| Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them, maybe. |
| First question this week comes from MAT. Hi, MAT. MAT says, “What is the difference between 'to push,' 'to thrust,’ and 'to shove?' And what is the difference between 'stop' and 'to halt?'" Thanks. Okay, let's look at the first group. So, "to push" is the most general of these three verbs. "To push" can be very gentle, it can also be very strong. It just depends on how you use it in the sentence. So, we can use this to talk about people, to talk about objects, anything is fine. We can push or be pushed. There are many different ways to use this. This is a very general verb. Some examples, "Someone pushed me on the train this morning." "Push this button to call the elevator." |
| The next verb, "thrust" is like "push," yes, but we use "thrust" for usually like one kind of strong pushing motion in a very specific directions. So, there’s like a specific goal or a specific target place. So, this often has kind of an image of like a quick like pushing motion, a quick strong pushing motion. So, some examples, "The attacker thrust the knife into his victim’s stomach." "She thrust the coffee into my hand before the meeting." |
| Okay, so the third verb here is "to shove." We use "shove" to mean like roughly push. We can use this for people and for objects as well, but we use it when like we want to move something out of the way quickly or like we don't really care what happens to that other thing. So, this word is like the roughest word in the group. So, we're not really moving it in like a specific direction, we don't really have a goal, it's just something that's in the way. Some examples of this might be, "Someone shoved me on the train this morning," or "Is my bag in the way? Just shove it over there." So that means like just roughly push it out of the way. So, in recap, "to push" is the most general word here, "thrust" is like a strong push towards a specific goal, and "to shove" is like a rough push but there's not really a goal for it. |
| Regarding your second question, the difference between "stop" and "halt," "stop" is the word that's used in everyday English. "Halt" was used in Old English. We don't use this word very much now. We use halt in maybe very formal situations or perhaps in like military situations like "to halt and attack on someone." So, that's a situation you might see halt used in, so if you like watching like horror movies for example, you might see the word "halt" used. But in everyday English, we use "stop." So, I would suggest using a "stop" in most situations. "Halt" is quite specific. I hope that this helps you. Thanks very much for the question. Okay, let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Ezequel. Hello, Ezequel. Ezequel says, "What does it mean 'something, something, something out?'" This depends on the verb, so this question I believe is about like verb plus "out." So, something plus "out." So, let's take a look at a few common examples of verbs that are paired with out. "Help out" means to give someone help or to assist someone in doing something. For example, "My friends helped out with my party this weekend." Another example, "kick out," to be removed from a store or a restaurant. "I got kicked out of a club last night." "To pass out" means to fall asleep after being very tired. "My brother passed out in the car on the way home." Another example is "walk out," to walk out means to leave a gathering or an event usually because of a problem at the event. For example, "The CEO walked out of the meeting, I was shocked." One more is to "jump out." So, to jump out means to suddenly appear. For example, "My cat jumped out at me when I got home." So, as you can see depending on the verb used something, something-plus-out can have many different meanings. It's a matter of memorizing each one of these separately. So, I hope that these lists gets you started and keep an eye out for other verbs that can be paired with "out." Thanks very much for this question. Okay, let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Rodrigo. Hello, Rodrigo. Rodrigo says, "How do you pronounce these words 'Thai,' 'tight,' 'tigh,' 'tie?'" Okay, so first, "Thai," T-H-AI. So, T-H is not pronounced as /th/ sound, there's no /th/ sound here, Thai as in "Thailand." The second word that you have here is T-I-G-H-T, tight, tight. This has exactly the same pronunciation as "Thai" T-H-A-I but it just uses /t/ sound at the end of the word, tight, tight. So, yes, there's G-H here but it is silent. It has an interesting spelling. The next thing that you introduce was T-I-G-H, but this is not actually a word, this is just the first set of letters from the word "tight." So, don't worry about this, but yes the pronunciation would be "tigh." Finally, T-I-E, the last word you introduced is just tie, tie. So, all of these, yes, they all do have different spellings but they all produce the long "I" sound. So, I hope that this helps you understand the pronunciations of these words. Thanks very much for the question. Okay, let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Jayasurya. Hello, Jayasurya. Jayasurya says, "What is the meaning of the following questions, one, 'Have you been drinking?' Two, 'Have you drunk?' Three, 'Did you drink?' I'm very confused especially with the first one?" Yeah, nice question. So, the first example is a common question that we use when we want to express anger because someone has been drinking alcohol or when we want to tease someone to joke with someone about drinking alcohol. We always use, "Have you been drinking?" like when we want to make a joke. Or when we're angry we say, "Have you been drinking?" in that tone of voice. So, this is a very like commonly understood expression to be about alcohol. We don't say, "Have you been drinking alcohol?" or "Have you been drinking beer?" "Have you been drinking wine?" We don't specifically say that, we just say, "Have you been drinking?" And we understand that this means alcohol. |
