close up we have a close-up camera now

camera and ask Alicia who are we hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia

the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them maybe first

question this week comes from ways highways ways says hello can you tell us

which sentence is correct did you used to play ball or did you use to play ball

thank you yeah nice question in speech you'll hear used to used to know D sound

used to this is because it's really difficult to pronounce that D sound next

to the T sound quickly in speech regarding text though there's some

debate so there are some people who believe used to is correct in text and

other people who think that use to with no D is fine I would say just follow the

rules of whatever text book you use whatever you choose just try to always

use the same one if you prefer used to try to use that in text if you prefer

used to you can use that just try to stick to the same one so I hope that

helps you thanks for the question all right next question next question comes

from Fernando Valencia hi Fernando Fernando says hi Alicia I would like you

to explain the difference between unbelievable and incredible also

especially and especially and when should I use them okay first let's start

with the word unbelievable and compare that to incredible so when we look at

unbelievable there are three parts to think about first there's unn which

means not or like the opposite of something next we have that root which

is believed so to believe something means to have faith in something like to

trust something finally we see the end part that suffix Abel Abel means like

something that we have the ability to so when we look at unbelievable it means

something that we are not capable of or we do not have the ability to trust or

to believe or to have faith in to find is true all right so we use unbelievable

for surprise or for shock and actually your intonation matters your intonation

is really important here because you communicate which you mean like surprise

or shock some examples this dessert is unbelievably good

someone stole my bicycle unbelievable so you can hear when someone wants to

communicate a positive meaning of unbelievable they use that upward

intonation like this dessert was unbelievably good when someone wants to

communicate that negative meaning they use the downward intonation someone

stole my bike unbelievable now let's look at incredible incredible we can

break down incredible in the same way as we broke down unbelievable so first

let's look at in and incredible the in just like the onion unbelievable means

not so it's like opposite against something then we have this root part

cred which relates to like credibility which means something is legitimate or

true or genuine finally we see the suffix double again the spelling is

different from unbelievable but it means like the ability to do something so here

incredible means something that we do not have the ability to believe is

genuine or true or legitimate so that means that incredible and unbelievable

have similar meanings but it's just that incredible is something that's like we

can't believe it's real unbelievable is like we're not able to trust it or we're

not able to believe in it also incredible tends to be used in more

positive situations than unbelievable today's lunch was incredibly good we saw

an incredible movie last night does anything incredible movie which movie

all the Incredibles yeah and the movie Incredibles of course okay let's go on

to your next question the next question you had is the difference between

especially and especially okay so let's start with

especially especially is used to mean in particular or above all other things

like above everything else I especially love the red dress he hates spicy food

especially peppers we can't wait to go on vacation

especially to our summer campsite so especially is used to refer to things

that have a specific purpose we often use it for things that are made or

designed or created or like set up so some kind of making or building is very

very commonly associated with this some examples I had this dress specially made

the computer was specially set up for classroom use our lessons are specially

designed for young students so though there are these two separate meanings

for these words you may hear especially used to refer to things that have a

specific purpose this is just a general guideline but I hope that that helps you

in choosing between these two words thank you for the question next question

next question comes from nerd on M Annette Hagan nerd on nerd on says hi

Alicia what is the difference between knowledge and information okay all right

think about information like data we use information like to share things between

people so information is sort of everywhere we can find information

everywhere knowledge however is something that we gain so by taking lots

and lots of pieces of information and putting that together and like studying

a topic or learning about something specific we gain knowledge so knowledge

is like lots and lots of specific information together that we can use to

like you know make things or form opinions or live our lives we lack

knowledge about this topic I don't have enough information so I hope that this

helps you thanks very much for the question the next question comes from

Ronnie Ahmed hi hi Ronnie Ronnie says do you

have any tips on how to improve vocabulary within a limited time also

please what is the meaning of hope this email finds you well and

not more the casual in relationship okay let's begin with your question about

improving vocabulary in a limited period of time I'll just share with you what I

did when I was studying and what helped me a lot was writing I would just write

like crazy the new vocabulary words like a few days before the test

I would like cram them in my head and just practice writing them over and over

and then I would cover up like the the words in English in my language and look

at them in the other language I was studying and try to recall from that

then once I saw that like in the language I was studying in Japanese I

would cover that up and try to write the English equivalent so I was always like

producing producing it wasn't only input I forced myself to actually produce so

that really helped me for tests yes but I should say that this is not something

that you can expect is going to help you remember words forever like you have to

continue studying those words so like in my case because I would focus so much on

the test and when like when the test was over I wouldn't go back and try to

practice those words again and then I would forget them until like the next

time we needed them so this may be this could be a good short-term vocabulary

study strategy but if you really want to remember the words you need to continue

that kind of study let's move on to your other two questions your first one was

the about the expression hope this email finds you well it's just a formal

greeting it's just saying I hope that when you read this message that you are

doing okay that's what this means your other question is about the expression

not more the casual actually I'm not sure this doesn't appear to be a common

phrase I wonder if this could be not more than casual in talking about

relationships so when we say that you don't want a relationship that's more

than casual it means that you don't want a romantic relationship or a serious

romantic relationship in other words you just want to be friends with the person

or you just want to have like a casual like

friendly relationship with someone nothing serious so maybe that's what

this means not more than casual I hope that that

helps you okay thanks for your questions our next question this week from door

Gregory hi door door says hi Alicia what does it mean it's time to turn new leaf

ah this is the expression it's time to turn over a new leaf or he turned over a

new leaf so we use this expression to mean someone changed their behavior so

they made an improvement on past behavior so if something was bad in the

past but they turned over a new leaf past tense turned over a new leaf it

means that they made an improvement to their past behavior they are now doing

something better than they did before my brother finally started taking care of

himself and cleaning his house he's turned over a new leaf

she began cooking at home instead of eating out at expensive restaurants she

turned over a new leaf so I hope that that helps you understand

the expression turn over a new leaf thanks for the question alright so

that's everything that I have for this week thank you as always for sending

your questions please remember that you can send your questions to me at English

class 101.com slash ask - Alicia of course if you liked the video please

don't forget to give it a thumbs up subscribe to our channel if you have not

already and check us out at English class 101.com for some other things that

can help you with your English Studies thanks very much for watching this

week's episode of ask Alisha and I will see you again next week

maybe I which is the best incredible the kid the little the little the little kid

Jack Jack write that like just bursts into like flames incredible unbelievable

No