FREE English GRAMMAR and VOCABULARY lesson | EP #9

Okay, okay, so maybe I should press this go live, okay, how about that so now it should be actually live Yes, we are Absolutely, we are live and we are rocking it Hello, everybody. Hello awesome people. How you doing today? Welcome to this another welcome to this other beautiful English live lesson. How you guys doing? This is the first English lesson of the year and this is awesome So I'm so pleased to see you all. Hello, Irina Hello, Lolly and hello to everyone else who is about to join us now if you knew Yeah, we're going to spend 15 minutes together pretty much where we are going to improve our English. Alright, so this is our goal. Our goal is to make our English better Stronger just like the song said faster stronger faster better stronger, right? And we're gonna do this together. Thanks to our Q&A session This means that you're going to ask me questions and I'm going to reply to the questions you ask There are three ways you can do you can you can do to ask me questions The first way the better one the best one actually The first way is to use the link down below you just you Just open the description. You're going to find a link. Just click on the link and you just fill in the form It's a very simple form where it only asks you your name and the question you want to ask I receive it I prepare for it in advance and then and then when the next time I'm going live here is the answer Otherwise, you can just ask it to me right here in the chat box or Down here in the comments below But of course that I'm going to answer to those questions only if we have enough time Otherwise the questions you ask me there are going to be postponed to the next Opportunity the next time I'm going live. So It's time to begin this lesson It's gonna be pretty intense because the answers the questions I received Were pretty intense. They were all grammar oriented. So this means that well Stay with me because today we are gonna learn a lot. Of course We're also gonna have fun because you know that there's no Learning without fun, right? They stay together fun learning. They're all together. And here we are So let's begin with the first question. The first question is from lolly So hello lolly, and it's good to see you here live with us today, and you're asking Please how to use the words about and around when they mean Approximately. All right. So this is a very Very good question. It got me thinking a little because these words Like I have never actually Like this is the first time that I have to explain them separately Usually they are just part of a bigger conversation and this is the first time So thank you so much lolly to give me the possibility to explain this very interesting Concept on its own and this is awesome. So let's do it straight away So let's get straight to it. And of course to do that. We have our beautiful beautiful piece of paper And of course if you're going to like what I'm about to say do press the like button Of course If you want to see more if you want to be updated with anything that we are going to do on this channel Well subscribe because here you want this is the place if you want to be fluent this is the place to be now on with the answer and The both the words around so let me put them up here around and about So we have these two words here. We want to understand how to use them right when they Have posed a question. Let me see When they mean Approximately. All right. Well, actually I'm going to do more than that because I'm going to actually explain you the image of these words So you can actually use it in use them in any context. So Let's say You want to talk about something something is your subject so some Thing all right, and this something is literally whatever you want Something can be this one. It can be it can be this phone which by the way, I'm going to dial in over the The the YouTube video as well so I can see I can check your comments live as soon as they come up In fact, I'm gonna do it right now Because I always forget to do it So, hold on just a second as I do that Let me see. Let me see because it's not really easy to actually get into the okay Yeah here. We know this is the line. All right Okay, so I don't see it for some reasons. I can't see but anyway, so To check your comments, I'm going to resort to the old method. I'm going to switch between the tabs Okay, so just wait a few seconds more if I don't answer to you straight away So back to our topic right here. We have the word something which can be really whatever you want Okay, when you want to use the word around to approximate means that what you're saying goes around Around this topic, right? So literally around you see I'm going to actually write it down here around Right, by the way, by the way, if you look at the word around, okay, you can actually separate it Because you can say around or you can simply say round What's the difference? If you say round well, this is round round is a shape, okay It's it's this shape here Whereas when you say around the word the the letter a right before many words in English serves to multiply the meaning so when you say Round your meaning the shape when you say around you mean the the direction you're going and you're going in this circular Direction around okay, for example now we are talking about something around something Let's say that down here in the middle. That was the word Let's say television Yeah, right if you wanna Talk about if we say that this is the word television here. We have the word video Video, right? So the word video is around the topic of television Right, or if you want to approach as before if you want to say we are talking about videos But you have in mind the word television You're going to say we're talking about we're talking around the topic of television Also around is useful for numbers. For example instead of television we have let's say We have let's say the word five here five, right and we and maybe The the number the real number that we are talking about is Five point five. Okay, so for some reason you want to say There are five point five things Okay But because it's very close to five you can say there are around Five things All right, so you're using the word around when you go around a particular Topic and this is our topic right and you're and we are around it Now the word