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this week hi everybody welcome back to a
Silesia the weekly series where you ask
me questions and I answer them maybe
first question this week comes from moe
hi moe moe says I would like to know how
to use I will or I would go with that
when I order from a menu in restaurants
ok um well I suppose it depends a little
bit on the situation but for kind of a
general way to use these two when you
make your decision the thing you would
like to order the things you plan to
order you can say I will go with Allah
or I will go with something remember to
use the contracted form if you're making
a recommendation to someone else however
like you've chosen your item you know
what you want to order but you're
recommending someone else something
you're recommending like a drink pairing
or a side dish or something when you
want to make a recommendation to someone
else you can say I would go with the
blah blah blah
why because when you're saying I would
go with it's like saying if I were you I
would choose this thing so it's like if
I were you I would go with that thing
but we don't say if I were you so when
you're making a recommendation you can
say I would go with when you're talking
about your own choice you can say I will
go with hope that helps okay let's go to
the next question next question comes
from Isaac Alexander again hi Isaac
Isaac says hi Alicia can I also use I've
not + PP for PPT I think this is past
participle is your PP and present
perfect tense maybes PPT could be past
perfect as well let's talk about it
assuming it's present perfect tense um
yes you can the answer is you can but in
American English it sounds too formal so
I'll give you some examples I've not
been to France he's not eating his
dinner they've not visited this week
actually with all of these sentences
there's not a communication problem
happening but they sound too formal for
American
maybe if you ask a British English
speaker they'll have a different opinion
on the way that these expressions are
used but from an American English
speaker it sounds a little too formal it
sounds too stiff it sounds a bit
unnatural so you can use them but I
don't necessarily recommend them I hope
that helps you a little bit ok let's go
to the next question all right next
question comes from Paulo hi Paulo Paulo
says hi Alicia what is the difference
between planning to do something and
planning on doing something for example
are you planning on helping John thanks
oh ok um really there's no difference
here it's just the speaker's preference
let's look at a couple more examples are
you planning on going out tonight are
you planning to go out tonight we're
planning on having a surprise party
we're planning to have a surprise party
so you can really use these in the same
way they're interchangeable don't worry
about it
thanks for the question let's go to the
next question next question comes from
hello Alicia hello mysterious ok hello
he says can you tell me the difference
between make sure and ensure and assure
also certain and ascertain ok let's
start with make sure and ensure and
assure make sure and ensure they both
mean to make certain of something make
sure sounds more casual than ensure also
ensure is used like in more formal
situations yes but so because it's used
in those cases like with contracts or
maybe with like formal business letters
it has the idea of a guarantee so
there's like some like higher level of
certainty almost like you're
guaranteeing something make sure isn't
so strong it's more like check it's kind
of the feeling with make sure of surer
then the last one in this first group
sometimes it can also mean to make sure
of something but it has like the feeling
of like giving confidence to the
listener giving confidence to the reader
like that something is possible or
there's some positive information some
like you want that person to feel
ease about the situation like you're
making them feel confident about what's
going to happen in the future or it's
like you want to remove any questions or
any doubts that someone has about the
situation we call that assuring someone
so let's look at some examples here I'll
be finished with the report tomorrow I
assure you he assured us the car was
safe they assured us our bags would be
brought to the hotel room so in these
cases you can see that assure is like
you're making someone else feel at ease
feel relaxed feel secure about whatever
is going to happen so I hope that helps
so let's move along to the second part
of your question the difference between
certain and ascertain you can hear the
pronunciation is quite different certain
it's used as an adjective which means
like it's something that's definite it's
fixed it's decided it's settled so
depending on the situation it can mean
one of those you know kind of similar
words like I'm certain he's coming to
the event tomorrow or did you make
certain that the bank account was full
of money or I want to make certain that
everyone understands the program for
example to ascertain however to
ascertain that's a verb ascertain is a
verb which means like you are making
something certain like you are gaining
information in order to feel certain
about something we ascertained that the
problems were the result of poor
communication that's data that can
easily be ascertained from a quick web
search for example it means like it's
easy for us to find that information or
to make certain of that information on
the Internet so parts of speech are
different certain is an adjective
ascertain is a verb an ascertain needs
to do something in order to be sure of
something like to be fixed to be settled
on something so I hope that helps you
understand those the difference between
those words a little bit better thanks
