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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 this week comes from Naggar
junuh hi Nagarjuna Nagarjuna says what
is the difference between being and
having okay let's start with the word
having we use the word having insect
expressions that use the verb have for
example I'm having a good time or I'm
having trouble with this he's having a
shower at the moment can he call you
back okay so then being has a lot more
uses than having we use being to talk
about temporary conditions we can use
this before adjectives keep in mind that
when we use being before adjectives
we're using it to describe something
that's temporary in cases where we use
the same adjective without being it's
describing something that is a regular
condition so let's compare these two
sentences he's weird he's being weird
the first sentence he's weird
is a simple present tense sentence
there's no being here that shows us that
weird is a regular condition so he's
usually weird he's always weird the
second sentence though he's being weird
uses being in the progressive tense so
that shows us it's a temporary condition
it means at this moment he's weird only
this moment so usually he's not weird
but for right now he is so when you see
being used before adjectives in this way
it's referring to this temporary state
or this temporary condition so we can
use being before a noun as well but we
use it to talk about an ongoing
condition such as our job we want to
talk about like this state of being
something that's like always like the
same for us that's usually our job or
some
that's unchanging that's a regular
condition for us so we can make
sentences that have the same meaning
that just use be in different ways for
example is being an artist difficult and
is it difficult to be an artist both of
these sentences use the verb to be the
first one uses being and just refers to
the ongoing condition of an artist so is
it difficult to be an artist and is
being an artist difficult those have the
same meaning they're just slightly
different grammatical structures we can
also use being before verbs when we do
this we tend to use it in passive voice
and we use verbs in the past participle
form when we do this in present tense
it's referring to an action that is
ongoing now when we're talking about
past tense situations it's referring to
an action that was continuing in the
past so an unfinished action in the past
sometimes there will be an interruption
that we can see in the sentence later in
the sentence but in some cases it's just
referring to an unfinished action for
example present tense we are being
watched my lunch is being eaten by
someone else
so these show ongoing unfinished actions
that maybe we can see or we know about
but they're continuing so we can use
being to talk about those so we use have
or having in the progressive form in set
expressions that use have I hope that
this helps you thanks very much for the
question ok let's move on to your next
question next question comes from Feist
else I'll say it - Feisal says how can I
talk very quickly in English um don't
worry so much about speaking quickly or
like as fast as you possibly can like
everybody speaks at a pace that's
natural and comfortable for them but if
you want to work on improving the
smoothness of your speech something that
you might try is just reading text out
loud so something that you can do to
practice is
like an interesting news article or
maybe a blog or even a short story to
read something that's got a little bit
of length to it you don't want to read
just tweets but something that you can
read that you can follow along with
practice reading this out loud so don't
just read in your mind practice saying
the words and connecting the words to
one another so you can do this first
like slowly that's fine it's fine to
read slowly at first but then come back
to the same article practice reading
that again like later in the week or a
couple days later and practice making
the sounds a little bit faster so do
this a couple times until you're
comfortable with the grammar points
until you're comfortable with the
vocabulary words and then when you're
fine you can move on to another article
challenge yourself with another article
that uses different grammar points
different words and so on something that
I find interesting and fun kind of to do
when I practice this way is to try to
take recordings of myself so maybe on
one day I'll practice for like an hour
or I'll study for an hour or something
and at the end of my practice session I
will record myself and then I can listen
to or watch the recording later and see
maybe what parts weren't so good or what
parts I was good at then at my next
practice session I can do the same thing
and compare it to my first practice
session after a few weeks of this then I
can look back at my first practice
session compare it to my last practice
section our session rather and see how
much I've improved so this is a really
good way at least I've found to kind of
track progress so this is something that
could maybe help you as you try to
improve your rate of speech so again
don't worry so much about speaking super
fast like it's going to sound unnatural
if you're just pushing yourself to speak
super quickly all the time so just try
to find a comfortable pace that allows
you to communicate clearly and smoothly
so I hope that this helps you thanks
very much for the question all right
let's move on to your next question next
question comes from you soft hi Yousef
Yousaf says how can I politely ask my
teacher if it's okay to
exit the classroom if you would like to
leave your classroom you can say
something like may I leave the room or
can I leave the room so some people are
really strict about the difference
between May and can
historically Mae has been used to ask
