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Lose yourself in the music, the moment, you own it, you better never let it go.
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Hi everybody!
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Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them,
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maybe!
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Please remember, you can submit your questions to me at EnglishClass101.com/ask-alisha.
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This week's first question is a question from Bahar...
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Bahar?
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I'm very sorry.
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Hi, Alisha!
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I'd like to learn about "as" and "like," what's the difference between them?
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To begin with, "like" is a preposition.
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Remember, prepositions are words we use to show relationships to other words, or to position
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the elements in a sentence, so for example, "at" and "by" and "on" are also prepositions.
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The word "like" is a preposition; however, the word "as" is a conjunction.
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A conjunction is a word that connects elements in a sentence, so for example, "and," "but,"
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"or," "for," "so," these words are conjunctions.
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That's point one.
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We use "like" and "as" to make comparisons, the general agreement on how to use "like"
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and "as" at this point in time is that if you are following the word "like" with a simple
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statement, like a noun phrase, you should use the word "like;" if, however, the part
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that comes after the word "like" or "as" has a verb in the clause, there's a verb in that
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part of the sentence, you should use "as" to do that because "as" functions as a conjunction.
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Remember, it's connecting the elements in a sentence, so we should use "like" if there's
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just a simple phrase, a simple noun phrase, something like that after "like" or "as."
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So to give some examples, my coworker eats like a pig.
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In that case, I've used the word "like" because after "like" comes "a pig," it's just a simple
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noun phrase.
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If, however, I said, my coworker eats as if he were a pig, I'm using the verb "were,"
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as if he were, so we can use "as" in cases wherever we follow the statement with a verb.
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We can you "like" in cases where we follow that statement with a simple noun phrase.
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Generally, we use them both to make comparisons.
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I'll say though that native speakers often make mistakes with this.
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Generally speaking now, especially in spoken conversation in casual spoken conversation,
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at least American English speakers, tend to use "like" more often than "as" in everyday
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conversation.
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I tend to use "like," I rely on "like" heavily for my comparisons in everyday situations.
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It's like you were, it's like he was, it's like blah blah blah.
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"As," I feel, is more common, at least among American English speakers in writing.
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So you might see "as if" and "as though," both of those we can use to make comparisons.
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"Like" comes before a simple noun phrase; "as" is used before something containing a
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verb.
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Yeah, thanks for that question, Bahar.
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Next question.
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The next question is from Taylor.
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Taylor asks which one sounds better, I read a newspaper every morning or I read the newspaper
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every morning?
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Nice question.
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This is a question about articles, this is just about being specific.
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If, for example, there's a specific newspaper that you want to read, like, I read the ABC
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newspaper every morning, you should use "the."
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If it's not important to you to be specific about a newspaper and if you want to imply
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that you just read any newspaper every morning, you can use a newspaper, I read a newspaper
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every morning.
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Using "the" instead though shows that there's maybe a specific newspaper.
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Using "the" before newspaper in this case though sounds like there's a specific newspaper
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you read every morning.
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If you say, I read a newspaper every morning, it sounds like you just choose any newspaper
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that's available to you on that day and you read that newspaper.
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So using "the" shows that there's a specific or it implies that there's a specific newspaper
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you'll read every day.
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You don't have to be specific about which one, you can, like, I read the New York Times
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every day or I read that Guardian every day, for example.
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But if you say I read a newspaper every day, it sounds like you don't choose the same news
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paper each day.
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That's the difference between these two phrases, most people, however, do choose the same newspaper
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every day and so they use I read the newspaper every day.
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You can say I read the news every day, as well; but using that set phrase, the news,
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it's like the news for the day, I read that day's news every day, or I read the previous
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day's news every day.
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So usually we say "the" news, we don't use "a" news, it sounds a little strange to use
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"a" news.
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So the same sort of thing applies to a newspaper, most people choose the same newspaper every
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day, so we say "the" newspaper instead of "a" newspaper.
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But thanks to that question, Taylor, nice!
