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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 Grisha hi Grisha Grisha says hi
Alicia I want to ask about the usage of
the phrase something is or was being for
example my house is being robbed by
somebody apparently this means the house
is being robbed at the moment but why
can't we say it like my house is robbing
now by somebody what's the difference
okay so this is because that is being or
was being pattern is a passive form so
we use the passive voice when we don't
know the person or the thing doing an
action or when that person or thing is
not important so in this case in your
example sentence my house is being
robbed by someone we don't know exactly
who the person is so that's why we use
by someone we don't know exactly that
person the reason that we cannot say my
house is robbing is because the grammar
of the sentence changes there here my
house becomes the actor in the situation
my house is robbing that means my house
in this case is stealing something and
that's not possible unless your house
has like legs and can move which is not
realistic so my house is robbing doesn't
make any sense a house cannot steal
anything so the passive form my house is
being robbed by someone shows that the
house is like the thing that's receiving
the action if however you do want to use
the active voice you can change it so
that the robber is the subject of the
sentence
for example someone is robbing my house
in that case this unknown person someone
is the subject robbing is our verb in
the progressive tense and we see that
that means it's happening now and the
object of the verb is my house
so we can use an active sentence to
express the same thing or
if we want to focus on the house we can
use the passive voice so my house is
being robbed by someone so this is a
quick introduction to one pattern that
uses passive voice I hope that it was
helpful for you thanks very much for the
question okay let's move along to your
next question next question comes from
Mellie
kurosu hi Mellie Mellie says hi Alicia
can you explain leverage I often
encounter it as a verb in documentation
about IT thanks ah yeah leverage gets
used in business a lot so leverage as a
verb means to make use of or to take
advantage of something this can often
have a negative nuance which means like
to exploit something so to exploit means
to use someone else usually to use
something or to use another person for
your own gain usually without caring
about that person very much so
leverage can kind of have this feel
sometimes some examples we need to
leverage our connections to make this
deal successful our team leverage the
bad news about our competitor to create
positive publicity for our company so
here leverage means make use of
something else or take advantage of
something else usually for your own gain
so in IT stuff perhaps it just means
make use of something but oftentimes
when you're talking about people or your
connections it can mean like exploits
like you're just trying to get something
from people which is generally seen as a
negative thing so keep an eye out for
this leverage as a verb means to take
advantage of something okay so I hope
that that helps answer your question
thank you very much for sending it along
let's move along to your next question
next question comes from Karina
hi again crema Karima says hi Alicia
could you please tell me the difference
in meaning between hurt and get hurt and
how does get modify the verb okay
first about using get to modify verbs
think of get has become so get means
become hear like become hurt but we
don't say become hurt it sounds way too
formal way too polite so get here
become but we use get hurt when we maybe
don't want to focus so much on exactly
the reason we received an injury or
maybe it's not known or we want to just
focus on the action like the injury
itself we don't want to focus on the
cause of that I got hurt at basketball
practice yesterday my friend got hurt at
work so we use hurt when the person or
the thing that causes the injury is
quite clear and we want to communicate
that for some reason some examples of
that I hurt my arm snowboarding last
year that's true a kid hurt my friend
when he kicked her that's also true
so in these example sentences the cause
of the injury is clear when we use get
hurt or got hurt maybe we want to focus
on like the location where the injury
happened or maybe like the time period
for example maybe we don't want to focus
on the cause so much so I hope that this
helps you understand the differences
between hurt and get hurt thanks very
much for the question okay let's move
along to your next question next
question comes from Lyon Hagen lion lion
says hi Alicia my question is when I
want to use conjunctions when should I
only use a comma for example I like
cooking but I don't like washing dishes
afterward when should I use both a comma
and a semicolon
for example gold mining is a very
profitable industry however there are
certain risks involved oh good yeah nice
question so when you're using a simple
coordinating conjunction like an butt or
four so when you're using one of those
to connect independent clauses just as
you've done just use a comma before your
coordinating conjunction so in your
example sentence that was perfect so
when you're using an adverb as a
conjunction like in your example however
also like moreover therefore those kinds
of words when you're using that to
connect two independent clauses use a
semicolon and a comma so you can call
these conjunctive adverbs so we're using
the adverb like to connect these two
independent clauses so just as you did
in your example
use a semicolon before your conjunctive
adverb and a comma after it some more
examples we plan to leave town today
semicolon however comma the weather
forced us to change our plans I've
decided to move to a new city semicolon
therefore comma I'm quitting my job so I
hope that this helps you when you're
using these adverbs as conjunctions you
can follow this rule otherwise just
follow the rule for simple independent
clauses join with a coordinating
conjunction also I made a video about
comma uses that you can find on the
channel as well so I hope that that
gives you some more information thanks
very much for this question ok let's
move along to your next question next
question comes from Andre hi Andre
Andre says hi Alicia update and upgrade
what is the difference
ok yeah update means to make a small
change to an existing thing so for this
answer let's imagine we're talking about
a software a piece of like antivirus
software so when you update your
antivirus software you receive new
information about that so you download
an update there's something new there's
some kind of small change that you make
to the existing software so your
software doesn't change like your your
the name of your software it does not
change but you get something new so
you've updated it it's like a little
refresh for what you have when you
upgrade however it's like you level up
so if you imagine you're using like
antivirus software C and one day you
find out o antivirus software B is
really great I have to pay money but it
looks good so you buy the software you
can say I upgraded to antivirus software
B so I got an upgrade or I purchased an
upgrade so that means you got a totally
new software so in this case you did not
update to software B you upgraded to
software be so updates are for like
small pieces of information that sort of
refresh something that's existing
upgrade means you level up something so
some other situations where we use this
are like Airlines for example so we say
like I was upgraded to business
class or I was upgraded to first class
or I upgraded to first class we do not
use update there another example is when
you're sharing scheduling information
with your coworkers
so we'll share like an update a quick
update about the schedule or please
share updates about the schedule with me
or I have a small update for you we do
not use upgrade in this situation so
when you're kind of refreshing existing
information you can use update when
you're getting something totally new
like another level you can use upgrade
so I hope that that helps you understand
the difference thanks very much for this
question
alright 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 English class 101.com
slash ask - Alicia of course if you like
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