Lesson Transcript

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 Yenny. Hi Yenny.
Yenny says, hi Alisha, can you tell me the differences between for ever and forever?
Yeah sure, it's a really, really easy answer.
For ever with a space between the words is the same as forever with no space.
But the difference is that one is used in American English and one is used in British English.
In British English, you might see for space ever used a lot and in American English we do not use a space between the words.
So if you're studying American English, I recommend that you use forever with no space.
If you are studying British English, I would say it's probably best for you to use the one with a space in between the two words.
So let's take a look at some example sentences real quick just to refresh your brain on how we use this word.
So we'll use this in the American English sense with no space between the words because I speak American English and we practice American English on this channel.
So, I was waiting at the store but things took forever or I wanted to see this movie forever.
Great, so I hope this answers your question about the differences between for ever and forever.
Thanks for sending it along.
Okay, let's move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Oke Sinan.
Hi Oke, I hope I said your name correctly.
Oke asks, hi Alisha, what is the difference between wake and awake?
Thank you, great question.
So basically the difference is that wake is a verb and awake usually is used as an adjective.
So let's start with awake first.
Awake as an adjective refers to the state of having your eyes open, of not being asleep.
So for example, I am awake or he has been awake for 24 hours.
So these expressions refer to the status of not being asleep.
So awake refers to this.
On the other hand, to wake, the verb wake refers to causing someone to become awake.
So you might also know wake up, to wake up meaning to open your eyes.
We can also use this with other people like to wake up your roommate or to wake up your mom, something like that.
We can express in that way too with wake up.
Wake with no up also means to cause someone to become awake.
Like go wake your roommate, something like that.
We can use this but this use tends to sound a little old-fashioned.
We generally today don't say wake your friend or wake the children as it sounds a little bit too formal.
Usually we say wake up your friend or wake up the children.
This sounds a little bit more casual and more like everyday American English communication.
So to wake may still be used here and there today in more polite situations perhaps,
perhaps in some British English expressions and you might also see and hear it used in media
that features a time period a few hundred years ago for example.
They might say something like wake the children or don't wake the baby and so on.
So you might hear wake used from time to time but generally in today's modern American English we tend to use wake up more.
So this is the difference between awake and wake.
So awake refers to not being asleep, the condition of not being asleep and to wake means to cause someone to become awake.
So I hope that this helps answer your question about the differences between these two.
Thanks very much for sending your question along.
Okay, let's move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Irishka Denchik.
Hi Irishka.
Irishka says, hi Alisha, as far as I know if we have since we use present perfect continuous.
But what about the verb live?
I heard both we've been living here for two months and we've lived since 2019 or whatever.
Which one is correct? Thanks a million.
Okay, good question. We get this question a lot. I see this question all the time.
So let's review.
First I want to point out since is not only used in a pattern like this.
Since is also used often at the beginning of the sentence or as a connecting word to mean because.
So please be careful since does not only have this one use.
But let's take a look at your question.
So you've asked what about the verb live.
I want you to not think so much about the verb.
Instead I want you to think about the functions of for and since.
So when you use a pattern like we have lived here for three months.
That sentence is correct because after for comes three months.
That's a duration a time period right.
So we're talking about a length of time when we use for.
However when you use since you use it with a past point in time.
So this has nothing to do with the verb the featured verb in the sentence right.
You can just express the same idea using a past point in time as your reference point instead of a duration of time.
So for example you could express the exact same idea with a past point in time.
You could say we've lived here for three months or we've lived here since September or October depending on the time.
So these express exactly the same idea they just use for plus duration of time or since plus past point in time.
So this has nothing to do with the verb.
We can change the verb from live to whatever we need to use in our sentence.
The focus is on what comes after for or since.
If you want some more information about this you can Google some present perfect lessons or you can actually just search on the English class 101 channel.
I have many videos about this topic.
I think there might be some that focus just on for and since but present perfect you will find lots of videos I've made about this for more practice.
So I hope this answers your question about the differences between for and since.
Thanks very much for sending this along.
Awesome that's all that I have for this week.
Thank you as always for sending your great questions.
Thanks very much for watching this episode of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next time.
Bye.

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