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  • First question this week comes from Silas.

  • Hi, Silas.

  • Silas says Hi, Alicia.

  • How's it going?

  • I'd like to know the meaning of the expression.

  • Weird flex, but okay.

  • And how do I use it in a sentence.

  • Okay, this is a bit of recent slang Weird flex, but okay.

  • Focuses in on the meaning of the word flex.

  • So if you are interested in, like, health or like muscle training or anything like that, you might know the verb to flex.

  • So to flex is what we do when we want to show off a muscle.

  • We have been training, So when we flex a muscle, we put energy into the muscle to make the muscle like stand out.

  • We want it to look bigger like we want to show off that muscle.

  • So when we flex a muscle, we're trying to show it off.

  • We're like, excited about that thing, or we're proud about it or something like that.

  • So flex here in this expression, Weird Flex does not refer to muscle.

  • It doesn't refer to the body, but actually something else that the speaker or the writer is trying to show off.

  • So it's something that seems strange.

  • So in the example of muscles and muscle training, like the person who wants to show off wants to show their muscles.

  • But when we use the expression weird flex, someone is trying to show off something that seems strange.

  • And then we add, but OK, at the end to mean, I don't really understand, But all right, so to give an example of this, if I on Twitter, right, like I spent $3000 on socks this month, who and I talk about how excited I am?

  • I'm like showing off that I spent $3000 on socks.

  • Someone might respond to me Weird flex, but okay, so that means like it's strange that you want to show off that you spend $3000 on socks like that's a really strange thing to be excited about, but okay, so to give another example, your friend might tell you something like, I have the biggest collection of rocks in my whole neighborhood and you might say, Weird Flex, but okay.

  • So again, it's like, That's a strange thing that you want to show off, but okay, Whatever it is like, it's not hurting anybody.

  • It's just a little bit weird that you want to show that off or you want to brag or boast about that thing.

  • So that's what weird flex, But okay.

  • Means you see this one a lot online.

  • I hope that that helps you.

  • Thanks very much for this interesting question.

  • Okay, let's move on to your next question.

  • Next question comes from Riggins Riggins.

  • Hi, Riggins.

  • Riggins says hi, Alicia.

  • I'm Riggins from Haiti.

  • I'm good in English.

  • But due to a lack of practice, I've kind of lost my touch because I'm sick and tired of the learning process.

  • So I'd like to know how to keep my English up.

  • Please.

  • Okay.

  • First, I'm sure that you're not the only person like I lose motivation.

  • All the time.

  • I would say that if you are having trouble keeping your motivation up, you should try looking for a different way to practice or a different way to use English.

  • So, for example, if there's a hobby that you have in your native language, you could try doing that in English.

  • Or maybe there's a book or a movie that you are really interested in.

  • Or that seems cool.

  • And you want to understand that in English.

  • I would suggest trying to find something that's not like a traditional textbook or it's not a traditional way of learning, like going to class and doing work sheets and that kind of thing I would suggest actually trying to use English in your everyday life to, like, do your work or to study something or to accomplish a hobby.

  • Maybe you make a new friend who can speak only English, so I would suggest finding something outside of a traditional learning setting to dio.

  • I think that that might help you a little bit with your motivation that has helped me a lot in the past.

  • Actually making friends with people who cannot speak my language has been hugely motivating for me, and I tried to study the vocabulary words that they often talk about on.

  • I tried to learn from their speech patterns, too, so I would suggest trying to find something to do with other people as much as possible that uses English.

  • So I hope that this helps you and helps other people with their motivation issues.

  • It happens to all of us at some point in time, but I hope that these tips can help.

  • Thanks very much for this question.

  • Okay, let's move on to your next question.

  • Next question comes from Amit Farouk.

  • Hello, Amit, Amit says.

  • What is the difference between May and can?

  • Okay, um Historically, May is used to ask for permission.

  • Can is used to express ability to do something or lack of ability to do something.

  • So that's the historical use of May and can.

  • In today's English, however, lots of people use can tow ask for permission to do something We do not, however, use May to talk about ability, so let's take a look at some examples.

