want to get cheat sheets audiobooks
lessons apps and much more every month
for free just click the link in the
description to get your free language
gifts of the month hi everybody welcome
back to ask alicia the weekly series
where you ask me questions and i answer
them maybe okay let's get to your first
question this week first question this
week comes from muhammad arif hi
muhammad muhammad says hi alicia what's
the difference between not related to
and nothing to do with okay
if you're talking about anything other
than people so
not people objects situations then
generally they mean the same thing
nothing to do with has a little bit
stronger emphasis nothing to do with
sounds like absolutely zero nothing
whereas not related to sounds like a
little bit less intense not quite as
strong some examples this question has
nothing to do with cooking
this question is not related to cooking
today's meeting had nothing to do with
marketing
today's meeting was not related to
marketing
so both of these example sentences or
both of these pairs of examples rather
communicate the same idea it's just that
nothing to do with maybe sounds a little
more intense like closer to zero we
really want to emphasize no connection
at all if on the other hand you're
talking about people not related to and
nothing to do with are very different
for example
he is not related to me
he has nothing to do with me
in the first part not related to it
refers to no family connection with me
he has no family connection with me he
is not related to me
in the second example he has nothing to
do with me it means there is no
connection at all he's not my friend
he's not my co-worker he's not my family
member nothing there's no connection
there in the sentence he's not related
to me however it just means there's no
family connection he could be my friend
or my roommate or my co-worker something
like that but he's not related to me
specifically means family member so when
you're talking about people this is a
key difference between these two
expressions nothing to do with no
connection at all not related to just
means no family connection again when
you're talking about things other than
people however you can use them pretty
much interchangeably to me nothing to do
with sounds a little bit more like
emphatic than uh not related to so i
hope that this helps you thanks for the
question okay let's move on to your next
question
next question comes from
gennady hello again gennady gennady says
hey alicia i ran across the word overlap
with a meaning like meat for instance we
never overlapped does that mean we never
met before or maybe we never met
accidentally is this correct or close ah
so this use of overlap means to be in
the same situation or the same place as
another person at the same time so for
example if you're talking about where
you work and you work at company a and
my friend resa used to work at company a
i might ask you oh did you know my
friend risa she worked at company a and
you could say ah yeah we overlapped a
little bit or no we didn't overlap so in
the yes answer there it means i worked
at company a at the same time as risa so
you can imagine overlapping being like
your work overlapped so
she and i shared the same workspace for
a period of time
if the answer is negative no we didn't
overlap it's like saying no we didn't
share the same situation we didn't share
the same workplace so overlap means
being in the same place or the same
situation so this is not so common in
everyday conversation we use this as in
the example in like work or business
situations you might also hear it used a
lot in politics and in government
situations as well to talk about like
for example
when world leaders are in the same place
or when their terms
overlap so when they're in office
holding their government positions as
the same time as other people that's
another situation you might hear it you
may hear it as well in like universities
or in other like college school related
situations when you want to sound a bit
more formal but in general we don't use
this so much in everyday conversation
instead we might say oh i worked there
at the same time as your person or oh i
worked there at the same time as risa
for example so overlap means being in
the same place or the same situation
at the same time as someone or something
else so i hope that this helps you
thanks very much for the question okay
let's move on to your next question next
question comes from rubon hello again
reubon rubon says what is the difference
between as and while for example while i
was walking i ate an apple and as i was
walking i ate an apple when do i use as
and while there's no difference actually
you can use both as and while to talk
about two actions that happen at the
same time for example i ate potato chips
while i watched tv
and i ate potato chips as i watched tv
to me personally as sounds a little bit
more formal so i tend to use while more
when i'm speaking and when i'm writing
also i will use while before the main
action and same thing for as i tend to
put the word before the main action so
in this case for me watching tv is the
main action and eating potato chips is
kind of like the extra action or the
bonus action of course for some of you
maybe eating potato chips is the main
action that's fine but for me uh
watching tv is the main action so i
usually put that
after while or as another example
i listened to music while i washed the
