| 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 Olcay Sinan. Hi, Olcay! I hope I said your name right. Olcay says, "'Award' and 'reward' have similar meanings. What is the difference? Thank you." Great question! "Award" and "reward." These two words can be used as both nouns and verbs. So, let's break them down one by one. |
| First, let's talk about "reward." Let's talk about this as a noun. A "reward" is something we get in return for doing something else. So, for example, if you help your friend move into a new apartment, they might give you a "reward." For example, they might buy you pizza, or they might buy you something, or give you some money even perhaps in exchange for helping them. We can understand this as a "reward." Or, for example, if you see somebody posting like a missing sign, like maybe someone's cat is missing, it might say on that poster where they're talking about the details of their missing cat: "Reward $100." So, this means in exchange for finding my missing cat, I will give you this money. So, we're talking about some kind of exchange of services or maybe some kind of exchange of goods I suppose, in some cases. But, generally, when we do something for someone else, they might hopefully give us a "reward" in exchange for that thing. |
| We can use the verb form of "reward" in the same way. So, for example, "I found my neighbor's cat, and he rewarded me with $100." Or, "I helped my friend move into her new apartment, and she rewarded me with pizza and beer. It was a great time." So, we use "reward" to talk about these kinds of transactions, right? These kinds of doing good things in exchange for getting something else. So, whether or not you do the good thing just for the "reward" is a different conversation, but this is what "reward" means. Let's compare this then to the word "award." |
| So, let's talk about this as a noun to begin with. An "award" is not something that we get in exchange for something. It's not something that's related to a transaction. Rather, an "award" is usually given to somebody else as kind of a recognition that they've done something really great. So, there's some kind of excellent quality about this person. So, for example, a top scientist might receive an "award" for his or her work. Or, maybe at your workplace, you might receive an "award" for excellent performance that month. |
| So, the key with "award" is that there isn't really some kind of transaction, it's rather some kind of recognition of a great job done. You might also be familiar with "awards shows," especially in the entertainment industry. So, actors and actresses often receive "awards" for their performances. They're receiving some kind of trophy or some other kind of maybe certificate that shows that other people think they're great. So, that's what an "award" essentially is. So, for example, "The actress was awarded an Oscar for her performance in the movie." So, an Oscar is a very, very high-level award for actors and actresses. Or, for example, "I was awarded employee of the month at my job this month." So, we can use "award" as a verb or as a noun. |
| So, the key difference here between "award" and "reward" is that "award" is used in situations where we're recognizing something great about someone else. "Reward" is used in situations where we're kind of talking about some kind of transaction. Someone does something in exchange for something else. So, I hope this helps you understand the difference between these two words. Thanks very much for an interesting question. Okay. Let's move along to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Jinny. Hi, Jinny! Jinny says, "Hi, Alisha! Can you explain the word 'superglued?' I heard it from a conversation." Okay. Sure, yeah. "Superglued," as a verb, right? Past tense verb, in this case. So, first, let's talk about "superglue" as a noun. What is superglue? So, if you don't know the word "glue," "glue" is a sticky material, a sticky substance that we use to attach things to other things. So, for example, if you're doing like a craft project, you maybe will use glue to maybe put one piece of paper onto another and it stays there, right? It becomes hard and stays. So, this is "glue." Basic glue is used by kids in schools to do arts and crafts projects. |
| "Superglue" then is like the next level of glue. So, "superglue" is used to attach much tougher materials together. So, maybe you would, for example, or some kinds of fabric maybe. So, when we use "superglue," we can use this as a verb actually. So, although it's a noun, "superglue," which refers to just like a mega type of glue, we can also use this as a verb. So, "to superglue something," means to use "superglue" to attach something to something else. So, in your question, the word "superglued" means "I used superglue to attach something to something else." So, this is what "superglue" means as a noun, and it's also what it means as a verb. |
| So, some other example sentences might be "I superglued the two pieces of fabric together. I don't think they're going to come apart." Or, "She superglued her fingers together! Oh, no, what should we do?" So, "superglue" is sometimes used in kind of unsafe ways. But, this is actually kind of common example sentence that you may hear. Especially when kids are just finding out about superglue for the first time. So, I hope this helps you understand the use of "superglue" as a verb. Thanks very much for an interesting question. Okay. Let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Lisa. Hi, Lisa! Lisa says, "Hello. I have a small question. Can you give me a definition of 'overwhelming' and some examples? Thank you." Okay, yeah. Great question. Let's talk about how to use "overwhelming," because this might be a little bit difficult to understand. At the base, at its core, "overwhelming" means that something is too much emotionally. So, when we have an experience and we feel really, really strong emotions, we can describe that as something that is "overwhelming." We can use this in positive situations and in negative situations. Something that causes you to feel a lot of happiness could also be "overwhelming." Like you feel so much happiness that you feel maybe you need to cry or something. That could be described as something that is "overwhelming." On the other hand, when you have something negative happen in your life, like something very, very stressful or very difficult, you could also describe that as "overwhelming." So, you feel such strong emotions relating to stress or sadness, for example, that you want to cry maybe. We can describe that as "overwhelming" as well. So, let's take a look at some example sentences so you can see how it might be used. |
| First, let's look at a happy example sentence. You could say, "My wedding day was so beautiful, it was overwhelming. I cried." So, this is an example of a situation that is very happy and that causes lots of emotion. So, it's like it's too much emotion at one moment, and you feel kind of like a little bit out of control perhaps. This is something we can describe as "overwhelming," in a positive way. On the other hand, a stressful situation might be something like, "My boss made me work so much overtime last month, it was overwhelming." So, this expresses that someone is feeling stressed or upset about a situation that was emotionally just too much for them. So, we can use overwhelming to talk about these different kinds of situations. |
| Also, here we're focusing on the word "overwhelming." So, we use this to describe the situation outside us. So, "My wedding was so beautiful, it was overwhelming." Or, "My job was overwhelming last month." So, we're talking about the thing outside us. When you want to describe your own emotions though, use "overwhelmed." So, we can use this in the same kinds of situations. We just need to change the grammatical structure of the sentence a little bit. So, for example in a happy situation, we might say something like, "My wedding was so beautiful, I was overwhelmed." Or, we might also say something like, "I was overwhelmed with happiness." Some people like to include the emotion at the end there. So, "overwhelmed" is the expression that we use to talk about our own feelings. "I was overwhelmed" or "I am overwhelmed." |
| Again, in a stressful situation, we can do the same thing with this word. So, "My work was really, really difficult last month. They had to work so much overtime, I was overwhelmed." So, again, we're talking about having too much to do, too much to take care of, feeling a little bit out of control, there's just too much of a certain emotion. So, when you talk about your own emotions, use "overwhelmed." When you talk about the thing outside you, use "overwhelming." So, I hope this helps you understand the use and the meaning of the word "overwhelming" and "overwhelmed," too. Thanks very much for an interesting question. |
| All right. That is everything that I have for this week. Thank you as always for sending your super great questions. 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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