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hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and i answer them
maybe all right let's get to your first
question
first question this week comes from
fabio hi fabio
fabio says hello alicia i would like to
know the meaning of the expression
every other day can i also say every
other week
every other year every other hour minute
thanks a lot
yep every other day refers to a schedule
of activities
in which you do one thing for one day
and then the next day you
take it off that you don't do the
activity the next day
the following day you do the activity
then the next day you don't do the
activity
so it's this one day on one day off
pattern
we call this an every other day schedule
so yes you can replace day in this
expression
with another time period so you could
say every other year or every other
hour every other minute whatever it just
means you do something for
one unit of time so one year or one hour
or one minute
and then the following period of time
you do not do that thing
so yes you could use this to express
something like every other minute i'm
not sure what activity you need to talk
about
and use every other minute to describe
it but you could do it
so every other day is a very common way
to express this one day on
one day off pattern i hope that this
helps you thanks for the question
okay let's move on to your next question
next
question comes from clinton hi clinton
clinton says
when i meet a person that tries to speak
a language with me that i don't
understand
what should i say in english to respond
um
you can say i don't speak that language
so you could say i don't speak spanish
or i don't speak dutch or i don't speak
chinese you can just say something
very direct like that you don't have to
say i'm sorry
i suppose if you want to you could but
you don't really have to apologize in
this situation
just be direct i don't speak that
language you could
follow up this statement by saying
something like
do you speak english or do you speak
your native language
so if the person maybe needs help or if
you're trying to communicate with that
person
you can try to find a solution try to
find a common language by asking
do you speak english or do you speak
spanish or whatever your
native language is so again just to
respond
i don't speak that language i hope that
this helps you thanks for the question
okay let's move on to your next question
next question is from
sanju hi sanju sanju says hi alicia and
team how are you all
my question what is the difference
between dying
to and vying for and how do we use them
properly okay we use dying to
for things that we want to do very very
much so we're like exaggerating we're
making this
desire for something seem much stronger
than it is
we tend to use this in casual situations
for example i'm dying to watch that
movie
or we've been dying to go to that new
restaurant
so we're expressing a strong desire for
something and it's usually something
that's kind of casual kind of light
vying for on the other hand is used in
like
competitive situations so you might hear
it in sports you might hear it
in business you might hear it in
politics when two
or more people are trying to get the
same result or the same outcome we can
express that with
vying for different from dying to which
is followed by a
verb vying for is followed by a noun
phrase
so vying for noun phrase where the noun
phrase is the desired result the desired
outcome so some examples of this might
be
the two candidates were vying for the
mayor's position
or all of the children were vying for
the teacher's attention
so vying for something means actively
engaged in trying to
win something but that's quite a long
expression so we say
vying for the base verb is to vai to vai
for something so this is the difference
between dying to which expresses a
strong desire for something
and vying for which also expresses a
desire to win something
but we talk about this along with the
desired
results the desired result not the
desired action so i hope that this helps
you
thanks very much for the question okay
let's move on to our next
question next question comes from anmal
virk hello animal
animal says hung or hanged snuck or
sneaked yes this is a question
about the past tense forms of verbs so
the first one
hung or hanged the verb in question here
is the verb
to hang to hang so should we use hung or
should we use hanged for past tense
the answer in most cases is you should
use hung
for example he hung a picture on the
wall
or we hung our coats up in the closet
when you're talking about this action of
putting something on a wall or putting
clothing
on a hanger please use hung the past
tense hung
hanged on the other hand has a very
specific use we use
hanged when we're talking about someone
who has been punished
with death by hanging so hanging is a
very specific type of death penalty
in which a rope is tied around a
person's neck and
the rope is used to end the person's
life when we want to talk about this
in past tense we use hanged as in
the criminal was hanged or hundreds of
years ago
many people were hanged for crimes so
hanged is used in this specific case in
all
other cases of the verb hang in present
tense please use
hung to refer to the past form of the
verb so this is quite a clear
distinction in terms of meaning
please keep it in mind when you're
speaking and when you're writing too
regarding your other question about the
past tense form of the verb
sneak there are two forms and there are
two forms that remain today actually
initially originally this is according
to merriam-webster my favorite
dictionary
according to merriam-webster sneaked was
the original past tense form of this
verb but in the
late 1800s or so snuck began
being used so today we still use both of
them
actually snuck and sneaked some examples
then might be like
i snuck into the office late last night
or she sneaked around the neighborhood
so you can use both of them i personally
feel that i like snuck better that could
just be me
but whatever you choose please just be
consistent with it so i hope that this
helps you thanks for the question
okay let's move on to your next question
next question
comes from anathu shaji hi enough
anathu says could you please explain the
differences
between ever since and since then
sure while they have the same meaning
the structure of the sentence changes
depending on which one you use
so let's take a look at a couple of
example sentences
a graduated college last year since then
i've worked in a tech company and
ever since i graduated college i've
worked in a tech company
so these sentences communicate the same
idea the speaker graduated college
and since that point in time the speaker
has worked at a tech company
so we can use both since then and ever
since to describe
that the difference is that since then
tends to follow
a past tense statement in the first
example sentence it was
i graduated college last year so we have
a simple path
tense statement there since then refers
to the point in time that was described
in the previous sentence so in this case
last year since that point in time i
referred to in the previous sentence
so this is a common position for since
then
ever since however can take a couple
different positions in the sentence
in this example i've placed it before
the simple past tense action
ever since i graduated college so we can
place it before the action
you may also see ever since used in the
same position as
since then so for example i graduated
college ever since i've worked in a tech
company
though in these cases as you might have
noticed in this example
i've removed i've omitted the specific
point in time so instead of saying
i graduated college last year ever since
i've worked in a tech company
you might hear some people remove that
specific point in time it's just kind of
the speaker's preference i suppose but
ever since can take a lot of different
positions we don't see
since then taking these different
positions so since then again refers to
a specific
point in time that then in since then
means
that point in time i just referred to so
we have to have that
we don't have that then in ever since so
that means we don't have to refer to a
specific point in time and that's why it
sounds kind of natural sometimes
not to use this paired together with a
specific point in time in your past
tense statement
you might hear people say ever since
then in which case yes you must include
a point in time in the past but this is
the difference it's the positioning of
the expression in the sentence
and the relationship of the past tense
statement to the outcome so i hope that
this helps you
thanks very much for the question okay
that is everything that i have for you
this week thank you as always for
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englishclass101.com
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soon bye-bye