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Next question!
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Next question comes from Brian...
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Brian?
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I'm very sorry.
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Hey, Alisha, what's your height?
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I am 1,000 centimeters tall or maybe I'm 6 centimeters tall and this whole thing has
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just been a scam the entire time.
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Next question!
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Next question is from Farris...?
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Farris Godsally?
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I'm very sorry!
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Farris asks, hey Alisha, can we use "hasn't" in an essay?
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Hasn't is the contracted form of "has not."
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You can, it's physically possible for you to use "hasn't" in an essay, sure.
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But if you use contractions in your writing, it makes you, in my opinion, it makes you
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sound a bit less formal.
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If you use the expanded form, the non-contracted version, you're gonna sound a bit more formal,
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a bit more polished, I feel.
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This does not only apply to the word "has not" and "hasn't" therefore, this applies
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to all contractions really.
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The answer is, yes, you can, but I don't necessarily recommend it if you want to sound formal and
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polished.
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Thanks for that question, though, Farris!
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Next question!
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Next question is from another person called Taylor, maybe Taylor submitted more than one
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question, I don't know.
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Do these have different meanings?
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There is not a quiz today, and there is no quiz today.
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There is not homework, there is no homework.
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There are not flowers, there are no flowers.
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They really mean the same things, they communicate the same idea.
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I would say, though, it's more natural not to use an article but you would not have any
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communication problem if you said there is not homework today, there is not a quiz today.
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Thanks for that question, Taylor!
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Next question!
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Next question comes from Ray.
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Ray asks, hey Alisha, I like rap songs, is it effective if I learn English by memorizing
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and singing a rap song like lose yourself by Eminem?
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This is a very specific question.
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Is it effective?
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If you only want to learn the English in that song, sure, using music in media is, of course,
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helpful in learning, not only words like vocabulary words but also learning a bit about pop culture
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from the language that you're studying.
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In that way, in that respect, yes, it can be effective for learning; however, things
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to keep in mind, number one, by studying a song or something like that, you may learn
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some incorrect grammar or you may find that the words, the word play, the vocabulary words
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that are chosen are not the words that native speakers use in everyday life, or it's only
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a speaking pattern that that artist uses, so that's a risk.
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Two, you might not realize it but you might study some vocabulary words that are extremely
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rude or that are not appropriate for you to use.
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You might sound a bit strange if you use those words.
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Three, there might be a very limited number of situations where you can actually apply
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those words, and he's using like little interjections throughout that song, like "snap back to reality,
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oh, there goes gravity..."
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That's not something that most of us use in everyday speech.
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If you can keep those points in mind, go for it!
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I think it's really really fun to study with something like music and movies because you
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get to enjoy yourself while you study.
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I actually use music, that was part of the reason that I got interested in another language,
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was through music, but just keep in mind that the way that you speak and the way your favorite
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artist speaks maybe a little bit different.
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If you want to learn to speak like Eminem, for sure, you should listen to Eminem's music.
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But just remember, like, if you sound like Eminem when you speak, it's gonna really surprise
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a native speaker and maybe not, it's maybe gonna confuse people.
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Thanks for that question, Ray, it's really interesting.
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Okay, so those are all the questions that I want to answer this week.
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Thanks very much for sending in all your questions.
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Remember, you can send them to me at EnglishClass101.com/ask-alisha
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If you like this video, please make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel,
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too, if you guys like these videos then I can continue making them.
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Also, check us out at EnglishClass101.com for more good stuff.
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Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alisha.
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I will see you again next Saturday.
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Bye-bye!
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It's been a long time since I listened to Eminem.
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Hey Eminem, you want to do a collaboration?
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We can do like a cool pronunciation collaboration.
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I'll do my pronunciation.
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His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy, there's vomit on his sweater already,
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mom's spaghetti, he's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready to drop bombs,
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but he keeps on forgetting what he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud, he own...
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And you can do your pronunciation.
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Eminem, if you're watching, leave a comment.