| Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them, maybe. |
| First question this week comes from Fatima. Hi, Fatima. Fatima says, "Hi, Alisha, I love your videos," Thank you. "They helped me with studying English. My question, what does the word 'indeed' mean and when should I use it?" Yeah, okay. “Indeed” means yes. It's kind of a formal sounding way of saying you heard something, you agree with it, and you understand it all at the same time. Like I said though, it is kind of a formal expression so we don't really use it so much in casual conversations. You can use it to make something sound a little bit more important than it actually is, though. So, you might have heard me use “indeed” on this channel too. It kind of makes it sound like the conversation or the topic is a little bit more important. So, you can use this when you agree with someone and you understand something someone said like if someone says, for example, "Wow, the weather today is so hot." You can say, "Indeed." And it sounds like you say, "Yes" or "I agree" but it's a little bit more formal. It makes the situation sound like a little more important, a little bit extra. So, it can be used in kind of a funny way. You might hear this used in like movies and TV in a similar way or just to express formal agreement, especially in more old-fashioned English. But, essentially, 'indeed' means 'yes' and 'I agree.' Thanks for the question. |
| Okay, let's go to your next question. The next question comes from chance Ivy Lounger, I think. Hi, Chance Ivy. Chance Ivy says, "Hi, Alisha, could you tell me more about 'have to' in negative sentences and questions. I'm wondering if we can use 'do' when 'have to' is sometimes a modal equivalent." I want to answer your question about using “have to” with negatives and in questions because I think that might answer your question about using “do.” I'm not quite sure about the question relating to “do” so I'm going to focus on your question about negatives and using “have to” in questions. So, to review, for everybody, we use “have to” to talk about our responsibilities. Responsibilities are things we must do, it's our responsibility, our task, our job, in some cases, to do that thing. We often use “have to” for things we don't want to do. Examples, "I have to go to the bank." "I have to go to work." "I have to finish this project." However, when we use “have to” in the negative, it means we don't have a responsibility to do that thing right now. Also, one very important point that I think confuses some students is that we use “have to” for things that we can reasonably be expected to have responsibility to do. Let's look at some natural ways to use “don't have to.” "I don't have to go to the bank," "I don't have to go to work." "I don't have to finish this project." These are all examples of things we might naturally be expected to have some responsibilities to do. If you use it in a sentence like, "I don't have to drink alcohol at work," it sounds really strange because, in most jobs, it's not an expected responsibility to drink alcohol at work. If perhaps you're like a bartender, for example, maybe it's different, but perhaps in the majority of jobs that would be a very strange responsibility. So, saying, “I don't have to” for something that you're not responsible to do is quite strange. |
| Let's move on to questions. You asked about questions. I want to look at two patterns, one is asking for information, and one is confirmation questions. The first pattern, asking for information, I mean, for example, "What do you have to do today?" “What do you have to do today?” is a question about the other person's responsibilities for that day. If you ask this question, the speaker will talk about the things they are responsible for. "I have to go to work," "I have to go to the bank," "I have to finish this project," for example. |
| The other type of question, however, is a confirmation question and this is perhaps a little more difficult for learners to understand. We will use something like this, "Don't you have to go to work today?" This question is asking the listener for confirmation. In a case like this, the speaker thinks the listener should go to work. The listener has some responsibility to go to work. But, maybe the listener isn't going to work or there's some kind of strange situation so the speaker wants to confirm, "Don't you have to go to work today?" Then, the listener can say, "Yes, I do have to go to work today. I'm leaving soon," or "No, I don't have to go to work today. I took the day off," for example. So, you'll hear these confirmation questions like “don't you” or “doesn't he,” “doesn't she have to do something,” those are confirmation questions. The other ones are information questions like, "What do you have to do? Why do you have to do that?" Asking for information about the responsibility. I hope that helps answer your question relating to “do” but if not, please feel free to send another question. I can also try to make a whiteboard about this topic. Thanks very much for sending this question. |
| Okay, let's go on to the next question for today. Next question! Next question comes from Al Moyes. Hi Al Moyes says, "Which sentence is correct? I will pick up you from the hotel or I will pick you up from the hotel?" Okay. Use "I will pick you up from the hotel." We use “I will pick someone up from 'location'” always. Some more examples, "I'll pick him up from the airport." "Can you pick her up from the station?" "We'll pick them up from the bus stop." So, I hope that helps you use “pick up,” pick someone up. Thanks very much for the question. |
