Basic English Grammar: How to use ALSO, TOO, AS WELL

Why the midterms matter, and also a 1970s... hi, James from www.engvid.com . I'm going

to teach you a lesson today on also, as well, and too.

A lot of students get confused by these three words, because they seem to be able to be

used at any time, but there are distinct differences.

And what we want to do today - or what I want to do today - is first tell you what each

word means, then show you how they can be used, some special cases, and of course, do

our test, hahaha.

Anyway, let's go to the board.

So, E, there is also that, but this as well.

Well, Mr. E here is trying to show you how these things are similar.

And when we go to the board, you can see that also, too, and as well can be used as "in

addition".

What that means is when you're using these - okay, these two are adverbs, also and too

are adverbs, as well as a phrase.

When you're using them, they want to add on information.

So, in addition.

So, I'm going to tell you something and some more information.

Let's go back to the board and we'll look at an example.

"I will also have fries with that" means perhaps they said, "I want a hamburger", but they

will also, in addition, have French fries.

Let's look at the adverb "too".

"I will also have fries with that too".

Once again, we're adding on information.

And if we look at the phrase "as well", "I will have fries with that as well".

In addition to the hamburger.

All three have almost the same meaning, and that's why a lot of times you see them used

interchangeably.

One of the reasons we use the different words like this is because in English, we want to

have it sound fresh, not boring, not repetitive.

You could say too, too, too, too, too, or as well, as well, as well, as well, as well,

but after awhile it gets very, very boring and uninteresting.

So, that's why you can have three different variations of the same kind of idea as "in

addition".

Heck, you could even say, "In addition, I'll have fries!"

Four different ways of saying it so you don't sound like you're repeating yourself.

Cool?

But that doesn't help you, and the nature of this video is to show you what is the difference

between the three.

So, if I just stop there, you're like okay, well thanks, you've done nothing for me, I

already knew this.

And I'm like, "That's not my job".

My job is to make this a little bit more interesting, so let's go down a little bit.

I stopped here with the adverb.

I'm going to stay with "also" to start with.

So, let's look at also.

What else is "also" used for?

Well, sometimes you want to make something stronger.

We can use "also" to put emphasis in a statement.

And to do that, we put that at the beginning of the statement.

It doesn't go at the end, it goes at the beginning.

That's one of the key differences between "also" and the other two.

Here's an example: Also, don't forget to get the money.

Alright?

So, we're saying "also" there, we're putting at the front and saying don't forget to do

this.

Okay?

There's another thing about "also" that you have to know how it's fixed with other verbs.

So, what I've done is I've tried to give you a little bit of a visual to help you remember.

The simple thing to remember is "also" usually comes before a verb, a simple verb, right?

So, if you say something like, not in the case of emphasis, of course.

But if you say, "I also go to the gym."

That's it, it's easy, I also go to the gym, it will go before "go".

But let's just say you have either an auxiliary verb, and when I say auxiliary I mean in this

case, a modal verb, the present perfect, or the verb "to be".

I want you to think of it in a sandwich form, and if you say, "What do you mean by that?"

Well, "also" doesn't start - remember here, I said it's before the single verb?

Well, we have to kind of change it a little bit.

When we have an auxiliary verb being used, we have the auxiliary verb first, so "have"

or the verb "to be" or "could", whatever modal verb you want to use.

Then we put "also", and then we end with the other verb.

Want an example?

"I have also been to Austria three times."

I have - present perfect.

Also - right there.

Being - that's the past, sorry, past participle, to Austria three times, okay?

Let's use a modal verb.

"I could also go to the store."

I could - modal verb.

That's the auxiliary.

Also - in between - "go to the store" verb in the base, right?

I also have five cars.

So - I'm sorry.

I'm also driving - I'm also going in his car.

So "I'm" - verb "to be" would be first - "also", then verb following up after.

Cool?

Alright.

So, I think I've given a clear idea what "also" is.

So, let's look at the other two and see.

Basically, keep in mind that with "also", it's more about "in addition", right?

