Lesson Transcript

So which is better, Pokemon, or Spiderman?
Cameraperson: ...Pokemon.
Alisha: Ehhhh...Pokemon.
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 Karima again. Hi, Karima.
Karima says, Hi Alisha, could you please tell me...
What does the expression "give it a try" mean?
Give it a try is a friendly way to suggest someone try something.
So, we use "give it a try" like after we show someone a process.
We teach someone how to do something.
We show them how to do something, and then we say, "okay, give it a try."
Like, now it's your turn.
Please try this thing I showed you.
If you're at the golf course, and you show someone how to swing a golf club, you could say,
all right, give it a try!
I think we do it on this channel, actually.
We introduce, like, a vocabulary point or a grammar point and then ask you,
give it a try.
So it's a suggestion. To try something.
Hope that helps you. Thanks for the question.
Okay, next question. Next question comes from Sanju. Hi, Sanju.
Sanju says, what is the main difference between simple past and present and past participle, or perfect tense?
The main difference is that simple past tense is used for actions that started and finished in the past.
There is often a specific time point.
We know when the action started and when the action finished.
With perfect tense, though, we don't know when the action started or when the action finished.
So we use it to talk about like, life experience in the past, like maybe when it happened is not so important.
But we use it for like, travel experience or job experience.
So that's one thing that we do with perfect tense.
The other thing is we use it to talk about actions that started in the past and that continue to the present, especially with the continuous tense.
We also do this to talk about the effects of actions that started in the past and continue to the present.
So, like, for example, I saw Beyonce live last week
is a past tense sentence.
So, when we want to use the perfect tense, like "we've seen Beyonce live so many times,"
that means we've seen Beyonce in the past many times, but when is not important.
So we use that perfect tense "we've seen." We have seen.
So another example.
Like, when I get this question, I sometimes will say
I've talked about this many times.
I have talked about this many times is a perfect tense statement.
So, in the past, I have discussed this. This is something I talked about at points in the past.
So, I can use perfect tense to describe that.
So, if you have any questions about simple past tense or present perfect tense, I would recommend checking the videos that we have on the website or on the YouTube channel.
So, I talk more about how to use these two grammar points.
Thanks for the question. I hope that helps.
Okay, next question.
Next question comes from Semih. Hi again, Semih.
Semih says, hi. What's the difference? I want you to know, I want to you know, I want you know.
From these choices, only the first one is grammatically correct.
I want you to know.
So, it could introduce something. It could introduce an idea, like I want you to know I did my best.
The other two things that you presented here; they're not grammatically correct.
Maybe with some punctuation, or maybe in a conversation with the right emphasis they could be part of something else; I'm not sure.
But the other two things are not grammatically correct.
So the difference here is that your first option is correct and it can begin an idea. I hope that that helps you.
Okay, let's move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Danny. Hi Danny. Hi again, Danny.
Danny says, I'd like to know about "finish," "has finished," and "is finished."
Okay.
Um, finish can be a noun or a verb, as in the first item. Just "finish."
In present tense, it's used like in present situations or to talk about future situations.
So, like, let's finish work. Or, we should finish this soon so we can go to the party.
Something like that. Let's finish.
So, that's an upcoming activity.
Let's go on to "is finished."
When we see this "is finished," it's actually finished being used as an adjective.
So, we know that because we see "is" there.
Is is our verb.
So like, he is finished. She is finished.
Class is finished. So, it's an adjective; it's describing the situation.
Finished there -- we use that to talk about something that is complete. It's done.
So, we could use a verb form, like "class finished at 9:00."
Or we could say, like, "at 9:00 class is finished." So that's the current state. That's the current situation.
Uh, the race is finished. Or dinner is finished.
Let's compare that to "has finished."
So, "has finished" is using the present perfect form.
So, "finished" here is the past participle form of the verb "finished."
Something has finished. As I talked about in one of the other questions in today's episode,
has finished -- that would be the present perfect tense -- means that something occurred in the past and the effects of that continue to the present.
This is an example of an effect continuing to the present.
We would see "has finished" used in like a polite situation, for example.
Like, I imagine at like a hotel breakfast service.
If hotel breakfast ends at like 9:00, but I'm a guest and I arrive at 9:30, and I want to eat breakfast,
the hotel staff might say to me, "sorry, breakfast has finished."
So, they could say "I'm sorry, breakfast is finished."
That's kind of direct-sounding.
But if they say "breakfast has finished," we could think of it like the...
like the ending point for breakfast was at 9:00, but there's this effect.
And the effect of that is that me--the guest--like, I can't eat breakfast now because it finished in the past.
So we can kind of think of it like an effect.
So I hope that that helps you.
Thanks very much for the question.
Okay. Let's move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Sridhar reddy. Hi again, Sridhar.
Sridhar says, hi Alisha, which one is correct in the following sentences?
1) Not all questions can't be answered by Alisha. Or...
2) Not all questions can be answered by Alisha.
The first sentence I read on your site. Why use both "not alll" and "can't be"?
I thought using only one of them makes the sentence meaningful.
Yes, thank you very much!
You found what is a called a typo. A typo is a typing mistake. So, I checked this out on the website.
We will fix it. You are correct. This should be "can," so "not all questions can be answered by Alisha."
That would be the correct sentence. It should not be "can't."
If you see a pattern like this, "not all [somethings] can be [something]."
So that would be the correct way to build this kind of sentence structure.
Okay, I hope that helps.
Thank you very much for this point.
Uh, next question comes from Antonio Laco. Hi, Antonio.
Antonio says, I am confused about when to use "I talk with blah blah blah" versus "I talk to blah blah blah."
Can you help with that? By the way, you're very funny.
Thanks!
I talk to, or I talk with. Yes.
I've spoken about this very very briefly.
In...I think the video about speak versus talk.
Basically, there's not really a difference between "to" and "with" here.
When we use "to," though, I feel that is has more of a one way conversational feeling.
Like, if you're giving someone information, if it's kind of just one person sharing a lot of information talking, I might use "to."
Like, go talk to your boss about this.
Or like, let's talk to my parents about this.
When you use "with," however, it sounds more like you're participating in something together.
You're participating in a discussion together.
Like, you do things with another person. So there's someone else there participating together with you.
So, using "with" (to me) sounds a little bit more like there are other people participating; other people involved.
Like I said, it's a really small point.
Both of them are correct. You won't have any communication problems if you choose to or with or if you choose to mix them.
Hope that helps you.
All right, that's everything that I have for you 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 liked the 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 a few other things that can help you with your English studies.
Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alisha, and I will see you again next week.
Bye bye!
Hair police! Hair police! Erik is the chief of the hair police! [laughter]
Oh my god. That's recorded.
Okay. Ummm...
Beyonce.

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