A while / for a while / in a while: What is the difference in English? - Free Educational videos for Students in K-12

A while / for a while / in a while: What is the difference in English? - By Learn English with EnglishClass101.com

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00:0-1	want to get cheat sheets , audiobooks , lessons apps
00:03	and much more every month for free , just click
00:07	the link in the description to get your free language
00:09	gifts of the month . Hi everybody , welcome back
00:12	to ask Alicia the weekly series where you ask me
00:14	questions and I answer them . Maybe let's get to
00:17	your first question this week . First question this week
00:20	comes from Zakaria flip flop high . Zakaria . Zakaria
00:24	says hi Alicia , could you please tell me why
00:27	we sometimes use the verb do before another verb ?
00:31	Thank you . Yeah , sure . I've talked about
00:33	this before in the series , but we use do
00:36	before another verb when we want to emphasize the opposite
00:40	of something . So let's take a look at a
00:42	few pairs of sentences to see how this works .
00:46	Sorry , I don't have time to help you right
00:47	now , but you do have time , you're just
00:51	looking at facebook and I don't know anything about today's
00:55	meeting just that they're making a big announcement . Uh
00:58	huh . So you do know something . okay so
01:01	in both of these example sentences we have a person
01:04	A . And person B . Person A . Says
01:07	something to the effective , I don't know something or
01:10	I can't do something or I don't have time to
01:12	help you . As with person A . In both
01:15	of these examples and then person B notices something about
01:19	person A or about the things that person A .
01:21	Said and they emphasize no that's not true and they
01:26	do this by including do before the verb . So
01:30	in the first example situation the person person A in
01:33	this situation said I don't have time to help you
01:36	right now that person be said , you do have
01:39	time . So you'll often hear do emphasize before the
01:43	verb that follows to show that's not true . So
01:46	that emphasis in the speaker's voice means that's not true
01:49	or the opposite of that is true . And the
01:52	reason is that person be presumably or we think sees
01:56	person a looking at facebook . The same thing happens
01:59	in the second situation , Person A says , I
02:01	don't know anything about the meeting , just that there's
02:04	gonna be a big announcement and so person B understands
02:07	wait , so you do know something about the meeting
02:11	again ? Do proceeds or comes before the verb .
02:14	No , they're so speaker B is emphasizing that the
02:18	speaker that speaker a rather actually does know something .
02:22	So we're using do before the verb as emphasis in
02:26	this way . So I hope that this helps you
02:28	. Thanks very much for an interesting question . All
02:30	right , let's move on to our next question .
02:33	Next question comes from Emma . Hi Emma . Emma
02:35	says hi Alicia . I would like to know if
02:38	there are differences between a while for a while and
02:42	in a while if there is , can you explain
02:45	? Thanks so much . Sure awhile means a period
02:48	of time . So we use for a while and
02:51	in a while quite differently for a while is used
02:55	when we're talking about a duration of time , we're
02:59	using it to talk about the length of time that
03:02	something happens . So duration is really the key here
03:05	. Let's take a look at a few example sentences
03:08	. I stayed in the restaurant for a while after
03:10	I finished eating . I'm gonna take a walk around
03:14	the neighborhood for a while . I traveled around Europe
03:17	for a while when I was in my 20's .
03:20	Okay , so let's compare this then to in a
03:23	while , when we use in a while , we're
03:26	talking about an upcoming activities . So this is not
03:29	something that's going to happen now but it's going to
03:32	happen soon . So if it's helpful you can think
03:35	about replacing soon for in a while in the sentence
03:40	, it has the same meaning . Let's look at
03:42	some examples of this , I'm going to leave the
03:44	office in a while , we're gonna go to the
03:47	coffee shop in a while , you want anything .
