| Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them, maybe. |
| The first question comes from Karima. Hi, again, Karima. Karima says, "Hi, Alisha. Could you please tell me which one of these is correct if I want to emphasize an action in the past? 'I did speak to him,' or, 'I did spoke to him.'? Thanks." Yes. The correct answer here is "did speak." When we're using the word "do" for emphasis, we use "do" and then we use a simple present tense form of the verb that follows it. The verb coming after it, in this case, "speak," should not change. Your second example, "I did spoke," that would be incorrect. We don't change that second verb, we only change the verb, "do," "did" in this case. Let's look at some more examples. "She doesn't have time to meet you." "I saw her schedule. She does have time." That's a present tense example, "do," in this case, changes to does because the subject of the sentence is "she." "She does have time." "Does" emphasizes the fact that "she," in this situation has time to meet with the speaker. Let's look at one more example. "He didn't give us a key to enter the building." "But he did give us a passcode." Okay. Here, we're seeing a past tense example, in this case, "did give." "Did" is past tense, and "give" is simple present tense. The speaker here wants to emphasize something that they received. Speaker A says, "He didn't give us a key to enter the building," but Speaker B wants to point out they got something else. The speaker wants to say he did give us something else, emphasizing this other thing that was given. We can use "do" or "did," for past tense, to emphasize things in this way. You'll also notice, as I did with my intonation, we emphasize that key word with our voice too. That makes it sound much more natural. I hope that this helps answer your question about using "do" as an emphasis word. Thanks very much for sending it along. Okay. Let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Rubin. Hi, Rubin. Rubin says, "What's the difference between 'help' and 'help out'?" Okay. Let's start by talking about "help out." We use "help out" when we want to refer to one person doing something for another person to make life easier. It's like someone is assisting or aiding in someone else's life, and we can only use "help out" to talk about actions done by other people. This is a key difference with the verb "help." Because this is used only to talk about people, we can't use this for objects. That means an object cannot help out. An object cannot help me out with something. Let's look at some natural examples of using "help out." "My parents helped me out with the paperwork when I bought my first car." "Do you think you can help us out with this week's homework?" In both of these example sentences, we see the sample pattern, "help out" with noun phrase. In this case, we've seen "help me out with," or, "help us out with." Between "help" and "out," we're splitting that verb, the phrasal verb there, and we're inserting the object, who is receiving the assistance, in that case. In the first example sentence, "help me out with this thing." "Help me out with paperwork." In the second example sentence, it's "help us out with homework." The person receiving help is going in between "help" and "out" there. Help someone out with. "With" introduces that thing that the person needs assistance doing. Let's compare this, then, to the verb "help." Like "help out," we can use "help" to talk about receiving assistance for something, yes, but unlike "help out," we can also use objects with this verb. That means inanimate something. Inanimate means it doesn't move. It's just an object, like a textbook or a camera. These are things that are not people. These things can also help us. By that, I mean they make our life easier, they make our job easier or our studies easier. We can use objects with the verb, "help." Let's look at a few examples. "This textbook really helped me understand English." "My friends helped me move in to my new house." "Can you help us make dinner?" When we use the verb "help," without "out," we follow the verb "help" with the object of that verb. That means the person who is receiving assistance, the person receiving aid. Then, we follow that with the action, the thing that was assisted, or the thing that was made easier for that person. In the first example sentence, "This textbook helped me," the person receiving help, "understand English." That's the thing that was made easier in some way. In the last example sentence, a question, "Can you help us make dinner?" "Us," that's the person or the people, in this case, needing assistance. The thing they need assistance with is dinner. To help with something. Remember, you can use "help out" for people, but you can't use it to talk about things. We can use "help" to talk about people and to talk about things. I hope that this helps you understand the difference between these verbs. Thanks very much for the question. Okay. Let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Michael. Hi, Michael. Michael says, "Hi, Alisha. Could you please explain the expression, 'very next day?' What's the difference between this and 'next day?'" Yeah. We use the word "very" as an emphasis word before nouns. Let's look at a couple more examples. "Oh, it's you, the person I wanted to see." "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, and the very next day you gave it away." Little Christmas joker. "This program