| Hi, everybody! Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them, maybe! |
| First question this week comes from Ali Reza. |
| Hi again, Ali! |
| Ali says, “Hi Alisha. What’s the difference between where have you been and where were you?” |
| There’s not a big difference here. If you’ve been waiting for someone for a long time like you expected someone to be at a place like in a meeting or maybe a restaurant or a cafe and you have been waiting for a long time, you might use “where have you been” to mean where were you from this point in the past until now, like I expected to meet you. So we might use “where have you been” in a case like that. |
| We might use “where were you” in a situation where we’re asking about a finished situation or something that’s done. It happened in the past. Like for example, if you missed a class one day, you are supposed to go to school, but you’re sick and you go to class the next day, your classmate could say, “Where were you yesterday?” So, that sounds like yesterday something happened and they want to know about that situation at that point in time only. So this is a little bit different from “where have you been” which means like there was some expectation that you would be there and you were not. |
| So, in some cases, you can use both, yes, like, for example, if you are late for a meeting and your co-worker asked, “Where have you been?” Like you’re an hour late. You could use that or the co-worker might say like, “Where were you? You’re an hour late.” Those are some cases like where it’s kind up to the speaker to decide a little bit, but generally, if someone has been expecting you for a period of time, they’ll probably use the “where have you been” pattern. If it’s just a past action, a past situation, it’s over, it’s done, you might use the “where were you” pattern, instead. So, I hope that this helps you. Thanks for the question. Okay, let’s move on to our next question. |
| Next question comes from Shoe. |
| Hi, Shoe! |
| Shoe says… |
| “Hi, Alisha. Your lessons are helpful.” |
| Cool. |
| “My question, which one is correct; most of the movie takes place in LA or most of the movies take place in LA?” |
| Nice question. Actually, both sentences are correct and they have very different meanings. So, let’s take a look. |
| The first one, “Most of the movie is set in LA” means the majority of this movie only takes place or happens in LA. With the plural, “Most of the movies take place in LA,” it means, most movies in this specific group happen in LA. |
| So to give an example of this, let’s imagine like a movie series. There are three movies in a series and the first two movies, movies 1 and 2, take place in LA and in San Francisco a little bit. Movie number 3 takes place in New York City. So, when we want to talk about movie 1, for example, we could say, “Most of the movie takes place in LA, so that means the majority of the movie number 1 happens in LA, not all of it because a little bit happens in San Francisco, but the majority of the movie happens in LA, so we say “most of,” the majority of. “Most of the movie takes place in LA.” |
| If, however, we want to talk about the series, these three movie series and we want to talk about where the series happens, we could say, “Most of the movies take place in LA.” So that means most of the movies, meaning two of the three movies are set mostly in LA. So that means, movies 1 and movies 2 are mostly in LA. Movie 3 is in New York City, so it’s in a totally different place. So in that case, we’re talking about a group of movies. Most of the movies in this group, in this series, in this case take place in LA. |
| So both of your original example sentences are totally correct, yes, but they just have very different meanings. So, think about it. Are you talking about one specific movie and what things are happening in that movie or are you talking about a group of movies? So this example is just about movies, yes, but you can apply the same idea to many other situations too, 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 Angel. |
| Hello again, Angel. |
| Angel says… |
| “Hi, Alisha and team! Could you please explain the meaning of the word whatsoever.” |
| Sure, okay. “Whatsoever” means “at all” or “of any kind.” So you could replace “whatsoever” in a sentence with “of any kind” and it would still make sense. We tend to use this a lot in negative situations like when we’re saying you cannot do something. So, it’s used a lot for like rules or policies or whatever. |
| For example… |
| “Students may use no devices whatsoever.” |
| “He gave no hints whatsoever about the new product.” |
| “We had no help whatsoever with our homework.” |
| So, in each of these example sentences, we could replace “whatsoever” with “of any kind” and it would still make sense. So again, this is not so commonly used in everyday speech because it’s used a lot to talk about policies and rules and it kind of sounds a little bit on the formal side, a little bit. But if you’re not ever not sure, just try replacing “whatsoever” with “of any kind” and see if it makes sense. So that’s what “whatsoever” means. I hope that it helps you. Thanks for the question. Okay, let’s move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Saidzoda Tohir. |
| Hello, Saidzoda! |
| Saidzoda says… |
| “Hi, Alisha! Can I learn English with lyrics from songs?” |
| Yes, to some degree, sure. We get this question every once in a while, so here are a few reminders. First of all, please remember that the lyrics to songs may not always be grammatically correct. While yes, we can communicate ideas and we can communicate feelings through songs, songs do not always use perfect grammar. |
| Second, keep in mind that in many songs, there are like slang vocabulary words. There’re inappropriate vocabulary words or offensive vocabulary words used. Also, the vocabulary words by one artist or by one singer may not be used in everyday speech very much or may not be used in the people like in conversation with the kinds of people you are used to speaking with. |
| So, for example, if you really like, I don’t know, country music or if you really like rap music, but a lot of the people that you talked to really like pop music or rock music or something like that, you might find that like, they don’t use the same words or they’re not commonly like using the kinds of expressions that your favorite singers are using, so that’s something else to keep in mind. |
| Another thing to think about is the rhythm. So in songs, it’s great, it’s very important to have a certain rhythm, so that people can enjoy music, but this is very different in many cases from the way that we actually speak in everyday life. So, if you can understand a song, that’s great, but that doesn’t mean that you can apply the same rhythm when you’re speaking, so like rap for example. Most people don’t speak in the same way as they sing or when they perform like rap songs, so that’s another thing to keep in mind. |
| Finally, remember that even if you can fluently sing a song, it doesn’t mean that you can fluently communicate in English. So maybe, you can remember all the words to your favorite song, that’s great, that’s fun. It’s a great study tool, a great motivator for sure, but that doesn’t mean that you can automatically use all of those words or you can communicate well in English with those things that you’ve learned. They’re kind of like supplements. They’re like extra bonuses for your study. So don’t use only song lyrics, like that could be really helpful. They can help you to identify with culture and make friends and stuff, but I would suggest maybe using that a little bit, using lyrics from songs a little bit and it’s important to keep those reminders in mind that I talked about too. So, I hope that this helps you and good luck with your studies. Okay, let’s move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Maxime. |
| Hi, Maxime! |
| Maxime says… |
| “Hi, Alisha! How do I use regardless and regardless of? Thanks.” |
| Nice question. We use regardless at the beginning or at the end of a sentence. You may also see it used to like connect to ideas in the middle of a sentence. |
| Some examples… |
| “Well, I left my phone at home. Regardless, I’m going to enjoy my day.” |
| “Our team is under a tight schedule. Regardless, everyone is happy.” |
| “I see you’ve prepared a lovely meal! I have to leave, regardless.” |
| On the other hand, we use “regardless of” before a noun phrase. |
| “Regardless of the manager’s decision, I think our team did a great job.” |
| “We should respect other people, regardless of their race.” |
| So, “regardless of” is used before a noun phrase. “Regardless” without “of” typically comes at the beginning or at the end of a sentence. I hope that this helps you. Thanks very much for the question. |
| Okay, that is everything that I have for this week. Thank you, as always, for sending your questions. Remember, you can send them to me at EnglishClass101.com/ask-alisha. Thanks very much for watching this week’s episode of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next week. Bye-bye! |
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