| Hi, everybody! Welcome back to Ask Alisha, 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, Alisha! 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 + (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 + (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! |
| Arzu says… |
| “Hi, Alisha! 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 fifty people attended the event.” |
| “Approximately one hundred 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 fifty people attended our event.” |
| Or, “Nearly one hundred people responded to our survey.” |
| So, that means not quite fifty people attended or not quite one hundred people responded, but it was very, very close. |
| So, in sum, “approximately” and “roughly” have the same meaning, just different levels of formality. “Nearly” 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, Alisha! What tense, present or future, must follow a command clause? For example, (1) ‘Let me know what you find’ versus ‘Let me know what you will find.’ (2) ‘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 “I’ve” in these cases. |
| You should, however, use “I’ve” 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 + (past participle verb form),” you can reduce the “I have” part to “I’ve.” If you were talking about ownership of something, you cannot reduce the “I have” to “I’ve.” So yes, that is the rule in this case for reduction. |
| You might also hear the “I have” in “I have got to” reduced to “I’ve” 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 “(I’ve) 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 Raynaldi. |
| Hi, Raynaldi! |
| Raynaldi 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. “Opportunity” tends to sound more formal than “chance.” |
| We tend to use “opportunity” in cases where we have received an offer, something like a 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. Thanks very much for watching this week’s episode of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next week. Bye-bye! |
Comments
Hide