03:49	So a question that maybe some of you have is
03:52	what's the difference between these two sentences , sentences like
03:55	these like I'm gonna walk around the neighborhood for a
03:58	while and I'm going to walk around the neighborhood in
04:01	a while so they seem very similar but the for
04:04	a while sentence would be said by somebody who is
04:07	probably leaving now like they are leaving their house now
04:11	and they just want to report to someone their upcoming
04:14	activity , they're going out of the house to walk
04:16	around the neighborhood for a period of time , that's
04:19	the duration of the activity . On the other hand
04:22	, the in awhile sentence is like they're sharing their
04:25	upcoming plan with someone possibly to invite them . Like
04:29	I'm gonna walk around the neighborhood in a while .
04:31	Do you want to come ? So these are the
04:33	small differences that are proposition choices can make especially with
04:37	an expression like a while . So I hope that
04:40	this helps you . Thanks very much for the question
04:42	. Okay let's move on to our next question .
04:45	Next question is from sung wan hai san juan san
04:49	juan says hi Alicia . What does literally mean ?
04:52	Do people use it the wrong way ? Yeah .
04:55	Okay literally means the ordinary or the simple meaning of
05:00	a word . It can also mean like truly .
05:02	Exactly and so on . So it is used for
05:05	emphasis yes but it's also used incorrectly a lot first
05:11	let's take a look at the correct way to use
05:13	, literally for example we raised literally hundreds of dollars
05:18	at the fundraiser . He got his hands dirty literally
05:22	helping out at the farm for a T . V
05:24	. Show . Okay so these two example sentences show
05:28	correct usage of the word literally in the first example
05:32	it's literally hundreds so the speaker wants to emphasize that
05:37	exactly really truly hundreds of dollars were raised in a
05:41	fundraiser . The reason that we use literally here is
05:44	because we want to express that this is not an
05:46	exaggeration . So an exaggeration means something that sounds like
05:50	it's better or bigger than it actually is . So
05:53	the speaker wants to communicate . It was truly hundreds
05:56	of dollars . They use literally to do that .
05:59	In the second example sentence about someone getting his hands
06:02	dirty . The speaker wants to communicate that actually the
06:06	tv host in this case truly did physically literally get
06:11	his hands dirty in the process of making a T
06:13	. V . Show . So there are two reasons
06:16	that we use literally in this way . The first
06:19	as in with the first example sentence is to show
06:22	that something is not being exaggerated like the number or
06:25	the amount that's described in the sentence is truly the
06:29	number , so we're not just doing it for effect
06:31	literally some amount . You may see this used the
06:35	second use though as we see in the second example
06:38	sentence is with these expressions that have kind of double
06:41	meanings so get one's hands dirty or to get your
06:44	hands dirty has two meanings . Yes there's the literal
06:48	meaning which is as it's written on the page for
06:51	your hands to physically become dirty . But there's also
06:54	another meaning to this phrase which is to do the
06:57	work yourself to actually do work . So to get
07:00	your hands dirty can have two meanings . The speaker
07:04	using literally in the second example sentence means they want
07:07	to emphasize that real true meaning of getting your hands
07:12	dirty , like physically having dirt on your hands .
07:14	So these are the two reasons that we use literally
07:17	for emphasis to make sure that we're not accidentally exaggerating
07:22	and to to make it clear that we mean the
07:24	actual simple meaning of an expression . So again ,
07:27	to return to your second question literally is misused all
07:32	the time . Native speakers want to use it for
07:35	emphasis but they use it incorrectly . So let's take
07:38	a look at two examples that are great examples of
07:42	misuse of the word , literally I'm literally starving ,
07:46	can we go to lunch and there were literally millions
07:51	of people at my house last night . Okay ,
07:53	so in both of these example sentences literally is used
07:57	incorrectly , literally starving in the first sentence . So
08:00	the problem here is that the speaker is probably not
08:04	actually starving . Starving means they are so hungry that
08:08	they are actually dying . So literally starving is untrue
08:12	. The speaker is probably not actually starving , they
08:15	just want to express that they are very hungry .
