spoken here
okay good so that's a nice maybe a wrap
up of a few different verbs that are
commonly confused when talking about
speech let's go to some example
sentences
all right the first example sentence is
my friend something something me my
cooking was bad okay my cooking was bad
this is probably new information for a
person
another hint we have me there's a person
here in the object position of the
sentence so we can guess
that this
should be the verb tell
however we have this hint my cooking was
bad was bad a past tense so we should
use the past tense form of tell told
here okay next one they something
something i have to work tomorrow so
here i have to work tomorrow this is
maybe just uh information it sounds like
somebody passed
some information to me so
if i want to think of this as like
reporting speech i would use the verb
say
in the past tense
said
so i know this should not be tell
because there's no object here
i know it should not be speak
because there's no width and there's no
two here either so i know this should be
they said i have to work tomorrow of
course this sentence could be they told
me i have to work tomorrow it sounds
more like a command in that case here
they said i have to work tomorrow is
very neutral and just a simple report of
speech
okay next one he really needs to do
something something with his client so
here is a big hint word we have the word
with here and we also have client here
which shows maybe a business or a work
setting therefore we can guess the verb
should be speak he really needs to speak
with his client
okay great next one have you something
something your mother the news the news
so here news is a big hint new
information new information and we have
a person a person in the object position
a person is going to receive new
information so have you told
your mother the news is the correct
sentence here so have you told blah blah
it's actually a really good sentence for
you to remember have you told your mom
about that have you told your dad about
that have you told your dog about your
new
park
i don't know so anytime you want to pass
information or ask a question about
information being passed please use tell
to do that like we've done here have you
told someone someone okay let's go to
the next one we something something
about this at the last meeting so again
meeting here is a big hint that it is a
work or a more formal situation we see
that this is the last meeting so
something that has finished already so
let's use past tense spoke
we spoke about this at the last meeting
here i have introduced something
slightly different from this speak with
or speak to
if you want to mention a topic rather
than about a person
we can use speak about a topic speak
about something
we spoke about this at the last meeting
we can use speak to introduce a topic as
well so please note that this is an
option
okay
let's go to the next one you always
nice things nice things so always here i
have a word which indicates a regular
action something that is always true we
talked about an example over here though
i used never here however the grammar is
still the same we should still use the
same grammar nuance the same grammar
point here so let's use the present
tense say
you always say nice thing so someone
always says positive things or someone
always makes very positive comments like
for example everybody in the comments on
these videos everybody always says very
nice things we can use
always say to talk about something that
a person always says
okay finally same thing he always
something something the truth
okay
now this is tricky
i've used always here i used always in
the previous one as well
but
the thing i want to point out is this
the truth at the end of the sentence
there's a set phrase in english
we don't use
say we actually use tell with the
expression the truth
he always tells the truth
so the expressions tell the truth and
the opposite tell a lie we always use
the verb
tell with this you might hear i
sometimes hear uh non-native speakers of
english say say a lie or say the truth
but this is not natural please be sure
to use tell the truth or tell a lie we
always use tell in these cases so please
be careful of that okay but we've talked
about a lot of different ways to use
these three verbs and i hope that it's a
little bit more clear now when to use
them especially say and tell many people
have a little bit of confusion between
these two but speak is also quite useful
as well thanks very much for watching
this lesson and i will see you again
soon
bye
hi everybody my name is alicia and today
i'm going to talk about the difference
between some and any so let's get
started okay the first point i want to
talk about with some and any is how to
use some and any in terms of where to
put these two words in a sentence so
we use sum and any in the same position
in a sentence we use some and any before
the noun or before a noun phrase so
please be careful don't use some or any
after the noun you should be using sum
and any before the noun okay
so given this let's take a look at how
to decide whether you should use some or
you should use any in your sentence
all right first i want to talk about sum
we use sum in positive statements so
these are statements
that do not have a negative in them we
use them for positive statements a few
examples here are i need some butter
here some is before the noun
in the next one we have some food some
comes before the word food the noun a
positive statement third they had some
good ideas so good ideas is used as a
noun phrase here good ideas some comes
before that noun phrase so these are a
few examples of positive statements we
can use sum in positive statements
that's the first point i want to make
second point i want to make is here it's
about requests we use sum in a couple of
different question patterns one of them
is making requests when we want to make
requests we can use some in the request
for example can i have some time off we
use some here because it's a request
making a request to your boss for
example in this case we should use some
can i have some time off second
will you give me some space will you
give me space this is another request we
can tell
will you give me this is a very good
hint that someone is asking for
something else a request should use some
finally
can he take care of some things for me
in this case it's asking for someone's
help in a situation so it's a request we
should use the word sum great okay so
the second point i want to talk about is
using sum for offers to make offers we
should use some again offers like
requests are a question this is a
question pattern where we should use the
word sum to make the question so in the
first example would you like some wine
we use some here in the pattern would
you like this is a really good pattern
to know would you like some blah blah
blah would you like some wine would you
like some beer would you like some
a few other things we'll see in just a
moment but we should use some here
because it's an offer type question
one more example do you want some cheese
so these two patterns would you like and
do you want they really are expressing
the same thing the difference is in the
level of formality would you like is
more formal than do you want these two
questions really they have the same
point there's they're offering something
but the the level of formality is what's
different here
okay last one do you want some more time
do you want some more time so here again
an offer a more casual offer with do you
want and again we have some plus more
time so please make sure to use some
before the noun or before the noun
phrase and use it in your offer
questions as well as your request
questions so those are the two types of
questions i want to talk about today
when we're using sum also please
remember we use it in positive
statements as well okay so with that
let's continue on to any i want to talk
about any next
any
is sort of the opposite in terms of
statement making from some we use any in
negative statements so for example i
don't have any money here i have don't
do not the negative here i don't have
any money therefore is correct we should
use any in a negative statement
another example they didn't get any new
clothes they didn't again here's our
negative they didn't did not
so we should use any before our noun
phrase which is new clothes here
finally we didn't make any cookies here
didn't is in the negative form again a
past tense statement plus any before our
noun here in this case cookies so please
use any when you want to make a negative
statement
okay the last point i want to make today
is about questions we use any with
questions yes but we do not use any in
requests and offers we just learned that
we use some to make requests and offers
so in other questions like information
questions asking for information not for
a request not for an offer but asking
for information for example
we use any in these cases
so let's take a look the first sentence
do we need any salt so this is an
information question yes or no do we
need any salt we should use this here
this is not a request this is not an
offer so any is the best choice for this
