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Hi, everybody.

My name is Alicia.

Welcome back to know your verbs.

In this episode, we're going to talk about the verb serve.

Let's get started.

So let's start with the basic definition of this burb.

The basic definition of to serve is to provide with a service, especially food or drinks.

Examples.

Breakfast is served at eight.

Have you been served, sir?

Now let's look at the congregations of this for present serve serves past served past participle served progressive serving.

So now let's talk about some additional meanings for this verb.

In this lesson, the first additional meaning for this lesson is to work for or to perform duties, especially for the military.

Let's look at some examples.

She has served as a judge for 10 years, so that's she has.

She's served as a judge for 10 years.

He is serving two years in a military program, so in these examples were talking about some kind of duty.

It's often like a public works like a civic work, so that means a government worker.

Military worker.

Ah, maybe like police officer, we use serve because it has kind of the feeling of, like, a social responsibility about it.

So there's some kind of, like community duty that you are performing.

So in these examples of, I included sentences relating to judges and military workers.

So, like I said, you could use it for police like he served as an officer for five years, for example.

So this is some kind of like community service worker we used served to talk about their work, often with a period of time.

So the second additional meaning is to help achieve something or to have a specific purpose.

So let's look at some examples.

This one's kind of an abstract meaning.

Let this accident serve as a warning to you.

This success should serve as a reminder of what can happen when you work hard.

So in these cases, I've used the verb served before in the first example, serve as a warning and in the second example, serve as a reminder.

So that means the subject of the sentence is acting, as were the subject of the sentence has the purpose of being a warning or has the purpose of being a reminder for something else.

So in the first example, I said, Let this accident serve as a warning, meaning the accident, whatever it is, should act as a warning for the future.

So but we use serve to mean act as something.

In the second example sentence, we see the same thing.

This success should serve as a reminder.

So meaning this success, something successful happened.

And that should act as a reminder of what can happen.

So instead of saying act as or that should act as we just use the verb served.

So that means it has the purpose of being a reminder.

So this is quite a broad meaning, but you can see how serve means have a purpose or help to achieve something.

Okay, let's go to the third, meaning the third additional meaning for this verb, which is to spend time in prison to spend time in prison.

We use the verb served for this examples.

She served six months in prison for her crimes.

He's serving three years for breaking and entering, So in these example sentences, we see the verb served used before a time period spent in prison.

So in the first example sentence she served six months.

That means she spent six months in prison for her crimes.

So instead of saying she spent bubble block amount of time in prison, we just say she served.

That's much easier and quicker to say in the second example sentence.

It's the progressive form.

He's serving three years, which means he is now in prison.

He's now spending time in prison for breaking and entering.

In this case, so four shows the reason he's in prison so we can use serve to mean spend time in prison.

Okay, let's go onto the fourth additional meaning for this firm today.

So the fourth additional meaning is to start a game, especially a sports game of some kind with a ball or something similar, depending on what sport you're playing.

Examples.

Serena Williams serve the ball, hurry up and serve.

So serving something serving a ball, for example, is a very common way to begin a match of some kind.

So in tennis, one of the tennis players will serve the ball to start play.

We see the same thing in volleyball as well, so like we were practicing earlier, hitting the ball this way or this way to begin kind of that match that individual play.

So any sport where one team has to initiate the match or initiate the play by striking the ball or striking some, you know, object like that we can use the verb served.

It means to start play by hitting it at the other team, usually so to serve.

Interesting.

No.

So let's continue on to some variations.

For this, for the first variation is to serve someone right to serve someone right.

This is an expression that means, uh, for someone to get what they deserve.

And we often use this in negative situations, like someone who has done something bad deserve the negative consequence.

Let's look at some examples.

He lost his job, serves him right.

He stole from the company for years.

The president was impeached.

Serves him right.

So you'll notice in both of these example.

Sentences I used serves him right in the present tense, even though these air past tense situation.

So in the first example sentence, I said he lost his job a past tense expression.

He lost his job and the second sentence.

The president was impeached past tense as well, but we're using serves him right in both cases to mean right now in the present time he is getting what he deserves.

So in the present, as he is in that moment, he deserves that consequence.

So we use the present tense to do that.

So you will hear this used in present tense, actually so sometimes past tense as well, but quite commonly in present, tense to mean someone got a consequence that they deserved, and it's often a negative one.

The next variation I want to talk about is the expression if memory serves me right, if memory serves me right, so here, actually you'll see serves functions in the same way as we talked about earlier.

If memory serves me right, so meaning if memory has a purpose that is correct.

It's sort of a strange way to think of it.

But if memory serves me right means if I remember correctly, if I remember correctly this so in other words, I think I remember.

It's this information.

I think it's this.

So if my memory is correct, this examples of this if memory serves me right This is the 27th episode of this series.

The barbecue starts at five.

If memory serves me right, so there's a little bit of uncertainty there, like we're not 100% sure that were correct, but we're pretty close.

So if memory serves me right, meaning I think my memory is correct, I think it's this so you can use this if you're a little unsure.

It's quite a long phrase, but that's what it means.

So those air, a few, maybe new expressions or new ways to use the verb serve.

I hope that you got something new from this lesson.

Of course, if you have any questions, comments, or if you'd like to try to make an example sentence, please feel free to do so in the comments section below this video.

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