Sign up for your free lifetime account at English Class 101 dot com Hi, everybody.

Welcome back to ask Alicia the weekly Siri's where you ask me questions and I answered them.

Making me first question this week comes from Pullum Hypo Ahlam Fallen, says Kyle Alicia.

I would like to know the differences between the verb to be and to become, for example, which one is correct.

I want to be a teacher or I want to become a teacher.

Thanks both of these air.

Correct, actually.

So in this case, to be and become have the same meaning.

But become tends to sound more formal, like If you say I want to become a teacher, it sounds a bit more formal than saying I want to be a teacher.

It's also easier to say I want to be a teacher so you can use them in the same way when you're talking about becoming something else or when you're talking about something, turning into something else I want to be can be used in more casual expressions.

Another example would be like, I want to be rich someday or I want to become rich someday.

So I want to be rich.

Sounds more casual.

It's more commonly used than I want to become rich.

But they communicate the same idea.

So I hope that this helps you.

Thanks very much for the question.

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

Next question comes from Israel Diaz High Israel.

Israel says What's the difference between used to or used to and used four?

Okay, well, it kind of depends on your sentence so used to or used to.

Like I said that when I read the question.

So depending on the sentence, this word or this phrase rather can take different meanings.

So used to can mean something that you did in the past, like I used to play golf or you state pancakes for breakfast every morning.

Or I used to go to the forest to go hiking with my family every summer.

I used to do something that refers to a past activity that's no longer true.

Used to, however, talks about the purpose of something so, like this phone is used to make calls or like this camera is used to record video.

So we use used to before a verb.

So this thing is used to do that.

So that's talking about the purpose of something then used.

Four is similar.

It's also talking about purpose, but we're following the expression with a noun instead of verb.

So, like this phone is used four phone calls.

His camera is used four videos, so we're following the expression with a noun instead of a verb.

So depending on the sentence used to or used, Teoh there, spelled the same will be read differently and will have different grammatical functions used to and used.

Four have the same purpose, but we have to make slight changes to our grammar after that expression.

So I hope that this helps you understand the differences.

Thanks very much for the question.

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

Next question comes from Dongfang again.

Haidong Fund.

Ah, don't Kong says, Hi, Alicia.

I'm an English learner from China.

What does it mean when someone says, I'm not practicing the law anymore?

I heard this sentence in one of my favorite dramas called Better Call Saul.

I understand the sentence, but I'm a little confused about the word practice here.

Is this a common use?

Yeah.

This is a really nice question.

Great catch.

So practice is a very special verb that we use in certain jobs.

Certain professions.

So commonly this is doctors and lawyers that use this word.

So they use the word practice before their field of expertise, and it just means do or to be active in their practice.

So in this case, in better call Saul, it's practicing law, or I'm not practicing law.

That means I'm not actively doing like legal work right now.

I'm not active as a lawyer right now.

A doctor could say, like I've been practicing medicine for six years.

That means I've been active as a doctor for six years.

So practice here does not mean like practicing doing something.

It means actively participating in that job.

So, again, this is very specific for a couple of different jobs, like lawyers and doctors.

So very specific word.

Nice catch.

And thank you so much for this question.

Hope that helps you.

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

Next question comes from Silver Way High gin, silver wig.

Silver Way says Hi, Alicia.

What does I'm blown away mean?

Oh, yeah, Okay, I'm blown away Can mean I'm surprised or like I'm shocked.

So it's kind of it tends to be more of like a positive expression, like I'm blown away by all the questions you guys send.

Or like I was blown away by how good that dinner Waas.

Or like I was blown away when I saw that my best friend had decided to get a Mohawk.

So it's like something is surprising or shocking, or both may be, and you can actually use it for negative situations as well.

You can also use this in past tense like, Well, that blew me away.

That movie blew me away.

So just means shock.

Surprise.

Um, if something bad happens like someone is really rude, you could say like, Whoa, that person just blew me away.

Or like, I was so surprised at how rude that person waas.

So I hope that that helps you understand the phrase to be blown away.

Thanks very much for the question.

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

Next question comes from Pruthi Johnny High Proof V, Pruthi says highly show What is the difference between a lot of and a plethora of, um, plethora is kind of a formal and rarely used word.

So a plethora of something means lots and lots of something, yes, but we tend to use it for, like, extravagant situation.

So like, for example, the researchers discovered a plethora of treasures in the Egyptian Kings tomb.

We really don't use this so much in everyday speech.

It sounds too formal in most cases.

But again, if you're talking about something that's like, really kind of big and extravagant, you might use the word plethora to describe that a plethora of something.

So I hope that this helps you understand the word plethora.

Thanks very much for the question.

So that's everything that I have for this week.

Thanks.

As always for sending your questions.

Remember, you can send them to me in English Class 101 dot com slash ask hyphen Alicia.

Of course, If you like the video, please don't forget to give it a thumb's up.

Subscribe to our channel if you have not already and check us out at English Class 101 dot com for some other things that can help you with your English studies.

Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alicia and I Will See You Again next week by my Have you seen the movie The Three Amigos?

Steve Martin?

Yeah.

Do you remember a plethora of pinatas?

There's a whole scene there where they talk about their talking about a party that's coming up and they're like, Did you get the pinatas for the party and the like, C.

C.

And then and then they're like, How many pinatas did you get?

Would you say that you got a plethora of pinatas any little?

This is a flavor.

Want to speed up your language?

Learning?

Take your very first lesson with us.

You'll start speaking in minutes and master real conversations.

Sign up for your free lifetime account.