sentence in the next example we have
does he have any markers again this is
an information question the person
speaking is asking for information not
making a request and not making an offer
so we should use any here
okay so the final example here is did
she give you any tips so our noun phrase
here is tips and he comes before that
and we notice also this is not a request
this is not an offer so we should use
any it's an information question we're
asking for information so let's keep
this in mind we use any for questions
which are not requests and not offers
think about it as asking for information
only you're not making a request for
help not making a request for an item
but if you're looking for information
you should probably use any to make your
question okay so let's take a look at a
few example sentences that i've prepared
the first one here is do we have blah
blah blah milk so here i'm looking for
information i'm not making a request i'm
not making an offer i want information
so i should use any in this case do we
have any milk is the correct sentence
here
the next one can i have blah blah blah
cake here i'm looking for something i'm
looking for cake i want cake i'm making
a request i know that requests
are paired with some so i'm going to use
some in this sentence can i have some
cake is the correct sentence the correct
question
the next one i really need something
something money i really need something
something money so this is a statement
not a question and there's no negative
here so we should use the positive sum
i really need some money is the correct
sentence here all right let's take a
look at the next sentence i don't have
blah blah blah pets here is a negative
and we see this is not a question so we
know we should use any because we use
any for negative statements this don't
do not shows us that we should use any
here
okay next one do you want something
something pizza so here we have a
question
and it looks like this is an offer so
there's this do you want pattern which
we talked about right here do you want
so we should use some this is an offer
question do you want some pizza making
an offer you should use some next
sentence want to get blah blah blah food
after work again we have a question
and we have this pattern wanna get wanna
get this is a very very casual form of
do you want to get do you want to get
we've dropped do you want to and we use
the very casual wanna here so it's again
an offer question wanna get some food
after work
okay
next sentence he doesn't have blah blah
blah friends so a statement yes but we
see a negative here it doesn't or does
not is the negative form so we know that
we should use any in this pattern in
this sentence he doesn't have any
friends
okay
final question here uh maybe a difficult
one are you sure you don't want dessert
are you sure you don't want dessert so
this isn't quite an offer it's like a
very very soft offer yes but this person
is sort of asking for information are
you sure you don't want dessert they're
asking for a yes or no kind of and
there's a negative here there's a
negative don't a do not so it's a good
idea in this sentence to use any
are you sure you don't want any dessert
this sounds a little bit negative you
sure you don't want any dessert if you
want to make a straightforward offer
like would you like some dessert that's
okay
it sounds a little bit better because
there's a negative here with don't to
use any in this sentence this is a
little bit tricky but i think it's i
think it's okay to use all right so
those are a few basic points about when
to use sum and when to use any please
remember sum is used for positive
statements requests and offers any is
used for negative statements and
questions which are not requests or
offers like information questions want
to speak real english from your first
lesson sign up for your free lifetime
account at englishclass101.com
hi everybody my name is alicia and today
i'm going to talk about the difference
between for and since i'm also going to
talk about how to use a go so let's get
started okay the first thing i want to
talk about is the word for we use the
word for
before a period of time so
before a period of time can mean minutes
it can mean years it can mean days
seconds hours a period of time or a
length of time we use the word for
before
that phrase to talk about the length of
time
that something happens so for example
for 10 minutes we use it before 10
minutes for five years five years is a
length of time
for a day a day is also a length of time
for a lifetime one one whole lifetime a
person's whole lifetime can be a period
of time we use four before it in this
case there's also for an eternity and
eternity we can use this to mean a very
very long time it's sort of an
exaggerated phrase but for an eternity
means a very very long time these are
all
lengths of time then and we should use
the word for before we want to express
them okay so let's talk about something
a little bit different than the word
since
since is used before a specific point in
the past we often use since with present
perfect tense maybe you've seen another
video that we did about the present
perfect tense and how to make present
perfect tense sentences we often use
since in present perfect tense sentences
four is also used in present perfect ten
sentences but the two are used a little
bit differently
since is used to talk about a specific
point in the past a specific point in
the past maybe where something happened
or something began
so for example since last night this
shows us that since last night last
night something happened or something
started and it's continuing so since
shows us that something has been
continuing or the effect has been
continuing
since a point in the past it began at a
point in the past and continues or the
effect continues until the present since
tells us all this information
another example since
2014 so this is the point in time 2014
is the year at which something changed
or an action started or the effect of an
action began so we can use since in this
case
another point in time can be a season
like winter since winter since summer
since autumn we can use since before a
season
we also have points in time in the day
since this morning since this evening
since last night was my first example
here we can also use morning this
morning this morning today
as a point in time
finally i have one more example since
last week so points in time there are a
lot of different points in time but just
be careful length of time uses four
point in time uses since and since shows
us that there's some action that's
continuing or the effect of some action
continues until the present so please be
careful a period of time point in time
for and since okay so the next point
that i want to talk about is a go there
are a couple of different ways that we
can use a go and the first one i want to
talk about is one we use for a past
tense statements or past tense
situations so we use a go
to talk about points in time where
actions or changes occurred so for
example three years ago i got a new job
or
five minutes ago i ate lunch or two days
ago i saw my friend or two jobs ago i
didn't have much experience so all of
these statements are used to talk about
a past tense point in time where
something changed or some action
occurred so we use a go in this way with
the past tense to mark a change or
something happening so there's a second
use of a go that i want to talk about we
can use a go with since and a time
period this is something we often use in
present perfect tense statements like we
talked about here with since
what i mean by that for example is since
plus time period plus a go so for
example since three years ago or since
five minutes ago or since two months ago
so here you'll see we're using a time
period
i know i said to use time periods with 4
but this can be kind of a useful pattern
because if you use the word since on
accident but you want to express a time
period instead you can save yourself by
adding a go to the end of it so if
you're if you're working on making a
sentence for example and you you're
speaking and you accidentally use the
word since even though you know you want
to use a time period save yourself by
attaching a go to the end so since three
years ago
something has occurred something has
been continuing so because since is here
it shows us like we talked about with
since here the action or some effect of
that action is continuing
from
this point in time so we can use uh this
pattern as well since
time period ago okay so this is a lot of
information let's try to make a few
sentences i've prepared a few example
sentences so let's take a look alright
the first one we've lived here blah blah
blah three years so how do we know which
to use first we see weave we have we
have lived here this is a present
perfect tense sentence we've lived here
plus three years so i see a time period
here that means i should use four
because we need to use four before
periods of time so we've lived here for
three years is the correct sentence good
okay let's look at the next one then
they've been studying blah blah blah
2014.