With the added bonus or benefit of it can be used for emphasis.

Let's look at "too".

"Too" is an adverb.

Yes, it means "in addition", but it also has a couple of other meanings.

One of them means "to a higher degree or a greater degree than desirable".

Very, right?

So, what do we mean by that?

Or you can say excessive, which means too much.

"You're working too much."

It's more than you want, it's to a greater degree, it's excessive.

It's more than I like.

A second meaning is to make a strong point.

So, similar to emphasis here, right?

"Not only is he good looking, he's nice, too!"

It makes it stronger.

But you'll notice that the "too" is at the end of the sentence, as opposed to when we

talked about "also".

I said you have to put at the beginning for emphasis.

You can also use "too" as a response, okay?

You can use "too" as a response.

What do you mean by you can use "too" as a response?

Has anyone ever said to you, "Have a nice day?"

Or you say "Have a nice day!" and they respond to you not, "You have a nice day", they say,

"You too".

It's a response to "Have a nice day".

That's the one that's most common.

But it also can be a surprise response, like if someone said, "I have crabs", and you go,

"You too?

You have crabs?"

It means "I also have".

Some of you will wonder what crabs are.

That's what YouTube is for, and Google.

Go check it out, okay?

So, if someone says, "I have crabs."

"You too?"

It's a surprise to what you said, but if someone says, "Hey, have a great day", you go "You

too".

"Good luck!"

"You too!"

A response as in I want you to have that same experience as well, okay?

Alright.

Now, I want to go over to the third one, which is "as well".

"As well" is a phrase, it's not an adverb, literally it's not a single word, it's a phrase.

It's a phrase from well, "as well".

We talked about it being in addition, so it means added information.

But it also can mean "with equal reason or equally good result".

Which means whatever happens, it will be equal to what we do.

So, here's an example to make it easy, "We might as well go home.

The game is finished."

Well, the result's going to be the same.

If we stay there, nothing is going to happen, because the game is finished.

If we go home, there won't be any more game, the game is finished.

The result is the same, okay?

So, I know the definition.

I'm a very firm believer in giving a definition then giving an example, because when you give

the example first, this, sometimes you go, "Oh, it's about games!" and like, it can be

used a lot of times, like, "We might as well go to bed, there's no power."

We might as well, like, the result's the same.

There's no power, it's dark, you can't see.

So, staying up, you can't see.

If you go to bed, you can't see.

Go to bed.

The same, equal result.

Definition seems confusing, but I would also say to people, give the definition then give

the example.

You only need two or three.

If you give the example, you need to give a thousand for someone to go, "Okay, it's

not just for this."

Alright?

So, the result will be the same, regardless.

Alright?

Now, you can use emphasis for using - for both "too" and "as well".

I know I said with "also".

I did "also" first because "also" you put at the beginning of the sentence.

When we use it for emphasis here, we usually put it at the end of the sentence for "too"

and "as well", and that's one of the key differences.

Placement of where you want it for to give the emphasis.

So, let's give an example.

So, emphasis here.

"Pick up your clothes and clean your room too", right?

I usually would have said "as well", but I didn't have enough room on the board, so I

had to put both.

Either one could be used here.

But what it means is it's to make it stronger.

Maybe I'm angry and I've got a kid and my kid has put their socks on the floor and their

underwear and I'm like "Pick up your clothes, and clean your room as well!"

I want you to do both things, okay?

I'm not happy.

So, it's not just in addition.

I'm not happy, that's the emphasis.

If you said, "Pick up your clothes and clean your room also", you'd be like, "Okay...

I thought you were angry, but it's like you just remember I've got to clean my room, no

problem."

This way, there's no - in English, how we use it, there's no confusion.

I'm not happy and I want you to know it.

Or I'm making this point stronger, yeah?

I could say, another example for emphasis, "I'm proud of your behavior and your brother's,

too", or "your brother's, as well", and I'm kind of putting that emphasis like, I'm not

just saying one is better, I'm making them both equal but both strong.

Cool?

You like that?

You got it?