for permission can has been used to talk
about possibility or ability rather so
if you want to be super strict Mae is
better but Mae could sound a little bit
more polite so may I leave the room it's
okay it's probably a good idea to
include the reason you would like to
leave the room for example may I go to
the restroom or may I go to the office
or may I go to the health center I don't
feel well so if you want to include a
reason you can do that may I go to some
place so this is how you would politely
ask your teacher if it's okay to exit
the classroom I hope that this helps you
thanks very much for the question let's
move on to your next question next
question is from art Tamiya Mayer to
Miam Arnhem ium says hi Alicia is it
required to put the indefinite article
in front of an adjective that follows an
uncountable noun for example hot milk or
neat writing or good education Thanks
aha
no in most cases actually using the
indefinite article in this way would be
incorrect to refresh everybody the
indefinite article is a or an and we use
indefinite articles before countable
nouns in the singular form but I do want
to talk a bit about these examples that
you've introduced the first example that
you introduced was the phrase hot milk
so the only way that I can think of that
we would use an indefinite article
before an expression like this is if hot
milk is a menu item you go to a
restaurant or coffee shop and hot milk
is on the menu and when you order you
say a hot milk please or one hot milk
please in that case it's okay the reason
for this is because hot milk as a set
phrase is understood as one unit so even
though milk is a none cow
tubule noun yes we understand hot milk
is like one mug or is one cup of
something like that's one item I can
order in that case using the indefinite
article is okay it's natural it's much
better in fact than saying can I have
some hot milk which sounds very weird
there in that case when we're ordering
something we understand hot milk to be
one units like one cup one glass in that
case fine no problem so another example
of this might be it like a bakery if you
go to the bakery and you'd say I'd like
a sourdough bread please so in that case
sourdough bread is understood to be one
unit one type of bread like a menu item
in that case fine no problem your second
example your second example was about
the expression neat writing so this is
one that I would not use an article
before I would say in some very rare
very uncommon cases especially in like
formal or maybe religious texts some
people would use the word writing to
refer to like a script to refer to a
text using writing in this way to refer
just to written text sounds quite formal
so in today's English we would probably
just say a neat piece of writing we
would not use the indefinite article in
this case finally then your last example
was the expression good education so the
reason that this one is a little bit
tricky is because we have an idiomatic
expression to get an education to get an
education means to receive education but
in this idiom we use the article we use
the indefinite article and before
education so because this is an
idiomatic expression it's a set
expression we preserve that indefinite
article and just move it in front of
good so in your example good education
we could say to get a good education
that would be fine in that case because
it's an idiom and because it uses an
indefinite article originally we keep it
there some examples that use this idiom
she got a good education at her
university it's important that you get a
good education
okay so in sum if you're looking at
adjectives uncountable noun phrases that
are understood as a unit
it's okay to use an indefinite article
and it's okay to use an indefinite
article when the uncountable noun is
part of an idiom so I hope that this
helps answer your question thanks very
much
ok let's move on to your next question
next question comes from takuji sacimata
hi takuji takuji says hi Alicia please
teach me how to use you know in
conversation ok depending on the
positioning in the sentence and how we
feel when we say it meaning how our
voice feels when we say it it can have
slightly different meanings when we
position you know at the beginning of a
sentence it feels a little bit like by
the way so for example you know there's
a three-day weekend coming up or you
know I have a big bonus coming in this
summer so in these sentences it means
like by the way and from the tone of my
voice it's like there's something
exciting there's some exciting new
information I want to share there you
know if we position you know at the end
of a sentence it tends to sound like a
question and we use it to like get
agreement from people around us so we're
like talking about a difficult situation
and we're trying to get agreement from
the people around us for example I don't
want to upset my parents you know or I'm
just not ready to move to a new city you
know so in those cases we use you know
to get listener agreement so we're
saying you know as like a short version
of don't you know what I mean or do you
understand what I mean
so you can think of you know used in
that way with that upward intonation to
be looking for like confirmation so
that's actually a pretty good rule if
you hear you know used with that upward
question intonation it's probably a good
hint that that's looking for agreement
the speaker is looking for agreement if
you hear it with that downward
intonation you know it's probably
sharing some new information that by the
way feel so I hope that this helps you
thanks
much for the question ok so that's
everything that I have for this week
thank you as always for sending your
questions remember you can send your
questions to me at English class 101.com
slash ask - alicia of course if you
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