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hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and i answer them maybe
okay let's get to your first question
this week first question this week comes
from
emma hi emma emma says hi alicia
can you explain the difference between
will and be going to
and will be doing or be going to be
doing
i would like to know when we use
continuous forms instead of just using
simple future tense
sure we use the continuous form when we
want to talk about a future plan
that we think will be in progress so
let's compare two example sentences
i'm going to start working in a new
company soon
three months from now i'm going to be
working in a new company
so in the first example sentence i'm
going to start working in a new company
soon
we're talking about a future plan we're
just using simple future tense going to
there
to express a future plan a future action
in this case using going to because
we're quite sure about that plan
in the second example sentence however
three months from now
i'm going to be working so we're using a
time period or rather a point in time in
the future
three months from now that means i'm
indicating
or i want to refer to a specific point
in time in the future
and talk about an action that i think
will be ongoing at that future point in
time
in those cases we use will be going to
or going to be going to or something
like that going to be plus the ing
form of a verb so we use that form
to refer to an ongoing thing that we
think will happen at a specific point in
the future
you can just use the simple future tense
will and going to
to talk about general future plans
without a specific point in time
but if you want to talk about something
in the future like a month from now or
two months from now or years from now or
whatever
and you want to express a plan or some
idea you have
about something that will happen or be
happening at that time
you can use will be going to or going to
be plus
the ing form of a verb so i hope that
this helps you thanks for the question
okay let's move on to your next question
next question
comes from arzu hi arzu our zoo says hi
alicia
could you explain the difference between
roughly approximately
and nearly yeah sure roughly and
approximately mean the same thing
they both mean about the difference
between these two words is that
approximately sounds more
formal than roughly so you would see
approximately used in very formal
writing
in like scientific papers in situations
where you need to express
data you might hear roughly in everyday
conversation
used in place of about so there's no
meaning difference here it's just a
formality difference
some examples roughly 50 people attended
the event
approximately 100 people responded to
our survey
on the other hand nearly means almost
a certain amount so we use nearly before
a number to express that we were very
very close to that number but
not quite so this does not mean about
it means very close to the number but
not exactly
that amount so for example we could say
nearly 50 people
attended our event or nearly 100 people
responded to our survey
so that means not quite 50 people
attended or
not quite 100 people responded but it
was very very close
so in sum approximately and roughly have
the same meaning just different levels
of formality
merely means almost but not quite or
very close but not quite
so i hope that this helps you thanks for
the question okay
let's move on to your next question next
question
comes from mindful alex hi mindful alex
mindful alex says hi alicia what tense
present or future
must follow a command clause for example
one
let me know what you find versus let me
know what you will find
two let me know what you find versus
tell me
what you will find thanks a lot yes you
need to use
present tense in these example sentences
so in your case the correct answers
would be
let me know what you find and tell me
what you find
the same thing is true if you change the
subject so for example
if you're requesting an update from a
third person meaning from someone
outside the conversation you can say
let me know what he finds or tell me
what she
finds so you still need to follow this
present tense rule we can't use the
infinitive form of the verb there
so these are examples of what are called
embedded questions they are questions
that are like
inside another question or they're
questions that are inside of a statement
so like tell me
what you find you can see that what you
find is kind of like a question but it
follows a different word order
so we follow that subject verb object
order
inside embedded questions if you want to
know more about this grammar point you
can do a search
for embedded questions to find some more
information i've talked about this here
and there
in some live streams in the past so i
hope that that's helpful for you
so yes in sum you need to use a present
tense verb
in a case like this keep in mind you can
also use past tense if you want to as
well i hope that this is helpful for you
thanks for the question
okay let's move on to your next question
next question
comes from alejandra hi alejandra
alejandra says how do i know when to
reduce
i have to i've and when not to
is there any rule yes when you are
expressing
ownership of something you should not
use the reduced form
i've always use i have like i have a dog
or i have a house or i have a bag
you should not use ive in these cases
you should however use ive and other
reduced forms when you're using
perfect tense sentence structures so for
example i've been to france
or i've never eaten horse so when you're
using that i
have plus past participle verb form you
can
reduce the i have part to ive if you are
talking about
ownership of something you cannot reduce
the i have to i
so yes that is the rule in this case for
reduction
you may also hear the i have and i have
got to
reduce to ive as in i've got to do
something something something
but this might be a little bit more
common in british english
generally though you can consider those
first two rules i mentioned
i have for ownership and ive for perfect
tense structure so i hope that this
helps you thanks for the question
okay let's move on to your next question
next question comes from
reynaldi hi reinaldi reynaldi says hi
i'm from indonesia
sometimes someone says opportunity and
i'm confused about whether i should
respond with opportunity
or chance what's the difference between
those words and when is the right time
to say them
thanks okay um opportunity tends
to sound more formal than chance
we tend to use opportunity in cases
where we have received an
offer some like special offer like a job
offer a school offer or maybe an offer
of money
we are presented with some kind of like
professional or formal situation
chance however is used to refer to
situations that arise because of
luck so something that happened because
of luck we're not really
offered anything but it's like the
timing is just
right for a situation and we have this
chance we have this option to take
advantage
of that situation so to take advantage
of something means that we can try to do
something
that would be to our benefit in that
situation
so opportunity sounds more formal it's
like something is presented
to you like a job as i said chance is
more like for
games perhaps or just something that
happens at random
and that you maybe can take advantage of
you can maybe find some benefits in so
let's take a look at some example
sentences
i have two great job opportunities to
consider
thanks very much for this opportunity my
flight was delayed
so i had a chance to check out the
airport lounge i haven't had a chance to
read that book
so i hope that this helps you understand
the differences between opportunity and
chance thanks for the question okay that
is everything that i have for this week
thank you as always for sending your
great questions
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englishclass101.com
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thanks very much for watching this
week's episode of ask alicia and i will
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next week bye
you