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Gifts of the month.

Hi, everybody.

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

Okay, let's get to your first question this week.

First question this week comes from Takumi High Takumi How come he says, Hi, Alicia, I'm a university student in Japan.

I teach English to elderly students as a part time job.

One of them asked me what fire with fire means.

I guess the man heard the phrase in a movie.

Could you tell me the meaning?

Yeah, this is part of an idiom.

The expression is usually to fight fire with fire.

That's the full phrase.

Typically, you might also here to match fire with fire or to meet fire with fire.

But in most cases, it's to fight fire with fire.

This phrase means to fight an opponent with the same weapon or the same method that your opponent uses.

So sometimes this literally means fighting someone with the same kind of weapon.

But in most cases it's talking about like a specific kind of competition and using the same method as your opponent to participate in that competition.

For example, if someone starts shouting at you, you can fight fire with fire by shouting back at them.

So in that case, there's no fire involved.

But shouting is your opponents weapon or method of attacking?

So if you want to fight that, you use the same method and shout back, so that could be considered fighting fire with fire.

You might also here this used in like business situations when you're talking about, like competition between businesses or between companies or industries.

For example, Company A is spending a lot of money on advertising this year.

We have to fight fire with fire and increase our own advertising budget.

So this just means to compete or like to attack or oppose someone with the same method or the same weapon that they used against you.

So again, this is usually to fight fire with fire.

I hope that that helps you.

Thanks for the question.

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

Next question comes from El Hassan Ahmed.

Hello, Gamilas on El Hassan says What is the difference between I don't know What is that?

And I don't know what that is.

For example, I don't know what the difference between them is, and I don't know what is the difference between them, Okay, The difference is that the second example is correct.

The first example is incorrect.

These are examples of what are called embedded questions.

So it's when we have a question inside a statement or we have a question inside.

Another question.

These air called embedded questions, embedded questions.

And when we use the verb to be in embedded questions, it takes a slightly different word order.

So when we use the verb to be to ask a direct question, we would say something like, Where is the restroom or where are my co workers?

That's a direct question, but when we use an indirect question or we use an embedded question, we have to change the word order a little bit.

So instead of where is the restroom?

We have to say something like, I don't know where the restroom is and instead of where my coworkers, we might say, Do you know where my co workers are?

So in each of these examples, the to be verb actually moves to the end of the sentence.

Or to the end of the question.

This is kind of special for these embedded questions style responses.

So keep this in mind when you're making an embedded question is, does not follow your question.

Word is goes at the end of the sentence.

The same is true for our and of course, was and were if you're making past tense statements or past tense questions.

But again, this is just for the verb to be.

If you're using any other verb, you don't need to worry about this, James.

So if it's like talk or walk or drink or whatever, you don't need to worry about that.

If you're using the verb to be, however, you do need to switch your word order in the sentence.

So again, your second example sentence is correct, so I don't know what that is.

Is the correct sentence.

I don't know what is.

That is incorrect.

Of course, if you're ever not sure what to do, and you're faced with a situation where you should choose, it's not in polite, it's not incorrect to use a direct question like, Where is the restroom?

But it does sound a bit more polite, to phrase it indirectly.

Or to use an embedded question like, Do you know where the restroom is?

It sounds a bit more polite.

So again, if you're ever unsure, you can use a direct question.

No problem.

But do make sure to practice thes embedded questions and the special pattern that we use with the verb to be.

So I hope that that helps you.

Thanks very much for the question.

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

Next question comes from on high on on says, Can you give an explanation about the word roughly.

Thanks so much.

Okay, I'm sure roughly means about it means approximately or around.

For example, roughly half of the students in the class passed the test.

Sales decreased by roughly 30% last month.

So in these cases roughly means about or around.

We tend to use roughly Maurin polite situations like at work in meetings.

We don't use it so much in everyday conversation.

In everyday conversation we use about or around.

There's another use of roughly, however, which you can kind of think of as meaning aggressive or like a little bit aggressive or not refined.

So, for example, my neighbors speaks roughly, but he's actually a nice guy, or this woman on the train pushed me really roughly.

It hurt.

So in those cases roughly means in kind of an aggressive manner, a slightly aggressive manner or not refined manner.

So when we use roughly as an adverb in this way, it means, like not refined, it's it's kind of aggressive when you're using it to talk about amounts or data it means about.

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 Patricia.

Hi, Patricia, Patricia says Alicia, I enjoy your videos.

Thank you.

My question is about when I visit restaurants and I don't want ice in my drink, For example, How do I say that?

No ice or without ice?

Thank you.

Yeah, we would say no ice, no ice.

So if you said without ice, it's probably not a communication issue, but more naturally we would say no ice.

Please.

You can use this for pretty much anything.

Any kind of special order like no tomato, no onion, no pickles and so on.

So if you don't want something, use no before the name of that thing that you don't want.

We have another expression that we use at restaurants, which is on the side on the side.

So, for example, if you order a salad and you say I'd like the dressing on the side, please, it means your salad and the dressing or the topping for the salad will come separately.

So if you don't say on the side, the restaurant staff will probably put the dressing on top of your salad and serve it to you.

If you request the dressing on the side, however, you can choose how much to put on top of your salad.

So some people like Dio, in this case with salads, request that things be served separately.

To do that, you say on the side you'll usually get a separate dish or a separate cup or bowl or something for your dressing or whatever it is you've chosen toe order.

So on the side is another thing you can use in restaurants.

Finally, for the opposite of this situation, for the opposite of no If you want more of something, you use extra extra like extra cheese, please.

Or extra bacon, please, or extra avocado.

Keep in mind, though, that when you say extra, you're probably going to have to pay Mawr.

So if you have like a cheeseburger, for example, and you say I'd like extra avocado, so that means there's already avocado on the cheeseburger.

You want Mawr avocado on it.

You're probably going to have to pay more for that avocado.

If, however, you order something without an ingredient like no tomato on this cheeseburger, there's no discount.

So please don't expect to discount if you ask for less of something.

If you ask for more of something, however, it's probably going to cost you a little more money.

So also keep in mind that we use extra when something already exists inside the dish.

So in my example, it's like an avocado burger.

There's avocado on the burger.

I want Mawr, I say extra.

If there's no avocado on the burger, I say, like something like, Can I have avocado as a topping, please?

Or can I add avocado as a topping?

Please?

We might use one of those expression So can I have something as a topping, or can I add something?

We might use one of those two patterns.

So those are a few restaurant related expressions that I hope are helpful for you.

Thanks for the question.

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

Next question comes from Will Jin's dishonest Hello Willians, Wilson says.

Highly shop.

Is there a difference between to lend and to borrow?

Yes, the difference is in the point of view.

For example, I lent my friend a pen and my friend borrowed a pen from me.

So when the person that is giving the object is the subject of the sentence we use lend when the person who is receiving the object is the subject of the sentence we use borrow.

So let's swap the people in my example sentences.

So my friend lent me a pen, and I borrowed a pen from my friend.

So again, in those cases, the person giving the object is the subject of the sentence when I use lend and the person receiving the object is the subject of the verb borrow when I use borrow.

So please keep this in mind.

This relationship So my giving or am I receiving?

That's what's important to keep in mind.

I know it's a little confusing at first, but with practice you will get the hang of it.

You'll get used to it.

So I hope that this helps you.

Thanks very much for the question.

Okay.

That is everything that I have for this week.

Thank you.

As always for sending your questions, remember, you can send them to me at English Class one no one dot com slash ask hyphen.

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Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alicia and I Will See you again next week.

Bye bye.