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 Andreia Oliveira. |
Hello, Andreia! |
Andreia says... |
Hi, Alisha! Could you help me with the differences between BEFORE and UNTIL in these phrases: |
First: Don't say you hate it (until/before) you try a bite of it. |
You’re not going anywhere (until/before) you put your things away. |
Enjoy your meal (until/before) it gets cold. |
Thank you very much. |
Okay. Nice question! Yeah, mostly, the differences between "until" and "before" in these example sentences are about nuance. You could use either in these sentences. |
I wanna talk about the first two example phrases or the first two example sentences first. I wanna talk about these two together because they have a negative at the beginning of the sentence. |
In the first example sentence, we had: |
“Don’t say you hate it (until/before) you try a bite of it.” |
So, “until” is used to mark like a key moment or kind of a deadline or a point at which something changes. “Before” doesn’t really have this feeling. So, “don’t say you hate it until you try a bite of it” sounds more natural in this case because it’s like saying taking a bite of this thing, this food, probably, is kind of the key point or the moment for change, the moment of which the person makes a decision. So, “until” sounds more natural here than before. |
The same is true for the second example sentence: |
“You’re not going anywhere (until/before) you put your things away.” |
Again, this sounds more natural with “until” because we have kind of a key moment for change, yeah? So, the person needs to put their things away. That’s why “until” sounds a little bit more natural than “before” here. |
This is not the case, however, with the final example that you included, which was: |
“Enjoy your meal (until/before) it gets cold.” |
The reason that “until” sounds unnatural in this example is because we don’t really have a specific point like a key moment or kind of deadline or a time at which something is going to change. We have this cold, like “the meal is going to get cold” situation. We know it’s going to happen, but there’s not a key point. Also, if you use “until” in this sentence, it sounds like enjoy your meal and continue enjoying your meal, but at the point your meal becomes cold, stop enjoying your meal. This is really strange, right? So, “enjoy your meal before it gets cold” sounds a lot more natural here because it’s kind of like you’re encouraging the other person to eat while the meal is warm and therefore, it’s most delicious. |
So that’s the difference between “until” and “before” in these example sentences and you can kind of carry that, you can kind of remember that when you need to choose in the future. So, “until” we tend to use more with that kind of deadline or key change point. So you can kind of remember this when you need to make a decision between these two in the future. We tend to use “until” a lot when we have some kind of change point coming in the future we can refer to. It’s easy to spot or it’s easy to understand that change point, and we don’t really always do that with “before.” |
So I hope that this helps you. Thanks for an interesting question. |
Okay. Let’s get to your next question. |
Next question comes from Andrei. |
Hello, Andrei! |
Andrei says… |
Ciao, Alisha! What's up? |
Hey! |
My question: Which is correct? "he don't" or "he doesn't"? |
I've noticed a lot of usage of the form "he don't" in American movies. |
Yeah, nice question! So, depending on the style of English used in the movie you're watching, you might see a grammar pattern like this. So, you might see this in a few different styles of speaking. The speaker might use this kind of speaking to sound rough or to sound cool. You might also hear it used in certain communities or in certain regions of the USA. There are many different reasons a speaker might use “he don’t” instead of “he doesn’t.” So, it depends a lot on the style of the movie, on the people that are in the movie or the characters that are portrayed, the people that are actually in the movie. |
So, there are a lot of different factors to consider. Yes, we learned “he doesn’t” in typical textbook English, but depending on the community or the region or the background of the speaker, it might be common to use “he don’t” and other similar grammar patterns. So, this is the reason you might see “he don’t” in certain American movies or in certain TV shows even. Sometimes, it’s because the character wants to sound rougher or cooler or something. Other times, it’s because that’s how the character naturally speaks. That’s the type of English or the style of English they grew up using. |
So, over time, as you watch the media, you’ll kind of get to understand a little bit better which is which. So I hope that this helps you. Thanks very much for the question. |
Okay. Let’s move on to our next question. |
Next question comes from Jane Advincula. |
Hi, Jane! I hope I said your name right. |
Jane says... |
Hi Alisha, I'd like to ask about how and when to use “later” and “earlier.” |
For example, in phrases like “one year later” and “earlier in 1992.” |
Okay, yeah, nice question! So of course, we can use "earlier" and "later" to talk about different times of the day, like “let’s do that later,” so meaning not now, but later. But these words are also very, very useful when we’re telling stories, especially about the past. When we want to talk about a point in time in the past and we want to talk about something that happened before that or something that happened after that, we can use earlier and later to do that. |
Let’s look at “earlier first.” |