Don't forget the sandwich method for "also", because I'm about to skip and you know what

happens when I snap my fingers, we go to la-la land where tests come up, bonus material and

homework.

Are you ready?

Let's do it.

Okay, so we worked on "also", "as well", and "too".

You noted the difference that "also" goes at the beginning of a sentence for emphasis,

while "too" and "as well" goes at the end, okay.

And we talked about the differences for excessive and whatnot.

So, I'm not going to go over that, because you can just press rewind and watch it, but

we're going to go to the board and look at what we can change in this particular story

to use the new words we've got.

And I'll talk about our bonus section, alright?

And we'll do our homework.

So, Mr. E ordered a hamburger and French fries - French fries, fries, whatever, fries for

lunch.

I ordered the same meal that he ordered.

I asked Josh - sorry, I asked if Josh was coming to join us at lunch.

He said yes, and on top of that, Daniel would join us.

We should be sensible and get a table for four.

I said we should change the restaurant because it was excessively expensive.

There's actually almost nothing really wrong with this, it's just boring as all hell, and

you just learned something, so why don't we use it?

Okay, so Mr. E ordered a hamburger for - and fries for lunch.

That's okay.

I ordered the same meal that he ordered.

I think we can work on that, and we can change this part here - here, around here, we can

change this, right?

Next, I asked if Josh was coming to join us at lunch.

I think we change this as well.

Alright?

He said yes, and on top of that - we're going to change that - we should be sensible - sensible,

and I put a star here because I haven't actually talked to you about that one, but it's on

this side of the board.

And that one goes with this one as well.

There are two that I'm going to teach you later, but you're going to see how it can

be used from the three words we used.

We should get a table for four.

I said we should change the restaurant because it was - and I'm going to use this one here.

That gives us one, two, three, four, five areas we can change.

Now, let's look at why we can change them and maybe what we can change them to.

Mr. E ordered a hamburger and I ordered the same, well the key here is "same", right?

Same that they did, so I might say that's an "in addition", right?

And if someone was coming to join us, or with us, right, coming to join us?

That's also "in addition", coming to join, so that's what we're really looking at here.

And on top of that, we haven't really dealt with that, but I'm going to come back to that

after.

I'll show you what word we're going to use and then I'll explain it in the bonus section.

The same thing works with sensitive - sensitive, I'm sensitive today, it's my birthday.

No, it's not, I just made a mistake.

And excessive, excessive, there was a word we found there, okay?

So, let's go to the board and I've identified what it is we want to change.

I'm going to wait just a second or two, because some of you, I know, have probably sat down

and you've gone back and you've looked at - you're rewound and you know which words

I'm talking about.

And someone of you have - oh, it looks like you're ready, so let's do that.

Alright, so, we talked about is the meal the same, right, that he ordered the same meal.

So, I think we can have up to three choices on this one, alright?

Probably wouldn't use "also", because I said that usually goes at the beginning or we use

the verb, but we could do this: I ordered the same meal.

I'm going to go here and I'm just going to put this - "as well".

Alright?

I'm not - I said we could use three.

We could put the "also" somewhere else in the sentence, in front of the single verb.

I'm not going to do that.

I would say we could use this and just put "as well, too", but all three could be used

because it's about additional information, right?

I got the same thing as well, in addition.

I could have said, "Also, I ordered the same meal", right?

Or, I also ordered the same meal, or we could it put it here, so all three could be used.

I'm just going with these two for simplicity and putting them at the end, alright?

How about the next sentence, where I said "coming to join us?"

"I asked if Josh was coming..." and because of the rule where we said the "also" should

go in front of the verb and I'm not doing that; we can go here.

So, we can use these two, "as well" or "too" again.

Right?

Now, if I put "also", I'd put it here with "Josh was also coming", but I'm not going

to do that, so all three could be used, but we'll go here, "as well" or "too" for the

end of the sentence to make it simple.

Okay, so we've done two and now we're going to look at the other part I talked about on

top of that.

So, we're going to erase that, erase "on top of", that section here, and we're going to

put "also".