about is very similar, but there's no image of going round So let me change again the color when you say about About is everywhere about about About right. So this is why the word about is more useful is more used than the word around because Let's say once again numbers. Okay, and we say we want to say five, but the number we are talking about is seven point Three, right We can still say there are about five Okay, instead of there are about there are seven point three We can approximate we can get close enough just by saying there are about five Okay, so let me check in the comments how this is going if you guys have any questions about it Okay, so so far no questions about it if you have any questions about this topic go ahead By the way, if you have any questions about This topic. All right so as you can see It's very used and very useful and very common to use the word about Because it's more general. Whereas the image of the word around is Like only related to circular kind of I think kind of ideas so Once again, that's the me that's the biggest difference other than that when you are Approximating something you can use both the words. Okay, so Bob the words are valid But around is a little less useful because it only has one Particular image whereas the word about is more general because anywhere else Close to the topic is all about This part here is all about under Then when we go to the other one, for example Here we said seven point three seven point three is it's a bit far away from five Okay, but if we said eight eight is not in the about area anymore Okay, so this is the about area So this is how you use about whenever you talk about Something. Okay, what you're talking about is around a particular topic. I Hope that this drawing I hope this drawing helps you to understand if it doesn't Please write it down write it down in the comments write it down in the chat box wherever you want So I can if you have any questions about it. I'm right here and If it's not clear guys, let me know. Okay, I'll be more than happy to help you out. So now Back to and so back to the back to this phrase here Okay, because now it's time to go to the next question and once again the next question hold on just a second because Like always happens there are things that work and things that not that don't work, but now we're going to make them work okay, so Like always and here we are with the second questions And the second question is once again from lolly and you're asking is there a difference between What about and how about? well This is a perfect continue This is this is perfect to continue our conversation about about right So yeah, because as we have just learned you can use the words About when you're talking about a topic you're talking of something in the about area, right? but this particular construction is used for questions, so Let's put it into an example and for doing that Back to our beautiful page. And this time we're going to turn the page around. Here we go. So Let's say that you want to say So your question is what's the difference between what's about? Bum-bum-bum or how? about Dun-dun-dun, right now as we have learned The the when you are asking about you're talking about this about area Okay, so here you're asking a particular question here. You're asking another particular question. What about? Last Weekend How about Going out Right So as you can see, I put two different questions because when you are introducing your question with what? or with How? You are asking different things So when you're asking what? you are referring to the The bulk of your message you're referring to the the the subject. Okay, so the subject For example in this case is last weekend last Weekend Last okay, because it wasn't very clear. So You are asking about last weekend and you want to know the about area about area About it. Okay. So if I if you say what about last weekend you're asking What happened last weekend? Tell me something about this subject. Tell me something about last weekend Tell me what happened tell me where did you go? What did you do? Were you who were who were you with? What happened and anything else so here after what about you have to mention the topic you want to know about what about the What what about this live lessons, right if I ask you what about this live lessons I want to know your opinion on this live lessons What about? Christmas if I if you if you ask me what about Christmas you want to know about Christmas and of course, this is the subject Christmas Right now already happened Christmas already happened. We have the tree right here, but it already happened Meaning that we are asking me to once again explain you or tell you something about Christmas like how do you how did I spend it? Where did I go? What did I eat stump something like that? But if you ask me what about Christmas and maybe it's I don't know the 10th of December So you're right. It's the 10th of December and you're asking me. What about? Christmas then you are asking me if I have any plans for Christmas Okay, so you are using what to ask him to ask about the subject When you're using how well, that's a totally different story my friends because the word how is used when you want to know a Description Sure, and in fact for this reason I Should know there's no reason because so description. So instead of subject you want to know a description Description of and about area about area So in other words you are diving deeper into what I Feel or how I feel know what into how I feel about something for example How about going out you want to know what I think or how I feel? About the idea of going out right, how about Watching a movie then you want to know you want to have a description of the way I feel About watching a movie where watching a movie is your Is the subject is a description you want to have about and this is all you want to know about this Right. So I guess that this with this graphic way you can better understand how to use About right and how to use what about and how about so once again What about is used when you want to just Bring up a subject and you want to and you want people to talk about a subject How about is used when you want to one once again bring up bring up a subject, but you want to go Into the the feeling like if it's a good idea or not In fact, how about is very much used to give