| 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 Isik Alexander again. Hi, Isik. |
| Isik says, Hi Alisha. What's the difference between "by myself" and "on my own"? What's more casual? |
| There isn't actually so much of a difference in formality between these two. They're both kind of neutral in terms of formality. |
| The difference between these, actually, is that by myself can have more of a feeling of loneliness. |
| [singing] All by myself... |
| Do you know that song? |
| [singing] Don't wanna be...all by myself... |
| That song - that's a perfect example. Like, it would not sound nearly as lonely if they said |
| [singing] all on my own... |
| By myself has this feeling of like, loneliness. |
| Like, I don't want to live by myself. |
| Or like, I hate doing this by myself. |
| It's like you feel lonely; you want other people around you. |
| On my own, however, has kind of a feeling of pride or achievement, or accomplishment about it. |
| A kid is moving out of his or her parents' house. |
| If they really want to express their excitement, they could say |
| I finally get to live on my own! |
| Or, I'm so excited to live on my own! |
| You could use it at work, as well. |
| Like, I've never done a project on my own before. |
| So, it shows some kind of pride in that way. |
| So I hope that that helps you. |
| Thanks for the question. |
| Next question! Let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Nourhan Hanee. Hi, Nourhan. |
| Nourhan says, Hi Alisha. My question is, what's the difference between "suitable" and "convenient"? |
| Okay. Suitable means something is appropriate. Something fits, or suits a situation. |
| Some examples |
| Two dozen donuts should be suitable for our staff meeting. |
| This car will not be suitable for transportation after the wedding. |
| Convenient means something that makes life easier. |
| Dude, my portable phone charger is so convenient. |
| My hotel is so close to the station! It's super convenient. |
| So, suitable is something that's appropriate. It fits a situation. |
| Convenient means it makes life easier for us somehow. 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 Sarah. Hi, Sarah. |
| Sarah says, when can we use "I was there" and "I have been there"? What's the difference? |
| Okay. So, "I was there" uses simple past tense. We use simple past tense when we want to talk about a specific point in time in the past. |
| So for example, like, a trip to France. |
| Like, I was there last summer. |
| Or, I was there two weeks ago. |
| So, last summer and two weeks ago are specific points in time in the past. |
| We know exactly the point in time in the past, so we use the simple past tense to talk about that. |
| So, I was there at the specific point in time. |
| However, if the specific point in time is not important, you just want to express that you have some life experience -- in this case, traveling to France -- you can use "I have been there." |
| So, that's the present perfect tense. I have been to France. |
| Like, in a conversation |
| Have you been to France? |
| Yeah, I've been there. |
| So, this expression doesn't share when you were there because at this point in the conversation, it's not important. |
| You just want to express your experience. |
| So when you want to share a specific point in time, you can use simple past tense. |
| When you just want to talk about having (or not having) an experience, you can use the present perfect tense. |
| I hope that this helps you. |
| Okay, thanks for your question. |
| Let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Sridhar Reddy. Hi, Sridhar. |
| Sridhar says, Hi Alisha. I have come across the word "baller." Could you please explain what it actually means? Thank you. |
| YEAH! Baller! Baller is a really interesting slang word. I don't use this word, actually. Because I am not cool enough. |
| So, to give you kind of an introduction, baller is used as an adjective and as a noun. |
| So, let's talk about the noun first. |
| When we use it as a noun, we use it to describe a person. |
| So, that guy is a baller, for example. |
| Or, she's a baller. |
| And keep in mind my pronunciation is really pronouncing the "er" sound. You might hear it pronounced "balla," like kind of a lighter "ah" sound at the end of the word. |
| But it means someone who has kind of a lot of money and they like to show it off in these extravagant ways. |
| Like, maybe they have fancy cars or these really expensive clothes, or they take these vacations. |
| Like, they want people to see that they have money. |
| Like, they go to a club and they buy like the most expensive drinks for everyone. |
| So, it's this really, like, luxurious lifestyle sort of thing. |
| Also, according to some sources, the idea is that a baller is maybe someone who started out poor, worked hard, and then gained some success. |
| So, as a result, because of this great success that they worked hard to have, they have like this kind of cool attitude. |
| And then they also have sort of this background where they know what it's like to be poor. |
| So that's one source suggests that. |
| Also, it just comes from, in some cases, people who play, like, basketball or other ball sports. But largely basketball, in the US. |
| And then they moved to actually playing in like, major leagues. |
| So like, playing in the NBA, for example, and making lots of money. |
| So it can refer to someone who began like, you know, from poor beginnings and then became like famous basketball stars. |
| Or it can refer to someone who has that cool attitude and likes to show off that they have lots of money. |
| So that's a person who is a baller. |
| You can actually use baller as an adjective to kind of like describe things that have that feel. |
| So, like, for example, those glasses are baller. |
| Or like, the party we went to was baller. |
| So it's like something that's kind of maybe over the top, like really really like, luxurious and kind of cool at the same time. |
| It's an interesting word, for sure. |
| Anyway, that was a super interesting question. Thanks very much for sending that in! |
| I hope that that helps you. All right, let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Ruan Gomes. Hi, Ruan. |
| Ruan says, what's correct, and why? I have saw, or I have seen? |
| The correct answer is "I have seen." I have seen. |
| When you use this "have" plus verb, you need to use the past participle form of the verb. |
| The verb "see" in present tense has past tense saw, but the past participle form is "seen." |
| So, I have seen is correct. |
| If you want to use "saw," you should just make a simple past tense statement, like I saw (something). |
| I have seen is the correct form to make like, a present perfect statement. |
| So I hope that that helps you. |
| Thanks very much for the question. |
| All right! That's everything that I have for you 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, don't forget to give it a thumbs up, subscribe to our channel if you haven't 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 week's episode of Ask Alisha, and I'll see you again next week. |
| Bye bye. |
| Have you heard that song? |
| I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller, |
| I wish I had a girl who looked good; I would call her. |
| You know that song? |
| I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with bat and a six four Impala. Uh. |
| I wish I were a little bit taller. |
| I also---I don't know if I wish I was a baller, though. |
| [laughs] |
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