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another evening edition of ask Alicia
because this was a busy week
hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha
at the weekly series where you ask me
questions and I answer them maybe first
question this week comes from Eduardo hi
Eduardo could you explain please how to
use the expressions one at all
to kind of three actually for a big
picture sure number one at all we use at
all as an emphasis phrase after negative
statements I don't want to study at all
today he doesn't like me at all
we can also use this expression in
question question two about kind of it
depends on which expression you mean
there's kind of which can mean a little
bit or somewhat I kind of want to eat
Vietnamese food for dinner you'll also
notice that the pronunciation there
changes to kinda kinda not kind of but
kinda kind of depending on the way the
sentence is made though kind of can also
refer to types of something what kind of
ice cream do you like they don't know
what kind of house they want here
kind of means type so they don't know
what kind of house they want they don't
know what kind of food they want to eat
for dinner for example so check to see
which way kind of is being used if it's
coming before a verb like I kind of want
to eat or I kind of want to go then it
probably means a little bit but if it's
coming before a noun then it probably
means type of noun so I hope that helped
third question about the word actually
actually right we use the word actually
when we want to explain the real
situation as we understand it so people
like to use actually actually to
introduce their opinion as though it's
fact sometimes so some examples of this
actually I don't live in the United
States I don't think he actually likes
chocolate so in these ways were
introducing a real situation as we
understand it we use actually to do that
your fourth question is about big
picture big picture is used to talk
about a broad idea of something so going
away from a small detail and talking
about like the entire situation at one
time I know you think studying
vocabulary is boring but look at the big
picture it's important to know small
details
he's losing sight of the big picture
he's wasting time and money so the big
picture is kind of like maybe the the
bigger situation
hope that helps anyway next question
next question is from Juan Fong Chen hi
Juan Fran
hey Alicia what does you just made my
day mean I heard this phrase but I don't
fully understand it yeah so you made my
day is a really positive phrase you can
imagine this as you just made my day
much better but we don't say much better
so we use this when someone gives us
good news we can say you just made my
day
or you made my day just sounds like
something happened very recently you
just made my day a raise you just made
my day we get to take the afternoon off
you just made my day
those are situations where someone is
really happy and wants to express that
the other person improved their day in
that moment nice expression next
question comes from Alexander hi
Alexander Alexander says hi Leisha
what's the difference between the words
intelligent smart and clever intelligent
and smart have the same meaning they
mean someone who has a lot of knowledge
and the image is that they got it from
like books from studying from classrooms
from lectures intelligent and smart they
have that same feeling about them but
intelligence sounds more formal smart is
used a lot among young people who have
good academic abilities for example
clever also means that someone has a lot
of knowledge but the idea with clever
may be they have knowledge from books
and classes yes but their knowledge is
from world experience so they're really
good with like people in situations and
they can think quickly maybe and they
have good ideas that's someone who is
clever
sometimes clever has the image of being
a little bit like sneaky - next question
comes from Celso Moreno you brought your
name in all caps back to back what does
it mean sometimes I hear it in baseball
games do you know yes I do know the
expression back to back means one thing
after another so we have two things
sometimes more back to back to back you
can put that in a line it means in
baseball for example like one homerun
after another we could say to home
runs back-to-back two or more things
happenin quickly in succession it's used
a lot in sports next question is from
Anderson Sue's at Anderson's house a
high Enderson Anderson asks hi Lisa how
are you doing I'm reading Harry Potter
and I just saw the sentence good night
Harry how do you pronounce goodnight
yeah good night we sometimes say good
night good night so that good good is
dropped we've removed that good sound
and we say good night good night good
night that's how you say it
hope that helped next question is from
Oz Rocha Junior sorry I hope I said that
right
Alisha how do we separate words in a
text when we get to the end of the line
your text formatting software should do
that for you do you use word words
should do that for you if you use just
text or notepads there should be a word
wrap function I don't know Google it
Google and if that doesn't help you your
second question though what is the
difference in pronunciation between life
and live or live for example my life is
good and - I live in a big city right so
life and the word that spelled Li ve as
in your example I live in a big city
have different pronunciations the vowel
pronunciation of the I sound is
different in life it's a very open sound
lie like life life in the second word
live the I sound is kind of tall Lily
it's very like kind of in your nose live
that's the first sound that's a bit
different so lai lai lai lai that's the
I sound that's different but then the
consonant sound is also different the F
in life so there's there's just air
coming out of my mouth I'm not making
any sound with my vocal cords they're
just life life with the word live
however I'm making a sound so that's the
difference look look so I have to I have
to use my vocal cords to make the sound
so life no vocal cords live
vocal cords used however do be careful
live Li ve can also be pronounced live
so that V sound I talked about where you
use your vocal cords plus that open I
sound live so like a live performance
for example so you need to pay attention
to the grammar of the sentence to
understand if it's live or live as well
so life and live have very different
pronunciations good one my sketch I hope
you can practice those next question is
from Harley hi Harley hello again what
is the correct use it's I have breakfast
I have lunch I have dinner or I
breakfast i lunch i dinner i dine ah
nice question Harley I use the I have
lunch I have dinner I have breakfast
version if you drop have you sound very
posh posh means like fashionable
sophisticated a bit rich as well so I'm
not any of those things but saying I'm
breakfast I lunch i dinner it sounds
like you have a very high opinion of
that activity in most cases at least in
my life I don't have a reason to speak
like that so I always say I have
breakfast or I have lunch or I have
dinner it's not incorrect to say I
breakfast i lunch i dine but it sounds a
bit unnatural in most everyday life
situations you don't really need to talk
with that level of formality
I don't think hope that helps you okay
so those are all the questions that I
want to look at for this week thank you
so much for sending me your questions
remember you can send your questions to
me at English class 101.com / ask -
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thanks very much for watching this
episode of ask Alicia and I will see you
again next week
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