suggestions like how about we go to the next question? How about I now see I now check if there are any messages By the way, yes, we do have a message from Irina She says so we use about for something in general and around for something more specific Kind of to answer to your question I Would say yes, I would say that you use around when you wanna have Yes, definitely you're definitely correct Irina Yes you're going to use around when you are more specific about a topic when you want to be more specific about a topic when You're closer to the topic and then you use about when you are a bit far away from it Well done. This was a very clever thing. Thank you so much for this comment, Irina. Yes and Lolly how about going for a beer? That's a perfect example Absolutely. That's a perfect example because you're asking Okay, you're asking the other person the feeling about going going for a beer perfect example My dear my friends excellent. You are doing a great job in following me I know it can be a little bit difficult if you Are new to this language, in fact if you're new to this language Don't worry because I'm about to prepare a series of video lessons Actually streaming lessons right on this topic, but more about it more about it right more about it whenever they The things here the thing is ready So now on to the next question which is from Hugo hello my friend if you're here with us today Knock on our door or basically send us a little message on the chat box If you're not anyway, here is the question and welcome whenever you are going to watch this replay See, so you say good morning and good morning to you I have a question when we use ing in nouns and why oh boy This is a question This is a very interesting question very Deep into a particular topic for this reason first. I need to drink a little Yes, because now I'm ready to answer to this very interesting question So let's come let's give some context to this very important one We are talking about nouns and we're talking about I and G usually you see ing close to actions and Occasionally You see that you can use actions with ing to turn them into nouns so For example, what I what I what I mean to be to be very clear Is that a noun for example a brush pen doesn't turn into some Form like ing like brush penning. No There's no such thing. Okay, so What the question is here I guess is how to turn or know how to use how to use an action as In ing and then turn it into a noun and what this make how to use it so to first Understand better this question. I'm going to once again resort to this beautiful paper right here, but we need a blank page available and this is a nice blank page because we need to Clarify a little so When we talk about I and G I and G We are talking about Actions always it's a starting point. Okay, so this means we have actions And we have actions Plus I and G now What is an action? Why do I call it action? Well When I say action, I refer to verbs. Okay, but Let me just write it down just in case, you know, maybe Just just to be very clear when we say verbs we get into the realm of grammar and grammar can be heavy because it's not graphic and It's not really Interesting neither because you can't see a real application But any verb is actually only an action Okay, so if we see it from this standpoint, it's just easier. Let me explain what I mean for example This is a verb, right? But it's an action. The reason why we turn this one into a verb To drink is because we need to give a name to this action If we didn't need to give a name to this action, there wouldn't need any need for a verb for example if I say this This movement here. This is an action, right? But it's meaningless There's no meaning to this action and for this reason we don't need a verb to talk about it but if one day there's the need for this action Okay, how stupid it is, but then we would create a verb for it and So this is why I call I refer I'm talking about actions because it's just easier to relate with them. Okay now Let's go back to what we were talking about actions and actions plus ing for example let's say run and running Now what's the difference between run and running? This is our question this is our most fundamental question because if you go by grammar books, then You don't really understand it. But if you go by an example Now I'm sure you will understand when we say run We can we can actually compare the action run to a car and Let me do this. Let's go online Let's go online for a second Because I want to show you what I mean, so I'm going to bring up a car And here we go Let's take this one, which is a very nice car, okay So this is a car Okay, and so far so good We look at it and it's fine. This is the word run. This is an action We look at it. It's okay. We see it. We see the potential of Run in fact to be more specific. We can also take the word run and We see this guy here Do we see it moving? No, we don't see it moving. We see it as it We see it as he moves, but he doesn't actually move. He's there. We can see the potential but this is it when we say running or better when we say If I go over here, this is a trick to explain it and I put the word car We see the car Moving for example here This car is moving. This is an action with I and G and if I put it in the same example, this is run and Here we got running Here this man here. Okay, this is running This is run This is the difference you guys so whenever we're told we Whatever action you are talking about if you say the same Say even the action say which is the act of you know, letting the air out and speaking, right? This is an image compared to an image that is moving So this is the biggest difference, right? I want you to be very I want to be sure that this part is clear Now, let me check if there are any questions so far because I know that this is a pretty interesting topic But pretty difficult So far no questions. Okay, so Back to our page here. Okay now that we understand that this is an action But it's a it's a it's a freezed image frozen I should say it's a frozen image whereas running is a moving image Okay, we can get a little deeper into how into what this means because For example, let's say I Like Let's talk about tastings. Okay, I Can say I like to run by the way Let's remember that whenever we are talking about this the the base form of an action We always need to before right? I