I told you I'd discuss that when we get to the bonus, which I will, alright?

So, we've got "also".

And then finally, we're going to get rid of this.

Now, I got rid of "should" and I'm changing it, because these are both modal verbs, but

in order to make this work, I have to change this so be careful.

But you'll notice when I did the other screen when we were talking earlier, I took "We may

as well go home", right?

You can't say "should as well go home", but "may as well go home".

So, I have to get rid of that modal, but a modal verb is necessary, that's why I've got

to put "may", so I need to use another modal verb.

So, "We may as well", do that, get rid of, so, get rid of that.

And then finally, something's excessively expensive, okay?

This one's easy.

So, we're just going to here, I'll be off screen for just a second.

But that's the easy one.

Let's look over what I've written and see if this is correct.

Mr. E ordered a hamburger and fries for lunch.

I ordered the same meal as well, or I could say I ordered the same meal, too.

I asked if Josh was coming as well, or too.

Okay, we can use that.

He said yes, and also that Daniel would join us.

We may as well get a table for four.

I said we should change the restaurant because it was too expensive.

Now, notice how we had all this stuff, we got rid of the excessive words, shortened

down our phrases and we also made them more interesting.

Now, what I want to do is because I'm sure there are two of them, which I told you, when

we said "on top of" or "on top of that" and "sensible", where did that come from?

Well, that's in our bonus section.

Sometimes, I need to keep you interested.

If I tell you everything, you won't pay attention.

I've got up here a list of the three words that we just did and other words that can

be used.

When you do writing, and I did forget to mention that "also" is usually written, people don't

say "also" all the time.

"Also" this, "also" that, they'll say "too" or "as well".

But in written, you'll find "also".

And I'm explaining that because you'll see words like "furthermore", okay?

"On top of that" is informal, "On top of that, blah blah blah", people will say.

So, another word for "also" is "on top of that".

But in formal writing, you'll see people say "furthermore".

So, that can be used for that and is usually for formal writing, you'd want to use that,

right?

Furthermore, we must do this, this.

Not just also, do this and this.

Another word for "as well" would be "sensible" or "appropriate".

We should do this because it's sensible.

Or we may as well do this, and that's why I said "We may as well go home", because it's

sensible to go home if the game is finished, or it's an appropriate action to take, right?

The result will be the same.

Too, remember I talked about it being excessive?

Well, we have "unreasonably", "very", or "extremely".

I did a video with "very", saying when you should not use "very".

Well, now you know there's another word you can use, "too", or "extremely" or "unreasonably",

okay?

You should check that one out.

Finally, for homework, what do I want to give you for homework?

I want you to write out six sentences.

Now, they're going to be in pairs, because we have three words, I want you to write two

sentences for each word.

I want one with the sentence meaning, so "in addition", sorry I forgot to put it in here.

So, one sentence I want you to write "in addition".

So, "I ordered a hamburger as well", right?

In addition to what else was ordered, okay?

The other one I want you to use it for emphasis.

Show that you understand emphasis; how "also" is used for emphasis at the beginning of a

sentence, or "too" can be used at the end of the sentence.

So, you can see those differences.

Alright?

Good.

And before I go, I want to say thank you to Nancy Carmona.

I hope I'm not screwing your name up, please forgive me.

I do look through the comments, and I noticed that you asked for this video, so this is

for you.

I hope that clears up any problems that you've had with "as well", "too", and "also".

And I invite any of you as I've said many times, write something, because I do look

them over.

And if it's a great lesson, I'll put it out there and I'll make sure you get the respect

and adulation you deserve for your hard work, okay?

Thanks for watching the previous video.

Once again, I've got to get out of here, also.

So, please subscribe.

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Do your homework.

Do your homework at, you know, underneath this video.

Do it on www.engvid.com . It's a great community.

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And you've found out I read what you write, so you know, we'll be in touch.

Anyway, gotta go.

Have a good one, alright?

Take care.

Oh, always, thank you for being a great audience.

Ciao!