Ask Alisha: Your English Questions Answered #219 - English Expressions You Should Know | 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 Vinay. Hi Vinay. Vinay asked, Hi Alisha, what is the meaning of sneak peek? Okay, great question. First, before I talk about the meaning of this phrase, I want to point out sneak peeks

"peek" is one of the most typoed expressions in English. I swear, it's one of the most typoed things. So, "sneak" S-N-E-A-K "peek" P-E-E-K Okay? So, first put that in your head. Spelling, correct. That's the way to spell it. So, what is a "sneak peek"? Let's break this down. First, let's talk about "sneak". To "sneak"

is a verb, which means to creep quietly into some place. So like when the house is all quiet and you need to go inside or you need to get to the kitchen for a late night snack and you don't want anyone to hear you, you will sneak into the kitchen. You walk very quietly. So you're trying to get to some goal or you're trying to reach something without really anyone noticing. It's like a secret, right? So a sneak peek then, what is that?

To peek, let's break down the second part of this expression. To peek means to look just a little bit. So for example, if you want to like spy on your neighbor or something like that, you might have a small gap like in maybe the curtains or in the blinds.

like on your window, right? So you might go like this with the curtain just to see a little bit. What are they doing out there? So this kind of tiny look is called peeking. So when we say to peek at something, it means we look just a little bit like we maybe look quickly around the corner somewhere. It means a really short, quick kind of secret look. Okay. So we have these two words, sneak and peek together.

So these are not used as verbs here. A sneak peek is like a set expression, which means like a secret advance, usually look at something. So this expression is often used for media that is going to be available soon. So for example, a movie that has a release date, so that means the movie is going to be in the movie theaters maybe in one month or three months or something, might have some kind of sneak peek.

peak showing for maybe just a small number of people. Like there might be a special sneak peek showing of the movie before it's out in theaters. So a sneak peek at something is like a special kind of secret viewing of something before it happens. We also see kind of sneak

peek clips online a lot. Before a movie comes out, people might share sneak peek clips of parts of the movie or maybe a TV show or something like that. Some kind of media product usually. It's a quick, small, kind of secret feeling look at something that is going to come out in the future.

So you usually see this in advertisements about what's coming. They might say, for example, in something they post on Instagram, "Here's a sneak peek of our upcoming film." Or maybe if it's like one of your favorite YouTube creators, they might say something in like an Instagram story, like, "Here's a sneak peek at what I'm working on next."

So both words in sneak and peek have this feeling of kind of something secret or doing something just a little bit. You only get to see a little bit of something. And that's the feeling with sneak peek. They're showing you just a little bit or only a small number of people have access to this for just a short period of time. So the feeling is that it's kind of special and exclusive to just one group of people. So this is how we use the expression sneak peek.

And again, remember to spell those two words correctly. That's a very, very common typo. Thanks very much for sending this interesting question along. Okay, let's move on to your next question. Next question comes from Boris. Hi, Boris. Boris asks, "Hi, Alisha. What does 'make no mistake' mean? I've heard this in movies and sometimes in speeches." Yeah, interesting question. Make no mistake.

So, make no mistake is usually used in these presentation situations by some kind of official person. And it's like saying, remove the doubt from the situation or don't think that we're not going to be able to do something. So for example, I'm sure President Obama said something like this, like make no mistake, we're going to get through this problem. It means like,

Don't have any doubts in your mind, or don't think for even a moment that we are not going to get through this problem, that we are not going to solve this problem. So make no mistake is, it's not actually saying you are not going to make a mistake. It's like a set expression that means please take your doubts away from the situation. Please take your concerns away from the situation because

we are going to achieve something or we are going to do something. So another example might be perhaps in a movie, like maybe some characters are getting ready to go to a fight in some kind of battle and their leader might say, make no mistake, this will be a difficult day, but we're going to come out the victors, which means we are going to win. So in that expression, make no mistake, today is going to be a difficult day, it means yes, today is going to be difficult, but we are going to come out

winning at the end of this fight. So in that situation, make no mistake comes before today is going to be a difficult day, which means yes, today is going to be a difficult day. So make no mistake comes before that thing that they're like, yes, this is true.

In my earlier example about the politician's speech, it's like, "Make no mistake, we are going to get through this." It's like saying there should be no doubts that the next part of the sentence is true. That's what make no mistake means. So I hope that this helps you understand this interesting expression, make no mistake. Thanks very much for sending it along. Okay, let's move on to your next question. Next question comes from Jose Luis. Hi, Jose. Jose asked, "Hi, Alicia. What does 'what a ride' mean?"

Okay, interesting question. So, ride here can have a couple of different meanings. First, I want to talk about a physical ride. So, we use this expression when we do something like physically exciting, like we ride on something. We ride on like a roller coaster or maybe a raft, like a kayak or something like that in a river. Or we go in like a really fast car

or a motorcycle. So we ride something. After that experience, when it was something that we felt was exciting, we could say, what a ride, like that was so crazy. So it sounds kind of like that was a really exciting experience. That ride, that experience of riding that thing was very exciting. What a ride, oh my

Gosh, we can also use this for intense emotional experiences. So if you go to a movie theater and you watch a movie that is so dramatic and you feel your emotions going up and down and up and down because it's so intense,

After that, you might think, oh my gosh, what a ride. That movie was so intense. So you did not ride anything. There's no motorcycle, right? But emotionally, it was like a roller coaster, right? So we can have the same kind of feeling like in our hearts, kind of, is the way to think about it. So it's like a ride for your emotions. We might also say, wow, that movie was such a ride. Like I couldn't believe what happened. Like that expresses,

an intense emotional experience. So this expression is something that you can use when you have like a fun physical ride, like at an amusement park. And we can also use it to talk about having those intense emotional experiences, but usually with media, or maybe if there's a really intense personal experience you have,

I suppose we tend to use it more with media, but if maybe you have a really like crazy relationship with somebody, they have all kinds of crazy stories up and down, something crazy happened to them that weekend or whatever, you might be like, wow, what a ride at the end of your friend's story. So that's possible too. So we use it in these two ways for intense emotional experiences and stories and for fun physical experiences as well. Thanks very much for sending this question along. All right.

That is everything that I have for this week. Thank you, as always, for sending your great questions. Thanks very much for watching this episode of Ask Alicia, and I will see you again next time. Bye.