Lesson Transcript

Hey, 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.
This week's first question comes from D-J-I-bril. Djibril? I'm not sure if I said that correctly. Hi! Djibril says, "'Dodge a bullet.' When and how can we use this phrase?" Yeah, great question. It's a really interesting expression. First, let's break down what this means, and then we'll talk about the situations in which you can use this expression. So, first, to "dodge a bullet," let's break this down. First, the verb is "dodge." To "dodge" something means to get out of the way of something that's moving very quickly. So, if someone throws a ball at you and you move quickly out of the way, you can say, "You dodged the ball," right? There's a whole game called "dodgeball" that's built around this idea. So, to "dodge" something means to get out of the way of something moving quickly, something that's probably dangerous.
And, a "bullet" is the small piece of metal that comes from a gun. So, when we shoot a gun, the thing that comes out of the gun is called the "bullet." So, when we say you "dodged a bullet," it sounds like you moved very fast and you got out of the way of a very, very dangerous thing or a very bad thing that was coming at you very quickly. So, this means, this expression means, you escaped from a bad situation or you escaped from a dangerous situation. So, we use this in situations in which something bad was going to happen probably in the future, but you got out of it. So, we can use this expression to talk about relationships, like maybe you meet somebody that's dangerous or that seems strange, or maybe that's not good for you in the future. Or, maybe it's about a job, where the situation at the job is just not going well and you get out of that situation.
So, we use this expression, to "dodge a bullet" to mean you got out of something before it became worse. So, here are some examples: "Oh, I'm so glad you stopped dating that guy, he seemed really, really strange. I think he you dodged a bullet." And, "Oh my gosh, I'm so glad I left my company last year, they just declared bankruptcy. I really dodged a bullet." So, in each of these situations, the person in the situation just got out of something before it became worse. So, we use this a lot for interpersonal relationships. We use it a lot for kind of everyday life situations where we think that things might not get so good. So, to "dodge a bullet" means to escape from something bad. And, we always say "dodge a bullet." We don't really say like "dodge a ball" or "dodge" something else. We always use this expression, to "dodge a bullet." So, I hope this helped your understanding of this interesting phrase. Thanks for sending this along. Okay, let's move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Dan. Hi, Dan. Dan says, "Hi, Alisha. Can you help me distinguish between 'volunteer' and 'voluntary'? Like, 'volunteer' activities and 'voluntary' activities. And, 'charity' and 'charitable'? Like, 'charity' work and 'charitable' work. Thank you so much." Sure, yeah.
Let's start by looking at "volunteer" and "voluntary." Let's start with that word "voluntary." So, something that is "voluntary." This is an adjective, means it's something that you choose to do you have the option to do that thing or to not do that thing. So, for example, "Filling out this questionnaire is voluntary." That means you don't have to do it. You have the option of filling out the questionnaire. You can choose to do it; you can choose not to do it. There's no penalty if you don't do it. So, this is a very common one. So, "Filling out this questionnaire is voluntary." Or, "This questionnaire is voluntary." That's something that you can choose to do.
So, "volunteer," on the other hand, especially in the example that you gave, "volunteer work," refers specifically to choosing to use your time and not get paid for your time to go and do work. Usually, for a community organization, a community group, or some other kind of like non-profit organization. It's often to do some kind of like community building or community contribution sort of thing. So, "volunteer" typically is used in these cases where we have this idea of using our time and using our effort for free in order to contribute to some kind of community thing. And, "voluntary" refers to something that you have an option to do or not do.
So, we tend to use "voluntary" more in kind of formal or official situations. Like, participation is "voluntary." That means that "it's up to you" is another fancy, it's kind of like a fancy way of saying "It's up to you to do this thing." You might also hear people kind of using words like "optional" as well to describe these sorts of things. Like, "participation is optional," meaning you have the option not to do it. So, you might hear "voluntary" and "optional" used in these kinds of ways. But, we typically use "volunteer work" or "volunteer activities" to talk about those kinds of community-building efforts. So, I hope that this kind of helps you understand the difference between something that is "voluntary." You have the option to do or not do. And, "volunteer," which refers to kind of charitable things.
This relates to your second question. You were talking about "charitable" and "charity." So, we typically use "charity" to refer to a group that -- or an organization, that collects money or does some kind of volunteer activities for the community. So, the name of these kinds of groups, the category, these are called "charities." So, when you say something like "charity work," that typically means volunteer work for a "charity." "Charitable," on the other hand, is a word that we use to describe these activities. So, she did some very "charitable" work in her community, which means that she did work probably for free for a charity organization for her community. So, "charity" and "charitable" are very closely related. They both refer to doing things usually for free or perhaps donating money as well giving money, or giving resources, time, and so on to a community group.
So, the word "charitable," this adjective in a sentence like, "She is a very charitable person," or "They do a lot of charitable activities," refers to someone who uses their time and their money and their generosity to contribute to something in their community. And, a "charity" refers to the organization or the group that usually kind of organizes these types of activities. So, "charity work" refers to work for a "charity," and "charitable" relates to those kinds of activities. So, that's describing those people or those kinds of activities. So, all of these I think are closely related. You could say for example, "I volunteer at a charity," or "She does lots of volunteer work, she's a very charitable person." So, these kinds of words can often be used in kind of similar situations to describe the activities of people. But, I hope that this helps you kind of understand the differences between the two.
To recap, to "volunteer" for something means to participate in an organization. Usually, a local community organization for no money. "Voluntary" means something you can do with an option not to do it. You can choose whether or not to do that thing. A "charity" is an organization or a community group that collects money and other resources to make contributions to the community. And, "charitable" refers to someone or something that does lots of good, like volunteer or donation-related efforts to help their community. So, I hope that this answer helps you understand the differences between these words. Thanks very much for sending this question along. Okay, let's move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Shinsuke. Shinsuke says, "Hi, Alisha. " 'It's,' apostrophe S, is short for 'it is,' right? Then what do we say for the short version of 'it was'?" Well, we don't really have a short version of "it was" in modern-day English. In Old English, we have "'twas," but we really don't say that very much these days. It sounds extremely old-fashioned to say "'twas." But, you might hear this from time to time in like movies and TV shows that are set in maybe older times. So, you might hear "'twas," and that's what it means, "it was." But, in today's English, we don't say "it was." We just say it really fast and it kind of sounds like a shortened version.
So, for example, instead of saying, "It was a really fun night," we might say "I'was a really fun night." So, the T kind of gets really, really soft and really short there. So, not "it was a fun night," but "I'was." "I'was." "I'was." The T kind of disappears there in American English anyway. "It was a really fun night," or "It was great seeing you." These kinds of expressions just become much, much faster and shorter. And, we don't pronounce the T very clearly. So, "it is," yes can be used to mean "it is." It can also be used to refer to the possessive form of "it," but we don't have a reduced form of "it was," unless you go into way, way, way back in history and find "'twas," which doesn't get used very much these days. But, 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's lesson. Thank you as always for sending your 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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