| Five-zero, 50. Episode 50 of Many Questions from the Internet. That's what I should have called this show, Many Questions from the Internet. |
| 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 mouaad guitoun. Hi, mouaad. mouaad says, "Hi, Alisha. My question, what is the difference between 'perhaps' and 'maybe?'" "Perhaps" sounds more formal. I use it now and then when I want to sound a little bit softer than usual. I think that you're contrasting this "perhaps" with "maybe." Please, be careful. "May be" with a space is different from "maybe." We use "maybe" in conversations. For example, "Are you going to go to the party later? Maybe." Or, "Is he coming to dinner? Maybe." Or, the way that I start this series, maybe, like I might answer your questions. Maybe, I'll answer your questions. I don't know. "Perhaps" sounds much more formal than that. If I started this video with "I'll answer your questions, perhaps," it doesn't sound quite the same. It sounds formal, a bit softer too. But "may be" reflects a possibility. "This may be the correct restaurant," or "This may be the right textbook." Be careful in your speech and in your writing. "Maybe" and "may be" have different purposes, but generally speaking, "perhaps" and "maybe," the only difference there is that "perhaps" is more formal, "maybe" is more casual. I hope that helps you. Thanks very much for the question. Let's get to your next question this week. |
| Next question comes from Sarah. Hi, Sarah. Sarah says, "What's the difference between 'would have' and 'would have been?' How do we use this in a sentence?" This follow the same root pattern, "would have" plus a past participle verb. The past participle form of "be" is "been." When we use "would have" with a verb other than "be," we're using a verb, so that means there's an action. "I would have come if I had had time," or "I would have helped you but I had to take care of a family emergency," for example. We're following "would have" with another past participle verb form. When we're using "would have been," we're talking about a potential state. For example, a job, or maybe it's some other adjective phrase you use that reflects a person's condition. "She would have been fired if the project failed," for example, or "We would have been dead if you hadn't saved us," something like that. I hope that that helps you. Thanks very much for the question. Let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from DarkDelphin834. Hi again, DarkDelphin. DarkDelphin says, "what's the difference between 'inspiring' and 'inspirational?'" Good question. "Inspiring" is used for something that causes us to feel that excitement. We are motivated and we want to do something. That's inspiring. "It was an inspiring speech." "It was such an inspiring work." Something that causes us to feel motivated. "Inspirational," however, is used to describe something that is intended to inspire. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but its aim is to inspire. For example, "The university hired an inspirational speaker for the event," or "I read a list of inspirational quotes today." Something that aims to inspire is inspirational. Something that causes us to feel that motivation is inspiring. I hope that that helps you. Thanks for the question. Let's move along to your next question. |
| Next one comes from Carla. Hi, Carla. Carla says, "Hi, I'm from Argentina and next month I'm going to live in Australia for a couple of months. What kind of advice do you have to give me to start talking?" Well, it depends on what you're going to do. If you're going to be a university student, you can try to find other international students in your university. There are often university groups or meetups for international students where people can meet and chat and share their experiences. If you're not going to a university, you can look for similar community groups. The website, meetup.com, is sometimes a really good resource where you can find people interested in international exchange. You might look for that or other international exchange groups in the place where you're going to live. Third is just my personal favorite, find your hobby in the place where you're going. If you already enjoy doing that thing, just try to do it in English. Then, you can listen to the vocabulary words the way people speak about your hobby. You can think about those after you take your lesson or after you participate in the activity, and maybe you can try to work on those, study those so that you're more prepared for the next time you take the lesson. Those are three, maybe, ideas. Fourth, perhaps, I don't know how old you are, but if you're old enough to go to a bar or a music venue or something like that, that can also be a really great way to meet people and to feel relaxed when talking to people too. I hope that one of those tips helps you. Enjoy your trip to Australia. Thanks very much for the question. Let's move along to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Sami. Hi, Sami. Sami says, "How do I know when to use 'as' or 'like?'" I talked about this in one of the early episodes of this series, maybe Episode 3. Anyway, to review, we use "like" when we follow the expression with a simple noun phrase. When you're trying to decide, "should I use 'like' or 'as' here," look at the part that comes after, that kind of space in your word. If it's just a simple noun phrase, use "like." If you're using a clause with a verb in it, use "as." Some examples, "My neighbor's cat sounds like a monster," or "Recently, I sleep like a baby." In both of those example sentences, the part after "like" is just a simple noun phrase. There's no verb there. "Our neighbors care for our son as if he were their own child," "The police treated her as if she were the one that robbed the bank." In both of these sentences, you can see that after "as," there's a clause that includes a verb. In both cases, it's "were" but when you use something like this you can use "as" instead of "like." I should also say that native speakers often make mistakes with this. In American English, we tend to rely more on "like" and not think so much about "as," but this is the rule, the generally accepted rule for it right now. I hope that that helps you. You can check out the other episode for some more examples. Hope that helps. Thanks very much for the question. |
| That's everything that I have for you 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. I will see you again next week. Bye-bye! |
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