Can say I like to run but what I say to you what I communicate is just Just to just an image the image of you in the action like this in the action of running, but If I say I like running Then I say the same thing but in Movement. All right. So if I say if you if I say I like running you see me in the action of moving of Running up and down. Yes This is it. Okay. So this is the difference Now, how do we get to turn in this into? into into a noun there are Let's say let's let's take running actually running is a Bulk of actions together because there are many actions in the action of running. For example there's the action of Going Maybe going fast then there's the action of literally moving there's the action of Let me see, let me see There's the action of pacing Pacing and pacing is the action of moving with Rhythm moving with rhythm. This is Pacing right? So all these actions are Within are inside Toward running the action running another one. There's Breathing breathing Breathing is This too is inside the action of running can you see how many how many action do you see how many actions here there are and Actually, the list goes on because the more you go Granular into the action of running the more the more actions you find This makes this word a Good candidate to make it up to make it to turn it into a noun noun Because it's not a single action anymore, but it's more actions together packed Right. So when you say I like running you just don't say simply the action But you say all the little actions that go with it So this is why there are some nouns or better some actions that can be turned into noun Because they contain many other actions Inside that are part of the pack now, let me give you some very Common examples of this I can also say I like shopping or I have to do some shopping Shopping in this case is exactly a noun with the use of ing because the action of shopping You can imagine It's actually more than a simple Just going somewhere, but then there's also the action of getting into the shop Selecting the item you want checking the prices going to the cashier Paying for the object for the item you bought and so many other Smaller and smaller actions into it so you can use the word Shopping to Compress all these actions into only one and like this there are many other actions that can be turned into Into now actually I would say that Any action as long as it contains other actions within can be turned into now anything for example you can say that Instead of say I like let me let's let me also tell you that you can say I am Into okay, so I also give you an alternative because the word I like is a bit boring after a while, right? So you can say I like and you can say I'm into and you are saying the same thing When you say I am into what though the difference is that you only want to use ing or nouns or nouns Because you are talking about About a general topic. So for example, I'm into reading If I say I'm into reading which is just like to say I like reading they are the same. Okay, I Say that I love all about Reading and like if we put back this phrase, they're sorry this page This was reading and I like all about reading and for this reason I'm into it. Okay, I'm into it also Of course reading involves way more actions, right? Like if you put reading here, how many actions can you find? I'd say that you can for example Absorb information, right so or you can Learn something you can imagine Depending on what you read clearly you can imagine a scenario you can get involved into Something fantastic something unreal something magical something beautiful You can get emotional with books So there are so many actions and for this reason you can say that you are into this topic reading in this example there are also activities that are just there are four with I and G I Don't know for example Computing or Crowdfunding let me just write down this one so I can actually explain it. I'm going to Be like I'm into crowd Funding crowd funding is pretty complex to explain and because of this they because of this They made up this word, which is basically the crowd is a lot of people that give money funds to two ideas or Companies by usually two ideas to events to to two ideas to projects and the fact that is complicated is the reason behind the choice of just using a word like this because it Comprehends It includes a lot of actions one two three We don't really need to understand the actions into crowdfunding But what we want to understand is that there are many examples like this And the reason why they exist is because there are many actions within the same action All right So let me check into the comments if there are if anything is clear so far if there is anything that I need to explain better So, let me see. Let me see when you when you use Irina says when you use ing the action is more alive. Yes, you got it. Very well Hugo welcome back my friend. Hello teacher. Good morning. Excellent explanation. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure It's been a real pleasure. Okay, so Apparently, it's all good If you have questions anyway Even if you're watching the replay of this lesson just put it down into the comment box this way If it's in the comments I can read it and next time around I can answer to you Let's go on because we said that this was quite intense. In fact, if we don't get to the end of The every questions I received we're going to postpone those questions to our next appointment next Saturday So the next one is still for you Hugo. All right, and you are asking May you so kindly Talking about passive voice. All right, so just because Let me first Help you to structure this sentence now this phrase so that it's more clear, right? You need some you need some clarity so instead of may right you can just use can and This way is just easier. It's easier to communicate and don't worry You are still kind even if you use can you can ask can you Explain or even better. Can you talk about? Passive voice. Can you talk about the passive voice and this way the phrase is simpler And easier to understand and both for you to say it. So this is how you this is how I would say it So you see I just to get back to the beginning of our first explanation we wanted to talk about Right passive voice. So passive voice is here. And now I'm going to tell you something in the about area of