Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to "Ask Alisha," the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them, maybe.
First question this week comes from Mohammed AL-Daly. Hi, again, Mohammed. Mohammed said, "Hello, Alisha. Can you tell me how to pronounce the word, 'associate' as a verb, noun, and an adjective, please?" Sure. As a noun and an adjective, it's associate. As a verb, it's associate. So, there is the slight difference in pronunciation. Let's look at some example sentences. "I spoke to the associate professor." "Let me introduce you to my associate. I don't associate with those people." So, you can kind of hear the differences in the last part of the word. As a noun and an adjective, it's associate. As a verb, it's associate. In all forms, the word "associate" or "associate" refers to having a close connection to someone or to an organization. So, I hope that this helps you. Thanks for the question. Okay. Let's move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Alex. Hi, Alex. Alex says, "Hi, Alisha. What is the correct choice between 'Why would I have told you?' and 'Why would I tell you?' when talking about a past action? I don't know if the direct translation from Italian works in this case. Thank you as always." Okay. For a past action, use "Why would I have told you?" We used "Why would I tell you?" for a present situation. So, let's take a look at an example conversation. "I lost my job last month." "Oh, no, why didn't you tell me? I'm your friend." "Why would I have told you? I didn't want you to worry." So, here, "Why would I have told you?" means what reason did I have to tell you. So, it's referring to a past situation. In the past, I didn't have any reason to tell you this. So, we use "Why would I have told you?" to express that. So, there is no past reason to do that.
Let's compare this then to a present situation. "I just had a great business idea." "Oh, tell me about it." "Why would I tell you about it? You're just going to steal it." So, "Why would I tell you about it?" refers to a present situation. In other words, I have no reason to tell you about this. So, there's no reason for me to do this now. In other words, give me a reason to tell you about this thing now. So, "Why would I tell you about it?" present. "Why would I have told you?" past situation. So, these are fairly useful phrases. I hope that that helps answer your question. Thanks very much for sending it along. Okay. Let's move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Soheib Bell. Hi, Soheib. Soheib says, "Hi, Alisha. How are things?" Good. "What does 'outta' mean in this phrase, 'straight outta Compton?'" Yeah, "outta." "Outta" means out of. "Outta" is the reduced form of out of. So, in this expression, "Straight outta Compton," "outta" means out of, meaning like from or like leaving from a place. Compton is a city in the south part of Los Angeles. And "straight" refers to directly, doing something directly. So, another way to understand "straight out of Compton" could be something like directly from Compton, but that doesn't sound cool. So, this kind of reduced form and this word "straight," which is like a more casual rough way of saying "directly," this expression, "Straight outta Compton," sounds cooler.
So, this is the title of a famous movie about very famous rap artists. So, in this case, "Straight Outta Compton" sounds much cooler and rougher, and more reflective of the people that the movie is about. But you can use "outta" in your everyday conversation, too. We don't use it so much when we're writing things like text messages or whatever. We use it more when we're speaking. So, for example, "Let's get outta here," or "Why don't we get outta the city this weekend?" "He went straight outta the meeting and into the pub across the street." So, we use it a lot in speech, but we don't use it so much in writing. If you use it in writing, there's not going to be a communication problem. So, it just sounds quite natural to use "outta" instead of "out of," which is quite hard to say in quick speech. So, yes, "outta" is the reduced form of "out of." This is very similar to "gotta," which is the reduced form of "got to," and "wanna," which is the reduced form of "want to." So, "outta" is like "out of." We use it when we're leaving someplace or when we want to talk about being from someplace. So, I hope that that helps you. Thanks for the question. Let's move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Roswell. Hi, Roswell. Roswell says, "Hi. I'd like to know the difference between 'close to' and 'near'. It's a little tricky for learners." Okay. Yeah. When you're talking about physical distance, like between two objects, they mean the same thing. "Close to" and "near" have the same meaning. Like, "My school is close to my house," and "My school is near my house." I think in American English, we tend to use "close to" a little bit more often than "near," but they have the same meaning. If, however, you're talking about a relationship, distance in a relationship, this could be a romantic relationship or a relationship in your family or with your friends, whatever. Some kind of relationship between people, we use "close to" or "not close to" to talk about that. We do not use "near" to talk about distance in relationships. We use "close to." So, for example, "I'm very close to my mother," or "I'm not very close to my sister." So, you can use "close to" to talk about relationship distance, but not "near." If you're talking about physical distance, you can choose whichever you prefer. So, I hope that this helps you. Thanks for the question. Okay.
On to our next question, which is from Tony Ivan. Hi, Tony. Tony says, "When we use the contraction 'I'd,' what modal verb is being used? 'Should?' 'Would?' Or 'could?'" Ah, this is the reduced form of "would." So, "I would" becomes "I'd." "He would" becomes "he'd." "We would" becomes "we'd" and so on. We don't have a reduced form for "should" or "could." What you may hear though is people using "shoulda" and "coulda" in speech, but we don't write this. So, actually, a very common error with native speakers is that they'll use "should of" or "could of" instead of "should have" and "could have" in writing. So, when we're speaking and we're using these kinds of reduced forms of speech, so instead of "should have," we say "shoulda," it sounds like "of" when we're just speaking. But grammatically, it's "should have" or "could have."
So, there is this kind of reduction, but we don't have like an apostrophe, something, reduction for "should" and "could." So, when you see this apostrophe reduction thing, that refers to "would." So, be careful though of your spelling too and watch out for native speakers who make mistakes and write "should of" or "could of." That's incorrect. It should be "should have" and "could have." So, that's kind of the reduction you might see with those two modal verbs. You'll see the apostrophe "D" form with "would." So, I hope that that helps you.
All right, 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/ask-alisha. Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of "Ask Alisha" and I will see you again next week. Bye-bye.
Male: Bye-bye.
Alisha: That's how I'm going to end this. All right, cool, bye.
Male: Bye.
Alisha: Bye.
Male: See you soon.
Alisha: We're finished. Cool. Send me your questions here. Bye. Okay. Thanks. EnglishClass101.com. Out.
Male: No.
Alisha: Oh, I tried to catch it with my lap.
Male: That's unfortunate.
Alisha: Yeah. I guess I should end the show here. Okay.

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