for the question all right let's go on
to the next question next question it
comes from Maziar Maziar hi Maziar
Maziar says what is this
difference in meaning between these two
sentences what did they do to you and
what have they done to you
uh okay it depends on the situation in
some cases let's look at the first
example sentence what did they do to you
here we're using simple past tense
remember we use simple past tense for
actions that started and finished in the
past so that means that when this person
asks the question it's like they're
asking about something that's done it's
over it's not going to continue also the
effects of whatever happened in the past
are like we can't see they're not
visible like there's no effect that we
can see now here in the present so a
situation you can imagine it's like
someone went to a doctor and they had a
lot of like really crazy tests done but
there were no effects from the test
maybe they had a lot of treatments but
there were no effects from the treatment
and the speaker wants to ask what did
they do to you like I'm so curious what
happened in the past it's over there
seems to be no effect in the present but
I want to know about what happened in
the past in the second example sentence
however what have they done to you
they're we're using the present perfect
tense what have they done to you which
means that there's something that
happened in the past and maybe is
continuing to the present or the effects
of that action from the past are
continuing to the present so again
imagine if you go to like a crazy doctor
or like a crazy hospital or something
and there's all these mistakes and your
body gets injured like your face gets I
don't know messed up there's something
terrible that happened to your body
people can see it people might ask what
have they done to you at that hospital
like in other words we see something
happened in the past and we see the
effects of that continue to now so
that's what people might use the present
perfect tense here because the effects
of something that happened in the past
are still visible are still continuing
to the present keep in mind in that
situation also you might hear speakers
say what did they do to you
we've not necessarily be incorrect they
are asking about something that happened
in the past like a specific action that
happened in the past so using simple
past tense to ask that question is not
necessarily incorrect what did they do
to you it's okay to ask
however if back in situation one where
there are no effects from some kind of
crazy medical treatment in that case if
you ask what have they done to you it
doesn't make sense it seems unnatural
because there are no effects there seems
to be no problem so just keep this in
mind so I hope that helps you thanks for
an interesting question like that one
okay let's go on to the next question
the next question comes from Deborah
Carvalho hi Deborah Deborah says hi Lisa
could you help me which one is correct
different than or different from Thanks
aha yeah you hear both of these in
American English actually we use both I
think American English speakers use
different from more often you might also
hear different too as well though I
understand that is used more in British
English I think different band might
also be used more in British English in
general everyday speech we use different
from most commonly in American English
thanks for the question let's go to the
next question next question comes from
millon patel hi Ellen
Mellon says what does nailed it mean aha
nailed it yeah see so 26 of this series
for some information on nailed it and a
comparison to dammit a similar word
which a review nailed it is a casual
expression that means you did something
perfectly thanks for the question
alright let's go on to the next question
next question
next question comes from Khushi haiku
see who she says hi Alicia in one of
your videos you said that you've learned
Japanese I'm learning Japanese too any
tips to learn a new language fast um
well fast is sort of a matter of opinion
um I don't think learning a language is
going to happen in one day or even a
month perhaps but in general to improve
the speed at which you learn here
few things that helped me and that might
help you practice every day try living
in the country where they speak the
target language watch media in the
language you're learning actively not
passively read things in the language
you're studying write and speak in the
language as much as possible though
those are just a few ideas for things
that you can do yeah it's an everyday
thing and fast means different things
for different people so I think it's up
to you and to your studies and to how
much attention and time you devote to
reviewing materials and really working
hard to understand the things available
to you also challenge yourself to like
once you learn something you have to
push on to the next level like you can't
always just do the thing that's easy for
you you have to be willing to challenge
yourself and try new things so once you
learn like how to order food for a
restaurant you need to think about the
next thing that you need to be able to
do in that language so keep trying to
push yourself to that can help you avoid
that intermediate platinum okay so I
hope that those tips helped you um just
a few ideas quickly off the top of my
head anyway those are all the questions
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 dot-com / ask -
Alicia make sure to send them here not
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collect them all so please send all of
your questions here and thank you for
such interesting questions as well I
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Alisha and I will see you again next
week
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