so here i see a point in time a point in
time a specific point in time and
another really good hint is the grammar
here i see the present perfect
progressive or the present perfect
continuous tense here they've meaning
they have plus been studying this shows
a continuing action so all of these give
me hints about which one i should use
they've been studying since
2014 is the correct answer here
next one he left the office five minutes
something something okay here
we see this is a past tense statement he
left so left is the past tense form of
the verb to leave
so
we see here a
period of time five minutes yes but
after five minutes is our space meaning
we need to use a go
five minutes ago we always use a go
after the period of time
okay next one i've been reading this
book blah blah blah last week so again
we see this bin reading this present
perfect continuous tense shows us an
action has been continuing this shows a
continuing action or a continuing effect
so we know we should use since
i've been reading this book since last
week so last week as we talked about
here is our specific point in time let's
take a look at the next example sentence
it's a little bit tricky it's a little
bit difficult here we see the same bin
weighting the same present perfect
continuous or present perfect
progressive tense this shows us that an
action has been continuing yes
but i've used the word ages here so ages
is sort of a casual expression which
means a very long time
that means it's a time period this is
not a specific point in time ages is not
a specific point in time it's actually a
time period so we should use for here
you've been waiting here for ages for a
long time is what this sentence means
okay last one they've been dating
something something about two weeks
something something okay so here there
are two spaces where we can use a word
uh that should probably give you a good
hint that it'll be this sense and ago
but let's talk about why
here again we have this continuous form
they've been dating dating is the
continuous or the progressive form of
the verb to date so we have about plus
two weeks so there's a period of time
there yeah
in this case then we should use since
about two weeks ago so two weeks ago
they started dating or they've been
dating since about two weeks ago we can
use both of these sentences to express
the amount of time they have been dating
okay so those are a few points about
when to use for since and ago we also
talked about some grammar points that
you can use these words with if you have
any questions about those
check out some of the other videos we've
made on this channel especially about
the present perfect tense they can help
give you some more background about
those grammar points hi everybody my
name is alicia welcome back to
englishclass101.com youtube channel
today i'm going to talk about the
difference between speak and talk two
commonly confused verbs so let's get
started okay the first verb i want to
talk about is the verb talk
we use talk in casual speech in everyday
conversations if you want to talk about
a simple topic or a casual discussion
with friends or you just want to report
a conversation that happened or a
discussion that happened you can use
talk to explain this simply and casually
in most everyday conversations i use
talk you'll hear talk a lot when you
are listening to conversations about
discussions on the phone we use it to
explain phone conversations a lot we use
it to
explain simple meetings with people
friendly
interactions over coffee for example
talk is used in most everyday situations
so if you're reporting on something
that's pretty casual you should use the
word talk to explain that also if the
person you are talking to
is not someone who you have a
professional relationship with
it's pretty good to use talk in that
case if you use speak you might sound a
little too formal we're going to talk
about this in just a moment though so
please try to keep in mind that talk
should be used in everyday conversations
to report everyday conversations and in
more casual situations
okay we can also use talk the verb talk
with to or with by this i mean we can
say i want to talk to someone or i want
to talk with someone these are for me
very very similar we use them in very
similar ways if you want to be extremely
specific i would say that perhaps there
is a small nuance of
a difference between talking to talk to
and talk with if i say i want to talk to
someone
maybe it could be a more one-sided
conversation like i want to talk to my
friend i expect my friend is going to
talk to me as well
but i feel like that has a little more
of a one-sided conversation feel than
using talk with if i say i want to talk
with my friend i want to talk with you
about it with
to me sounds a little bit more like
doing something together with someone
else
so again this is a very very small
difference and perhaps this is just my
style and how i like to use these words
but for the most part we can use them
interchangeably we can use them
in the same way
and you're not going to really have any
communication problems depending on the
word you choose but just for your
information this is how i sometimes use
to and with with the verb talk and with
speak to as i'll explain later okay
finally uh about conjugations for the
verb talk to make the past tense of the
verb talk talk is an irregular i'm sorry
um
okay finally uh about conjugations with
the verb talk to conjugate the verb talk
into the past tense and the past
participle uh we simply add e-d to the
end of the verb so talk becomes talked
this makes past tense and past
participle so a very easy conjugation
for the verb talk so we're going to use
this in some example sentences later
let's take a look though at the verb
speak
okay so we talked about we talked about
how the verb talk is used in more casual
situations everyday conversations
everyday discussions
speak however is used in more formal
situations if you want to create a more
formal nuance or to have a more formal
tone when you speak with someone
use the verb speak so i just use the
verb speak
to sound a little bit more formal in
this explanation for example if you
would like to sound a little more formal
try using the verb speak instead of the
verb talk this is really useful in
business situations at work you can use
this in business emails as well or in
any kind of writing where you would like
to sound a little more formal
this is more polite than talk as you
might have guessed so talk has a more
casual nuance speak has a more formal
nuance about it
as with
talk we can use this with two or with so
speak to someone or speak with someone i
want to speak to my boss i want to speak
with my boss
like i talked about with talk
we can use the two pretty much in the
same way very very similarly i would say
there's a very small nuance again talk
two might sound a little bit more
one-sided one person is reporting
information perhaps and with perhaps
sounds more like an exchange of
information
but again this is a very small
difference and perhaps just a way that i
think about how to use to and with with
these verbs but you can use them
essentially in the same way speak to or
speak with
someone finally there's one other key
difference between speak and talk and
that is about languages when you are
explaining your language ability for
example i speak english i speak japanese
i don't speak chinese we should always
use the verb speak please don't use the
verb talk to explain your language
abilities so a sentence like i talk
french is not correct please use i speak
french speak is the correct verb to talk
about your language abilities
or to talk about
your inability as well so please be
careful there
lastly a couple conjugation points about
this verb then so speak in the past
tense speak is an irregular verb speak
becomes spoke in the past tense spoke so
please be careful here also
to make the past participle form speak
becomes spoken have you spoken to
someone i've never spoken with someone
so there are two conjugations we need to
consider for today's practice
spoke and spoken past tense and past
participle tense okay so now that we've
reviewed a couple points about the
difference between talk and speak let's
take a look at a few example sentences
and maybe we can decide which verb is a
better choice in each of these okay
first one he's something something to
his manager our hint word here is the
word manager this implies it's a work
situation so it's probably a good idea
to sound a little more formal
let's use spoke
past tense
he spoke to his manager of course you
could say he speaks to his manager but
we don't have much other information
here so maybe a simple sentence he spoke
to his manager he's nice
let's see the next one you should blah
blah blah to your parents so here we
have parents and also you should this
this kind of gives us the feeling that
this sentence is maybe a casual advice
situation so how about talk it sounds
more casual so talk sounds better you
should
talk
to your parents again talk with your
parents is also okay here
all right let's look at the next
sentence haven't they blah blah blah to
you about this so here we have haven't
have not a negative form here haven't
they blah blah blah to you about this
in this sentence there's no clear hint
word is it a casual situation is it a
formal situation so in a sentence like
this because we don't have enough
information about the situation both
talk and speak are actually okay but we
do need to conjugate the verb correctly
so that it matches this haven't at the
beginning of the sentence so we can say
haven't they
talked to you or haven't they spoken
to you about this both are correct in
this case haven't they talked to you
haven't they spoken to you
it just changes the level of formality
of the sentence okay let's take a look
at the next one i really want to do
something something to you again it's a
little bit difficult to determine is
this a formal situation or a casual
situation i would guess
i've included the word really here
typically really is only used in casual
situations or it's better to use a word
like really in less formal situations so
i think that talk is a better choice
here i really wanted to talk to you
nice all right next one she's something
something with clients at the moment so
here the hint is clients indicating it's
a business situation or a more formal
situation and here we have the grammar
she is she is this implies a progressive
or a continuous grammar
sentence so she's something something
clients gives us the hint it's more
formal let's use speak but again to
change it to the progressive form she's
speaking
