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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 this week comes from muhammad
al daily hi muhammad uh muhammad says hi
alicia when writing in any academic exam
like some kind of criticism or literary
analysis is it better to use i or we
like if the speaker wanted to talk about
his opinion ah okay if you're writing
about your personal opinion your
individual opinion use i
if you are writing to represent a group
of people like a company or a laboratory
or a research group or a team of some
kind use we so if it's your opinion use
i like i disagree with or i strongly
believe that if you're writing for a
company like you might see in company
emails for example you can use we like
we appreciate your continued business or
we deeply apologize for the
misunderstanding so use we if you're
representing a group use i if you're
talking about your personal opinion i
hope that this helps you thanks for the
question okay let's move on to your next
question next question comes from noor
aldean hi noor neuer says hi alicia i
have a question what is the difference
between specifically and especially nice
question okay first let's look at two
example sentences number one
i love music especially jazz
two
i'm a singer specifically a jazz singer
okay so in the first sentence which uses
especially we see a category introduced
music the speaker says i love music
then when they say especially it's like
they're highlighting they're focusing in
on this one kind of music they really
really like so the speaker's saying i
love music generally and inside this
category there's one thing that's extra
special to me i use especially or we use
especially to communicate that highlight
there so the other things are great also
but especially means i have kind of a
special place for that thing in contrast
then part two we have this opening
sentence i'm a singer
then specifically i'm a jazz singer so
we can think of this again as like a
category so i'm a singer singer is the
job here
specifically i'm a jazz singer so this
means the other types of singers do not
apply so this person is not a pop singer
not a rock singer not a blues singer a
jazz singer so in contrast with the
especially point which is like
everything is okay and there's this one
thing that's extra great the jazz singer
here is saying i'm a jazz singer only so
all these other things don't apply to me
i'm a jazz singer we use specifically to
narrow something down even more so we
have this broad category it gets even
more narrow like we have a very like
clear understanding of exactly what type
of singer the speaker is so if you want
to show like a highlight in something
like i love desserts especially gelato
so you can use it to talk about those
sorts of categories and something
special inside that category that's what
especially is for specifically is used
to make a very narrow distinction so i
hope that this helps you thanks very
much for an interesting question okay
let's move on to your next question next
question comes from mustafa jawad hi
mustafa mustafa says hi alicia my
question is what's correct he and me are
going to school or he and i are going to
school the correct answer is he and i
are going to school so a rule that you
can follow is if you're using this
person and i or person and me structure
when you're using it as the subject of a
sentence use the and i pattern like he
and i are going to school she and i are
best friends
he and i left early
when you're using it as the object of a
sentence however use the and me pattern
so person and me like my parents bought
my brother and me presents the manager
told my colleague and me that he was
quitting
so in sum if you're using this as the
subject use the and i pattern if you're
using it as the object use the and me
pattern in your original sentence and i
is correct i hope that this helps you
thanks for the question okay let's move
on to your next question next question
is from
saurov hi sarov saurov says hi alicia
i'm from india i want to know the
difference between will and wood okay uh
quickly will is used to make a decision
in the moment of speaking a great
example is when you're at a restaurant
and you look at the menu and you think
okay i'll have a salad or i'll have a
beer so we use will a lot to talk about
like decisions we make in the moment we
also use will to talk about things we're
not sure about for the future like when
you make a guess about something far in
the future like in 1 000 years i think
humans will all be gone or
next week i think i'll see a movie so
you're not so sure about your plans you
can use will to talk about that
then would is used to talk about unreal
situations a great example is like if i
were you i would do something like if i
were you i would find a new job or if i
were you i would get a hobby so would
expresses an unreal situation we use it
a lot in something like advice so would
is unreal and will is used to kind of
make a guess about something we don't
use will for like advice we use would to
give sort of these ideas about like
suggestions recommendations you're
sharing some kind of information will is
more like you're talking about maybe a
decision that you might make or maybe a
guess that you have so these are a few
differences between will and wood for a
couple more points you can check out the
will and going to video on our channel
for some more information about will
and you can also take a look at this
video about wood that's on the channel
too so i hope that this helps you thanks
very much for the question all right
let's look at our next question next
question comes from iqbal preet khaler
hi iqbal preach paul freit says hi
alicia i want to know how to use the
word apparently in conversation okay we
typically use the word apparently at the
beginning or at the end of a sentence it
has the meaning of it seems for example
apparently i left my laundry outside in
the rain
or
we have to go to a company meeting today
apparently
so this means the speaker did not get
this information directly the speaker
learned it from some other source so
it's often like a surprise or like it
seems something is happening or it seems
i did this so if the speaker does not
use apparently it's like a report you
know i left my laundry outside in the
rain but using apparently means someone
else told you that information or maybe
you found out about it somehow so it
sounds kind of a little bit sarcastic in
some situations or it's like you learned
it somehow and you're kind of surprised
about it so this is how we use
apparently in situations think of it as
like it seems but for a whole situation
like it seems i left my laundry outside
or it seems i'm at the end of this
episode so this is how we use apparently
in everyday conversation so 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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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 bye
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