dishes and i listened to music as i
washed the dishes so again in this
situation the main activity is washing
dishes so i place while or as before
that and listening to music is sort of
like the bonus or the extra activity so
that comes before the expression so yes
you can use as and while in the exact
same way here to talk about actions that
happen at the same time again for me
while sounds a little more casual so i
tend to prefer that a bit more in my
everyday speaking and writing i hope
that this helps you thanks very much for
the question okay let's move on to your
next question next question comes from
ali reza hello ali ali says hi alicia
what's the difference between till and
until and how do we use them correctly
okay good question let me introduce one
more item here so your original question
included until and till t-i-l-l i want
to introduce t-i-l there are these three
different spellings so you will see
native speakers use all three of these
until till with two l's and till with
one l so until
and till can be used interchangeably
until until with one l i should specify
here we use till like with one l
commonly in time and distance
expressions for example it's ten till
two you might hear two used in this
situation as in it's ten to two but you
can use till in that case or as in like
a time and distance related thing like
when you're traveling for example it's
going to be another hour till we get
there so that means until yes but
speakers will often use till especially
in quick speech so what is the
difference here really
an important difference comes into play
when we see
t-i-l-l-u's that spelling with two l's
so t-i-l-l can actually be used as a
verb to till means like to grow crops or
like to move soil as in farming like to
grow vegetables
and it can also be used as a noun it's
an old-fashioned word that means cash
register so for example the farmer
tilled the soil or
lock the till when you're finished so
there are these other uses of the
t-i-l-l spelling for that reason and
just for the sake of consistency so that
we're always the same i would recommend
you use till t-i-l-l-2-l's
for those words and use until and till
with one l to mean until that's my
personal recommendation of course you
don't have to follow that and not all
native speakers follow that by any means
but for me i prefer to keep the two
separate just to be consistent like i
said
you'll hear native speakers use this of
course in speech till and until and
you'll also see it used in writing but
my personal preference is to use till as
a verb with two l's and also to mean
cash register with two l's
and use the till with one l
and no apostrophe to mean until so yes
they are used in the same way
but that's kind of my recommendation for
making the differences clear so i hope
that this helps you thanks very much for
the question okay let's move on to your
next question next question
comes from
uh mali hello maddie mari says what's
the difference between american english
conversation and british english
conversation okay there are lots of
differences american english
pronunciation and british english
pronunciation are very different and
there are many different types of
pronunciation inside america and inside
britain so there are so many different
ways that people speak i speak with a
west coast american english accent so i
speak very differently from maybe a
person from london for example
also there are many differences in
vocabulary words that are used for
example in american english we use the
word elevator in british english it's
not elevator but lift so they have the
same meaning yes but we use different
words to communicate that i've made a
video a whiteboard video about some
words that are different between
american english and british english so
you can have a look at that you may also
hear some slight differences in the
prepositions that are used so for
example in american english i tend to
say something something is different
from something something but in british
english you might hear something
something is different to something
something so there are these small
prepositional changes that may vary that
may change from person to person or from
region to region so these are just a few
of the ways in which british english and
american english conversation are
different as i said i speak american
english west coast american english if
you want to check out some british
english you can take a look at some of
the lessons that we have we have lots of
british english listening and some other
just regular videos that use british
english and talk about british culture
too so have a look at those if you want
to know more and maybe you can compare
the way i speak or the way like michael
or bridget or davey speaks to the way
our british english teachers do so have
a look at those for some more
information about a british english
conversation i hope that that helps you
thanks very much for the question okay
that is everything that i have for this
week's episode thank you very much for
sending your questions as always
remember you can send them to me at
englishclass101.com
ask hyphen alicia of course if you liked
this lesson please don't forget to give
it a thumbs up subscribe to our channel
if you haven't already and check us out
at
englishclass101.com for some other
things that can help you with your
english studies thanks very much for
watching this week's episode of ask
alicia and i will see you again next
week bye
[Music]