with clients at the moment sounds nice
okay let's look at the next sentence
then what were they blah blah blah with
that guy about okay so here i've used
with again we can use to or with but
i've included guy as a hint word here
guy sounds a little bit more casual we
use guy in maybe more casual discussions
everyday discussions so we probably want
to use talk in this case a more casual
choice here we have we see it's past uh
what were they something something with
that guy about but we know this should
be a past progressive tense sentence to
what were they
this indicates something continuing what
were they talking
with that guy about what were they
talking with that guy about great all
right
next one you guys should have blah blah
blah about it last week again we see
this you guys you guys implying
something more casual you guys should
have so again this is probably a
sentence where we need to use the verb
talk because it's a more casual
situation
we could use the verb speak if you like
but again it's going to sound a little
more formal here we have you guys which
sounds casual so mixing casual and
formal might sound a little strange so
here for to match our grammar you guys
should have talked
about it last week it's a nice sentence
here okay let's look at the last one
then she's never blah blah blah to me so
she's this is an interesting contraction
be careful it's not she is never never
is a big hint here yeah we know that uh
never we use never a lot in present
perfect tense sentences so she's here
does not mean she is instead this is the
contracted form of she has so here she
has never something something to me
in this sentence we don't know if it's a
casual or a formal expression so we can
choose either verb so she has never
talked to me
is correct or she has never spoken
to me she's never talked to me she's
never spoken to me both are correct just
depending on the situation and depending
on the nuance you would like to
communicate you can choose the better
form or the better verb accordingly so
these are a few cases where speak and
talk it might be a good idea to choose
one or the other
but i would recommend just keep in mind
if you want to sound more formal please
choose the verb speak if you want to
sound a little more casual use the verb
talk
in most cases we will use the verb talk
but maybe at work it's a good idea to
use speak instead also don't forget to
use speak to talk about your language
abilities too thanks very much for
watching this episode and we will see
you again soon bye
today i'm going to talk about the
difference between active voice and
passive voice in this lesson i want to
explain a few ways that i think can help
you decide how to choose between active
voice or passive voice this will be
hopefully useful for your speaking and
for your writing skills so let's get
started okay the first thing i want to
talk about is the active voice english
uses a lot of sentences in the active
voice we like to use active voice a lot
in speech and in writing so
we use active voice when we want to
place emphasis on the subject like the
person or the thing that is doing an
action or causing an action so the
emphasis here is on the subject we know
the subject of the sentence in the case
of the active voice and we want to
emphasize that the person who is doing
an action for example you want to
emphasize that you know who is doing the
action use the active voice so an
example could be
a thief stole my bag in this situation
we know a thief stole my bag here the
simple past tense is used and we have my
bag as the object here so
everything is clear everything is known
in this sentence
i'm going to talk about a different
style a different way to explain this
sentence in just a moment but we can use
the active voice to explain a situation
like this
another example
my co-worker deleted an important file
so here is another situation we know who
did the action my co-worker in this case
simple past tense deleted here shows the
action that happened the action that
occurred and what was deleted an
important file here so again i'm going
to talk about a different way to explain
this sentence in just a moment but these
are a couple ways we can use active
temps
or active voice rather when all the
information is known
some more simple sentences i ate dinner
again the subject the verb and uh and
what was being eaten here in this case
uh i ate dinner very simple sentence
here he took me to a movie so we know
the subject the action who is receiving
the action in this case it's me
here she made dinner again very very
simple sentences we can make simple
sentences and just three words for
example
with the active voice it's very very
easy to use active voice we just need to
know the subject
what they did
and who received the effect or who
that action occurred too to put it in a
strange way
so we can use active voice to explain a
lot of things in a very very short way
but sometimes active voice is maybe not
the best choice so let's take a look at
passive voice and see if we can compare
a few things here
when we talk in the passive voice or
when we write in the passive voice
we do it because we want to place
emphasis on the object of an action
something which is receiving the action
we want to place the emphasis on that
or we use it when the subject is unknown
or unimportant
so to give a few examples let's look
here my bag was stolen here
my bag this is the thing that an action
has occurred to so and you can think of
it like the bag is the one or is the
object that is receiving the action here
my bag was stolen my bag was stolen so
we have to use a different grammar to
explain in passive voice so the
difference here my bag was stolen
the difference between this sentence and
a thief stole my bag is that we don't
have a clear doer of the action we're
not talking about specifically who stole
my bag but rather the important point
here is that my bag was stolen it
doesn't matter who or we don't know who
stole the bag but i want to emphasize
this situation in this case passive
voice is much much better than active
voice because i don't know the subject
perhaps let's look at one more example
an important file got deleted so here
you'll see got we use got a lot this
past tense got
to or rather past participle got in
in passive voice a lot it gives kind of
more of a nuance of something negative
occurring it gives sort of the feeling
that a negative outcome has happened as
a result of the situation so you might
see got deleted or got plus the verb in
this case so here i've used got deleted
i'll show you one more in just in just a
second
so here an important file got deleted
let's compare this to the active voice
my co-worker deleted an important file
in the active voice i know who deleted
the file my co-worker deleted the file
in the passive voice however i don't
mention my co-worker so maybe i don't
know who deleted the file i don't know
who completed the action who did the
action so i can drop that name i can
drop my co-worker i can drop the name of
the person who did the action i want to
emphasize the situation the file the
important file got deleted that's what i
want to emphasize in this case i should
use the passive voice this sounds much
much better if i want to emphasize the
important file if however i want to
emphasize my co-worker for example i'm
angry with my co-worker i could say my
co-worker deleted an important file in
this case the emphasis is my co-worker
in this sentence
the important file is the emphasis so
this is a really key point between the
difference between active and passive
forms
okay
let's look at a few more examples so
next one your lunch got eaten so again
i've used this got here yeah i've used
got plus eaten the past participle form
of the verb so as i talked about in this
sentence got deleted we use got to show
kind of a negative outcome something we
didn't want to happen necessarily this
is very common in passive voice so your
lunch got eaten by whom we don't know
somebody ate this person's lunch but we
don't know who did the action so we can
omit that person and we can simply
emphasize your lunch your lunch here
this is the focus of the sentence your
lunch got eaten
okay let's take a look at one more
sentence their window was broken their
window was broken we don't know how the
window was broken maybe it was a person
maybe it was a burglar maybe it was bad
weather maybe just a strange accident we
don't know how or who broke the window
so we can omit we can remove
any identifying information about who or
what completed the action instead we
focus on the window their window was
broken this is the focus of this
sentence
finally let's look at one more flowers
were delivered to the office in this
sentence we don't know where the flowers
came from who ordered the flowers we
don't know any information about the
situation but we simply want to report
something we saw at the office for
example we can use the passive tents to
do that flowers were delivered to the
office so in in each of these sentences
we don't know or it's not important who
did the action or what did the action
but we want to emphasize the object of
the action we want to emphasize the the
person or the item receiving the action
in this case in active voice however we
want to emphasize the person doing the
action of the thing doing the action so
please keep this in mind when you're
trying to choose between active voice
and passive voice if it's a known
subject or if you want to emphasize that
subject more strongly than the item
receiving that action use the active
voice if you don't know the subject or
if you want to emphasize the object of
the action use the passive voice i hope
that those were a few good points i hope
those were a few helpful ways to help
you remember
how to use active voice and passive
voice but if you have any questions or
comments let us know in the comment
section or try to make a few sentences
if you like thanks very much for
watching this episode and we'll see you
again soon bye today i'm going to talk
about uncountable nouns i'm going to
talk about a few points related to
uncountable nouns and some words we can
use with uncountable nouns i'm going to
talk about the ways we can use units to
count uh parts of uncountable nouns and
i'm going to talk about some quantifiers
and some questions which we can use with
this grammar point so let's get started
okay so the first point here about
uncountable nouns uncountable nouns are
nouns we cannot count so countable means
able to count this prefix un means not
the negative so not countable nouns we
cannot count we cannot use one two or
three to count numbers of these nouns
