Ask Alisha: Your English Questions Answered #227 - The verb TO DO : forms, functions, and examples | English Grammar for Beginners
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Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them. Maybe. Let's get to your first question this week. First question this week comes from Jose. Hi, Jose. Jose asked, "Hi, Alisha." In an expression like, "Let's check out this restaurant," can I omit "out"?

Okay, great question. So to be clear here, we're going to look at the differences between let's check out this restaurant and let's check this restaurant. So first of all, these two sentences are both grammatical, but they have different meanings. So let's break this down. I want to start by taking a look at the use of check out.

What do we use this phrasal verb for? So when we check out a location, as in this example sentence, it means we want to go and see something. We want to look and see something. We want to understand more about that thing.

So we might use it when we're sightseeing, for example, like, oh, let's check out that city or let's check out that new cafe that opened. It means that there's something that we want to learn. Usually there's something unknown there and we want to go to that place and learn more about it. Right. So we want to see with our eyes. We want to maybe feel things there. We want to experience something there and learn information about it.

This is when we use to check out a location. However, when we check something, we are looking at it or maybe reading it, listening to it, whatever that might be, in order to determine if it is correct or accurate or true. So, for example, someone might say, hey, can you check my essay for me? I'm not sure if this is accurate.

really good, there might be errors. So if someone asks you to check a document, it means please look at it and make sure it is accurate or true. We wouldn't say please check out this document. It might mean take a look at this to get more information. But when we ask someone to check something, it means we want them to confirm or help us to decide if it is good or true or appropriate.

So in this sense, if you said like, hey, let's check that restaurant.

It would sound like you're going to the restaurant to see if it is good or to see if it is true or appropriate. Like you might hear, I suppose, like a food critic say, "I went to the restaurant to check the quality of their food or to check maybe the sanitation of the restaurant," which means how clean the restaurant is. So when we check a location, we are going there to confirm that something is appropriate or not.

So in this sense, like if we break down these two sentences, let's check that restaurant and let's check out that restaurant are grammatically true, yes, but they have different meanings. So when we say check out a location, it means we want to go see, figure something out, learn more. When we check a location, we are going to find out if it is appropriate or true or correct in some way. We want a condition to be checked or to be confirmed or something like that.

So I hope that this answers your question about whether or not you can remove out from the expression check out in this situation. My answer would be if you want to keep the meaning the same, no, do not remove out. If you want to change the meaning for some reason, then yeah, you can change the meaning and you will remove out and everybody will be happy.

But I hope that this answers your question. Thanks very much for an interesting one. Okay, let's move on to your next question. Next question comes from Kongza Hain. Hello, Kongza. I hope that I said your name correctly. Kongza Hain asked, "Hi, Alisha. Why are do, did, and done put in front of verbs? The sentences are neither questions nor negatives. For example, I done saw a tiger. I did saw a tiger. I do know.

What's the difference between them with this do, did, or done and without them? Thanks. Great and super interesting question. Okay, so the answer to this question relates to dialects. So if you've watched a previous episode of Ask Alicia, I recently talked about what a dialect is. So let's review that quickly here. So a dialect is a specific way of speaking in a certain region. So there are many dialects in

all languages usually. So English has many dialects, which means there are certain grammar patterns, certain vocabulary words, certain types of pronunciation that are used in that specific region and among people from that region. So the answer to your question is about dialects. So this is an example of a certain kind of English dialect. There are certain sections of the USA where people might choose to speak like this.

So in your first example, "I done saw a tiger." That is a way of expressing, "I saw a tiger," but in a very excited way. So the speaker might say, "I done saw a tiger," to their friend, to express how maybe surprised they were or how excited that they were. So this is kind of done to maybe build a little bit more excitement into the story, to express a little bit more enthusiasm. So again, this is a way of saying,

I'm excited about something and here is what happened. But this is a dialect. So for example, this is not how I might speak. If for some reason I wanted to imitate or pretend to speak like a person from that region, I might use this particular dialect, this particular grammar pattern. Yeah?

