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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 Flavia
hi Flavia Flavia says hi Alicia can you
explain why you use if I were you
instead of was yeah so the pattern if I
were you is an example of what's called
the subjunctive mood so the subjunctive
mood is something that we use to talk
about unreal situations so things that
are not true so we use if I were you to
talk about the Unreal situation the
Unreal present situation which refers to
like the fact that I am NOT you like
that's not a true situation so we use
this subjunctive pattern if I were you
to talk about that if I was however
would begin a simple past statement so
something in the past but maybe the
speaker is not so certain about that
past thing so for example if I was wrong
I'm sorry or if I was noisy last night I
apologize so that means the speaker has
some uncertainty about the past like if
I was noisy last night I don't know if I
was but maybe I was if I was I apologize
so those are past situations that could
be possible they're not necessarily like
unreal but we want to maybe express like
an apology or we want to express some
kind of uncertainty about something that
might have affected someone in the past
so maybe I was noisy last night or maybe
I was wrong for example I don't know but
if I was then I apologize or I'm sorry
so we use this if I was for these simple
past tense statements so actually you
will commonly hear native speakers using
if I was you but it's not like that's
going to cause any commune
ocation problems actually so yes the
technically correct pattern to use if I
were you but there are so many people
that say if I was if I was that it's not
like a communication problem
so technically yes it's incorrect to say
if I was but you're not gonna have any
problems if you use that pattern instead
so that's the basic difference if I were
you
refers to an unreal present situation if
I was something refers to uncertainty
about a past situation or a past event
so I hope that this helps you thanks
very much for the question okay let's
move on to your next question next
question comes from Carol hi Carol Carol
says Alesha I'm stumped by trying to
distinguish the difference in meaning
between evaluate and assess could you
help me yeah great question and actually
native speakers have trouble with the
difference between these words too so
let's talk first about the word evaluate
so a great way to remember the
difference between the words evaluate
and assess is to consider that inside
the word evaluate is the word value so
when we evaluate something we are
assigning or we are giving some value to
that thing or to that person this can
mean like the price of something this
can mean the significance of something
this can mean like the condition of
something so some examples we evaluated
this camera and gave it an 8 out of 10
score our company's software was
evaluated by a tech website and given a
low rating so in each of these example
sentences a certain like level of value
is assigned or is given to something or
to someone so when we evaluate we're
doing it in order to give value or it's
like to assign or to find the value of
something so it could be a score it
could be a price so let's compare this
to the word assess the pronunciation is
assess assess so the word assessed then
has the same feel of evaluate but the
purpose of assess is to understand
something better so we don't
something in order to assign a value to
that thing we're assessing something in
order to understand it better so like we
try to understand deeper like
information or like to learn more about
the details of something we assess
something so like you might assess a
situation that means you look deep into
the details to better understand the
situation some more examples we need to
assess the security of the company's
data he assessed his housing options
before making a decision so this is the
difference between evaluate and assess
if you're ever not sure just to remember
that the word value is inside evaluate
to help you remember that evaluate is
used to assign value to something so I
hope that this helps you thanks very
much for the question okay let's move on
to your next question next question
comes from yes sir hi Yasir Yasir says
what is the meaning of the expression
word I've seen it in some movies and I
can't figure out what it means yeah word
is like a strong laid back expression of
agreement among close friends you can
also use it to like ask really or is
that true if you use kind of like a
question intonation so like word so you
might also hear it used in a situation
where someone does something that like
you really admire or that you kind of
respect or you think is impressive and
you like you might hear someone say like
word in response to that so that kind of
shows support or that you were impressed
or you admire that thing I feel like in
a lot of cases it's just used as a
simple expression of agreement or
understanding for example we're gonna
watch the game tonight word personally I
don't use this word that much because it
is kind of like a cool word and I'm not
really like a cool like hip-hop street
culture kind of person but if you want
to use it I would recommend using it
among very close friends and in very
casual situations so I hope that this
helps you understand it thanks very much
for the question all right let's move on
to your next question next question
comes from bray antalya hi bran
Breann says hi Alicia can you please
explain to me the meanings and uses of
the word happen specifically in these
cases do you happen to my sister happens
to be a lawyer
etc I'm confused yeah this is a nice
question okay to begin with I want to
introduce a few very common patterns
that we see with the word happen
let's take a look do you happen to have
would you happen to know if it just so
