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  • want to speak real English from your first lesson.

  • Sign up for your free lifetime account at English Class 101 dot com Hi, everybody.

  • Welcome back to ask Alicia the weekly Siri's where you ask me questions and I answered them.

  • Making me first question this week comes from Pullum Hypo Ahlam Fallen, says Kyle Alicia.

  • I would like to know the differences between the verb to be and to become, for example, which one is correct.

  • I want to be a teacher or I want to become a teacher.

  • Thanks both of these air.

  • Correct, actually.

  • So in this case, to be and become have the same meaning.

  • But become tends to sound more formal, like If you say I want to become a teacher, it sounds a bit more formal than saying I want to be a teacher.

  • It's also easier to say I want to be a teacher so you can use them in the same way when you're talking about becoming something else or when you're talking about something, turning into something else I want to be can be used in more casual expressions.

  • Another example would be like, I want to be rich someday or I want to become rich someday.

  • So I want to be rich.

  • Sounds more casual.

  • It's more commonly used than I want to become rich.

  • But they communicate the same idea.

  • So I hope that this helps you.

  • Thanks very much for the question.

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

  • Next question comes from Israel Diaz High Israel.

  • Israel says What's the difference between used to or used to and used four?

  • Okay, well, it kind of depends on your sentence so used to or used to.

  • Like I said that when I read the question.

  • So depending on the sentence, this word or this phrase rather can take different meanings.

  • So used to can mean something that you did in the past, like I used to play golf or you state pancakes for breakfast every morning.

  • Or I used to go to the forest to go hiking with my family every summer.

  • I used to do something that refers to a past activity that's no longer true.

  • Used to, however, talks about the purpose of something so, like this phone is used to make calls or like this camera is used to record video.

  • So we use used to before a verb.

  • So this thing is used to do that.

  • So that's talking about the purpose of something then used.

  • Four is similar.

  • It's also talking about purpose, but we're following the expression with a noun instead of verb.

  • So, like this phone is used four phone calls.

  • His camera is used four videos, so we're following the expression with a noun instead of a verb.

  • So depending on the sentence used to or used, Teoh there, spelled the same will be read differently and will have different grammatical functions used to and used.

  • Four have the same purpose, but we have to make slight changes to our grammar after that expression.

  • So I hope that this helps you understand the differences.

  • Thanks very much for the question.

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

  • Next question comes from Dongfang again.

  • Haidong Fund.

  • Ah, don't Kong says, Hi, Alicia.

  • I'm an English learner from China.

  • What does it mean when someone says, I'm not practicing the law anymore?

  • I heard this sentence in one of my favorite dramas called Better Call Saul.

  • I understand the sentence, but I'm a little confused about the word practice here.

  • Is this a common use?

  • Yeah.

  • This is a really nice question.

  • Great catch.

  • So practice is a very special verb that we use in certain jobs.

  • Certain professions.

  • So commonly this is doctors and lawyers that use this word.

  • So they use the word practice before their field of expertise, and it just means do or to be active in their practice.

  • So in this case, in better call Saul, it's practicing law, or I'm not practicing law.

  • That means I'm not actively doing like legal work right now.

  • I'm not active as a lawyer right now.

  • A doctor could say, like I've been practicing medicine for six years.

  • That means I've been active as a doctor for six years.

  • So practice here does not mean like practicing doing something.

  • It means actively participating in that job.

  • So, again, this is very specific for a couple of different jobs, like lawyers and doctors.

  • So very specific word.

  • Nice catch.

  • And thank you so much for this question.

  • Hope that helps you.

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

  • Next question comes from Silver Way High gin, silver wig.

  • Silver Way says Hi, Alicia.

  • What does I'm blown away mean?

  • Oh, yeah, Okay, I'm blown away Can mean I'm surprised or like I'm shocked.

  • So it's kind of it tends to be more of like a positive expression, like I'm blown away by all the questions you guys send.

  • Or like I was blown away by how good that dinner Waas.

  • Or like I was blown away when I saw that my best friend had decided to get a Mohawk.

  • So it's like something is surprising or shocking, or both may be, and you can actually use it for negative situations as well.

  • You can also use this in past tense like, Well, that blew me away.

  • That movie blew me away.

  • So just means shock.

  • Surprise.

  • Um, if something bad happens like someone is really rude, you could say like, Whoa, that person just blew me away.

  • Or like, I was so surprised at how rude that person waas.

  • So I hope that that helps you understand the phrase to be blown away.

  • Thanks very much for the question.

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

  • Next question comes from Pruthi Johnny High Proof V, Pruthi says highly show What is the difference between a lot of and a plethora of, um, plethora is kind of a formal and rarely used word.

  • So a plethora of something means lots and lots of something, yes, but we tend to use it for, like, extravagant situation.

  • So like, for example, the researchers discovered a plethora of treasures in the Egyptian Kings tomb.

  • We really don't use this so much in everyday speech.

  • It sounds too formal in most cases.

  • But again, if you're talking about something that's like, really kind of big and extravagant, you might use the word plethora to describe that a plethora of something.

  • So I hope that this helps you understand the word plethora.

  • Thanks very much for the question.

  • So that's everything that I have for this week.

  • Thanks.

  • As always for sending your questions.

  • Remember, you can send them to me in English Class 101 dot com slash ask hyphen Alicia.

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  • Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alicia and I Will See You Again next week by my Have you seen the movie The Three Amigos?

  • Steve Martin?

  • Yeah.

  • Do you remember a plethora of pinatas?

  • There's a whole scene there where they talk about their talking about a party that's coming up and they're like, Did you get the pinatas for the party and the like, C.

  • C.

  • And then and then they're like, How many pinatas did you get?

  • Would you say that you got a plethora of pinatas any little?

  • This is a flavor.

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