uh with uncountable nouns we can use
some determiner so determiners are for
example uh or an or the this that
my his and so on
with uncountable nouns we can use for
example this and that and we can use
possessives like my his her hour and so
on however
we cannot use a or an with uncountable
nouns this is because a and an are used
for the singular forms of nouns and we
don't have a singular or plural form
necessarily for uncountable nouns
so we cannot use a or an
because these two articles are used for
singular form so please be careful of
this some determiners like this and that
are fine and possessives are okay but
not a or an
okay also when you want to make a
general statement
you should use no determiner no
determiner so know this know that
know the or whatever unless you want to
make a statement a general statement
about a specific group or a specific uh
object a specific mass entity for
example we'll talk a little bit about
this later okay
so let's take a look at some common
uncountable nouns then
uh i've also included here though
they're units so by units i mean ways to
count the parts of these nouns so we
cannot count these nouns uh
because they're sort of they're thought
of as like a mass they're thought of as
kind of a group
uh or yeah a group or an assembly of
many many different parts so we don't
count the the group itself the mass
itself however we can count the parts
within that group so let's take a look
at the first example maybe the most
important one time so time is an
uncountable noun we don't count one time
two times or three times we don't do
that however we count parts of time
measurements of time so for example all
of these are countable nouns seconds
minutes hours days weeks months years
decades millennia these are all the
countable nouns we use to count the
parts of time we cannot count time we
can count the parts of time only
let's look at one more example money so
money we cannot count money one money to
money three money we don't do that
instead we count the parts for example
cents dollars yen pounds euro pesos for
example we use the currency the type of
money
and the denominations the pieces or the
parts within that
that um that currency to count so we
cannot count money but we can count uh
the
the type of money we can count currency
amounts
okay
another couple
that are fairly common are beer and wine
so drinks for example we don't count
beer necessarily as a group we can say
one beer
to refer to one drink of beer we can say
that however but in general for liquid
when you see a lot of liquid we don't
say
one beer two beer
instead we count it by the serving so
for example with beer we use glasses
pints half pints mugs kegs growlers
these are a few ways that we can count
beer these are all countable nouns
a similar rule applies to wine we don't
say really one wine two wines we can use
that to mean one single drink but there
are sometimes different ways that we
need to explain wine so we use these
words glasses or bottles or decanters so
we use decanter of wine bottle of wine
in these cases not one wine or two wines
make sure to say like bottle or decanter
to refer specifically to the type of
measurement you mean another very common
example is clothes so clothes is kind of
a category of items it's a type of item
there there are many different kinds of
clothes
so we count for example shirts sweaters
socks shoes hats pairs of pants we don't
say one clothes two clothes three
clothes instead we count these smaller
items inside the category of clothes
okay just a couple more examples
food is another very very big one so
food itself we don't really say one food
two food three food instead we count
inside food for example snacks drinks
salads appetizers pizzas breadsticks
cakes whatever so the the food the dish
itself we couch the dish
but not food as a category
finally air is another one we don't
count air
with numbers we can count parts of air
but if you want to know we can use for
example molecules to talk about
components pieces of air if you like so
these are just a few examples of
uncountable nouns and some of the units
we can use to count the parts within
those uncountable nouns
okay next let's head over to how to make
a few questions so similar to countable
nouns we can use uncountable nouns to
make information questions to make
requests to make offers
but one key point here is when you're
asking a quantity question
with an uncountable noun you need to use
much so when you're using a countable
noun you should use how many plus the
plural form if you're using an
uncountable noun you need to use how
much plus your noun how much time how
much money how much beer for example
there's no s to add at the end there's
no plural form that we need to think
about just the uncountable noun and any
other information how much beer did you
drink
how much time do you have for example
so please use much when you're making a
question with an uncountable noun
second
do you plus a verb any plus your
uncountable noun so we can change this
verb in the sentence depending on what
we need but this is a general
information question like do you need
any time or do you need any new clothes
for example so we just use the
uncountable noun here at the end of this
phrase to make an information question
another common pattern would be a
request so can i have some blah blah can
i have some wine can i have some food
of course you can use a unit here if you
like if you want to be specific but if
you want to be general like can i have
some more time on this project we can
use an uncountable noun in this sentence
pattern as well of course there are many
different sentence patterns but these
are a few questions that might be
helpful for you okay let's look at the
last thing for today quantifiers
quantifiers so we use quantifiers to
talk about amounts of nouns
in this case i'm going to talk about
some quantifiers we can use to talk
about
the amounts of uncountable nouns so we
can use uh first at the end of the
spectrum here
at around like zero i've kind of made a
scale here from zero uh
like no of something there's no amount
there's zero of something to a lot of
something 100 at the other end i've made
kind of a scale of a few quantifiers so
here we can say no i have no time
we can use don't plus a verb plus any
like i don't have any time also is over
here at the zero part we can say i have
almost no time meaning very very little
time for example so very little and
almost no would go about here
here we can say not much i have not in
parentheses
because you just need to use the
negative form i don't have much time or
i don't need much to drink for example
so we can use much here but we need to
use a negative in this case
we can also use hardly any with
uncountable nouns so i have hardly any
time
to work on this project or i have hardly
any wine in my refrigerator for example
we can use a bit of
i have a bit of beer to drink
a small amount so i have a small amount
of time this afternoon if you're free
we have a decent amount of so oh there's
a decent amount of time this afternoon
if that's better for you
we can use some as well uh some again is
kind of vague
it's not so clear the quantity with some
but if you just want to refer to having
some have it making it available you can
use some
so like we might say i have some clothes
i want to throw away
we can use lots of and a lot of so i
drank a lot of beer last night or i
drank a lot of wine last night might be
a common sentence you can hear
we can use quite a lot of quite a lot of
so i have quite a lot of time this
weekend let's do something
we have the casual tons of and a bunch
of too so i have tons of time or
i have a bunch of new clothes to try on
for example
and we can also use all
so
you could say uh who drank all the beer
or who
ha let's see what's another example
someone took all my clothes for example
we can use all with uncountable nouns as
well so again these are just a few
examples of some expressions you might
hear with uncountable nouns you'll see
too uh as with uh countable nouns we can
use some of these as i've marked with
the green star here some of these are
okay to use with countable nouns and
uncountable nouns um so if you get stuck
you can try to remember which ones are
are okay for both countable and
uncountable nouns for example lots of
and a lot of some is good almost no is
pretty handy pretty useful as well
another point here i want to mention
this is a problem that many students
have is using much in positive
statements of quantity for example i
have much money i have much time we
cannot use much in this way we should
use i have a lot of time i have quite a
lot of time much is used with negatives
so i don't have much time for example i
don't have much money we can only use
much for a quantity statement with a
negative form so please don't use much
to make a positive statement about
quantity please be careful this is a
very common mistake all right but those
are a few points i wanted to make about
uncountable nouns today thanks very much
for watching this episode and i will see
you again soon bye want to speak real
english from your first lesson sign up
for your free lifetime account at
englishclass101.com
hi everybody my name is alicia today i'm
going to talk about countable nouns i'm
going to talk about how to make the
plural form of countable nouns i'm going
to talk about a few question patterns
you can use with countable nouns and i'm
going to talk about some quantifiers for
countable nouns so let's get started
okay so the first point maybe the most
important point first of all is that
countable nouns are nouns which we can
count we use numbers one two and three
and we can count the numbers of these
nouns they are countable able to be
counted that's the first point for
today's lesson
second countable nouns have a singular
form single here you can see single is
the base one singular form and a plural
form plural meaning more than one so the
words themselves have a singular form
one of something and a plural form more
than one of something
a couple of notes about singular form
and plural form however
singular form nouns we have to use a
determiner so for example determiners
are like articles like uh or an or the
or we could use this that my his her for
example we need some kind of determiner
something that gives us information
about a singular noun we must use a
determiner with a singular noun so we
have to say a dog or his dog or my dog
we cannot simply say dog in this with a
singular form so please be careful if
you use the singular form of a noun you
need to use a determiner okay
let's look at the plural form my note