happens that my sister happens to be
okay
so kind of the theme with this use of
the word happen is chance or by chance
of something so let's take a look at the
first two patterns here these first two
are question patterns so the first one
was do you happen to have and the second
one was would you happen to know if so
another way to say these is is there any
chance you have or is there any chance
you know so you're asking very politely
like is there a possibility is there a
chance of this thing so we use this form
of happen to make very formal or like
very soft requests so this is really
useful when you're like speaking to a
stranger so if you can imagine like
you're a tourist and you need some help
in a city that you are unfamiliar with
you could say to a nearby person like
excuse me do you happen to know where I
could buy a coffee around here or excuse
me would you happen to have the time so
that's like you're making a very like
soft request
that's like saying is there any chance
or is it possible at all that you have
this information or you could do this
for me so it's a very soft request form
so let's take a look at the other two
sentence patterns that I introduced here
these are some statement patterns so
again these do mean by chance but for
these kinds of statements the context is
actually really important the situation
is important so for example it just so
happens that I got two free tickets to
that concert you were
talking about last week so it just so
happens means like by chance or like
something happened like that was very
coincidental it just so happens that
this situation fits nicely with
something else in my life right now so
it just so happens I got these free
tickets and this relates to having this
discussion with you about a concert last
week so those two things kind of fit
nicely together it's a nice little
coincidence so it just so happens that
is used to do that so the other example
pattern that you introduced my sister
happens to be a lawyer is probably
something you would see in a situation
where a person is looking for a lawyer
and the person who says that sentence is
introducing that like oh no I need a
lawyer do you have any recommendations
and person B might say oh my sister
happens to be a lawyer
so that's like saying by chance my
sister is a lawyer like coincidentally
like it matches your situation nicely
that's kind of the feeling of happens to
in this case happens to be a lawyer so
yes you could say like oh my sister is a
lawyer that's fine as well but it
doesn't have that same nuance of
coincidence so kind of think of happens
to or like happens to be as meaning by
chance in these statement situations and
when you're using it as a question it
creates like this formal very gentle
like is it possible to type request so I
hope that that helps you understand
using the word happen or happens in
cases like these thanks very much for
the question okay let's move on to your
next question next question comes from
cloudy hi cloudy cloudy says what's the
difference between these words admire a
door and idolize Thanks okay let's
compare let's make some example
sentences first I admire Beyonce
I adore Beyonce I idolized Beyonce okay
so first let's look at I admire Beyonce
so we use admire for people usually
people that we
respect so maybe we respect that
person's work or we want to be more like
that person or we think they've done
like great things they're very talented
so if I say I admire Beyonce it means
like I respect her I respect her work so
we use admire to mean like something or
someone that we respect the second
sentence I adore Beyonce uses the word
adore which means you love something so
when we say I adore something we can use
it to talk about like people usually
people in our lives sometimes we use it
to talk about like our favorite
activities as well like I adore arts and
crafts perhaps but when we use it to
talk about people it's usually for
people that we have a close relationship
to so like a Beyonce superfan might say
like I adore Beyonce I just love her so
that means that they feel like a close
connection to that person or like they
really really enjoy it in this case the
celebrities work so to adore something
can be used in that way also within
families like parents could say they
adore their children so to adore means
to love something and have a very close
connection or you feel like you have a
close connection with someone then the
final example sentence was I idolized
Beyonce I idolized so to idolize that
verb has the word Idol inside so Idol
actually has it like a religious kind of
connection so an idol was something like
to be worshipped so like a god or a
goddess figure sort of thing so to
idolize something means to kind of have
that thing as like above you so you have
like this image in this case like
Beyonce I idolized Beyonce that means
she's like above everything like we
really appreciate her like we think
she's just amazing and she's like above
everybody else so to idolize someone is
like has almost like this image of
worshiping someone so maybe like a super
super super Beyonce fan could say like I
idolized Beyonce I want to be like her
like I want to do everything a fan can
so maybe that's idolized in this case so
probably the most common words here are
admire and adore idolize is not used
nearly as much as these two but that's
the difference between those words so I
hope that that helps you understand
thanks very much for the question
all right that's everything that I have
for this week thank you as always for
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send them to me at English class 101.com
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English Studies thanks very much for
watching this week's episode of ask
Alisha and I will see you again next
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