So, for example, “He finished school in 2000.” |
We want to talk about the year 2000 in this case, a past-tense point. We could say something like, “One year earlier, he had started looking for a job.” So, that means one year before this key point in time we already introduced. So, “earlier” kind of refers back to the previously introduced point in time. This sounds quite natural. |
On the other hand, if we want to talk about something that happened after that key point in time, we would use “later” to do that. |
So, for example: |
“He finished school in 2000. One year later, he got a job.” |
So, we use the same point in time, 2000, but we use “later,” so one year later. |
So we can use earlier and later to refer to a previously introduced time period. This can help us to tell stories very naturally. Yes, we can also say, like, “the year before that” or “the year after that.” These are just different ways to express the same idea. |
Of course, you can use “earlier” and “later” to talk about smaller time periods and bigger time periods. Earlier, I said, let’s do it later, for example. So, you can use “earlier” and “later” to refer to a few minutes’ time as I just did in this video. You can use it to talk about a day, to talk about a week, a month, a year, whatever. |
When you want to talk about something that happened before a point in time, you use “earlier.” And when you want to talk about something that happened after, you can use “later.” So I hope that this helps you. Thanks for the question! |
Okay. Let’s move on to your next question. |
Next question comes from Cuong. |
Hi, Cuong! |
Cuong says... |
If my mobile phone has a low battery, what should I say? |
Which sentences are correct? |
- My mobile phone's battery is low. |
- My mobile phone is running out of power. |
Are there any ways that native speakers say this that sound natural? |
Does this sentence sound natural? |
- My mobile phone's battery is out of power. |
My mobile phone's battery power is 5%. What should I ask to find out the power percentage? |
Can I say this: What is the percentage of your phone battery's power/volume/capacity and so on?" |
Great questions! So, first, your first example sentence is perfect. So, “my mobile phone’s battery is low” or “my mobile phone is running out of power.” Both of these are great. The only thing is, we tend to make this expression very short because this is a very common situation. For example, mobile phone is long. We usually say, in American English, my phone. |
So, here are some really natural expressions you can use to describe your phone’s battery situation. You can say: |
“My phone is almost dead.” |
Or “My phone is about to die.” |
To express the precise percentage of power on your phone, you could say, “My phone is at 5%” or you might even hear some people say, “I’m at 5%” or “I’m about to die.” Sometimes, people say “I’m” when they mean their phone as well. |
If you want to ask for a charger, you can say: |
“Do you have a charger?” |
Or “Can I borrow your charger?” |
Or in a group situation… |
“Does anyone have a charger?” |
So, just keep in mind, make this expression short. “My phone is about to die” is very, very common. That’s probably the one that I use most. What do you say when your phone is gonna die? |
I’m running out of battery. |
“I’m running out of battery,” yeah. I’m running out of battery or I’m running out of power. There are many different ways to express this. |
I’m running out of juice. |
Running out of shoes? |
Juice. |
Oh, juice, sorry. “Running out of juice,” yeah. “Juice” also means power, so it depends a little bit on the personality of the person you’re talking to. But a very straightforward one is “my phone is about to die” or “my battery is running low.” |
So there’s a big list of expressions that you can use. Thanks for a good question. I hope that that helps you. |
Okay. Let’s move on to our next question. |
Next question comes from Taufeeq Sayyed. |
Hi, Taufeeq! I hope I said your name right. |
Taufeeq says... |
His sports car flew “past” us on the highway. |
What is the meaning of "past" in this example? Please explain with some examples. Thank you! |
Okay, sure! This "past" is a preposition. So, “past” has a few different uses. In this sentence, we’re seeing it as a preposition. As a preposition here, it means beyond or to come close to something and then move beyond that. |
So, some other examples of this use of “past” are, for example: |
“I walked past your house yesterday.” |
Or “My dog ran past me into the street!” |
So, in all of these situations, it’s like something moves close to something else and then continues beyond that thing. So, in your example, “the car flew past us” means the car was on a course, came very close to us, and then continued on the course beyond us. The same thing with my first example, “I walked past your house yesterday.” That means I walked like on a course, near your house, and then I continued beyond it. And in the final example with the dog, it sounds like the dog ran very close to me and then continued beyond me. |
So, when we use “past” as a preposition like this, this is what it means. I hope that this helps you. Thanks for the question! |
All right! That is everything that I have for this week. Thanks very much for your awesome questions. If you have questions for me, remember, you can send them to me at englishclass101.com/ask-alisha. You’ll also find a link for this in the description, so check it out. Thanks very much for watching this episode of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next time. Bye! |
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