| Hi everybody, welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them. Maybe! |
| Let's get to your first question this week. First question comes from Mina. |
| Hi Mina. |
| Mina says, what's the difference between try and attempt? It seems like I can use them in the same way, but I'm not sure. |
| Nice question. Yeah, try and attempt. We're going to look at these as verbs in this answer. First, let's take a look at the word try. So to try something means to usually do something for the first time. Often we want to mimic the way someone else does something. That means we want to do something in about the same way as someone else does something. Or we decide to test something, like testing food for the first time. Here are some example sentences. Hey, try swinging the tennis racket like this. There's usually a demonstration. So we're trying to mimic the other person. Or, oh, you should try this restaurant. It's so good. So in both of these example sentences, we're asking the other person to do their best, like to mimic something or to do something in the same manner as something or someone else. Or we're asking someone to do something for the first time, usually as a recommendation, like try this restaurant or try this food, or you've got to try this and so on. So try usually refers to mimicking something, like doing something in the same way as someone else, or doing something for the first time, usually as a recommendation. Let's compare this to attempt. So again, I want to compare these two as verbs. To attempt something means to try something. Yes, this is where the confusion comes in. But to attempt something means that you are going to do your best to do an action. |
| So in my first example sentence with try, I talked about using a tennis racket, right? |
| My example sentence was try swinging the tennis racket like this. We can use attempt in the same way, but it tends to sound one more formal. And we also tend to use this a little bit more in like polite conversations. So for example, it would sound kind of unnatural to say attempt to swing the tennis racket in this way. Try sounds more like do as I do, maybe you can do it in the same way as I do. Attempt sounds much more like official, more formal, like they're going to maybe break a world record if they do this successfully, or they're going to do something that's really special in some way. |
| So some examples with attempt might sound like this. We're going to attempt to send a rocket to the moon. Or we attempted to break the sales record last year. So these uses of attempt are in kind of more formal situations, they're kind of more serious situations. And it's less about just testing something out for the first time. It's more about using a lot of effort in order to achieve something. So there's some kind of goal and you want to achieve that goal. With try on the other hand, it's more like just do it once, see how it goes. Make an effort to do something. If you fail, it's not a big problem. On the other hand, with attempt, it sounds more like there's something on the line, something serious is going to happen. So that's kind of the main idea that I want to communicate when comparing these two as verbs, try and attempt. |
| But I do want to also add that attempt can also be used as a noun and it is sometimes used in this way in exactly the same way that we use it as a verb. So for example, they made a great attempt to send a rocket into space, or they made an excellent attempt to break the sales record. So we can also use attempt as a noun, but it has kind of the same feeling of being kind of official, more serious, like there's lots of effort and planning and time that goes into something. With try, it's much more casual. It's much more like a recommendation or like you're just kind of giving something a shot for the first time. So I hope this helps you understand the differences between try and attempt. |
| Thanks very much for sending this question along. |
| Okay, let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from DJIBRIL, I'm not sure how to say your name. |
| Hi! DJIBRIL says, what does pillow talk mean? For example, people actually pillow talk or I don't do pillow talk. |
| Nice question. |
| Yeah. Pillow talk is kind of a cute phrase. So imagine in this situation when you're using pillow talk, that you are laying your head on a pillow and talking to someone. That's the idea with pillow talk. So pillow talk is usually used in romantic situations, like you are sitting in your bed or you're laying in your bed with someone that you are very close to romantically and you're talking about something you're having a cute conversation or romantic conversation and saying nice things to each other. This is sometimes referred to as pillow talk. So this is because you are laying on a pillow and talking to each other. So this is kind of a cute way to talk about these types of conversations. So here are a couple of super quick examples of pillow talk in a sentence. No more pillow talk. Let's go to sleep. Or we had a good time and the pillow talk was really, really fun. There was some pillow talk in the morning and then we went to breakfast. So that's the idea with pillow talk. It's a conversation that you have with someone you're very close to while you're laying in bed. |
| This expression does have kind of a little bit of an old fashioned feel. I feel that it's not so much used today. I mean, you might hear people using it from time to time. And I think it's probably used in movies as well. But pillow talk, that phrase refers to having a very close and intimate conversation with someone while in bed at the same time. |
| So I hope that this helps answer your question. |
| Okay, great. Let's move on to the next question. |
| Next question comes from Mehran. |
| Hi Mehran. Mehran says, what is the difference between "it sounds" and "it seems?" |
| Nice question. We've talked about similar themes a couple of times here and there. |
| Let's break this down. So it sounds versus it seems. We use these to make a guess about something. So a key hint here with it sounds is the ear. Yeah. So we are getting information in our ear. Based on that information, we make a guess about something. So for example, if your friend is talking about this new apartment, they love this new apartment, they want to rent it or buy it or something, you might say, wow, that sounds good. Or if someone is telling you about an amazing dish they had at a restaurant, you might say, wow, that sounds like a great time. So in both of these situations, it's information you are getting with your ears. So we say it sounds good. You can also use this in negative situations. |
| Like for example, if you're sitting in a restaurant and you hear a fight happening outside, you might say, oh, that sounds like a fight or whoa, it sounds like something is happening out there. Again, you're using your ears to get information, right? So you can use it sounds to express your guess based on that information you got with your ears. On the other hand, seems, it seems is a little bit more flexible. So you might use it seems when you just kind of generally have a feeling about some person. So for example, if your coworker is really upset one day and they're not talking to you very much, and you notice this a little bit, you might say, he seems really upset. Is he okay? So you're not really using just your eyes or just your ears or anything like that. But you want to express some kind of guests you get based on the situation generally. He seems upset. Is he okay? Or for example, if you go to an again, a restaurant, and maybe the prices are a little bit higher than you expect, you might say, this seems expensive. I'm not sure. Does this seem normal to you? So seem is much more flexible. It's used kind of more generally, we didn't get information with just our eyes or just our ears. It's more like a feeling we're expressing kind of this guest based on a feeling. So that's what we use. It seems and it sounds to do. I've already talked in this series a little bit about the expression it looks and as you might be able to guess, we use it looks for information we get with our eyes. So you might use all of these in conversation. It looks it sounds and it seems we use all of them to make guesses and to express those guesses based on the information that we receive. |
| So I hope that this helps answer your question. Thanks very much for sending it along. |
| 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 time. Bye! |
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