Ask Alisha: Your English Questions Answered #228 - How to use the expression BY THE WAY | 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 Alrailey. Hi, Alrailey. Alrailey asked, Hi, Alisha. What's the difference between besides and instead? Good question. Okay, so for this answer, I want to talk about the type of sentence or the type of expression in which these two

words might overlap in meaning. So the two can be used very, very similarly, like when we're talking about alternative plans for something. But the grammatical structure of the sentence is going to change. So let's take a look at

an example situation and an example sentence. So let's say for example, that we're talking about plans for the weekend and we're talking with somebody as we make these plans and agreeing on what we would like to do. We might say something like,

"The weather isn't going to be good this weekend. I know we planned to go for a hike, but how about we watch a movie instead?" So in this situation, "instead" is used to mean "in place of that other thing." So in this situation, we are suggesting an alternative to the original plan. The original plan was to go hiking, but instead,

We are suggesting, as an alternative, we are suggesting we watch a movie because the weather is not so good. So let's take a look at how we might express the same idea, but with the word "besides" to do that. So again, same situation. So let's say, okay, we plan to go for a hike, but the weather's not good, so we're going to watch a movie, or we suggest watching a movie.

You might say, for example, hey, I know we plan to go for a hike this weekend, but how about a movie? Besides, the weather's not so good anyway. So in this situation, we can use besides to describe the situation or the change in the situation or to suggest that there is a change in the situation that has caused us to suggest a change in our plans. So the use of besides

besides shows that there's a reason for my suggested change to the plan. So we originally had plan A, I'm suggesting plan B. Besides, there's something that's in the way of plan A. So when we use besides, it's like we're suggesting the alternative and then we use besides before that reason. Like in this situation, besides, the weather's not going to be good anyway. So we're using besides and instead, both in

kind of similar ways to describe a situation that has changed and we need to suggest an alternative for that situation. But the two ways that we use these words are a bit different in grammatical structure and how we need to think about them. So let's kind of review the differences. So in the first example that I gave, I said, why don't we go watch a movie instead, which means instead of going for a hike. So we use instead before the alternative suggestion.

With besides, we suggest the alternative plan and then we follow up with the reason for the suggestion or rather we follow it up to say, also, there's this problem with plan A. So they do present different grammatical structures, but we can use them in similar situations to express a desire to change a plan. So this is a pretty quick introduction to the different ways that we might use instead and besides when we're talking about changes to plans. They're

are other uses, especially to besides, but I wanted to talk today about the key differences in this sort of overlapping sense of giving alternative ideas for something. So I hope that this quick introduction helped you understand the differences between these words and answered your question. Thanks very much for sending it along. Okay.

Let's move on to our next question. Okay, next question comes from Mario. Hi, Mario. Mario asked, do you have a lesson on rhetorical questions? I do not have a lesson only on rhetorical questions, but let's talk about them now. So first, what is a rhetorical question? A rhetorical

question is a question somebody asks, but they don't actually want an answer. So people might use these for different things. They might use them to express frustration or to express their feelings in some way. They might use it just to make someone else think about something. They might just be thinking out loud as well. There are a number of different reasons people might use rhetorical questions. What's difficult about rhetorical questions is that it's not always clear

clear when a question is a real question and when a question is a rhetorical question. This happens to everybody throughout the course of their lives and their communication situations. So sometimes a person asks a question, like maybe because they're feeling frustrated or something like, why do we do things this way? And someone else might feel, oh, I need to answer that question. But that's a situation in which the person is just

feeling a bit frustrated and they want to get their emotions out. You don't have to answer that question. It's just a way for them to express themselves in the moment. So another person might think they should answer that question, but they don't actually have to. So it's not always super clear when a question is this rhetorical style question and when it's clear, but generally

And really, you can kind of feel sometimes when people have higher than normal emotions, they might just be asking those kinds of things to let out those emotions. If they're talking to themselves, they probably don't need an answer for that question. So in some cases, it is pretty easy to guess when a question is rhetorical or not.

But this isn't always the case. So in sum, a rhetorical question is a question that does not actually need an answer. The person isn't actually looking for an answer to the question. They're just getting something else out or they're just making you think in a different way. Or maybe they're just talking to themselves. These are a few examples of times when people might use this style of question. So I hope that this is a quick introduction to rhetorical questions. And I hope this answers your very real question. Thanks very much for sending it along. Okay.

Let's move on to your next question. Next question comes from Reza. Hi, Reza. Reza asks, Hi, Alicia. What is the meaning of by the way and what are its usages? Okay, so by the way is an expression that we use when we want to add a detail, a related detail to a conversation. And this is usually a detail related to something you've mentioned in the

past to your conversation partner. So maybe you're talking with your coworker about lunch places, and they're trying to decide with you where to go for lunch. You might say, "Oh, by the way, I just saw a new restaurant that opened up. Why don't we go there?" So when you use this, "by the way," it's like you're

is adding a little piece of information that is related to the conversation. So it's kind of like you can think of it as like a road, like the conversation is a road. And like by the side of the road or by the way of the road, there's this little piece of information that's related, this tiny little bit of like detailed information. You can pick it up, add it to the conversation with this. Like, oh, by the way, there's this little thing that I thought of that might help this conversation. So to use by the way, we usually just say by the way,

a full sentence, it can be a very simple sentence. "I found a new restaurant." Or, "I watched that movie you told me about." You can also use it before a question as well. "By the way, did you know that blah, blah, blah, blah?" You could use it in that kind of situation too. So, by the way is used to drop these little kind of details into your conversation that are related to what you're talking about and that you think the other person might like to know. So, I hope that this helps you understand how to use by the way in a very simple, simple manner.

All right. Thanks very much. That is the last question for this week. So thank you as always for sending me your great questions. Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next time. Bye.