Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody! Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them, maybe!
Okay. Let’s get to your first question this week.
First question this week comes from Harry.
Hi, Harry!
Harry says…
“How do you pronounce words with two R sounds in American English like ‘earlier’ or ‘further’? I think I sound so weird when I pronounce this sound.”
Yeah! Unlike in British English which has a very soft kind of “ah” sound in words like these, in American English, we pronounce the R sounds very distinctly. So, /earlier, earlier/ as in, “I met him earlier.” Or /further, further/ as in “We walked down the road further” or “We walked further down the road.”
So, this is maybe a pronunciation point difference between British English and American English. I hope that that helps answer your question of how to pronounce these sounds in both British and American English. Thanks very much for the question.
Okay. Let’s move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Fatima.
Hi, Fatima!
Fatima says…
I paraphrased your question. It’s full of information.
How do I talk about the future of the future? For example, a friend invited me to participate in a course, but I want to decline because I know I’m not going to use the things the course will teach me. How do I express this? Should I say, “I won’t join in because I won’t use what I’ll learn?” “I won’t try what I’ll have learned?” “I won’t try what I’ll learn?” Thank you.
Good question, and depending on the person, the response might be a little bit different. There are a few different ways that someone might respond to this situation.
I would probably say:
“Thanks, but I’m not gonna join you because I know I’m probably not gonna use the stuff the course teaches.”
So, in my answer, I would say “probably not gonna,” meaning there is a high chance that this thing is not going to happen and I would probably phrase it like, as I said in my example sentence, “I’m probably not going to use the stuff the course teaches.” So, I would probably use present tense there because the course itself doesn’t change, right? Like the topics of the course, like the lessons in the course, that doesn’t change. That’s always true, so I might use present tense there. And then I would say, with (simple future tense + [probably]), “I’m probably not gonna…” because that shows a high level of certainty.
I think, in my case, I probably wouldn’t use “will” or “won’t” in this case because “going to” sounds like you thought about it a little bit more prior to the conversation. But again, this is just how I might answer the question. Somebody else might choose a different response. Somebody else might say, like, “Thanks for the invitation, but I think I’ll probably pass this time.” You know, they could just say something like that.
Another way you might answer this is:
“I’m not gonna come because I probably won’t use the things the course is gonna teach us.”
So, again, we’re using a mixture of that “will” and “won’t” in the negative form and “going to.” So this is really kind of up to the speaker.
I would say from the options that you provided, I would not use “will have learned” in that case. I would probably just use simple present tense and a simple future tense. I would put those two together and then we would understand the situation based on the context. So, if you’re talking with the person who invited you, for example, we can generally understand from context what the future and the future “future” parts are, so that’s fine.
This is also actually a situation where, if things are unclear at all, it’s very natural to ask for confirmation, to ask for clarification. So, if you’re explaining the situation to someone outside the situation and they don’t understand what you mean, you can clarify. You can make it like a little bit more specific like, “I think I’m not going to use the things the course is going to teach, so I’m not going to go.” You know, you can break it all down if you really, really need to.
In sum, to break it down, I would probably use simple future tense and negative form like “probably not going to” and I would probably use just a simple present tense verb to refer to the things the course teaches because that doesn’t change. But again, depending on the person, there might be a slightly different answer. I would suggest you just don’t use “will have learned,” so I would not suggest using that future perfect tense there. So I hope that this helps you. Thanks for an interesting question.
Okay. Let’s move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Kiran.
Hi, Kiran!
Kiran says…
“Hi, Alisha! I noticed, sometimes, we use ‘little’ to give the meaning of ‘nothing.’ In what situations do we use it?”
Okay. Yeah, I’ve talked about this here and there in live streams and in like the Q&A from time to time, but let’s review. So, we can use “little” before an uncountable noun to give a negative feeling, sometimes.
So, let’s take a look at two sentences to compare.
First: “We have a little time to finish this project.”
And second: “We have little time to finish this project.”
So, the difference between these two sentences is that the first sentence includes the article “a” before “little.” So, “We have a little time to finish this project.” This sounds like a simple report of information. It’s neutral, like a fact.
In the second sentence, however, there is no article. There’s no “a” before “little.” “We have little time to finish this project.” This sentence sounds negative. It sounds like this is not a good thing, so I think that this is what you’re referring to when you say “little” being used to mean “nothing.”
So, this is the case in situations like these where the noun that follows “little” is kind of positive or something that is desirable. This is not a rule, however. Please note that if your noun that follows “little” is something that that’s not desirable, that is negative, then it can actually have the opposite meaning.
So, let’s take a look at an example here.
“The city has a little pollution.”
And, “The city has little pollution.”
In this example sentence, we have the same “little” versus “a little” difference, but the noun that follows it is “pollution.” So, “pollution,” we understand is bad or negative or not desirable. So when we say, “the city has a little pollution,” it again sounds like just a simple report, simple fact. But when we say, “the city has little pollution,” it sounds like a good thing, actually.
So, keep in mind that the noun that follows “little” does affect the meaning of the sentence. If it’s something that’s undesirable like pollution, then it sounds like it’s a good situation. If the noun that follows “little” is something that we actually do want like time in my first set of example sentences, then it creates a negative feeling.
So, this is how we can use “little” to mean very nearly nothing or to create that negative feeling. I hope that this answers your question. Thanks very much.
Okay. Let’s move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Mariam Atef.
Hello, Mariam!
Mariam says…
“Hey, Alisha! I don’t know whether to use anyway or anyways.”
I would use “anyway,” without the S, but you hear “anyways” all the time in speech. I would suggest, in writing, you use “anyway” (with no S). Just be consistent. That’s my personal preference, I suppose.
“Anyways” is also used, yes, but in Merriam Webster, it is listed as the informal or casual version of “anyway.” Merriam Webster is an American English dictionary for reference. So, whatever you choose, just be consistent. In your writing, again, I suggest, “anyway.” It’s just one letter that you don’t have to include, so it seems a little more efficient to me. In speech, don’t worry about it. Whatever you prefer is fine. So I hope that this answers your question. Thanks very much!
Okay. Onto our next question.
Next question comes Lyuben.
Hello, Lyuben!
Hi! Lyuben says…
“You like Star Wars, don’t you? Could you tell me how we can use the force to increase our memory when we study English?”
Okay. Well, what do you think is the best way to improve your memory? I think that the answer is quite obvious. You just need to practice, yes?
Okay. That is everything that I have for this week. 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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