| Hi, everybody! Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them, maybe! |
| The first question this week comes from Electra. |
| Hi, Electra! |
| Electra says… |
| “Hi, Alisha! I’m Electra from Greece. Could you please explain gerunds to us?” |
| Sure. A gerund is a verb in the I-N-G form. So, using it in this way makes it a noun. We can use it as a noun in a sentence. |
| For example: |
| “She likes cooking.” |
| “He hates hiking.” |
| So, in these sentences, the words that end in I-N-G are gerunds. In the first sentence, “cooking.” In the second sentence, “hiking.” We can use gerunds and the infinitive forms of verbs sometimes interchangeably. So, the infinitive form of a verb is “to + (the base form of the verb).” |
| For example: |
| “She likes to cook.” |
| Or “He likes to hike.” |
| A very common question is when do I use a gerund? When do I use an infinitive? And the question is quite big. It’s way too big to answer in this series. The reason is that there are many different groups of verbs that tend to gerunds or that tend to take infinitives, but there are exceptions all over the place, so it’s quite challenging to make a rule or a guide specifically for gerunds or specifically for infinitives. |
| So this is a quick introduction to what a gerund is. It’s a verb that takes an I-N-G ending and is used as a noun in a sentence. 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 Elhassan Ahmed. |
| Hello, Elhassan! |
| Elhassan says… |
| “I sometimes hear people say better instead of improve, as if it is a verb. Is that formal? For example: Think about how to better yourself. Also, I heard someone say more better, and it sounded strange to me. I mean, can I say he is more taller than me? I don’t think I can. Thanks a lot!” |
| Okay, yes, exactly. “To better” means to improve and yes, it does sound a little bit more polite, a little bit more formal like, “You should better yourself,” you should improve yourself, or “She aims to better her students,” meaning she aims to improve her students. So yes, you can use better to mean improve in this way. Just make sure you use it as a verb. |
| To answer your second question though, “more better,” as you’ve said, yes, is grammatically incorrect and you’re also correct, you cannot say, “He is more taller than me.” That’s also incorrect. So the reason that you might hear something like this is because native speakers often like to make grammatical mistakes on purpose to sound funny like to sound childish or like to make a joke. So, a very popular one is to use the expression “more better” like, uh, that’s more better. It sounds kind of cute like a child who hasn’t learned all of the grammar rules of English yet. They might say “more better” instead of just “better.” So, this is maybe like a way that someone could joke around or just try to sound more friendly or kind of cute in their speaking. |
| 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 Tatsu. |
| Hi, Tatsu! |
| Tatsu says… |
| “Could you tell me the difference between correct and right?” |
| Sure! If you’re talking about the opposite of wrong as in like the answers on a test, then “correct” and “right” are both fine to use. You can use either of them. If you’re talking about the opposite of “left” then you have to use “right.” You cannot use “correct” for that. |
| We also talk about things that are societally proper, that are societally good with the word “right.” We do not use “correct.” |
| So for example, if you say like: |
| “Oh my gosh, my medical fees from my hospital stay were so high! That’s not right!” |
| So we use “right” to mean like that’s not good or that’s not fair. That’s not like a good thing in our society. |
| We also use the word “right” to mean like basic human rules in a society again too. |
| So, for example: |
| “In the USA, people have the right to silence.” |
| So that means a basic rule that people have in the US is the ability to keep their silence about something. So we cannot use “correct” in that case. |
| So, these are the various uses of “correct” and “right.” I hope that this helps you. Thanks for the question. |
| Okay, let’s move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Mit mit mit. |
| Hi, Mit mit mit! |
| Mit mit mit says… |
| “Hi, Alisha! Why don’t native speakers use specific times in present perfect, but they do use specific times in simple past tense?” |
| Because when we’re using the basic form of present perfect, we’re not focusing on when in the past a specific action occurred. We just want to talk about that life experience. So the time, the point in time at which it happened is not important or we don’t know or we don’t want to focus on that. |
| For example: |
| “I have been to France.” |
| Or “He has eaten sushi.” |
| In these situations, for whatever reason, when that happened is not important. We just want to express our life experience, so we do not use a specific point in time and it sounds very unnatural to use a specific point in time with that, like present perfect tense. |
| If; however, you want to use present perfect continuous to talk about a point at which something started and then has continued until the present time, you can and you should use a “for” or “since” ending to it. |
| For example: |
| “I have been living in France since 2013.” |
| Or “He has been studying English for 3 years.” |
| In those cases, we need to mark the starting point of that action or condition, so we do use a specific point in time. |
| Let’s compare this then to using simple past tense. When we use simple past tense, we want to express an action that started and that finished in the past and so we do use a specific point in time. |
| For example: |
| “I went to France last summer.” |
| Or “He ate sushi last week.” |
| So, in sum, if you want to just share a general life experience, use the regular present perfect tense. If you want to talk about something that started in the past and continues to the present, use present perfect continuous and include a specific point in time at which your action started or begun or like when your condition started. If you want to talk about something that’s done, that’s over and you want to talk about a specific point in which that thing happened, use simple past tense. |
| 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 Late Jerry. |
| Hi, Late Jerry! |
| Late Jerry says… |
| “Hi, Alisha! A lot of people use double negation lately. Is this a kind of innovation? Can we use it? Is it grammatically correct? For example: “Can’t nobody tell me nothing?” |
| Nice question. Yeah, some people who are very strict about grammar like now and historically, consider double negation to be, like incorrect or they think that it’s a sign of poor education or something like that, but that’s not the case. Double negation has existed in English for a long time and it exists now. |
| So in some dialects in English, double negation or multiple negation is used more commonly than in other dialects. So for example, I don’t really use double negation in my speech, but in certain parts of the US or in certain parts of England, people may use that kind of speech. So, I would suggest that if it’s not natural for you, if you didn’t grow up with it, if it’s not something that you or the people around you regularly use, it’s probably going to sound very unnatural for you to use that. |
| So, your example sentence was, “Can’t nobody tell me nothing?” That is not a sentence I personally would use, but someone who speaks a different dialect of English that uses this kind of negation might. If I wanted to say that sentence, I would say something like, “Nobody can tell me anything.” That’s how I would say it. So, using the other sentence would sound very unnatural for me. That kind of speech is not natural for me, so it sounds perhaps rude maybe, or offensive for me to use that. |
| I would say just try to be aware of the people who are around you. If you are learning English in a place where double negation is common, then perhaps, it’s natural for you to use it a bit as well. If you’re just kind of trying to mimic something that maybe you heard on TV or in music or in media or something like that, it’s probably going to sound very unnatural. |
| So yes, it is used. Yes, it is featured actually in some dialects of English, but it doesn’t mean that it’s natural for everyone to use. If this kind of speech is hard for you to understand, don’t worry. This is just another part of language learning and this is a specific way that some people speak in English. |
| So while yes, it does go against, like traditional grammar rules, I suppose, it doesn’t mean that the communication is any less valid. So, try to keep that in mind and, again, if it’s difficult for you to understand, people who speak this way, that’s okay. Just with time and practice, you will gradually come to know what that sentence means or what that speaker is actually saying. |
| So, I hope that this helps you. Thanks very much for an interesting 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 in EnglishClass101.com/ask-alisha. Thanks very much for watching this week’s episode of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next week. Bye-bye! |
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