Throwback Thursday S1 #81 - Use the Correct Verb Forms - Basic English Grammar
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Hi everybody, welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them. Maybe. First question this week comes from Kanseng Shyam. Hi Kanseng. Kanseng says, "Hi Alisha. If the first verb in a particular sentence is used in its first form, then what form should the subsequent verb be?"

For example, the poet says that the great terror of Russia crippled the Russian people. In this sentence, I use the first form for the first verb, says. For the second verb, I use the second form of the verb, crippled. Is my sentence grammatically correct? Can you explain? And when do we use verb forms one, two, and three?

Okay, so first, to clarify for all viewers, this expression, first form or second form or third form. First form refers to the infinitive form of a verb, so like the simple present tense form. Second form refers to past tense, and third form refers to the past participle form of a verb. Second, yes, your sentence is grammatically correct, the one that I've just read here.

But third, as far as a rule for when to use like first or second or third form verbs, you can make a lot of different combinations. It just depends on what you want to say. So you can make grammatically correct sentences by using first and then second or maybe first and then third, but it just depends on the meaning you would like to communicate. For example, my parents say I work too much.

and "My parents have said I work too much." "My parents said I worked too much last month." All of these sentences are grammatically correct, and all of these sentences use different combinations of first, second, and third form verbs. It depends on what you want to say. So a refresher, first form, simple past tense is used for general facts and for things that are always true, like regularly occurring actions.

Second, second form, the simple past tense is used for actions that started and finished in the past. Third, third form, the past participle form of a verb is used like when we're making present perfect or past perfect expressions or when we're talking about unreal situations.

So, depending on what you would like to communicate, your verb conjugation is going to change. There's not a rule in English for like using first form and then second form, or it must be second form then first form. There's not a rule like this. It depends on what you want to communicate. So, I hope that this helps you, and I hope that you experiment a lot to see how the different verb conjugations can change the meaning of a sentence.

Okay, thanks very much for this question. Let's move along to your next question. Next question comes from Navid Abbas. Hi, Navid. Navid says, Dear Alicia, I'm from Pakistan. When do we use someone and someone and anyone and anyone? What is the difference between these two combined and separated words? Hope you can teach me. Thanks. Aw.

Ah, nice question. First point, I want to mention some and one. So with a space between some and one. This is not something we use in everyday modern English. We don't use some and one separated. So don't think about that. Don't worry about that.

"Someone" and "anyone," however, we do use. So this is someone and anyone with no space. We use "someone" when we want to make positive statements, when we make requests, and when we make offers. For example, "Can someone help me make dinner?" "Would you like to speak to someone?" "Anyone" is used in information questions and in negative statements. "I don't know anyone at this party."

Have you seen anyone wearing a top hat recently? Finally, "anyone" is used when we want to emphasize the word "one", and we do this when we're making choices. For example, "You can have any one of these donuts." Or, "I would be thrilled to have any one of these computers."

So it shows that maybe there are many choices and all of them are good choices. So you'll hear any used to emphasize one in this way. So I hope that this helps answer your question. Thanks very much for sending it along. Okay, let's move on to your next question. Next question comes from Tu Le. Hi, Tu. Tu says, "Hi, Alicia. Could you please explain why 'a' is used for 'cell phone' and 'the' is used for 'table' in this sentence?

There is a cell phone on the table. Okay, so to refresh we use indefinite articles, "a" and "an" when we introduce new nouns in a story or in a situation. We use the definite article "the" when we want to refer to something that is known in a story or in a situation. So here, let's imagine you walk into a room.

A table. So I use "a" there to show this is a new noun, a table. When I want to refer to this same table again later in my conversation or later in my story, I use "the". So I could say, for example, "I walked next to the table." So "the table" means the same table I introduced earlier.

If I see there's something on the table, a cell phone, I would say, "Oh, a cell phone on the table." So when I use "a" or "an," I'm introducing a new noun or something that is unknown in the situation. So in this example sentence, "There is a cell phone on the table," the speaker knows about the table already, but the speaker maybe notices a new item, a cell phone in this case.

