| Hi everybody, welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them, maybe! |
| Let's get to your first question this week. |
| First question this week comes from Bhavna Singh. |
| Hi Bhavna! Bhavna says, hey Alisha, what's the difference between “flat” and “apartment”? Please talk about this, I'm very confused. Thanks! |
| Sure! “Flat” and “apartment.” |
| A flat and an apartment refer to the same thing, actually, but the difference is that “flat” is used in British English and “apartment” is used in American English. so I, an American English speaker, would say “apartment” when I'm talking about the place where I live or maybe a place I want to rent. In a sentence, I would say something like, “I'm looking for a new apartment” or “I just moved into a new apartment.” |
| A British English speaker might say something similar but they would use the expression “flat” instead of “apartment.” They might say, “I need to find a new flat” or “my friend is looking to rent out his flat.” |
| So “flat” and “apartment” refer to the same thing in this situation. Of course, there are other situations where you can use the word “flat” like to refer to a level surface but this is quite different from “apartment,” so the meaning they both share is accommodation-related; they both mean the same thing but it's just the type of English that's used. So if you are studying American English, please use “apartment”; if you're studying British English, please use “flat.” |
| I hope this helps answer your question. Thanks very much. |
| Okay, let's move on to the next question. |
| Next question comes from Darwin Contreras. |
| Hi Darwin! |
| Darwin says, what is the difference between "I got it" and "I got you"? How can I use it? |
| Okay! “I got it” versus “I got you.” |
| Let's start with the expression "I got it." There are a couple of different situations we might use this expression in. "I got it" can be used to mean I understand or I understood the information. So for example, when someone explains something to you, like, how to use a new software or maybe they give you some information that you need to know and you want to express casually that you have understood the things they've just told you, you can say "I got it," which means I understood. So if you use “I understood,” it's also fine; or “I've understood everything” sounds quite formal as well, but using "I got it" means that's okay, I understand everything in a very casual way. Yeah, okay cool, "I got it." |
| We can also use "I got it" to mean I am going to take care of it. For example, if someone says something like hey can you pick up some milk on your way home tonight? You might say, “yeah sure, I got it, no problem.” That means I'm going to do it or I'm going to take care of that thing for you. Again, this "I got it" refers to a very casual relationship between two people, you probably wouldn't say this to your boss or in a formal situation. So you can use this to mean sure I can take care of that for you, yeah no problem, I got it. |
| So this is how we use "I got it." Now, let's talk about the expression "I got you." |
| “I got you” can be used when someone rescues or saves someone else; so maybe you've seen this in a movie, maybe in like a romance movie or an action movie or even just an everyday movie, I suppose, but when someone needs some help, like someone is about to fall down or maybe someone is going to make a mistake somewhere and another person jumps in and saves the other person or helps them in some way, they might say, “don't worry, I got you"; which means I'm going to take care of you or I helped you or I'm here for you. So this "I got you" means I saved you or I'm going to help you in some way, so this expression doesn't mean like I took you or I pulled you or anything like that, it means I saved you or I rescued you, or in some cases, I'm going to help you. |
| So for example, if someone is expressing that they're in a difficult situation, like, ah, I don't know how to fill in this paperwork, what should I do? Someone's co-worker, that person's co-worker, might say "I got you," I'll help you, I'll show you how to do it; which means I will help you so I'm going to take care of you, I'm going to save you in this situation. |
| So that's what "I got you" and "I got it" referred to, I hope that this helps answer your question. Thanks very much! |
| Okay, let's move to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Tahia Chowdhury. I hope I said your name right. |
| Hi Tahia! |
| Tahia says, Hi Alisha can you please talk about the difference between “look into” and “look at”? |
| Yeah, sure, okay, "look into" and "look at." |
| Let's start with "look at." So the most basic use of the verb “look” means to use our eyes to focus on something, right! So for example, now I am looking at the camera and you hopefully are looking at the video, right? You are using your eyes to focus on something, so we use "look at" plus the thing of our focus to describe where our eyes are moving at any given time. So "look at" is always used to talk about this, just focusing motion of our eyes. |
| So to "look into" something means to research something or to try to get more details about something. For example, if you find a problem at work and you need to find the cause of the problem you might say, “I'm going to look into this situation” or “I'm going to look into this problem,” which means I'm going to research this problem, I'm going to find more details to understand the cause of this problem. |
| So "look into" means research or to try to gather information about something or to read a lot of information about something in order to learn something or maybe solve a problem. So we have this use of "look into," we also have a use of "look into" that refers to using our eyes to focus on something but when we're focusing on something that's inside something else. So for example, imagine a box we can "look at" the box right? Outside the box. But if we want to talk specifically about the inside part of the box, we might say "look into" the box, if we want to be very specific about where someone should direct their eyes. We could say "look into" the box or you might also hear people say "look into" my eyes, right, which sounds like you're looking inside someone else's eyes or looking inside someone's heart or their mind, that's kind of the feeling there. So you might also hear "look into" used in situations like these where another person wants to direct you to use your eyes to look inside something else. |
| So these are the differences between "look at" - using your eyes to focus, "look into" - for research and gathering details, and "look into" - to mean using your eyes to look inside something else. So I hope that this answers your question, thanks very much for sending it along. |
| All right! That is everything that I have for this week. Thank you, as always, for sending your great question. Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next time, bye! |
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