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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 takumi hi takumi takumi
says hi alicia i'm a university student
in japan i teach english to elderly
students as a part-time job one of them
asked me what fire with fire means i
guess the man heard the phrase in a
movie could you tell me the meaning yeah
this is part of an idiom the expression
is usually to fight fire with fire
that's the full phrase typically you
might also hear to match fire with fire
or to meet fire with fire but in most
cases it's to fight fire with fire this
phrase means to fight an opponent with
the same weapon or the same method that
your opponent uses
so sometimes this literally means
fighting someone with the same kind of
weapon but in most cases it's talking
about like a specific kind of
competition and using the same method as
your opponent to participate in that
competition for example if someone
starts shouting at you you can fight
fire with fire by shouting back at them
so in that case there's no fire involved
but shouting is your opponent's weapon
or method of attacking so if you want to
fight that you use the same method and
shout back so that could be considered
fighting fire with fire you might also
hear this used in like business
situations when you're talking about
like competition between businesses or
between companies or industries for
example company a is spending a lot of
money on advertising this year we have
to fight fire with fire and increase our
own advertising budget
so this just means to compete or like to
attack or oppose someone with the same
method or the same weapon that they use
against you so again this is usually to
fight fire with fire i hope that that
helps you thanks for the question okay
let's move on to your next question next
question comes from el hassan ahmed
hello again el hassan el hazan says what
is the difference between i don't know
what is that and i don't know what that
is for example i don't know what the
difference between them is and i don't
know what is the difference between them
okay the difference is that the second
example is correct the first example is
incorrect these are examples of what are
called embedded questions so it's when
we have a question
inside a statement or we have a question
inside another question these are called
embedded questions embedded questions
and when we use the verb to be in
embedded questions it takes a slightly
different word order so when we use the
verb to be to ask a direct question we
would say something like where is the
restroom or where are my co-workers
that's a direct question but when we use
an indirect question or we use an
embedded question
we have to change the word order a
little bit so instead of where is the
restroom we have to say something like i
don't know where the restroom is and
instead of where are my co-workers we
might say do you know where my
co-workers are
so in each of these examples the to be
verb actually moves to the end of the
sentence or to the end of the question
this is kind of special for these
embedded question style responses so
keep this in mind when you're making an
embedded question is does not follow
your question word is goes at the end of
the sentence the same is true for r and
of course was and were if you're making
past tense statements or past tense
questions but again this is just for the
verb to be if you're using any other
verb you don't need to worry about this
change so if it's like talk or walk or
drink or whatever you don't need to
worry about that if you're using the
verb to be however you do need to switch
your word order in the sentence so again
your second example sentence is correct
so i don't know what that is is the
correct sentence i don't know what is
that is incorrect
of course if you're ever not sure what
to do and you're faced with a situation
where you should choose
it's not impolite it's not incorrect to
use a direct question like where is the
restroom
but it does sound a bit more polite to
phrase it indirectly or to use an
embedded question like do you know where
the restroom is it sounds a bit more
polite so again if you're ever unsure
you can use a direct question no problem
but do make sure to practice these
embedded questions and the special
pattern that we use with the verb to be
so i hope that that helps you thanks
very much for the question okay let's
move on to your next question next
question comes from on hi on on says can
you give an explanation about the word
roughly thanks so much okay um sure
roughly means about
it means approximately or around for
example roughly half of the students in
the class passed the test
sales decreased by roughly 30 percent
last month
so in these cases roughly means about or
around we tend to use roughly more in
polite situations like at work in
meetings we don't use it so much in
everyday conversation in everyday
conversation we use about or around
there's another use of roughly however
which you can kind of think of as
meaning aggressive or like a little bit
aggressive or
not refined so for example my neighbor
speaks roughly but he's actually a nice
guy or this woman on the train pushed me
really roughly it hurt
so in those cases roughly means in kind
of an aggressive manner a slightly
aggressive manner or a not refined
manner so when we use roughly as an
adverb in this way it means like not
refined it's it's kind of aggressive
when you're using it to talk about
amounts or data it means about 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
patricia hi patricia patricia says hi
alicia i enjoy your videos thank you my
question is about when i visit
restaurants and i don't want ice in my
drink for example how do i say that no
ice or without ice thank you yeah we
would say no ice no ice so if you said
without ice it's probably not a
communication issue but more naturally
we would say no ice please you can use
this for pretty much anything any kind
of special order like no tomato no onion
no pickles and so on so if you don't
want something use no before the name of
that thing that you don't want
we have another expression that we use
at restaurants which is
on the side on the side so for example
if you order a salad and you say i'd
like the dressing on the side please it
means your salad and the dressing or the
topping for the salad will come
separately so if you don't say on the
side the restaurant staff will probably
put the dressing on top of your salad
and serve it to you if you request the
dressing on the side however you can
choose how much to put on top of your
salad so some people like to in this
case with salads request that things be
served separately to do that you say on
the side you'll usually get a separate
dish or a separate cup or bowl or
something for your dressing or whatever
it is you've chosen to order so on the
side is another thing you can use in
restaurants finally for the opposite of
this situation for the opposite of no if
you want more of something you use extra
extra like extra cheese please or extra
bacon please or extra avocado keep in
mind though that when you say extra
you're probably going to have to pay
more so if you have like a cheeseburger
for example and you say i'd like extra
avocado so that means there's already
avocado on the cheeseburger you want
more avocado on it you're probably going
to have to pay more for that avocado
if however you order something without
an ingredient like no tomato on this
cheeseburger there's no discount so
please don't expect to discount if you
ask for less of something if you ask for
more of something however it's probably
going to cost you a little more money so
also keep in mind that we use extra when
something already exists inside the dish
so in my example it's like an avocado
burger there's avocado on the burger i
want more i say extra if there's no
avocado on the burger i say like
something like can i have avocado as a
topping please or can i add avocado as a
topping please we might use one of those
expressions so can i have
something as a topping or can i add
something we might use one of those two
patterns so those are a few restaurant
uh related expressions that i hope are
helpful for you thanks for the question
okay let's move on to your next question
next question comes from
wilgins de samis hello wilgins wiljan
says hi alicia is there a difference
between to lend and to borrow yes the
difference is in the point of view for
example
i lent my friend a pen
and my friend borrowed a pen from me
so when the person that is giving the
object is the subject of the sentence we
use lend when the person who is
receiving the object is the subject of
the sentence we use borrow so let's swap
the people in my example sentences
so
my friend lent me a pen
and i borrowed a pen from my friend so
again in those cases the person giving
the object
is the subject of the sentence when i
use lend and the person receiving the
object is the subject of the verb borrow
when i use borrow so please keep this in
mind this relationship so am i giving or
am i receiving that's what's important
to keep in mind i know it's a little
confusing at first but with practice you
will get the hang of it you'll get used
to it so i hope that this helps you
thanks very much for the question okay
that is everything that i have for this
week thank you as always for sending
your questions remember you can send
them to me at englishclass101.com
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english studies thanks very much for
watching this week's episode of ask
alicia and i will see you again next
week bye
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you