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Hi, everybody.

Welcome back to ask Alicia the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them.

Maybe first question this week comes from Nagar Juna hina Gardena Nagar, Juna says.

What is the difference between being and having?

Okay, let's start with the word having we use the word having in set expressions that use the verb have, for example, I'm having a good time or I'm having trouble with this.

He's having a shower at the moment.

Can he call you back?

Okay, so then being has a lot more uses than having we use being to talk about temporary conditions.

We can use this before adjectives keep in mind that when we use being before adjectives, we're using it to describe something that's temporary in cases where we use the same adjective without being, it's describing something that is a regular condition.

So let's compare these two sentences.

He's weird.

He's being weird.

The first sentence he's weird is a simple, present, tense sentence.

There's no being here that shows us that weird is a regular condition, so he's usually weird.

He's always weird.

The second sentence, though he's being weird, uses being in the progressive tense, so that shows us it's a temporary condition.

It means at this moment he's weird on Lee this moment, So usually he's not weird, but for right now he is.

So when you see being used before adjectives in this way, it's referring to this temporary state or this temporary condition so we can use being before and noun as well.

But we use it to talk about an ongoing conditions, such as our job.

We want to talk about, like this state of being something that's like, always like the same for us.

That's usually our job or something that's unchanging.

That's a regular condition for us, so we can make sentences that have the same meaning that just use be in different ways.

For example, is being an artist difficult?

And is it difficult to be an artist?

Both of these sentences use the verb to be Ah, the 1st 1 uses being and just refers to the ongoing condition of an artist.

So is it difficult to be an artist and is being an artist difficult?

Those have the same meaning.

They're just slightly different grammatical structures.

We can also use being before verbs.

When we do this, we tend to use it in passive voice, and we use verbs in the past.

Participle form.

When we do this in present tense.

It's referring to an action that is ongoing Now when we're talking about past tense situations, it's referring to an action that was continuing in the past, so unfinished action in the past.

Sometimes there will be an interruption that we can see in the sentence later in the sentence.

But in some cases it's just referring to an unfinished action.

For example, present tense.

We are being watched.

My lunch is being eaten by someone else.

So these show ongoing unfinished actions that maybe we can see or we know about.

But they're continuing, so we can use being to talk about those so we use, have or having in the progressive form in set expressions that use have 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 Faisal Sol.

Say it hi fi saw.

Ah, Faisal says, How can I talk very quickly in English?

Um, don't worry so much about speaking quickly or like a CE fast as you possibly can, like everybody speaks at a pace that's natural and comfortable for them.

But if you want to work on improving the smoothness of your speech, something that you might try is just reading text out loud.

So something that you can do to practice is fine, like an interesting news article or maybe a blogger or even a short story to read.

Ah, something that's got a little bit of length to it.

You don't want to read just tweets.

Ah, but something that you can read that you can follow along with practice reading this out loud.

So don't just read in your mind.

Practice saying the words and connecting the words toe one another so you can do this first.

Like slowly.

That's fine.

It's fine to read slowly at first, but then come back to the same article.

Practice reading that again like later in the week or a couple days later and practice making the sounds a little bit faster.

So do this.

A couple times until you're comfortable with the grammar points until you're comfortable with the vocabulary words.

And then when you're fine, you can move on to another article, challenge yourself with another article that uses different grammar points, different words and so on.

Something that I find interesting and fun kind of to do when I practice this way is to try to take recordings of myself.

So maybe on one day I'll practice for like an hour will study for an hour or something.

And at the end of my practice session, I will record myself and then I can listen to or watch the recording later and see maybe what parts weren't so good or what parts I was good at.

Then at my next practice session, I could do the same thing and compare it to my first practice session.

After a few weeks of this, then I can look back at my first practice session compared to my last practice section, our session rather and see how much I've improved.

So this is a really good way.

At least I've found to kind of track progress.

So this is something that could maybe help you as you try to improve your rate of speech.

So again, don't worry so much about speaking superfast like it's going to sound unnatural if you're just pushing yourself to speak super quickly all the time.

So just try to find a comfortable pace that allows you to communicate clearly and smoothly.

So I hope that this helps you.

Thanks very much for the question.

All right, let's move on to your next question.

Next question comes from Yusof.

Hi, Eusoff.

Use off says, How can I politely ask my teacher if it's okay to exit the classroom?

If you would like to leave your classroom, you can say something like, May I leave the room or can I leave the room?

So some people are really strict about the difference between May and can.

Historically, May has been used to ask for permission.

Can has been used to talk about possibility or ability.

Rather Ah, so if you want to be super strict, May is better.

But May could sound a little bit more polite, so may I leave The room is okay.

