Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 317 . The title of today's lesson is "Don't
Say Someone When You Should Say Some in the General Sense." Now remember general
sense ... the general sense is when you're talking about like a lot of people but
you're not talking about anyone in particular.
You use someone when you're talking about a specific person. So again let's
look at the note. In the general sense always use some not someone. Someone
refers to a specific person who did a specific thing. Now you may not... sometimes
you may not even know who that person is. You might say someone ate the cake. In
that case you might mean a particular person ate it. Even though, you don't know
who that person is. It's still one particular person. So in that case that
would be okay to say someone ate the cake or someone broke it. You know. it was
probably just one person. So someone did some specific thing. Then you could say
someone The problem is a lot of times you know, students of ESL will use
someone when they should be using some. Meaning like, like a lot there's a number
of people in general that either think this way or say something or do
something. So let's look at some of the examples here. Someone says you should
diversify your investments. Now if this was a particular situation like you
could say someone at the meeting said maybe it really was one specific person
that would be okay. But a lot of times the students say this when they don't
mean that. They just mean in general. They mean some people say meaning some people
in society or they heard some people you know , around say this. Some people say you
should diversify your investments if that's what you mean in general then you
should be using some , not someone. Okay. Someone disagrees with that policy. Again
if there was only one person that made it. That said that they disagreed
with this and you know who that person is that, that would be okay. Well again a
lot students use it when they should be
using some. When they mean that there's a lot of people that feel this way. So some
people disagree with that policy. So if you mean like in general there's quite a
few people out there and you're not mentioning anyone in particular then you
should be using "some. " Okay. All right. And let's look at the next one. Someone
complained about that change. Again if there was only one person. Like at a
particular office. They came in. Then that would actually be okay. They'll be
fine. But if you mean that again there's a lot of them and you're just talking
about them in general then you should say some people complained about that
change. Again so I often find a lot of ESL students make this mistake. They
often say someone when they should be saying some because that's really what
they mean. They're speaking in the general sense. They're not speaking about
someone specific. So be careful. Anyway I hope you got it.
I hope t's clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.