for the plural form here is that no
determiner is required so you don't
always have to use a determiner here
with the plural form the dogs his dogs
her dogs for example but
if you're referring generally to a group
no determiner should be used so this is
a very common mistake for example if
talking about
all teachers or all doctors or making a
general statement about a group of
people for example no determiner should
be used we should not use the doctors or
the teachers unless you're talking about
a specific group of doctors or a
specific group of teachers if you want
to make a general statement about all
people or all
countable nouns in one category no
determiner should be used so please be
careful
okay so these are two points about the
singular form and the plural form so
please be careful of this
okay let's continue on to how to make
the plural forms of nouns there are a
few different rules to consider here so
first the regular way to make a plural
noun is to just add an s to the end of
the noun so for example dogs we add an s
computers
and cars so these are simple simple uh
plural form nouns we just add an s to
the end of the noun to make the plural
form however there are some cases where
the spelling will change slightly and
the pronunciation will also change
slightly the basic s sound is still
there however it's an e s sound so it's
noun plus e s
when do we do this we do this with nouns
that end in x in ch double s
s or s h
this is kind of difficult to remember i
think that if you practice if you read a
lot and if you speak a lot
you'll gradually come to understand this
this is something i personally never
studied as a native speaker but through
practice through reading a lot too i
gradually came to understand which nouns
take e-s and which nouns do not
but some examples here foxes fox ends in
x so it takes es in the plural form
classes class ends in ss so we take es
for the plural form finally sandwich
sandwich ends in ch so we add es very
important so not sandwiches with a with
no e but we need to use an e in the word
sandwiches please be careful okay
finally
there is one more uh different spelling
for plural nouns here we have noun plus
i e s
if the noun ends in a y a y we we drop
the y in the plural form we cut the y
and add i e s so a few examples of this
are countries
we have ies no y here we have candies
again no y i e s and copies so no y and
i e s
so these are three ways to make plural
forms
adding e s or an e s sound or just a
simple s
so depending on the noun you would like
to make plural
you need to kind of remember these rules
or at least think about them a little
bit until you kind of get used to making
nouns correctly
okay but i want to go to something a
little bit more challenging which is
nouns which have irregular plural forms
so these are countable nouns but they
don't follow the
s rule we can't just add s to make these
nouns plural let's take a look at a few
so one for example
is person the noun person we can say one
person however the plural form is people
two people three people four people
please keep this in mind
another very common one especially for
pronunciation is woman to women and man
to men please be careful of your vowel
pronunciation here in particular
woman and women the first vowel o here
does not change in terms of spelling but
in pronunciation it does change women
sounds much different than the singular
form woman so please be careful
sometimes poor pronunciation can cause
difficulties in understanding or poor
communication so this is a great
pronunciation point both woman and man
so man becomes men a very clear vowel
sound change there so these two are a
couple to be very very careful of and to
practice as well
some nouns however do not change in the
plural form some nouns for example fish
fish does not change we use fish and
fish in the singular and the plural form
if you
are curious about how to know whether
you're reading something or hearing
something about singular fish or plural
fish
in most cases you can guess based on the
situation based on the context if it's
very very difficult
then i suppose the author might
include a number before the word fish
like two fish or three fish
but in most cases this isn't an issue
the same thing applies to sheep actually
sheep the plural form of sheep is also
sheep there is no change here but we can
count them as two sheep three sheep for
sheep for example
okay a few more
the singular form of child
becomes the plural form children
please be careful there
foot becomes feet
tooth becomes teeth and one more
interesting one mouse mouse becomes mice
in the plural form two mice three mice
four mice so these are just a few
examples of some of the irregular plural
forms you can find
with countable nouns
this is not
everything for sure
but these are some very common examples
i think
okay
let's continue on to a few question
patterns with countable nouns so the
first one i have is how many blah blah
blahs please keep in mind when you are
asking a quantity question with
countable nouns you need to use how many
please do not use how much with a
countable noun we use how much with
uncountable nouns so how many plus an s
sound don't forget this s sound many
people forget how many pens how many
dogs
how many children
in that case there's no s sound but if
you are using
a noun with an s sound please make sure
that s sound is very clear
but in any case you need to use the
plural form after how many
okay a couple of other examples maybe
you've seen our other youtube videos
about any and some
so here i have an example do you verb
any plural form so here again there's
that s sound if your noun ends in an s
make it very very clear when you
pronounce it so do you have any pets for
example or do you need any
uh strawberries for example so here i've
got verb
and i've got any plus s so this is maybe
making an offer or asking for
information
something
you need some kind of information if
you're asking this question it wouldn't
be an offer but asking for information
this is the kind of question you might
be able to use with countable nouns
finally to make a request as we talked
about in the some video any and some
video can i have some plus the plural
form so can i have some
cookies for example or can i have some
cupcakes for example so again please
make sure your s sound is very clear at
the end of this sentence all right the
last thing i want to talk about for this
lesson is quantifiers so quantifiers
we use with the plural form please do
not use quantifiers with the singular
form
we use quantifiers to talk about amounts
how much or how many of something for
countable nouns we're going to talk
about how many of something we have or
don't have for example
uh so we can use no with a quantifier so
i have no pets for example
we can say that or i don't have any pets
here i have don't plus verb plus any so
i don't have any pets or i don't need
any cupcakes i'm thinking about cupcakes
today so i don't need any blah blah blah
so we can replace the verb here with the
verb of your choice
uh there's almost no almost no i've kind
of put this up a little further on the
spectrum from 0 to 100
so it's very close to zero so i have
almost no
uh pancakes left in my kitchen for
example so not very many in other words
uh just above that maybe would be hardly
any hardly any so there are hardly any
children in school today for example
maybe around here on the spectrum a
couple of a couple of the word couple is
here it has the nuance of two too so
there are a couple of dogs in the park
for example
just above a couple of might be a few a
few a few in my mind sounds like maybe
three or four for example like there are
a few birds in the tree outside the
office
several sounds to me like more than a
few a larger number than a couple of or
a few so to use several in a sentence
for example there are several clocks in
the office
the next one i've i've got some here
i've put some tentatively at about 50.
some is very very vague some can mean a
small amount or it can mean maybe a
reasonable amount of something
but generally it's somewhere around here
on my my 0 to 100 scale so you can feel
kind of about how much some is yeah so
for example um
i ate
some
[Music]
what did i eat today i ate some
salads
last week or something like that so it's
kind of a vague expression but we can't
really guess how many uh are here but
some can tell us just that maybe
more than a few were consumed in my
example sentence so some again some is
rather vague
maybe it's not as clear as some of the
other expressions but you can kind of
figure it out for yourself when you'd
like to use it all right the next one
lots of and a lot of are about in the
same point here on the spectrum so lots
of means
lots of there are there's a good number
of something so for example
um
i got lots of letters in the mail last
christmas so it refers to a good number
of something
uh next up maybe quite a few so quite a
few of something so i got quite a few
emails last week we could say
uh towards the end here we have tons of
and a bunch of these sound rather casual
tons of and a bunch of again very very
large quantity
so i ate
tons of
sweets last weekend or i bought a bunch
of cds last weekend for example so a
very very large quantity
and finally we can use the word all with
countable nouns uh like for example
maybe all the children went to school
today or all the women in the room
left suddenly so we can use all with
countable nouns just again please make
sure to use the plural form with these
so all of these are some examples of
quantifiers we can use with countable
nouns you'll see too i have green stars
on some of these just a note the ones
with green stars we can use these with
countable and uncountable nouns so i
know sometimes it's difficult to guess
is it a countable noun is it an
uncountable noun what quantifier should
i use i don't know
these are a few that you can use with
both countable and uncountable nouns so
if you're stuck if you can't remember
you can try using one of these like lots
of and a lot of
some
these are very very useful ones i think
so try to keep these in mind a couple of
these in mind
so if you have trouble remembering which
ones are for countable nouns and which
ones are for uncountable nouns you can
remember this okay so that's just a
quick introduction to countable nouns i
hope that this was useful for you if you
have any questions or comments or want
to try to make a sentence please feel
free to do so in the comment section
below this video hi everybody my name is
alicia today i'm going to be talking
about the verb to be
so in this lesson i'm going to talk
about the use of the word to be and i'm