  • Can I go to the restroom?

  • May I go to the restroom?

  • Can I leave early today?

  • May I leave early today.

  • So in today's English, he's all refer to the same thing.

  • They're all requests to use the restroom or to leave early.

  • Ah, in today's American English, I would say that using may tends to sound a little bit more formal than using can.

  • If you ever want to be sure to sound polite and to make sure you're communicating clearly, you can use May.

  • But in most day today conversations we use can.

  • So I hope that this helps you.

  • Thanks very much for the question.

  • Okay, let's move on to your next question.

  • Next question comes from Yovani hyo.

  • Bonnie Giovanni says Hi, Alicia.

  • My name is Yovani.

  • I'm from Venezuela.

  • I've always wanted to know the meaning of this sentence.

  • Don't get twisted even though it's not used very often.

  • Thanks.

  • Yeah, you're right.

  • This isn't such a common expression.

  • I found only a few references to this expression and they were typically from music, actually.

  • Ah, so this expression could mean like, don't get angry or don't get upset or don't get nervous.

  • So it refers to being in like a negative condition so twisted if you imagine like a towel, do we have we do?

  • Yeah, for this explanation, let's imagine like a towel.

  • So a regular just plain towel when we hold the towel looks like this.

  • But if we twist the towel like this, it's under tension like it's under pressure.

  • So if we imagine ourselves as like the towel like we're under pressure, we're really tight.

  • Were really tense.

  • We could be angry.

  • We could be nervous.

  • We could be upset about something.

  • So if someone says to you, don't get twisted, it's like Chill out like don't be upset.

  • Don't be angry.

  • Relax, in other words, so I would guess that this is what this word means or what this expression means rather.

  • But as you said, this is not such a common expression.

  • We don't say, Don't get twisted.

  • Really.

  • In American English, you might hear people say something like, Just chill out as I've said are maybe like, don't worry or they're a couple of other slightly more rude expressions that we use to.

  • So I hope that this helps you.

  • Thanks very much for the question.

  • Okay, let's move on to your next question.

  • Next question comes from, uh, Molokai, Malik Malik says.

  • Is this sentence correct the color of shirts of players.

  • Could you explain, Maura about too possessive noun in a row.

  • Thanks in advance.

  • Yeah, Great question.

  • This is kind of tricky.

  • So in this situation, we would say the color of the players shirts.

  • So a key here is that we're using players and we're using an apostrophe after the S in players.

  • That apostrophe is acting as a possessive a posture feet.

  • So we have two ways of creating the possessive in English we can use of as in the color of the players shirts and we can use the apostrophe s form.

  • So, for example, Alicia's would be Alicia Apostrophe s.

  • The apostrophe s shows something is belonging to meet.

  • That's my thing.

  • Alicia's phone.

  • So in this situation, we have players players here.

  • We're talking about shirts that belonged to players, So it's not just one person.

  • When a noun ends with an S, we make the plural, possessive form by adding an apostrophe to the end of the word, and we do not add another s.

  • So in the singular form, when I said Alicia's phone, for example, Alicia is one person, so I right, Alicia Apostrophe s in this example.

  • However, because we're talking about a group of people players, we don't use an apostrophe s because the word already ends in s.

  • And it sounds kind of strange.

  • Just try to say, like, players is something like that.

  • So to avoid this, we simply right players with s and add an apostrophe at the end.

  • So this shows the plural form that means plural, possessive apostrophe there.

  • It's very natural to use that apostrophe form of the possessive when we're talking about something that belongs to a person.

  • So again, in my example, when I said Alicia's phone, it sounds quite natural to use that apostrophe s to show possession as a person in the plural form.

  • Two players shirts.

  • It's a shirt sport shirts that belong to a player.

  • So when we're not using a person when we're using like an object, it might be a little bit more common to see and of pattern used there.

  • In this case, it's color of the shirts.

  • So color is like a characteristic that belongs to the shirt or, in this case, shirts.

  • So here it sounds natural to use the of pattern because there's not a person here.

  • We're talking about the characteristics of an object color of the shirts so of