passive voice and I say this because the area of passive voice is Very big is very broad for this reason. I will not be able to say Everything there is to say but I will help you to understand What it is and how to use it So first of all, what is passive voice? Passive voice is a way to build our phrases Passive instead of active or better passively instead of actively, right? Now, let me explain better because I know that this is definitely not enough. So for this reason, let's get back here for a second All right. Now we said passive And we say active Now always remember you guys if you want to learn something for example passive, okay, we want to always Put it against its opposite Because when you reason by opposites everything not only everything is easier But also you will learn double the things Right now in fact we have learned that there's a passive voice Because there's also an active voice That's right. So let me give you an example Active voice is the most common for example. I Read a Book I Read a book. This is a very simple phrase and it's in an active voice I'm going to give you an example of passive voice And then I will make you well, you will understand straight away why it's called passive The passive voice is the book is read by me Okay, so as you can see It's reversed now this is called active because This is me Wow, you know, I'm an artist, you know So this is me and This is the book This is an active voice Because all the emphasis is on me reading the book Me me me. I'm the active voice So it's called active because the The protagonist of it the main character is the person that does the action or The the person that does the action or not. Anyway, that's it. Okay, so the person that does the action Now you can expect the opposite, right? Yes, exactly because When you use the passive voice Me is still there or better, but I am still there, right? But the book is the protagonist Look at this book Wow The book is the king The book is the most important thing and in this phrase and for this reason is called passive because I How do you say I received the action Passively whereas here I do the action actively So here I I receive the action Here the action is done by the book and I receive it passively Okay, so this is why it's called active and passive The reason why this is more common is because it's more simple. It's simpler You see I read a book is very easy. I Which is the subject read is the action. What do I read? I read a book very simple. This one on the other hand is structured in a more complex way where you have another object altogether as the main character and Then you have the action That I receive right and because I receive the action And the action is in the state is is read in the past By the way, I chose a pretty bad action because they are written in the same way but In the present form this is pronounced read in the past form. This is pronounced read This is English you guys, you know that it's not straightforward especially in the pronunciation So this is a passive voice and this is an active voice now the question is Why is it useful? Why do people go about complicating their lives by using a passive voice? there are some situations where the The the protagonist or the subject of the phrase is unknown is not necessary or is not needed or there are other situations where There's the important thing is not who did the action but is the action itself and When the action is more important than the person who does the action This is where you're going to use the passive voice It's the case for Important books Since we are in the topic of books, right since we talk we are talking everything around books, right? we can also Say that a very important book Let's just say a very important book. All right was Written by and then the author of the book, right? Now because the book is very important The book is more important than the person who wrote the book and for that reason This is gonna be the protagonist Not so much the writer the writer is just the person who wrote it, right? So let me let me know if this explanation was clear. Let me see down here in the comments once again Let me see let me see could you is more polite I think we can talk about it we can talk about Ways to be polite in the next live session because lolly your Your remark is very important and opens up a whole new conversation, which I want to develop in the right way Left hander yes cobra. I am left-handed. Absolutely. I have left-handed. I do everything with my left hand everything and Yeah, I'm sorry Nobody's perfect So, let me see My car was stolen last night. Yes. I hope it's just a sentence. Okay. I really hope that That's not exactly what happened. But yeah, that's a perfect example because of course if your car was stolen into this phrase your car is the protagonist your car is the main voice and You don't even know who stole it because if you knew who stole your car You wouldn't even have your car stolen. Okay? So for for sure, this is a very very proper example, well done and lastly Okay, so she will say you say that you understand everything. Awesome. I'm very happy for it Anyway real soon I'm going to put together a series a series of live streaming sessions where I'm diving deep step by step into into this English language from the beginning so that Whether you already know a little of the language or you just know any nothing about this language You can still make sense of it. You can still understand every little bit Okay, so we're going to put everything in the proper in its proper place means from the spot But I'm going to talk to you about this topic whenever I know when whenever everything is clear about it now We are at the end of it. So it's been a pleasure to be here with me today It's been a pleasure To be here with me makes no sense It's been a pleasure to be here with you today, that's what I wanted to say Talking about active and passive voice and mixed editing So I'll see you back next Saturday I'll be right here once again same time in same place to continue answering your questions as always Ask your questions here in the chat box over the comments using the the proper form I created down here Just like the click just click at the link down here to ask me your questions And I bet in a get ready for them for the next time. It's been a pleasure again. You guys take it