So I want to then talk about your last example, I do know. So this, however, is an example of something that we use in all types of English and all like kind of standard grammar textbooks as well. So this

do this I do know or I did do that all of those kinds of things. These are used to actually add emphasis to something. So when somebody says, you don't know, and you might respond with Yes, I do know this do used in usually this kind of sentence pattern emphasizes No, that's not true. My expression or my idea is actually true.

So in this situation, do know, I do know, that actually is used for emphasis in response to the wrong information. So this is not related to a dialect. I want to make that part clear. So if you see this kind of do used, it's for emphasis. So in the case of your last example, I do know, that is something that we use in standard English all across the world for emphasis to answer something.

But in your first example, and perhaps even your second example as well, those are used in certain regions of the USA and perhaps in certain regions in other countries as well to express just a different kind of dialect, a different way of speaking. So for me, if I had to recommend, I would not

at this point in time, spend time learning those dialects. It's good to be aware that those kinds of dialects exist and that there are different grammar patterns you might find from time to time. But I would say you don't need to be worried about studying those dialects because they are very specific to certain regions and certain communities.

But yeah, it's good to be aware that they exist. So I would suggest just continue studying kind of the standard English that you will find online and in your textbooks, and then you can consider exploring the other ways that people speak and getting to know a little bit more about the different patterns that different speakers use. So thanks very much for this very interesting question. Okay, let's move on to your next question. Next question comes from Claudia. Hi, Claudia. Claudia asked, how can

How can I use the words jeopardy and jeopardize? What is the difference between them? Okay, so let's talk about jeopardize first. So to jeopardize, this is a verb. So to jeopardize is usually used in, let's say, a situation in which there are many people or many, many, like, perhaps contracts or agreements going on. Yeah, there are people working together to try to achieve some kind of goal.

maybe it's a good goal, maybe it's not such a good goal. But anyway, when we jeopardize something, we cause the situation to be in danger of not succeeding. Okay, so let's say for example, maybe you're watching an action movie. Yeah. And in the movie, the characters in the movie are trying to rob a bank. And you're like, Oh my gosh, everybody's working together so hard to rob the bank. But then one character makes a mistake,

And that character, we could say, jeopardized the bank robbery. So that character did something to cause the situation to maybe fail. So we don't know if it's going to fail, but one person did something to cause a problem that might

cause the entire situation, might cause everything not to succeed. So when we jeopardize something, we jeopardize a situation, we jeopardize a relationship, we jeopardize an agreement or a contract or something like that, we do something that causes the situation to perhaps not go as planned.

Okay, so on the other hand then, jeopardy. So jeopardy is the noun form of this word. So we usually use this in the expression in jeopardy, like you put the situation in jeopardy, which would mean you cause the situation to now be in this kind of dangerous state.

So when we are in jeopardy, it's like saying we're in some kind of danger of failing or we're in some kind of danger of the plan not working out. So usually we see that this phrase is used with in, in jeopardy, he's in jeopardy or the situation is in jeopardy.

Fun fact: you might also know the very, very long-running game show in the USA that is called Jeopardy! That is a trivia game show that is not necessarily related to danger, but it is a show in which the participants have to bet money on how high or low their knowledge of a topic is. So it has a little bit of that element of danger about it. But this

This is the difference between jeopardize, to cause a situation to be in danger of not succeeding, and jeopardy, the noun form, which is usually used in the sense of being in jeopardy with that preposition. So, thanks very much for this interesting question.

I hope that that answered it. If not, I would also recommend you check out some example sentences of how this word is used to see the different kinds of situations in which we might use it. So thanks again for an interesting question. All right, that is everything that I have for this week. So thank you as always for sending your great questions. Please send me more. You will find the link for the official question submission page in the YouTube description. Send them to me there. I will definitely read them.

Also, if you like this lesson, don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel if you haven't already. Also, check us out at EnglishClass101.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 time. Bye.