| Let's go on to the next question. Next question comes from Sammy. Hi, Sammy. Sammy says, "What is the difference between 'what's up' and 'what's app.' 'What's up' is a greeting. 'WhatsApp' is the name of an application, a smartphone application for communication. So, we use “What's up?” to ask people “How are you?” in a more casual way. “WhatsApp” has a very similar sound to it. Yes, it sounds like “what's up” but it's not used. We don't use “WhatsApp.” “WhatsApp” is what's called a play on words. A play on words means like we're having fun with words that sound the same or are spelled the same as other words. In this case, “WhatsApp” sounds like “what's up” but “WhatsApp” is an application so that's where the “App” in “WhatsApp” comes from, so this is a play on words. This is maybe a nice name for a communication application because “WhatsApp” sounds like “What's up?” which is used as a greeting, a way to start conversations. So, make sure you only use “WhatsApp” when talking about the application. For example, "Do you have WhatsApp?" You can't say, "Do you have what's up? or "WhatsApp?" You can't do that. So, only use “WhatsApp” when you're talking about the application. Use “What's up?” when you're greeting someone. Hope that helps you. Thanks for the question. |
| Okay, let's move on to our next question. Okay, next question comes from Nurdon Emanette. Hi, Nurdon. Nurdon says, "Hi, Alisha, what are the differences between mind, opinion, thought, and idea?" Okay, generally speaking, we use “mind” to talk about our brain. The place in our body where we think about things. So, “mind” is used like in the same way that we use brain. It sounds less scientific. If we say brain, all the time it sounds a little bit scientific like kind of medical, I suppose. I use the expression "keep that in mind," or "keep this in your mind," or "put that in your mind" a lot, which means “Please remember that,” or “please think about that." So, that just means like put something in your head and try to remember it. In other words, study or practice that thing. So, your “mind” refers to this part of your body where you think about things. |
| Your “opinions” then, your next word is “opinions.” “Opinions” is your ideas about the world. the way that you see the world, whether things are good or bad or tasty or bad tasting. Your “opinions” are from your experiences and your information the way you understand the world. So, my “opinion” is like my feeling about something. |
| The last two words “thought” and “idea” can be used similarly, sometimes. Generally speaking, if you want to use “thought,” you can use that to describe anything that's in your head. This can be an old idea, a new idea, just something that happened recently, or something for the future, anything in your mind can be a “thought.” So, that's being used as a noun there. I'm not using it as a verb. As a noun, a “thought” is just something, some concept in your mind. “Idea” is often used the same way as “thought.” However, “idea” often has the feeling of a new “thought.” So, you can think of “idea” as a new thought. We use “idea” in situations where we're trying to think of new things. So, like for a project, you need an “idea” for a project means you need a new thought. You need to think of something new for a project. We use the word “idea” to give that feeling of something new. We haven't seen it. we haven't heard it before. So, if you want to think about the difference between “thought” and “idea,” you can maybe think about “idea” as a new thought. I hope that that helps you. Thanks very much for the question. |
| Let's move on to our next question. Next question comes from Suraj. Hi, Suraj. Suraj says, “What are catenative and complex catenative verbs?" Yeah, tough question. “Catenative verbs” are verbs that we can chain together. This is kind of a more complex grammar point. “Complex catenative verbs” are catenative verbs are these verb chains that have an object. So, let's take a look at a few examples, “They're going to come clean the house," "He's going to help me do my homework," "She forgot to buy milk." So, with this grammar point with catenative verbs, we can sometimes use the infinitive form of the verb which is “to” plus the verb or we can use the gerund form which is the “ing” form. However, this often changes the meaning. Here's a really good example, "She stopped to smoke a cigarette." This means she paused her activities to smoke a cigarette. We see the verb in the infinitive form, “to smoke.” “She stopped smoking cigarettes.” this means she quit smoking altogether. She quit the habit of smoking. Okay, so I hope that that helps you. Thanks very much for the question. It's a big topic so maybe, I can make a whiteboard video about it in the future. |
| So, those are all the questions that I have for this week. Thank you, as always, for sending your questions. Remember, you can send them to me at EnglishClass101.com/ask-alisha. Of course, if you like this video, please don't forget to give it a thumbs up, subscribe to our channel if you have not already and check us out at EnglishClass101.com for some other things that can help you with your English Studies. Thanks very much for watching this episode of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next week. Bye-bye. |
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