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  • Hi. My name is Rebecca, and in today's lesson I'm going to explain the meaning of a commonly

  • used English expression, and that expression is: "at all". I'd like to thank Mitchelin

  • from Columbia, one of our viewers on engVid, for suggesting this lesson. Okay? So, Mitchelin,

  • this lesson is for you and also for all you other viewers out there. All right, so let's

  • see how to use this expression: "at all".

  • In order to understand it, let me read you a few sentences where I've used this expression,

  • and you try to figure out if you can understand what it means and why we use "at all".

  • "I don't like this music at all." "He doesn't enjoy his work at all."

  • "She didn't understand the instructions at all."

  • All right? So, what's going on here? Why did we use the expression "at all" at the end

  • of these three sentences? After all, I could have said: "I don't like this music." So why

  • did I say: "I don't like this music at all"? What do you think? Well, the reason I said:

  • "I don't like this music at all." is because I was trying to emphasize or stress that I

  • really don't like this music. Okay? So one way of doing that is by adding this expression,

  • "at all", at the end of my sentence.

  • Similarly, in the second one, I could have said: "He doesn't enjoy his work." All right?

  • And that's a perfectly correct sentence. But when I said: "He doesn't enjoy his work at

  • all." I mean he really, really doesn't enjoy his work.

  • Okay? All right. So that's the expression, "at all".

  • Now, there's another way in which you might see this expression being used. For example,

  • if someone says: "Do you like spinach?" And you don't, you really don't like it for some

  • reason, you might say: "No. Not at all, though I know it's good for us." Okay? So: -"Do you

  • like spinach?" -"Not at all." All right? So that's another way in which you might see

  • that expression being used.

  • And one last point about this. Let's read this one: "I eat non-vegetarian food at all."

  • Well, we can't use this expression "at all" in this way. Why? Because this is a positive

  • sentence. And as you might have noticed, we can only use the expression "at all" in negative

  • sentences. So, we cannot say: "I eat non-vegetarian food at all." You have to... You could only

  • use it in a negative expression, like this one: "I don't eat non-veg food at all." That

  • means I don't eat even a little bit. Okay? Because the expression "at all" means even

  • a little, to the slightest degree. That means I don't like this music at all. I don't like

  • this music even a little bit. Okay?

  • All right, if you'd like to do a quiz on this and practice using this expression, please

  • go to our website: www.engvid.com. And you can also leave comments for us there. So if

  • there's a lesson or idea that you have, you have some suggestions, you can leave us some

  • comments, and, who knows? We might be able to record a lesson for you.

  • Thanks very much for watching. Good luck with your English.

Hi. My name is Rebecca, and in today's lesson I'm going to explain the meaning of a commonly

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