Lesson Transcript

Hi everybody, welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them.
Let's get to your first question this week.
First question this week comes from Frances. Hi, Frances. Frances says, Hi, Alisha. Is there any difference between these two sentences? One, I'll give you a lift to the airport to I'll pick you up to the airport. Thanks, Alisha.
Yes, there is a big difference. The second sentence is wrong. I'll pick you up to the airport is not an expression that we use.
Your first sentence, I'll give you a lift to the airport is another way of saying I will give you a ride to the airport, which means I will put you in my car or you will get in my car and I will take you to the airport.
So I'll give you a lift to the airport, or I'll give you a ride to the airport or I'll drive you to the airport.
These are all expressions that we use to talk about this.
On the other hand, your second example sentence, I'll pick you up to the airport is 100% incorrect.
We cannot say pick up to a location.
We do not use the phrasal verb pick up with the preposition to.
So pick up to sounds like kind of, you know, I will get you and take you to a destination, right? But we cannot use pick up in this way.
We can talk only about using pick up from the location.
So we talk about the place from which we collect someone or something.
So we can say, I'll pick you up at the airport.
So this sentence means that someone has arrived at the airport, their plane has landed, and you meet them in your car or you know, your motorcycle, whatever you meet them, collect them and go somewhere else.
I'll pick you up at the airport.
That sounds like you start at the airport meeting there and go somewhere else.
I'll take you to the airport sounds like we will meet somewhere else and I will collect you and we will go to the airport together and you will go away, right? So these are two kind of opposites.
You can think of this. Yeah. So like, I will take you to versus I will pick you up, right? So to pick someone up somewhere means to collect them from a location. We always use the at preposition there. So I'll pick you up at the supermarket or whatever.
Or I suppose you could use the preposition by for example, I'll pick you up by the supermarket means I will pick you up near the supermarket, right? So we can't use pick up to we can't talk about the destination with the phrasal verb pick up. So I hope that this answers your question. And I hope that that makes it easier for you to take people places and pick them up in places too.
Thanks very much for sending it along. Okay, let's move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Daniel. Hi, Daniel.
Daniel says, which one is correct? What for? Or for what? Oh, interesting question. Both can be correct, actually. We use what for and for what, in very casual conversations, we often use these to just respond to a request.
Like if someone asks us for something, and it's kind of surprising, or it's kind of shocking, we might respond with what for, or for what? This is another way of saying for what purpose or why do you need that thing? We use both of these expressions, and they mean the same thing for what or what for? I guess for me personally, I probably use what for more often than for what, but this could depend on the person.
Both of these really mean why or for what purpose.
So let's look at a kind of a crazy example of a situation in which you might use one of these expressions.
Let's say your coworker comes to you, you work in a regular office job, your coworker comes to you and says, You know what, I really, really, really need you to order $1,000 of wood.
You might be like, what for? Why do you need that? So you might respond to something like that with what for or for what, like, you need to know more about this situation in order to make a decision, right? That's a really shocking kind of surprising request to come from your coworker, you work in an office, why do you need $1,000 of wood? It's crazy, right? So this is obviously a very extreme and kind of crazy example.
But you kind of get the idea when you're really surprised or shocked about a request, you can use what for or for what to show that you're shocked or surprised one, and also to ask for a reason for something so you can use both of them.
Again, as I said, I tend to use what for more often than for what you might also hear people just say, why? So you can use any of those to kind of express that shock, surprise, and request more information at the same time.
So to answer your question, both are okay to use. But just remember, these are used in casual situations only don't use these in business or polite situations. Use it when you're close to the other person.
So thanks very much for an interesting question. Okay, let's move on to the next one.
Next question comes from Flo. Hi, Flo. Flo says, Hi, Alicia, I'd like to know the difference between don't take it for granted and take it for granted. Thanks.
Okay. Yeah, let's break down this expression. Basically, we use the expression, don't take it for granted, don't take something for granted.
So to take something for granted means to have the expectation that something will always be there, something will always be available.
We use this expression a lot in our interpersonal relationships, often in like a romantic relationship.
So for example, we have maybe like a boyfriend and a girlfriend, and they've been together a long time, and they start to expect certain things like, he'll always be there, or she'll always be there.
For example, after a long time, they have this expectation that this person will always be there, that person will always be there, I don't have to try anymore, whatever.
We call this situation, for example, one person taking the other person for granted, so they assume or they have the expectation, this will always be here, I don't need to do anything in order to keep this relationship in this example.
So when we say, don't take it for granted, or don't take someone for granted, it means don't expect the other person or the other thing will always be there or always have that same status.
So you might use this expression to talk about your job, maybe, or you might use it to talk about maybe your community, something that you like in your community.
So the idea here is that we shouldn't expect that things are just always going to stay as we like them.
We also have to do some work or to put in some kind of effort in order to keep the relationships that we have or in order to keep the environment or the community that we enjoy.
So usually we say, don't take something for granted, which means don't expect that something will always be that way and stop trying.
On the other hand, you also talked about the expression take it for granted.
So there's no don't in front of it.
We generally do not use this expression without don't in front of it.
The only time that we use it without this don't is generally when we're talking in past tense about someone's experience.
So for example, in the relationship example I talked about before with like the boyfriend and the girlfriend, for example, the girlfriend expects the boyfriend will always be there in this example situation, you might describe that with he was taken for granted or she took him for granted, we might use it in that sense, meaning she expected that he was always going to be there, even though she wasn't putting in any effort, for example.
So this is a situation where we might say the expression without don't in front of it, but generally anytime that you hear something something was taken for granted or he was taken for granted or whatever it generally refers to a very negative situation where somebody expected something of the other person without putting in any effort.
So this is an expression we typically use with don't in front of it.
Don't take something for granted or don't take someone for granted.
Don't expect something will be there if you don't put in efforts to get it.
So I hope that this answers your question about this very interesting phrase.
Thanks very much for sending it along. Okay, that is everything that I have for this week. 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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