| The second sentence that you introduced, "Have you drunk?" This is something that we would not say, this is the least common of the three sentences that you sent along in your question. "Have you drunk?" is not something we would use. We might include some like drink named after this, like "Have you drunk beer today?" or "Have you drunk wine today?" But this is really not something an American English speaker would use. We would ask, "Have you been drinking?" instead. So, "Have you drunk beer?" or "Have you drank wine before?" maybe, or "Have you drunk this alcohol before?" or "Have you drink milk before?" I suppose you would say that but this is not something that we generally use to talk about drinking alcohol. |
| Your third sentence though, "Did you drink?" This is possible yes, "Did you drink?" just a simple as past tense question. But, we would probably include some more specific information. So, we might say like, "Did you drink," like if we're surprised that someone drank alcohol earlier. But, again, in most situations, we just ask, "Have you been drinking?" the first question. If you want to ask specifically like, "Did you drink beer?" "Did you drink wine?" "Did you drink cocktails?" If you want to ask a specific question about something the listener consumed or drank then you can ask this question, "Did you drink something?" So, it's like a yes or no question. "Did you drink beer?" "Yes." "Did you drink wine?" "Yes." So, using that to ask a pinpointed question, great. But using, "did you drink" to talk about like past acitivites that day is not as natural as your first one. So, I hope that this helps you. Thanks very much for the question. Okay, let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Carolina. Hi, Carolina. Carolina says, "What is the difference between 'just,' 'yet,' and 'already' and what kind of situations can I use these words in?" Okay. We use "just" for actions very recently completed or for actions that are going to be completed in the very near future. For example, "I just finished my homework." "We're just about to eat lunch." We use "yet" for actions that are expected. So, these can be for things that have not happened but that we expect our going to happen in the future. For example, "I haven't finished my homework yet." "Have you eaten lunch yet?" As you can see the "yet," usually comes at the end of the sentence. You might see "yet" used in the middle of the sentence but that doesn't happen so much in everyday English now. That's a little bit old fashion filling. So, in today's English, we use "yet" at the end of the sentence. |
| Finally, "already" is used for actions that we expect, yes, but for actions that are finished, they're done, they're complete. So, we use "already" at the end of a sentence or before the verb in the sentence but something to keep in mind is that if your sentence is very, very long, it can be a little bit confusing to put "already" at the end of the sentence. So, if it's a long sentence, put "already" before your verb. Another thing to point out is that with "yet" and "already," these are commonly used with perfect tense expression. So, that could be present perfect tense or past perfect tense. For example, "I've already finished my homework," "Have you already eaten lunch?" So, a common question then is, "What's the difference between have you eaten lunch yet," and "Have you already eaten lunch?" And the answer is not much, honestly. I would say that if you're using a "yet" pattern, the "Have you eaten lunch yet?" It might sound like the speaker wants to invite you a little bit. If the speaker is using, "already," like, "Have you already eaten lunch?" It might sound like maybe the speaker wants to do something else, like they want to talk to you or have a meeting with you, maybe. So, it's kind of up to the situation, it's up to the speaker. If you want some more information about this, please make sure to check out the whiteboard videos that we have on this channel. I've made some whiteboard videos about the word "just," and I've also talked about using "yet," as well. So, please have a look at those for some more information. Okay, so I hope that that helps answer your question. Thanks very much for sending it along. |
| Okay, so that is everything that I have for you guys this week. Thank you as always for sending your questions. Remember, you can 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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