going to introduce a few example
sentences as well as give some
explanations about some questions that
you guys have had about the different
uses of the verb to be specifically
different conjugations of the verb to be
so let's get started okay so the first
point i want to mention about the verb
to be is that b expresses a state or a
condition this is some
uh
point about the way a person is or a
characteristic a feature of a person an
object a situation so we use b to talk
about existence existence existence is
like the base level of the verb the base
meaning of the verb so maybe you've
heard the very famous shakespeare
expression the expression from the
shakespeare play hamlet to be or not to
be this is a very famous expression
which uses the verb to be but here this
is um this famous speech comes from
um the characters uh kind of internal
monologue or the characters thoughts
about whether
to be to be alive to exist or
not to be to not exist to be dead so uh
in this case yes we are using the verb
or the verb is used to mean existence to
mean alive or not alive however in
modern english today we use the verb to
be in many many cases
not referring to
being alive or not alive but we use it
as a linking verb so to be
and the negative form is used to connect
the subject to its other information
this is the purpose of a linking verb we
have a subject and some other
information about the subject we use the
verb to be to link those two things
together so i've prepared a lot of
examples and some conjugation review
points that i hope can help show some of
these the ways we can use the verb to be
as in modern american english let's take
a look first at the present tense
so please remember that depending on the
subject of the sentence the conjugation
of the verb to be is going to change so
if the subject of the present sentence
is i we'll use am
if the subject is he she or it we'll use
is if the subject is you we or they we
use are so please keep these in mind of
course the negative form we add uh not
after this so i am not he is not you are
not for example
let's look at a few simple examples here
the subject he for he i apply uh is the
conjugation is he is my brother so here
is my subject he
extra information my brother and is
this is my linking verb it connects the
information together
another example the neighbors are noisy
please be careful i've noticed that many
people forget
that they're actually using a plural
when they talk about neighbors or
parents for example
this little s here the neighbors the
people who live next to me this is a
plural subject so we should apply the
same rule we use for they they are in
this case the neighbors are noisy
here is another example the computers
not people here but multiple objects the
computers that s sound is it marks the
plural form so we have to use the same
conjugation rule the computers they are
essentially they are all broken here
one more you are not my friend so here
we have the subject you
and the negative not my friend you are
not my friend so in each of these we are
connecting the subject with some other
information using a conjugated form of
the verb be
okay
i also want to mention uh the infinitive
form this 2 plus b so i talked about 2b
a little bit here 2b meaning existence
we can use to be in modern english as
well
so meaning there's no change to the verb
but we use it in a few situations
referring to existence referring to a
situation so let's take a look at a few
examples
so here i have i want her to be my boss
i want her to be my boss meaning she is
not my boss now but in the future i want
her to be i want her to be
in the state of being my boss i want her
to become my boss however we don't say
become i want her to be my boss
so this is maybe a desire i want for a
future situation where a person her in
this case
uh is is desired to be
to exist in a condition as this person's
boss okay let's try another example this
is a very very common example please
tell him to be
on time to be is used here before the
expression on time so on time means the
correct time so for example if the
meeting begins at one o'clock
he needs to be
in the meeting room at one o'clock so to
be in this case means be in a condition
be in the state of on time at the
correct time so this is a very common
one tell him to be on time please be on
time meaning you in your condition your
status
in the day should be on time so this is
a great one to remember
here's one more example again about time
it's very commonly used for time for
schedules didn't they tell you to be
here at eight o'clock so again to be
meaning exist here to uh bring yourself
here you need to exist here at eight
o'clock didn't they tell you that so
again to be refers to your body your
person here existing
so i need to be here to make these
videos or i need to be uh in the studio
to do a live stream every week i need to
be somewhere so we use b to talk about
our body's position or our body's
location where we exist we can use to be
with that
okay so i've already started talking
about a few
different prepositions actually i
mentioned i need to be at the studio or
i need to be in the office for example
there are a few common prepositions that
we can use with the verb to be so
because
to be refers to our existence
refers to our location for example we
can use it with a few prepositions like
in or at so i can say i need to be in
the office i need to be at the office
both are okay to use with the verb to be
because they talk about or they help us
express our existence our condition
where we are located we can also use uh
with uh to talk about people like i want
to be with my family this weekend or i
want to be with my husband or my wife
later or i want to be with my friends
every day for example so we can use with
along with the verb to be so these are a
couple of common prepositions you'll see
with the verb to be and it's various
forms okay so let's continue on to a
couple different uh grammar points let's
talk now about the past tense we can use
to be in past tense just remember again
the verb does conjugate here
it's i was if the subject of the
sentence is i he she and it was he was
she was it was and with you we and they
we use were you were they were we were
here i've used it as in i was late to
work past tense the neighbors were noisy
so again as i talked about with the
present tense example neighbors is
plural so the rule for they applies here
they were noisy same thing here i used
the same sentence just in past tense the
computers were all broken one more she
wasn't very friendly so a negative form
and please remember
that you can use the contracted form
instead of was not we can use wasn't it
sounds a lot more natural she wasn't
very friendly so please keep in mind the
past tense forms as well uh the past
tense form and the negative forms too
all right let's continue on to a couple
different points i want to talk about
the continuous or the progressive form a
couple patterns
some of you have sent in questions about
the the use of the word being
in sentences like these like what's the
difference between including being and
no being in in an example sentence so
let's take a look at a couple examples
we use being in this progressive form
to express a temporary state so if
you've watched any videos about the
continuous form or the progressive form
you know we use it sometimes to talk
about a temporary state something that's
not always true but for now it is true
the same rule applies to being so if we
can imagine the blue line here is a
present tense statement present tense
remember is something that's always true
it's a general fact
the red line here is a temporary
situation so here i have past present
now and the future
so let's look at these two example
sentences my brother is annoying my
brother's not really my brother my
brother is annoying
is a present tense sentence so this is a
general fact for an example a general
fact always true my brother is annoying
i have an adjective here my brother is
annoying however in this sentence my
brother is being annoying right now my
brother is being annoying means in this
point in time only for this short period
of time only right now my brother is
being he's in the condition his status
his existence is annoying right now
if i said my brother is annoying right
now it's okay
but being annoying it sounds a bit more
natural to a native speaker my brother
is being annoying right now
let's look at one more example
my computer is not cooperative i've used
the negative not cooperative so this is
a little bit of a funny sentence it
suggests maybe my computer can think for
itself so cooperative meaning
my computer is not working very well in
other words but here i've used the
adjective my computer is not cooperative
so maybe i have an old computer so every
day in this sentence in a present tense
sentence my computer is not cooperative
it doesn't work very well however if i
want to use being here i can say my
computer wasn't in past tense maybe my
computer wasn't being cooperative today
so in this sentence we see today only my
computer was not being my computer was
not functioning my computer was not
existing in a cooperative state its
condition was not cooperative for me in
that day so here i've used being my
computer wasn't cooperative today is
okay as well but we can use being it
sounds it kind of emphasizes the
existence it emphasizes that temporary
condition here so this sounds really
nice my computer wasn't being
cooperative today try to use this if you
like so again we use this for a
temporary situation keep that in mind
being blah blah blah being before your
adjective in this case so that's one
point i wanted to mention
let's move on to a couple more maybe
difficult or advanced points i wanted to
share and i want to introduce a few
examples here too
first present perfect tense we've talked
about the present perfect tense in some
other videos before but let's review
when your subject is i we use have been
when this subject is he she or it uh it
has been he has been she has been it has
been when we use you we and they it's
have been you have been they have been
we have been
so we can use this as we've looked at in
the past i have been studying here's our
our present perfect form
the past participle form bin i have been
she has been working they have been
living
and then some questions have we been
sleeping or uh where have you been
living for example here you'll see
we use bin the past participle form of
the verb uh here in present perfect
tense so maybe uh many of you are are
familiar maybe this kind of pattern is
okay for you
but let's kind of look at a few examples
that are a bit more difficult or a bit