It's probably a good idea to include the reason you would like to leave the room, for example, May I go to the restroom or may I go to the office or may I go to the health center?

I don't feel well.

So if you want to include a reason you can do that, May I go to some place?

So this is how you would politely ask your teacher if it's okay to exit the classroom.

I hope that this helps you.

Thanks very much for the question.

Let's move on to your next question.

Next question is from Artemis.

Um hired me, um, Artemis and says Hi, Alicia isn't required to put the indefinite article in front of an adjective that follows an uncountable known, for example, hot milk or neat writing or good education.

Thanks.

Ah, no.

In most cases, actually using the indefinite article in this way would be incorrect to refresh everybody.

The indefinite article is a or an, and we use indefinite articles before, accountable now nes in the singular form.

But I do want to talk a bit about these examples that you've introduced.

The first example that you introduced was the phrase hot milk.

So the only way that I can think of that we would use an indefinite article before an expression like this, is it?

Hot milk is a menu item.

You go to a restaurant or coffee shop and hot milk is on the menu.

And when you order you say, Ah, hot milk, please.

Or one hot milk, please.

In that case, it's okay.

The reason for this is because hot milk as a set phrase is understood as one unit.

So even though milk is an uncountable now, yes, we understand hot milk is like one mug or is one cup of something like that's one item I can order.

In that case, using the indefinite article is okay.

It's natural.

It's much better, in fact, than saying, Can I have some hot milk?

Which sounds very weird there.

In that case, when we're ordering something, we understand hot milk to be one units like one cup one glass.

In that case, fine, no problem.

So another example of this might be it like a bakery.

If you go to the bakery and you'd say I'd like a sour dough.

Bread, please.

So, in that case, sour dough bread is understood to be one unit, one type of bread, like a menu item in that case?

Fine, no problem.

Your second example.

Your second example was about the expression neat writing.

So this is one that I would not use an article before, I would say in some very rare, very uncommon cases, especially in like formal or maybe religious texts.

Some people would use the word writing to refer to like a script, to refer to a text using writing.

In this way, to refer just two written text sounds quite formal.

So in today's English, we would probably just say a neat piece of writing.

We would not use the indefinite article in this case.

Finally, then your last example was the expression good education.

So the reason that this one is a little bit tricky is because we have an idiomatic expression to get an education to get an education means to receive education.

But in this idiom we used the article.

We used the indefinite article and before education, so because this is an idiomatic expression, it's a set expression.

We preserve that indefinite article and just move it in front of good.

So in your example, good education, we could say to get a good education that would be fine in that case because it's an idiom and because it uses an indefinite article.

Originally, we keep it there.

Some examples that use this idiom.

She got a good education at her university.

It's important that you get a good education.

Okay, so in some, if you're looking at adjective uncountable noun phrases that are understood as a unit, it's okay to use an indefinite article.

And it's okay to use an indefinite article when the uncountable now is part of an idiom.

So I hope that this helps answer your question.

Thanks very much.

Okay, let's move on to your next question.

Next question comes from Takuji Sasaki Moto.

Hi, Takuji.

Takaji says hi, Alicia.

Please teach me how to use, you know, in conversation.

Okay, depending on the positioning in the sentence and how we feel when we say it.

Meaning how our voice feels when we say it.

It can have slightly different meanings When we position, you know, at the beginning of a sentence, it feels a little bit like, by the way.

So for example, you know there's a three day weekend coming up or, you know, I have a big bonus coming in this summer.

So in these sentences, it means like by the way and from the tone of my voice, it's like there's something exciting.

There's some exciting new information I want to share their.

You know, if we position, you know, at the end of a sentence, it tends to sound like a question, and we use it to, like, get agreement from people around us.

So we're like talking about a difficult situation, and we're trying to get agreement from the people around us.

For example.

I don't want to upset my parents, you know, Or I'm just not ready to move to a new city, you know?

So in those cases we use, you know, to get listener agreement.

So we're saying, you know, as like, a short version of Don't you know what I mean?

Or do you understand what I mean?

So you can think of, you know, used in that way with that upward intonation to be looking for, like confirmation.

So that's actually a pretty good rule.

If you hear you know, used with that upward question intonation, it's probably a good hint that that's looking for agreement.

The speaker is looking for agreement if you hear it with that downward intonation, you know, it's probably sharing some new information that, by the way, feel so I hope that this helps you.

Thanks very much for the question.

Okay, so that's everything that I have for this week.

Thank you.

As always for sending your questions.

Remember, you can send your questions to me in English Class one a one dot com slash ask hyphen Alicia, Of course, if you liked this video, please don't forget to give it a thumb's up.

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Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alicia and I Will See You again next week.

Bye bye.

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