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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 Nick hi
Nick Nick says hi Alicia
what does to roll mean in this context
sugar was rare too if you could offer
guests a feast
featuring spices sugar and vegetables
from the new world you were rolling is
it about madness or poverty oh yeah
great question
so to roll or like to be rolling means
to have a lot of money so the image here
is that you have so much money that you
can roll your body around in the money
like you are so rich you could roll in
it so like we will sometimes say he's
rolling or she's rolling or they're
rolling which means they're rolling in
money she inherited a lot of money from
her family she's rolling
they bought a huge house last year and
this summer they bought a yacht they
must be rolling in dough okay so I hope
that this helps you understand the word
roll thanks very much for the question
all right let's move on to your next
question next question comes from give
or Gauss Tia and I give org give org
says what's the difference between gonna
and gada and where should I use them
okay gonna is the short form of going to
I'm gonna go to the store he's gonna
leave early we're gonna watch a movie
gotta is the short form of got to which
means have to so like I have got to
means I have to do something but native
speakers will often drop the the have
part the contracted form of half in
speech so we're supposed to say I've
gotta which is the contracted form of I
have got to but we often drop the sound
in quick speech so it sounds like I
gotta or we gotta we do however keep it
when the subject is he or she or it's
because it's easy to say quickly so some
examples I got a go
he's got to leave we got to work so
because gonna is like the reduced form
of going to we use it to talk about
upcoming plans and because gotta is like
the reduced form of got to meaning have
to we use gotta to talk about upcoming
responsibilities so I hope that this
helps you understand the difference
between the two thanks very much for the
question okay let's move on to your next
question next question comes from Benny
hi Benny Benny says hi Alicia could you
please tell me which forms are correct
hey I learned English in the morning B
I've learned English in the morning C
I've been learning in the morning D I
was learning in the morning to a we will
be eating dinner when he arrives B we
will be eating dinner when he arrived
okay I'm gonna stop here for your
question because it's quite long so
before I talk about my responses to
these I also want to say that I'm going
to use the word study the verb study
instead of learn to answer this question
so you've used learn in your example
sentences but we use the word learn when
we have finished learning something so
like I learned how to use a computer or
I learned how to do something we're
finished with that so for that reason
I'm going to use study instead of your
original learn here so study sounds more
natural so with that in mind the correct
answers are the correct sentences here
our sentences a and D B and C both use
forms of the present perfect tense
sentence B uses just kind of a regular
present perfect so I have studied in the
morning that sounds strange because
we're using a specific point in time in
the morning plus present perfect tense
and we don't use those two together
really so we use present perfect tense
when we want to talk about general life
experience so we could say for example
like yeah I've studied English before so
before just means sometime before now so
sometime in the past yeah I've studied
English before so that's okay
but we would not use in the morning a
specific time the second sentence see
there is also strange even though we're
using the continuous form the present
perfect continuous form because it's
like something that is continuing yes
but we have it at a specific point in
time so like I've been studying in the
morning we use the present perfect
continuous with like for and since to
talk about the time when an action
started we talk about the specific point
when the action started so in this case
you're talking about an action that is
finished it's done
so it sounds strange to use in the
morning and it's grammatically incorrect
you could say I've been studying since
10:00 this morning or I've been studying
for three hours this morning those are
fine when you want to talk about a
duration of time and you want to talk
about the point in time where you
started that thing so only sentence a
and sentence D are correct you could
change sentence B and sentence C but you
would change the meaning a little bit
onto your second question then this is a
quick answer the correct one is he
arrives he arrives this is because
arrive is connected to he so when you're
using he or she or it you need to use
arrives so when you're using I you or we
there is no change to the verb so he
arrives she arrives it arrives I you we
arrive so I hope that that helps you you
had one more question
which was this Michael said yeah that
was a new one for me as well I hope I
don't have to do that again can I use
this instead of that um and really the
answer is it depends on the situation so
if in this case Michael is gesturing and
pointing to something like ah that was a
new one for me or this was a new one for
me I hope I don't have to do this again
and we can clearly see what's this then
it's okay to use this here if it's just
general and he's not gesturing or
anything to clearly show us what this or
that is it sounds more natural to use
that so the answer is it depends
but if you can clearly show the other
person what you're talking about sure
you can use this especially when you're
gesturing you're pointing at something
so I hope that this helps you thanks
very much for all your questions alright
let's move on to the next question next
question comes from mohamed abdel hakim
hi mohamed mohamed says are you using me
from my brain what does this mean you
mentioned this in 100 phrases every
english beginner must know yeah okay I
was making a small joke here actually so
there's a really common like complaint
or a really common problem that you
sometimes hear in couples who are in
romantic relationships so if one person
or maybe both people I don't know
has just a really strong physical
attraction to somebody what there might
be a complaint where someone says like
are you using me for my body this is a
common complaint in a relationship where
a person thinks it's only physical this
person only cares about my physical
appearance they say are you using me for
my body so I was making a joke in that
one and saying are you using me for my
brain to suggest that someone could just
be interested in like the things that I
think so it's not actually like a joke I
was just making a twist on a common
complaint I can't quite remember but I
feel like in that video I was maybe
talking about like relationships or
something similar but I wanted to twist
the joke a little bit to make it about
like knowledge I don't know so it's not
actually funny I was just twisting a
very common complaint so I hope that
this helps you thanks for the question
okay let's move on to your next question
next question comes from silver way high
again silver way silver way says hi
Alicia I want to ask about the
expression things couldn't be better
does this mean in the past or can I use
it to mean for the time being like in
the present yeah this is a present tense
expression so when you say things
couldn't be better it means right now
it's not possible for my life to be
better so that means things are great so
yes couldn't is being used here but it
means things now could not be
better it's not possible for things to
be better so for example like hey how
are things
Oh could it be better work is going
great and I have a vacation coming up
soon or hey how's the family
could it be better everyone's happy and
healthy so that means like it's not
possible to improve more it's not
possible for things to be better so we
say couldn't be better now that's a
present tense expression thanks very
much for the question hope that that
helps all right 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
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thanks very much for watching this
week's episode of ask Alisha and I will
see you again next week bye bye want to
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