more advanced like the past perfect
tense so here in past perfect tense
we need to change uh
from have as we've done with present
perfect to have the past tense so here
all of these are going to be the same
verb i had been he had been you had been
we keep the verb be
with bin here
but we can actually change all of these
sentences i just talked about in past
perfect or sorry present perfect to the
past perfect tense just by changing the
verb have here so for example i had been
studying
she had been working they had been
living for example we can make past
perfect sentences just by changing
the verb here
so please keep this in mind
the verb to be does not change in this
case but we can make some more complex
sentences in this case a past perfect
sentence
quite easily actually with no change to
the be verb
all right there's one more
situation or one more kind of sentence i
want to mention today and that's
sentences that use if clauses so if
something then something else these if
then type statements so here's one
example if more people had come it would
have been a better party it would have
been so here
we see
there's an if
statement that introduces a point
so here's my if clause if more people
had come
it would have been a better party so
here i'm talking about a past situation
so at the party maybe not a lot of
people came to the party but if more
people had come in the past it would
have been a better party so i want to
introduce this because a lot of people
have no problem with the if clause like
if more people had come or if more
people
had been at the party
however many people forget to conjugate
the verb
in the main clause it would have been so
please don't forget this part it would
have been don't forget your would either
here
let's look at one more
if you had been here earlier so here
we see the verb to be
is in our if clause if you had been here
earlier
you would have heard my good news in
this case so here
the 2b verb is in the if clause in that
if clause at the beginning of the
sentence if you had been here if your
body had existed in this place earlier
you would have heard my good news so
here we can see it in the if clause of
the sentence this is a very useful one
if you had been here earlier
you can use this in a surprising number
of situations i think
let's look at one more if we hadn't been
at the beach today so here
i have a negative in the if clause so
hadn't been if we hadn't been at the
beach today we wouldn't have seen whales
for example so here i've made a kind of
complex sentence
with a negative if we hadn't been at the
beach if our bodies had not been at the
beach if we had not existed at the beach
today we would not have seen whales it
would not have been possible to see
whales so you can use this in the
positive and the negative to make some
very complex sentences just about
existence about where you or where an
object is where your body is so i know
that to be can be a difficult verb to
use
but think about the various ways we've
talked about in this lesson to use the
verb to be and try to make some
interesting sentences so there are a lot
of different ways to use this verb but
keep in mind
it's so useful as a linking verb so
we're connecting a subject to some key
information about the subject and we're
talking about our existence with this
verb so give it a try if you have any
questions or if you want to just try an
example sentence leave it in a comment
and we can check it out hi everybody my
name is alicia and today i'm going to
talk about the difference between if and
when some of you have asked questions
about this and i've noticed that some
people make some key and maybe dangerous
mistakes
between these two words so let's talk
about when to use them okay
let's talk about when first we use when
uh when there's 100
certainty something is going to happen
so for example with travel plans when
you arrive in the country or when you
get to my house for example or when you
register for classes so 100
certainty something is going to happen
i've made a timeline here as i like to
do
on a timeline here the image you can
think about is that when it i've used a
green line here it's going to happen
it's definitely going to happen we use
when uh when we know something is going
to happen there's 100
certainty here this is a key point it's
going to happen
if on the other hand we use if if
there's only a chance something is going
to happen there's only a chance it is
not
determined it is not something that has
been decided
if is used for a chance something will
occur if is not used in cases where we
know something is going to happen or
something should happen if is only used
to express chance or possibility so on
the same timeline here in red
i've made a dotted line to express if
there's a possibility
in the future something might happen
there's a chance in the future something
might happen in these cases we use if so
for example if you lose your student id
card
if you get lost for example so please
please be careful don't use if in cases
where there's 100
certainty something is going to happen
and on the other hand don't use when in
cases where there's only a chance
something will happen
making a mistake between these two words
can destroy relationships or it can just
it can really cause some serious
confusion so i made a few example
sentences
that i've actually seen some that are
similar to these so let's take a look
and see why making a mistake
could be really really dangerous or
could really damage a relationship if
you make a mistake with these two let's
take a look
all right so first sentence blah blah
blah we break up what are you going to
do so if you don't know the word break
up means to end a romantic relationship
to to break up with someone here let's
think if or when if we look at this rule
if i say when if i'm speaking to my
partner if i say when we break up what
are you going to do if i choose the word
when it sounds like in my mind to me
i've decided i know 100
cert i'm certain we are going to break
up this sounds very very sad probably to
my partner if my partner doesn't know my
feelings so if i say when we break up
what are you going to do it sounds like
i've decided to end the relationship
that's probably not what i want to say
in this case let's use if if we break up
there's a chance if we break up what are
you going to do
so let's use if here of course this is a
very maybe serious sentence anyway but
using if shows there's only a chance of
a breakup when shows it's it's definite
you've decided already so please be
careful let's look at another very
interesting sentence something something
your wallet gets stolen call me
your wallet gets stolen so here if i use
when here when your wallet gets stolen
call me means the speaker expects
the listener's wallet will be stolen
that sounds very very strange a little
mysterious right
so
if your wallet gets stolen however it
sounds like there's a chance maybe the
listener is going somewhere dangerous
for example so in this case if is a much
better choice when sounds like the
speaker has some secret plan maybe when
your wallet gets stolen sounds like
maybe the speaker has maybe made plans
or knows mysteriously somehow
that the listener's wallet is going to
get stolen let's use if in this sentence
here's another one blah blah blah you
hear screaming so screaming means loud
terrified voice
if you hear a loud terrified screaming
voice don't worry so if you say when
when you hear
screaming don't worry or if you hear
screaming don't worry so i suppose
if it's around halloween for example
and you're at a haunted house
you could say when in this case but if
you're in a
regular situation
and someone wants to warn you of
something it sounds a bit strange to say
when you hear screaming don't worry
but maybe
if is a better choice here if you hear
screaming don't worry like maybe your
friend for example is making a crazy
video outside and they're going to shout
a lot for example
so there's a chance you may hear
screaming
so this one is probably better for if
you hear of course in some cases
like i said in like a haunted house
situation maybe you could use the word
when when you hear screaming don't worry
but in most cases if if is probably a
better choice here let's look at another
one let's get a beer blah blah blah the
plain land so this sentence the nuance
here is the speaker is on a plane riding
on a plane in the air right now because
i have the verb lands lands means to
touch the land
to stop flying
so here let's get a beer if or when if
sounds like there's only a chance the
plane is going to land when sounds like
there's a 100 chance the plane is going
to land so it's probably a better choice
to use when here we know the plane is
going to land unless it's an extreme
case like a plane crash hopefully not
but let's get a beer when
the plane lands is a better choice for
this sentence
okay next one blah blah blah he gets
fired for this he's going to be in
trouble um so if we use when here by the
way fired means lose your job lose your
job so when he gets fired for this
sounds like the speaker knows uh he this
person is going to lose his job here
however if we use if
sounds like there's only a chance or the
speaker does not know
whether or not he is going to lose his
job so if is probably a better choice
here
of course if the speaker
somehow knows information
they could use the word when in this
case but
it's probably better to use if
to show there's only a chance
that this person could get fired for
this situation okay let's look at one
more
she said she would text me when or if
she had time to get together this is a
situation where
both if and when are possible so we can
use if
and we can use when here
the nuance though she will text me if uh
she has time so if she has time means
there's only a chance she has time in
other words if we use when
she in this sentence she expects she's
going to have time in the future she
said she would text me when she had time
when she had time so meaning she expects
to have time and she's going to text the
listener
if however the sentence is if she said
she would text me if she had time means
she in the sentence this person
she says she means there's only a chance
she'll have time so please be careful
sometimes both if and when are correct
but the nuance is a little bit different
so please keep sentences like these in
mind sometimes especially in a sentence
like the first example we looked at
we can potentially like really really
damage relationships if we make a
mistake between if and when so please
consider this thanks very much for
watching and we'll see you again soon
bye
[Music]
you