So the sentence "the cell phone is on the table" is also grammatically correct. So depending on the situation and depending on the story, depending on the conversation, we might use "a" and "the" in different ways, but they're also correct. So it just depends on whether the speaker knows the noun or not. Are they introducing it? If so, "a" or "an"?

If they're not introducing it, if they're referring to something else in the story, the. So I hope that this helps answer your question. Thanks very much. Okay, let's move on to your next question. Next question is from Emma. Hi, Emma. Emma says, "Hi, Alicia. I love your lessons." Thanks. "Would you please show us the differences among suggest, advise, offer, recommend, and propose?" Thanks in advance.

Okay, big question. Let's compare suggest and recommend first.

So, we use suggest and recommend in almost the same way. It's like you're giving someone your opinion about something. However, when you recommend something, it has the feeling of personal experience. So, for example, if I recommend a restaurant, it's because I've been to the restaurant, I thought it was good, and I want you to go there, or I think it would be a good choice for you.

If I recommend music to my friend, it's because I listen to the music and I think it's a good fit for them. When we're using suggest, it doesn't necessarily mean that there's personal experience involved. It's more like you're giving your advice to suit that person's situation. So, for example, "Hmm, your computer isn't working? I suggest you restart." "I suggest this hairstyle. I think it would suit your face."

So, suggest, because it doesn't have that feeling of like personal experience, it can sound a little bit like disconnected, maybe a little bit more formal than something like recommend. Let's move along then to advise. Advise was the next verb. So, when you advise someone, it means you give them your opinion. But when you advise someone, it sounds like you do that regularly, like there are jobs in which people advise others.

So those job titles are called like advisor to something. So when you advise someone, you're giving them your opinion and it's usually for something formal or kind of important to advise. Examples, the lawyer advised me not to comment on this. My team has been advised regarding this issue. So this word does sound a little bit formal.

Okay, let's move on to the next word which was offer. So offer, think about offer as like the step before give. So you want to give someone something. If I decide I want to give you my phone, for example, but I want to ask you if it's okay, is it appropriate? I can offer it and I would say, "Would you like my phone?"

So that's an offer. It's like the step before give. So to offer someone something is to ask them if they would like that thing. So some other examples. He offered her a drink. The whole team was offered a promotion.

So offer doesn't mean give. It's like the step before give. Okay, the last word that was on your list was propose. Ah, so we use propose in formal situations. We use this like in business situations or other work-related situations when we want to give a new idea. We want to present a new idea, a fairly serious idea. We also use this when we are asking someone to marry us. So some examples.

"I'm going to propose a new product for next year." "My brother proposed to his girlfriend." So you can hear "propose" tends to be used for more serious situations. It's like suggesting something but kind of formal. So "suggest" is used for like small everyday things as is "recommend." "Propose" is like you're bringing a new idea to someone and asking for permission to do that.

So I hope that this helps you. Thanks very much for this question. All right, let's move on to your next question. Next question comes from Faisal Aseed. Hello, Faisal. Faisal says, "What's the difference between 'us' and 'we'?" Ah, the difference is the part of speech. 'We' acts as the subject. 'Us' acts as the object. So it depends on the position of the word in the sentence.

If you're using "we," if you want to talk about a group of people as the subject of your sentence, use "we." If you want to talk about a group of people, including you, as the object of a verb, so receiving some action, we use "us." Some examples: We talked to the boss. The boss talked to us. We chased the bullies. The bullies chased us.

So, in these example sentences, you can see I reversed the subject and the object in each case. So, we is the subject of the sentence, us is the object of the verb. I hope that this helps you. Thanks very much for the question.

Okay, that is everything that I have for this week. Thank you as always for sending your questions. Remember, you can send them to me at EnglishClass101.com/ask-alisha. Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alisha, and I will see you again next week. Bye-bye!