| How do I say, "Welcome back to Ask Alisha" in Spanish? |
| Bienvenidos de nuevo a preguntándole Alisha. |
| You know what I need to study Spanish. No hablo Espanol. |
| 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 Saad. Hi, Saad. Saad says, "Hi, Alisha. I want to know the difference between ‘all,’ ‘every,’ and ‘each.’" This is a big topic. I made a whiteboard video about this recently and it will be out on the channel eventually, but here's a quick introduction. Let's begin with "all." "All" means 100% of something. We use "all" when we're talking about a group. Many of something and 100%. We want to focus on the group with "all." Some examples, "All the questions in this series come from viewers." "All my family members live in another country." We use "every" when we want to talk about the parts of a whole. We use this with the singular form of a noun. Some examples, "Every person in our class passed the test." "Every member of our team received an award." In these cases with "every," we see that there are individual parts to a larger whole to a group and we want to mention the individual parts, yes, but in relationship to the whole. We use "every" to do this in the singular form. "Each," then, focuses on the individuals. We're not focusing so much on a group, but we want to really focus on the individual. We can use "each" with the singular form and with the plural form of a noun. Examples, "She wears earrings on each ear." "Each person in our group gave a presentation." Another point with "each" is that we use "each" when there's only two of something. If there's more than two, you can use "every" or maybe "each," depending on the situation. Just make sure if there's only two, like ears, for example, or arms, or legs, make sure to use "each." Using "all" or "every" will sound strange because we're focusing on large numbers. That's a quick introduction to the differences between these words. I hope that that helps you and please watch for the whiteboard video to come out soon. Let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from the Velina. Hi, Velina. Velina says, "Hi, Alisha. I would like to ask you about the difference between ‘no wonder’ and ‘wondering’ and how to use it in sentences.” Let's start with "no wonder." "No wonder" means that's why. That's why. We use it when we solve a mystery. It's like a small mystery. Like "no wonder this happened," or "no wonder something in the past." When we're wondering, that's the progressive tense of the word "wonder," it means we're thinking about something. There's something we're curious about or something that we would like to know. Wondering is like light thinking, I guess, you could say. “I'm wondering about my future,” maybe. It's you're dreaming or you're imagining something, perhaps. "He's out of the country? No wonder he didn't answer my phone call." "You're out of salt? No wonder your food tastes bland." "Excuse me, I'm wondering where the restrooms are." "I wonder what's going to happen next week." In the last example sentence there, I used wonder in the present tense, meaning it's just something that I'm thinking about for the future. You could say "I'm wondering about next week." That's fine if you're actually doing it now with someone, but "wondering" refers to an action happening now in this moment. I hope that that helps you understand "no wonder" and "wondering." Thanks for the question. Alright. Let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Sweet Devil. Hi, again, Sweet Devil. Sweet Devil says, "Hi, Alisha. My question, how do I pronounce these words in fast connecting speech. ‘Of it,’ ‘of her,’ ‘of his?’" Well, first with the "her" and "his" examples, that "h" sound almost disappears, like it becomes very reduced. “Of her” and “of his.” I'll give some examples in a moment. With "of it" the two connect. They make a "v" sound. Patterns that might use something like this are not so common in everyday speech but these are a couple cases where you might hear it. "Your sandwich looks delicious. Can you give me some of it?" "That was a great performance. Did you make a recording of it?" In these examples, you can hear "of it" becomes "ovit." Ovit. "Did you make a recording of it? Can I have some of it?" It's like a "v" sound there. Let's move on to the other two, with the "h" sound. "Which of her movies have you seen? Pictures of her are really interesting." Here, you can also hear that that "h" sound becomes very, very soft. We have that same "v" sound with "of." "Pictures of her are really interesting. Which of her movies have you seen?" The same thing happens with "of his." "How many of his books have you read? What do you think of his work?" We have that same "v" again with "of" and the "h" sound is very, very soft. It's like I'm just exhaling the sound, "of his," "of his," "of her," as well, "of it." A theme here is that the "f" becomes a quick "v" sound almost and we're just releasing air to make the "h" sound with the "his" and "her" examples. “Of it,” “of her,” “of his.” I hope that this helps you with this pronunciation point. Thanks very much for the question. Let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Zouhair. Hi, Zouhair. Zouhair says, "What is the difference between 'persuading' and 'convincing?’" Great question. Yes, many people use these interchangeably but there is a key difference. To convince someone means to change someone's mind, to change someone's way of thinking. It refers to giving someone information with the intent of changing the way that they