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hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and i answer them maybe first
question comes from
muhammad raful hassan hi muhammad
muhammad says hi alicia how do i say
these kinds of things naturally zero one
double nine one or zero one nine nine
one similarly coffee
c-o-double-f double e or
c-o-f-f-e-e
actually everything that you listed here
is normal and natural some people prefer
using that double pattern that you
described like double f double e or
double nine some people prefer to use
that other people do not i personally do
not use that double or sometimes triple
pattern with numbers
but it's perfectly fine to use it's just
a personal preference so thanks very
much for the question i hope that this
helps you okay let's move on to your
next question next question comes from
luis reggiori hi luis luis says hi
alicia
can you tell me when to spin words and
when not to for example when to use king
of the jungle and when to use jungle
king are both correct thank you
oh good question um unfortunately
there's not really a rule for this but
there's not going to be a communication
problem if you use the of pattern
instead of the pattern that doesn't use
of there probably won't be a
communication problem this is something
that just kind of comes with practice so
in your reading and your writing you'll
start to notice which words are commonly
paired together i will say though like
if you're looking for something that's
kind of a guideline it's not a perfect
rule but maybe it's helpful is to think
about how using the of pattern makes
things sound more important it can make
things sound a little more formal
so if you're talking about an everyday
object and you use the of pattern it's
gonna sound really funny really silly
like it's too important so if you're
talking about a dessert for example
saying apple pie is very normal if you
say pie of apple it sounds way way too
formal kind of funny and silly so if you
have situations like this people might
laugh a little bit but there won't be a
communication problem the only mistake
is that you sound way too formal anyway
i hope that this helps you understand
this point thanks very much for an
interesting question okay let's move
along to your next question next
question comes from monmon hi montmon hi
again monmon
says how do i use it's with an
apostrophe and it's with no apostrophe
also what are abstract nouns and how are
they different from non-abstract nouns
thanks okay
it's with an apostrophe means it is or
it has examples it's been a fun day
it's a bird it's a plane it's superman
so then it's is the possessive form of
it
examples the cat is licking its foot
the dolphin escaped from its tank at the
aquarium okay so i hope that that helps
you with that it's its difference your
second question about abstract nouns and
non-abstract nouns an abstract noun is
something that we cannot see we cannot
touch it's not tangible these are like
concepts or ideas so some examples are
like sadness
concentration um anger
those kinds of things so things that we
can't actually see
but we can understand in our minds so
that's an abstract noun a non-abstract
noun then is the opposite so it's like
objects it's people it's things so we
can see them we can touch them we can
interact with them so like phone is a
non-abstract noun or camera person or
beach these are things that we can
actually interact with that's a
non-abstract noun so abstract nouns
concepts ideas non-abstract nouns
actually things that we can touch and
interact with so i hope that this helps
you understand the difference thanks
very much for these questions okay let's
move on to your next question next
question comes from shintaro hi shintaro
shintaro says hi i have been studying
english with your videos on youtube my
question what do adults call their
mothers and fathers in the u.s is it mom
and dad or their parents names ah good
question um yes usually we use mom and
dad to talk to our parents directly
if you use your parents name to talk to
your parent it creates like this
distance in your relationship with them
so in most cases i think people feel
comfortable saying mom or dad directly
to their mother or father
but if there are some cases where maybe
you don't have such a good relationship
with your parent
you might choose to use their name
instead of their mom or dad title so
some people do choose to do this that
might be why you hear some differences
in the ways that people address their
parents but in most cases yes mom or dad
is fine
on the other hand mother or father using
mother or father to address your parent
directly can sound too formal so it's
kind of a nice familiar close word to
use mom and dad those are much more
natural and much more common i think in
american english of course if you're
speaking with someone else about your
parent it can sound a little more polite
to use mother or father in that case
like oh do you know my mother or my
father met you last week for example on
the on the more casual side of things
using something like mommy or mama or
daddy or papa those words are used by
little kids so i would not recommend
using those in like public situations
like maybe you want to make a joke an
inside joke with your family like
pretending you're a kid again fine but
it might sound weird if you're in public
and you use those like words that are
used by little kids so keep that in mind
anyway i hope that this helps you
understand thanks very much for the
question all right let's move along to
your next question next question comes
from
kai hong hi cai hong
says hi alicia how do natives pronounce
what do we do now i hear what or we do
now do you do that as well um i think
this is a question about like reduction
of sounds so a question like what do we
do now if i say this in my regular
speech i would say what do we do now
what do we do now so this is an example
of these reduced sounds these sounds
that come together so native english
speakers do not clearly separate words
in the same way that i do on this
channel what do we do now becomes what
do we do now what do we do now so this
is an example of how words get connected
in ways that are
sometimes a little bit challenging to
pick up the first few times so to
practice these kinds of things i would
recommend listening of course listening
and reading at the same time so that
means finding things that have a script
you can of course check out the stuff
that we have on the website at
englishclass101.com um but you can also
try like audio books you can also try
using subtitles on videos that have them
um i know that not all videos on youtube
have them um but try looking at the
actual words that people are saying and
the way that they're pronouncing them
because we don't clearly separate words
all the time in english okay so i hope
that that helps you understand this kind
of pronunciation related point thanks
very much for an interesting question
alright that's 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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things that can help you with your
english studies thanks very much for
watching this week's episode of ask
alicia and i will see you again next
week bye bye
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