| 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 Aristotle. |
| Whoa, hello, Aristotle. |
| Aristotle says... |
| Could you please differentiate “pass time,” “pastime,” and “past time”? |
| Sure, great question! Okay. Let’s start with “pass time,” to pass time. |
| To pass time or you might also hear to pass the time means just to use time in such a way that it becomes later, slowly. So, another way to think about this could be to waste time, in some cases, or maybe just to relax. So you were doing some action in order to use some time up. |
| We use this expression when we have to wait a while before our next activity or our next appointment or when we just have no plans for the day and we’re just hanging out at the house. We can say, “I’m just passing time” or “I’m just doing this to pass the time.” |
| So this is how we use “pass time.” |
| Next, let’s talk about “pastime.” |
| So, pastime is one word. A pastime (this is a noun) refers to something you did in your childhood, like a story that you really like to read all the time or a game that you really like to play, something that you did with your family or your friends. Those things are referred to as “pastimes.” So, typically, we associate them with good memories. |
| So you could say, for example, like, “Ah, that’s one of my favorite pastimes. I loved reading that book with my family.” |
| Okay. The final question that you had was about “past time,” past time. |
| This expression means it’s beyond the time at which something was supposed to happen. So, for example, “It’s past time for lunch, we should go” or “It’s past time to start the meeting, is everything okay?” So, “past time” refers to something that is beyond an expected time. |
| So, I hope this helps answer your question. Thanks very much. |
| Okay. Let’s get to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Zakary. |
| Hi, Zakary! |
| Zakary says… |
| Hi, Alisha! Does one say "one hundred AND two" or "one hundred two," or are both correct? Also does one say "half hour" or "half an hour"? Thank you. |
| Okay. First, your question about “one hundred and two” or one hundred and three or one hundred three, whatever, both of those are fine. You can choose whichever you prefer. So, for example, in our channel name EnglishClass101, we typically say “one O one” because that’s the pattern we use for school, for college-level classes, or maybe other level classes. In those cases, the pattern we use is to read the numbers individually, “one O one.” |
| However, when you are reading any other number, you can use either pattern you prefer. “One hundred and one” is fine. “One O one” is fine. I think I probably usually say a hundred and one. That’s probably what I would say or a hundred and two. But you may hear people say “a hundred one” or “a hundred two” and drop that “and” in the middle. So, it’s up to you for that one. |
| Your second question was about “half hour” or “half an hour.” |
| This kind of depends a little bit on the person and it depends on the grammar of the sentence. So, for example, if you said something like, “Mm, this should take about a half hour,” that’s probably pretty normal in most cases, but it’s maybe not grammatically correct. You might hear people say that. If you ask, “How long will this take?” someone might respond, “Mm, probably a half hour.” But if you wanna be super grammatically correct, you could say, “This will take about a half an hour.” |
| So, it’s sort of up to you with this one. In a lot of cases, you might hear that “half hour” used, but if you’re ever not sure, I would recommend using “half an hour” in your text and in your speech. So, I hope that this answers your questions. Thanks very much! |
| All right! Onto the next one. |
| Next is from SBS. |
| Hello, SBS! |
| SBS says... |
| How do I study English with your playlists? I can't seem to find a grammar playlist. |
| Ah, okay! Perhaps, the playlist was added after you sent this question, so for anyone else who has this question or who wants to know how to study with our YouTube videos, if you check the playlist section of the EnglishClass101 YouTube Channel, you can scroll along to find some grammar playlists. So, there’s Basic English Grammar. You’ll find a lot of whiteboard lessons that you can check there, so I recommend reviewing those playlists from time to time as we update them every once in a while. |
| So, if you haven’t checked the playlist recently, please go do so, you might find some things that can help you there. Thanks for the question and I hope you find what you need. |
| Okay. Let’s move on to your next question. |
| Next is from Thinh? Thinh, Thinh, from Vietnam. |
| Hi, Thinh? I hope I said your name right. |
| Thinh says… |
| Hi, Alisha! I'm from Vietnam. I want to know the difference between "do you mind" and "would you mind?" |
| Okay, great question! “Do you mind” versus “would you mind.” |
| A lot of it can depend on the tone of voice, but generally speaking, we use “do you mind” if we’re a little bit irritated with someone or we can use “Do you mind” if we’re a little irritated with someone. For example, someone is typing very, very noisily when we’re trying to talk to someone on the phone, we might say, “Do you mind typing a little slower?” If you wanna make it sound a little more polite, you could say, “Would you mind typing a little bit slower?” |
| But if we want to communicate that feeling of irritation or annoyance, we would probably say, “Do you mind (doing this)?” If you wanna sound really aggressive, you can just say angrily, “Do you mind?!” but that sounds quite direct, so hopefully, you don’t need to use that. |
| So, “do you mind” is a way to ask someone to do something, like “Do you mind helping me with this?” or “Do you mind stopping that activity?” For me, it feels a little bit more direct to use “do you mind.” |
| When you use “Would you mind?” it sounds a little more polite in my opinion. It sounds like something you would use for a request more, like “Would you mind helping me with this?” or “Would you mind doing this for me?” So, that sounds a little bit more like a polite, kind, thoughtful request. I would use “do you mind” if I want to express a little bit of anger or a little bit of irritation with someone. |
| You might hear people use them interchangeably, but I would suggest you pay attention to the tone of voice they use when they use this expression, either expression. That will give you a good hint if you’re not sure. |
| All right! Thanks very much for your question. |
| Let’s move on to the next one. |
| Next one is from Jefferson. |
| Hi, Jefferson! |
| Jefferson says... |
| What is the difference between these: me/myself, him/himself, you/yourself, her/herself, and it/itself? |
| Good question. A little grammar review. So, let’s look at “me” and “myself” just to choose one for an example. We use me as the object of a verb, right, like, “You hit me,” for example. We use “myself” when we’re talking reflexively about something. So what does that mean? When we’re talking reflexively or when we’re using a verb reflexively, it means that the subject is also the object of the verb. So, I used “hit” in my example sentence, like “You hit me” or something like that. If I want to make this sentence a reflexive sentence or if I want to use “hit” reflexively, I would say, “I hit myself.” I would not say, “I hit me.” |
| So, in cases where your subject is also the object of the verb, you need to use these reflexive pronouns, so “itself, himself, herself.” We could use the same pattern if we want to change the subject. For example, “He hit himself.” “She hit herself.” We would not say “He hit him.” That’s a totally different sentence. That means there are two people involved. One person hits another male person, “He hit him.” So, the point is, these “myself, himself, herself,” these words, these are called reflexive pronouns and we use them when the subject and the object of the verb are the same, so I hope that this helps you. Thanks very much for the question. |
| Okay! That is everything that I have for this week. Thanks very much for sending your awesome questions, as always. Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon. Bye! |
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