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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and I answer them
maybe first question comes from
[Music]
Inderjeet singh high energy energy says
how do we use say and said in English
okay we use say and said for reports of
speech in English when we use say we're
often using it to talk about something
that a person often says when we use
said we're using it to report something
that was in the past so just a simple
neutral report of speech in the past
let's look at some examples my boss said
I did a great job my boss said you did a
great job my parents say I'm a good
student okay so you'll notice in these
example sentences especially the first
two there's a very small difference
there like my boss said I did a good job
and my boss said comma quotation marks
you did a good job when you're reporting
speech directly as in the second example
sentence you can use those quotation
marks that's what I'm doing with my
fingers here like this is like the open
marking this is the closed mark to make
a quote so when you're doing that we can
use said to report past tense so this is
something that a boss in this case said
in the past if I'm not being direct
meaning if I'm not sharing exactly the
thing someone said I can use a pattern
like the first example sentence which
was my boss said I did a great job so
the boss didn't say I did a great job
the speaker wants to communicate that
the boss said that he or she the speaker
I did a great job so the first example
is very common way of reporting this
speech indirectly if you want to
directly report speech you can use a
pattern like the second example the
third example sentence my
parents say I'm a good student is an
example of something where we would use
the present form of the verb the present
tense form of the verb so my parents say
I'm a good student so lots of learners
ask like why don't we use said my
parents said I'm a good student we use
present tense for things that are
regular so for things that happen like
maybe every week for example or every
month like a regular like repeating
action so in this case the speaker's
parents say something so that means this
is a regular thing they say my parents
say I'm a good student this is a regular
like thing that they comment about if
it's past tense my parents said I'm a
good student
it sounds like perhaps it was just one
time or maybe when the speaker was a
child this was something that was
regularly said so like they want to
communicate more like a past thing like
one time it's over it's done if we want
to communicate something like present
happening now perhaps regularly we can
use the present form my parents say
another example of this would be in like
business for example the CEO says the
company is doing well so here the CEO
says is in present tense and the kind of
reported information is the company is
doing well so the use of the present
tense here shows us that this is
something the CEO regularly says this is
a regular comment we know this because
it's in present tense some other ways
that we use this are in like thank you
so in more formal situations like I want
to say thank you we would use it in that
way or I want to say goodbye so we kind
of soften those expressions thank you or
goodbye with I want to say or I'd like
to say so if you're giving like a formal
speech for example to you might begin it
by saying may I say a few words so again
this is just a simple report of speech a
simple neutral way of expressing
communication using say in present tense
say or says or
using said for past tense so I hope that
this helps you understand how to use say
and said in English thanks very much for
the question okay let's move on to your
next question next question comes from
mohamed abdel hakim hi mohamed mohamed
says what is the correct use of looking
forward to is it right to say i look
forward to hearing from you or i am
looking forward to hearing from you
yep both are correct you can use both of
these they're both fine they communicate
the same thing they have the same level
of formality it's just the speaker's
preference you can choose whatever you
prefer so like I look forward to seeing
you and I'm looking forward to seeing
you they're both correct they're both
fine we look forward to having dinner
with you and we're looking forward to
having dinner with you they mean the
same thing I would say perhaps in some
less formal situations we drop the I or
the we in the ing pattern so like
instead of saying I'm looking forward to
we might just say looking forward to so
we sometimes do that when we use the ing
pattern so but to answer your question
they are both correct you can feel free
to choose whichever you prefer I hope
that that helps you thanks for the
question okay
let's move on to your next question next
question comes from
Arjun Singh heigen Arjun Arjun says hi
Alicia can you please tell me the
difference between expert and perfect
okay
expert means having a lot of experience
with something to become an expert you
gain skills so you get like lots of
experience you study things and you
gradually like level up to become an
expert for example she's an expert
programmer or their expert negotiators
so that means that they are very good at
something because they've practiced a
lot they've gained experience and
they've liked to work their way up
through many skill levels to become
experts at something the word perfect
however means something that is flawless
there's no problems with it it's like
pure it's Genya
it's exactly as it should be so for
example the weather today is perfect our
new software is perfect so we use
perfect to mean things that don't have
problems at all so we might use the word
perfect to refer to one specific action
like a trick in sports or maybe like a
specific task that someone can do
perfectly but we don't really use the
word perfect to talk about the person
doing it because that implies that like
they're flawless which is impossible
because we're all humans and we're not
perfect so in some expert refers to
gaining skills to get something so we
use that to talk about people and their
jobs
perfect refers to something that is
flawless so often it's kind of natural
or just something that doesn't require
any skills but it's just great and
doesn't have any issues so I hope that
this helps you understand the difference
between these two words thanks very much
for the question let's move on to your
next question next question comes from
Demi Wong hi Demi Wong Demi Long says hi
Alicia what is the difference between
rise and raise and how do we use them
yeah so the difference here is just in
grammatical function raise takes a
direct object rise does not take a
direct object both verbs just mean to go
up so for example raise your hand so
your hand is the direct object of raise
in that example sentence or he raised
the cup above his head so in that
sentence the object of the verb raised
is the cup so to move the cup above his
head to raise a cup in contrast the verb
rise does not take a direct object for
example the Sun rises every morning and
she rose early there's no direct object
in either of those so when you have a
direct object you can use raise when you
don't have a direct object you can use
rise I hope that this helps you
understand the difference thanks very
much for the question ok let's move on
to your next question next question
comes from heaven Silva hi Harrison
Everson says when should I use Ben
viii or below is there any difference
between them um there's not really a
difference in meaning no it's just
formality we would use beneath in more
formal situations or perhaps like when
we're writing poetry beneath is actually
not so commonly used in everyday
American English speech anyway we most
commonly use the word under actually so
there are quite a few different words
that we can use to have the same meaning
we have beneath and below and under and
underneath but of these the most common
is under so let's take a look at a few
sentences that use these my bag is
beneath the desk my bag is below the
desk my bag is under the desk okay so
from these the most commonly used
sentence would be my bag is under the
desk the next most common would be my
bag is below and the least common here
would be my bag is beneath the desk so
we don't really use it so much to talk
about positioning we use under more
commonly to talk about positioning so
beneath and below share the meaning of
being under something though they're not
as common as under so I hope that this
helps you understand the differences
between these words thanks very much for
the question okay that's everything that
I have for this week thanks as always
for sending your questions remember you
can send them to me at English class
101.com slash ask - alicia also if you
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thanks very much for watching this
week's episode of ask Alicia and I will
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