keeps crashing. This is the very problem I've been having." "Very" is used in these ways to show emphasis for the noun that follows it. In my first example sentence, I said, "Oh, you're the very person I've been looking for," or, "the very person I've been wanting to see." That means like you are exactly, you are just the person I wanted to see. In the second example, a lyric from a very well-known Christmas song, "the very next day," the speaker is emphasizing right away, just the next day after this thing that happened. In the third example sentence, it's like saying just or exactly, again. That's just the problem I've been having. That's the very problem I've been having. "Very" can sound a little bit formal, a little bit on the formal side. If you want to emphasize a person or a time period in this way, using "very," you can do that very simply with this word. It doesn't just mean "very," as in extremely or a lot of something. It can also have just this emphasis word, like exactly or truly, or really. I hope that this helps you understand this use of "very." Thanks very much for the question. Okay. Let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Rafael Santana. Hi, Rafael. Rafael says, "Hello. Could you please explain 'do fine' and 'to make do?' Thanks." Okay. Let's start with "do fine." We use "do fine" most commonly in the progressive tense. It's usually to respond to the question, how are you doing? I'm doing fine. We typically don't say, "Please do fine," or, "Are you doing fine?" We don't really use it in questions or to talk about ourselves in any other way other than to respond to that question, "How are you doing? I'm doing fine." That's "do fine." It's not so commonly used in everyday speech. "To make do," however, is a very interesting expression. "To make do" means to use something that's, maybe, of lower quality, even though you want something of higher quality. It means like living without or going without something that you really wished you had. Let's look at some examples of this in a sentence. "We don't have a very big budget, so we have to make do with a small team for this project." "I didn't have time to go to the store today, so for dinner I'll make do with what I have in the fridge." "My camera isn't great, but I think I can make do with it for this video project." In each of these example sentence, we see "make do with" and then we have a noun phrase. Make do with that thing, like "make do with a small team," or "make do with what's in my fridge," or, "make do with it." It's that thing that follows "make do," "make do with that thing." That's maybe a lower quality or, maybe, it's not exactly the thing that we want, but we're going to do our best with that thing. To make do with something is like to continue on even though it's not, maybe, the best or the highest quality or exactly the perfect solution. I hope that that helps answer your question. Thanks very much for sending it along. Let's move on to your next question now. |
| Next question comes from Khanh Tran. Hi, Khan. Khanh says, "Hi, Alisha. Can you explain a way to use 'no longer?' Does it sound weird if you say, 'I no longer have the ability to fulfill my responsibilities?' Thanks." Yeah. "No longer" just means not anymore. We use it for something that was true in the past, like it was true until this point, and then in the future, it's not going to be true. It's something that's not going to happen in the future. "No longer" and "not anymore" mean the same thing, but "no longer" sounds a bit more formal and we use it in a slightly different sentence structure. Let's look at some examples. "Son, we can no longer pay your rent for you." "We no longer allow pets in the building." "I no longer have to commute by car." We could change each of these sentences to use "anymore." This is probably a little bit more common in everyday speech than using "no longer." As I said, "no longer" tends to sound a bit more formal. Just keep in mind that if you want to change your sentence, you need to change the grammatical structure of your sentence. For example, "Son, we can't pay for your rent anymore." "We don't allow pets in the building anymore." "I don't have to commute by car anymore." When you're using "anymore," the "anymore" pattern, you'll notice that there's a negative that comes before the verb, and then, "anymore" comes at the end of the sentence. This is different from the "no longer" pattern where we just use "no longer" before the verb, and then there's nothing at the end of the sentence. Just remember, both of these, yes, both refer to the same thing, like something that was true in the past, that from this point forward, we'll not be true. But "no longer" sounds a bit more formal than "not anymore." It doesn't sound weird, to answer your question. No, it doesn't sound weird, but it might just sound very polite if you're just talking to someone close to you. If you're speaking with friends, I might use "anymore." I might recommend using "anymore." If it's a more formal situation, maybe you could think about using "no longer," instead. I hope that that helps answer your question. Thanks very much. |
| All right. That is everything that I have for this week. Thank you, as always, for sending your questions. Please remember to send your questions to me at EnglishClass101.com/ask-alisha. Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next week. Bye-bye! |
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