08:18	The correct way to express that would just be to
08:20	say I'm starving , that's fine , you don't need
08:23	to use literally in this sentence , but this is
08:26	something native speakers probably say all the time . The
08:29	second example sentence uses literally with a number , as
08:32	in there were literally millions of people in my house
08:35	last night , so it's not possible for millions of
08:38	people to be in someone's house . The speaker just
08:40	wants to emphasize how many people were at his or
08:44	her home the previous night . So using literally as
08:47	unnecessary here , you could just say there were so
08:50	many people in my house last night or there were
08:52	millions of people at my house last night . If
08:54	you just drop literally from the sentence we understand that
08:58	you're exaggerating . So yes , literally is used incorrectly
09:02	all the time and it's usually for these emphasis reasons
09:06	. So I hope that this answer helps you .
09:08	It's a very interesting question . Thanks very much for
09:10	sending it along . Okay , let's move on to
09:12	your next question . Next question comes from Andrew .
09:15	Hi Andrew . Andrew says what's the meaning of ball
09:19	game as in Youtube comments are a whole other ballgame
09:22	, Is this a question about something I tweeted ?
09:25	That's funny . Ballgame here means situation , situation .
09:29	So when we say a whole other ballgame , this
09:32	is actually a set phrase . A whole other ballgame
09:35	means or is used rather in situations where we're talking
09:39	about one topic and then a second topic is introduced
09:42	and the two are very different . So something something
09:46	is a whole other Ballgame means . That second thing
09:49	has like different rules and different standards from the first
09:52	thing . So in the tweet that you took this
09:55	expression from , I was talking about the differences between
09:58	instagram direct messages , like random messages on instagram and
10:01	then another person commented like , joined my conversation on
10:04	twitter and said something about Youtube comments . And I
10:07	responded , yeah , youtube comments are a whole other
10:11	ballgame . So that means instagram direct messages . Random
10:14	messages on instagram are completely different than Youtube comments .
10:18	So a whole other ballgame means it's a whole other
10:21	situation . I hope that this helps you . Thanks
10:23	for the question . Okay , let's move on to
10:25	our next question . Next question comes from Claudia .
10:29	Hi Claudia , Claudia says what is the difference between
10:32	outcome and results ? Nice question . While in many
10:37	cases they can be used in similar ways and to
10:40	refer to very similar things . The difference here is
10:43	in like the process . So we use results when
10:48	we've done like work or research or were actually like
10:51	actively trying to do something . We're actually trying to
10:55	achieve something or to accomplish something . So we use
10:59	this like when we're doing mathematical equations or as I
11:02	said , like when we're doing research maybe , or
11:04	we're working together with teammates to achieve some kind of
11:07	goal . That's when we use results , outcome .
11:10	On the other hand , it's kind of like just
11:13	the way things ended up . So it's like maybe
11:15	there wasn't so much work to achieve a specific goal
11:19	. But at the end of the situation , this
11:22	was like the thing that we ended up with .
11:24	So let's take a look at a few examples .
11:28	My research results showed that the new medication was effective
11:32	. The test results were positive , everyone expected negative
11:36	outcomes after the government's policy change , it wasn't possible
11:40	to predict these outcomes . So the feeling here is
11:44	that result is something that someone or some group of
11:46	people worked to achieve worked to get outcome is kind
11:50	of like this is just the way that things are
11:52	. So yes . In some situations you may be
11:55	able to use both . Like for example research results
11:57	or maybe research outcomes . But again , when you
12:00	use outcomes it sounds like this is just the way
12:02	it is . Whereas results sounds a little bit more
12:05	like we tried . So this is kind of the
12:07	difference in feeling between these words . I hope that
12:10	it helps you . Thanks for the question . Okay
12:12	, that is everything that I have for this week
12:14	. Thank you as always for sending your questions .
12:16	Remember you can send them to me in english class
12:18	one on one dot com slash ask hyphen Alicia .
12:21	Of course , if you like this week's lesson ,
12:23	please don't forget to give it a thumbs up .
12:25	Subscribe to our channel if you have not already and
12:28	check us out at english class 101 dot com for
12:30	some other things that can help you with your english
12:32	studies . Thanks very much for watching this week's episode
12:35	of Ask Alicia and I will see you again next
12:37	week . Bye bye .

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