| 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 Aurelie. |
| Hi, Aurelie. |
| Aurelie asked, Hi, Alisha. |
| What's the difference between besides and instead? |
| Good question. |
| Okay. |
| So for this answer, I want to talk about the type of sentence or the type of expression |
| in which these two words might overlap in meaning. |
| So the two can be used very, very similarly, like when we're talking about alternative |
| plans for something. |
| But the grammatical structure of the sentence is going to change. |
| So let's take a look at an example situation and an example sentence. |
| So let's say, for example, that we're talking about plans for the weekend and we're talking |
| with somebody as we make these plans and agreeing on what we would like to do. |
| We might say something like, the weather isn't going to be good this weekend. |
| I know we planned to go for a hike, but how about we watch a movie instead? |
| So in this situation, instead is used to mean in place of that other thing. |
| So in this situation, we are suggesting an alternative to the original plan. |
| The original plan was to go hiking, but instead we are suggesting as an alternative, we are |
| suggesting we watch a movie because the weather is not so good. |
| So let's take a look at how we might express the same idea, but with the word besides to do that. |
| So again, same situation. |
| So let's say, OK, we plan to go for a hike, but the weather's not good. |
| So we're going to watch a movie or we suggest watching a movie. |
| You might say, for example, hey, I know we plan to go for a hike this weekend, but how |
| about a movie besides the weather's not so good anyway. |
| In this situation, we can use besides to describe the situation or the change in the |
| situation or to suggest that there is a change in the situation that has caused us to suggest |
| a change in our plans. |
| So the use of besides shows that there's a reason for my suggested change to the plan. |
| So we originally had plan A, I'm suggesting plan B. |
| Besides, there's something that's in the way of plan A. |
| So when we use besides, it's like we're suggesting the alternative. |
| And then we use besides before that reason. |
| Like in this situation, besides the weather's not going to be good anyway. |
| So we're using besides and instead both in kind of similar ways to describe a situation |
| that has changed. |
| And we need to suggest an alternative for that situation. |
| But the two ways that we use these words are a bit different in grammatical structure and |
| how we need to think about them. |
| Let's kind of review the differences. |
| So in the first example that I gave, I said, why don't we go watch a movie instead, which |
| means instead of going for a hike. |
| So we use instead before the alternative suggestion. |
| With besides, we suggest the alternative plan and then we follow up with the reason for |
| the suggestion or rather we follow it up to say, also, there's this problem with plan A. |
| So they do present different grammatical structures, but we can use them in similar |
| situations to express a desire to change a plan. |
| So this is a pretty quick introduction to the different ways that we might use instead. |
| And besides, when we're talking about changes to plans, there are other uses, especially to besides. |
| But I wanted to talk today about the key differences in this sort of overlapping sense of giving |
| alternative ideas for something. |
| So I hope that this quick introduction helped you understand the differences between these |
| words and answer your question. |
| Thanks very much for sending it along. |
| OK, let's move on to our next question. |
| OK, next question comes from Mario. |
| Hi, Mario. |
| Mario asked, do you have a lesson on rhetorical questions? |
| I do not have a lesson only on rhetorical questions, but let's talk about them now. |
| So first, what is a rhetorical question? |
| A rhetorical question is a question somebody asks, but they don't actually want an answer. |
| So people might use these for different things. |
| They might use them to express frustration or to express their feelings in some way. |
| They might use it just to make someone else think about something. |
| They might just be thinking out loud as well. |
| There are a number of different reasons people might use rhetorical questions. |
| What's difficult about rhetorical questions is that it's not always clear when a question |
| is a real question and when a question is a rhetorical question. |
| This happens to everybody throughout the course of their lives and their communication situations. |
| So sometimes a person asks a question, like maybe because they're feeling frustrated |
| or something like, why do we do things this way? |
| Someone else might feel, oh, I need to answer that question. |
| But that's a situation in which the person is just feeling a bit frustrated |
| and they want to get their emotions out. |
| You don't have to answer that question. |
| It's just a way for them to express themselves in the moment. |
| So another person might think they should answer that question, but they don't actually have to. |
| So it's not always super clear when a question is this rhetorical style question and when it's clear. |
| But generally you can kind of feel sometimes when people have higher than normal emotions, |
| they might just be asking those kinds of things to let out those emotions. |
| If they're talking to themselves, they probably don't need an answer for that question. |
| So in some cases, it is pretty easy to guess when a question is rhetorical or not. |
| But this isn't always the case. |
| So in some, a rhetorical question is a question that does not actually need an answer. |
| The person isn't actually looking for an answer to the question. |
| They're just getting something else out or they're just making you think in a different way. |
| Or maybe they're just talking to themselves. |
| These are a few examples of times when people might use this style of question. |
| So I hope that this is a quick introduction to rhetorical questions. |
| And I hope this answers your very real question. |
| Thanks very much for sending it along. |
| OK, let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Reza. Hi Reza. |
| Reza asks, Hi Alisha, what is the meaning of by the way and what are its usages? |
| OK, so by the way is an expression that we use when we want to add a detail, |
| a related detail to a conversation. |
| And this is usually a detail related to something you've mentioned in the past to your conversation partner. |
| So maybe you're talking with your coworker about lunch places |
| and they're trying to decide with you where to go for lunch. |
| You might say, oh, by the way, I just saw a new restaurant that opened up. |
| Why don't we go there? |
| So when you use this, by the way, it's like you're adding a little piece of information that is related to the conversation. |
| So it's kind of like you can think of it as like a road, like the conversation is a road. |
| And like by the side of the road or by the way of the road, |
| there's this little piece of information that's related, this tiny little bit of detailed information. |
| You can pick it up, add it to the conversation with this. |
| It's like, oh, by the way, there's this little thing that I thought of that might help this conversation. |
| So to use by the way, we usually just say by the way, plus a full sentence. |
| It can be a very simple sentence. |
| I found a new restaurant or I watched that movie you told me about. |
| You can also use it before a question as well. |
| By the way, did you know that blah, blah, blah, blah? |
| You could use it in that kind of situation too. |
| So by the way is used to drop these little kind of details into your conversation |
| that are related to what you're talking about and that you think the other person might like to know. |
| So I hope that this helps you understand how to use by the way in a very simple, simple manner. |
| All right. Thanks very much. That is the last question for this week. |
| So thank you as always for sending me 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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