think. To persuade, however, is giving someone information or telling someone something with the aim of causing them to take an action. To convince is referring to someone's thinking. To convince someone of an idea. To persuade someone is to cause them to take an action, like to persuade someone to give you money, for example. So, convince - ideas, persuade - actions. Some examples, "We convinced my parents that we were responsible enough to take the car out for the night." "I convinced my team of the importance of social media." "We persuaded management to buy us new equipment." "I'm going to persuade my parents to loan me a few hundred dollars for a vacation." Here, you can see "convince" is used to talk about a way of understanding, or a way of thinking. "Persuade" is used to talk about getting someone to do an action, to take an action. I hope that this helps you understand the difference. Thanks very much for the question. Okay. On to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Luis Reggiori. Hi, Luis. Luis says, "Hi, Alisha. My question is what's the difference between 'hint' and 'clue.' In your videos, you say, for example, 'here we have a hint.' Could we use 'clue' instead?" Yes, for sure. In a case like this, you could use "hint" and "clue" in the same way. "Clue" is something that I feel is used more when we have a mystery or there's a puzzle to solve. You might also hear it in detective stories. If a detective is investigating something and they're looking for evidence, when they find something they might say, "Oh, this is a clue" in their mystery solving process. |
| Clue was my favorite board game. |
| Clue. It's a great example. If anyone has played the game Clue, absolutely, your job in that game is to collect information, to collect evidence about a murder that happened. That's your job, you're collecting clues. That's the feel of the word "clue." You're trying to solve a mystery. When I said it's okay to use "clue" to replace the word "hint," you can imagine that a sentence could be a puzzle, especially if you're learning. You're trying to solve the mystery of the meaning or the grammar of the sentence. If you can think of it that way, it's okay to use the word "clue." I prefer to use the word "hint," and yes, I do use that word a lot in our videos because "hint" has the feeling of something that's communicated indirectly. I'm not saying something clearly or maybe my example sentence doesn't say something clearly, but I'm looking for these small bits of information that tell me indirectly something. When I say, "here we have a hint," it's like I'm referring to this indirect information I'm getting from this sentence. Someone's vocabulary choice, for example, could give me a hint about that person's emotions for that day. It's an indirect way of receiving information is hint. I prefer to use "hint," but I think it's fine to use the word "clue." Let's look at a few more example sentences that, maybe, can show some of the differences in how these words are used. Also, I want to point out that both "hint" and "clue" can be used as nouns and as verbs. "We found a clue at the scene of the crime; a fingerprint." "We don't have any clues as to who robbed the store." "This announcement from the CEO might include some clues about upcoming policy changes." "Can you give me a hint about your surprise party plans?" "Management hinted that we might get a bigger budget next year." "Here's a hint about the meaning of the sentence." I hope that this helps answer your question about "clue" and "hint." Thanks very much for sending it. Let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Mohammed Saleh. Hi, Mohammed. Mohammed said, "What's the difference between 'sympathy' and 'empathy?’" “Sympathy” refers to seeing feelings in another person, seeing emotions in someone else, and recognizing those feelings because you have also experienced them. If, for example, your colleague or your friend have an emotional situation like a family member has passed away and you have also experienced that, you can say you experience sympathy for that person because you have the same experience. That's the noun form, "sympathy." As a verb, it's "sympathize." As an adjective, it's "sympathetic." Some example sentences, "I can sympathize with your work struggles; we had a tough time last month." "I'm lucky to have a boss that's very sympathetic. "Empathy" is different from "sympathy" in that we recognize feelings in another person but we have not experienced that situation ourselves. We only recognize it. We can, maybe, imagine what the other person feels like but we don't have that experience ourselves. "Empathy" is the noun form, "to empathize" is the verb, and "empathetic" is the adjective. Some examples, "I was so relieved my friends empathized with my need for support." "It's wonderful to have empathetic colleagues." I hope that this helps you understand the difference between "sympathy," shared feeling, and "empathy," an understanding of someone else's feeling. Hope that that helps you. |
| That's everything 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. Thanks very much for watching this episode of Ask Alisha, and I will see you again next week. Bye, bye. |
| I was going to say, "See you next week." |
| Nos vemos la proxima. |
| Sorry? |
| Nos vemos la proxima. |
| Nos vemos la proxima. |
| Yes. |
| Ciao. |
| Again, again. |
| Nos vemos la proxima? |
| La proxima. |
| Nos vemos la proxima. Ciao. |
| Okay. That's fine. |
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