| 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 this week comes from Kyaw Nwe. |
| Hi Kyaw, I hope I said your name correctly. |
| Kyaw asked, Hi Alisha, can we use the word the before many? |
| I know the can't be used before some, many, his, her, etc. |
| But I read a book with this usage, the many significant events of Lord Buddha. |
| Can we use it like that or not? |
| Really interesting question. |
| So your question here is about the the at the beginning of this book title in this case. |
| So the title again was the many significant events of Lord Buddha. |
| So in the information that you gave before |
| if we said like the many or the some or the his or her or whatever |
| as you said, it would sound really strange and not correct to just put that by itself. |
| We can't use it like that. |
| However, when we put these words with other words |
| so in this case, like many comes before significant events |
| this many as well as significant functions as what is called a modifier in English. |
| So a modifier changes our understanding of the noun that comes after it. |
| So in this case, we actually have two modifiers. |
| In this sentence, we have many, which tells us a lot of something |
| and significant, the adjective significant, which comes before events. |
| So both of these words give us some more information about events, right? |
| So we can understand these as modifiers. |
| So in this sentence, then, the is not actually attached to many. |
| OK? |
| The is paired with a noun, right? |
| Like the dog, the cat, the food, right? |
| We put the before nouns to distinguish distinct nouns from one another, right? |
| So what happens here, and what happened in this great example that you gave us |
| is that there's a big separation between the and the noun it's attached to. |
| So actually, the is attached to the noun that is closest to it in the sentence. |
| In this sentence, that's events. |
| So we have two words between the and events. |
| We have the many significant events of the Buddha in this case. |
| So the is not actually attached to many, although that is the next word in the sentence. |
| Many is just modifying events, and significant is also modifying events. |
| So we have these two words before events. |
| Basically, we are gathering information about |
| what kind of events before we arrive at that word in the sentence. |
| So I know this is a really confusing explanation, perhaps |
| but you might see modifiers used like this a lot in English. |
| So another really good example of this is the modifier only. |
| We can use only a lot in similar situations. |
| For example, the only way you're going to the party is if you finish your homework. |
| So in that sentence, we have the followed by only, right? |
| And then we have way after that. |
| So in this case, the person is saying there's just one way to do something |
| just one way to go to the party, right? |
| But in this case, again, we have the, then only, and then the noun way, right? |
| So you will see the used before words like this, |
| but it doesn't mean that the and the modifier are attached. |
| Doesn't mean that the and many go together or the and only go together. |
| Look for the next noun in the sentence. |
| This is a super, super good tip |
| that you can use that I use as well when I review documentation. |
| Look for the next noun in the sentence and see if that makes sense. |
| So do those nouns agree, right? |
| Or rather, does the article at the beginning of the sentence in this case |
| agree with the noun that comes after it? |
| So remove any modifier. |
| So that means many or maybe only as well. |
| And then adjectives as well, just to get to that noun and see if it makes sense. |
| So in this case, we could say the events of Lord Buddha, right? |
| So that makes sense, right? |
| But if we put those modifiers back in |
| we have the many significant events of Lord Buddha, |
| right? |
| So we can use the before many and other modifiers like we talked about |
| but we just need to think about the grammar of the sentence in a slightly different way. |
| So I know that this is a little bit more of an advanced grammar topic |
| but I hope that this answers your question. |
| And if you have any other questions like this, please feel free to send those along. |
| So thanks so much for sending this super interesting question. |
| OK, let's move on to our next question for this week. |
| Next question comes from Sala Udin. |
| Hi, Sala. |
| Sala asked, what's the difference between accent and dialect? |
| OK, interesting question. |
| So an accent is a way of pronouncing words. |
| So you might pronounce vowels a certain way. |
| You might pronounce consonants in a certain way. |
| Maybe you have a certain kind of intonation in your speaking pattern. |
| Every language has different accents, right? |
| So not just English. |
| So for example, in English |
| we might have a specific kind of American accent from one part of the USA. |
| And then in a different part of the USA |
| we have another different way of speaking of pronouncing certain sounds, right? |
| So accent refers to the way that you make sounds in any language |
| the way that you are speaking the sounds, right? |
| OK, so expanding from that, then, a dialect is a way of communicating. |
| And that may include an accent. |
| So a dialect often has an accent. |
| There's some way of speaking that's, you know |
| specific to a particular area or a specific region. |
| And with dialects, there might actually be differences in grammar. |
| There might be differences in vocabulary choices as well |
| maybe in references that people use that are specific to that region. |
| So you might find that, for example, in one part of the US |
| people have a different word for something than they use in another part of the US. |
| So to give a really, really clear example of this, in some parts of the US |
| people say pop to mean fizzy soda, like maybe Coca-Cola, for example. |
| So some people say pop for that. |
| In other parts of the US, people say soda to refer to that. |
| In other parts of the US, people say coke or cola. |
| So all of these are different ways to describe the same thing. |
| So this is one like kind of very, very common example of this. |
| But in a dialect, there are many, many specific word choices |
| and there might even be changes in grammar as well. |
| Often accents are a part of a dialect, too. |
| So people might have a certain way of pronouncing words |
| and they might have special, unique words that they use only in that region. |
| So an accent can be part of a dialect. |
| And a dialect is kind of a bigger way of speaking that's not just pronunciation |
| but also words as well. |
| So I hope this makes it clear the differences between accents and dialects. |
| I'm sure that you have many in your home country as well. |
| So thanks very much for this interesting question. |
| OK, let's move on to your next question. |
| This week, next question comes from Clark. |
| Hi, Clark. |
| Clark asked, hi, Alisha, please, what is the difference between remind and remember? |
| OK, good question. |
| So let's talk about remember first. |
| When we want to recall information, we can use the verb to remember, right? |
| Like I need to remember my schedule or I just remembered I have to go to the store, right? |
| When we want to talk about recalling information |
| and when we want to talk about the condition of keeping information in our head |
| we use the word remember. |
| We use it in questions a lot, like |
| do you remember the name of that restaurant we went to last week? |
| It's like saying |
| can you recall that information or do you have that information inside your head? |
| Did you keep that information in your mind, right? |
| So when we remember something, we have it in our minds, right? |
| On the other hand |
| when we remind someone about something |
| we are trying to cause them to remember something, OK? |
| And you will see differences in the sentence structure |
| when you use the verb remember and when you use the verb remind. |
| So when we use the verb remind |
| we typically use remind followed by a person. |
| For example, please remind me to go to the store later. |
| So that's saying, please cause me to remember to go to the store later. |
| That's a really, really strange and unnatural way to say it. |
| But when we remind someone to do something |
| or when we remind someone about something, |
| we cause them to remember that thing. |
| So this is the difference between to remind and to remember. |
| As you can probably guess, when we talk about remembering things |
| we follow the verb remember with lots and lots of other information, like |
| do you remember the restaurant in my earlier example |
| I just remembered I have to do this thing, right? |
| So we can use remember a lot more flexibly |
| but when we use the verb remind, we usually use it followed by a person, like |
| did you remind your brother to go out into the backyard and clean up the leaves today? |
| Or please remind your boss to call me back, something like that. |
| So we follow remind with that person |
| which means cause that person to remember, right? |
| So maybe like make them recall that something is supposed to happen |
| or they are supposed to do something. |
| I hope that this clears up the differences between remind and remember. |
| To cause someone to remember |
| and to be able to recall or to keep the information in your head. |
| So thanks very much for an interesting question. |
| Great. |
| That is everything that I have for this week. |
| Thank you as always for sending your great question. |
| 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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