Easy English Conversation: “DID YOU KNOW?” or “DO YOU KNOW?”

Hello, my name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you about the difference

between the expression "Did you know?" and "Do you know?"

After I teach you the difference between these two common expressions, we are going to do

some listening.

I'm going to teach you some facts about English, and you're going to listen to them, and then

you are going to impress your friends by showing how much you know about the English language.

So let's get started.

So the first thing I want to talk about is what is the difference between "Did you know?"

with D-I-D, and "Do you know?" with D-O.

I want to thank one of our listeners or one of our audience members, Rick from Hong Kong,

for recommending this video idea.

So, Rick, we are going to answer this great question.

So let's start with "Do you know?"

"Do you know?" is the beginning of a question.

We ask this question usually when we don't know something and we want information.

So for example, I might ask someone, "Do you know where I can buy some nice shoes?"

So this means I'm looking for a store that sells shoes.

I don't know where there is a store that sells nice shoes, so maybe you can recommend one

to me.

Or we have another example, "Do you know the time?

Do you know what time it is?"

So if I ask someone this question, I don't know the answer.

I'm asking this question to get information.

So this is very different from "Did you know?"

So we will go over what "Did you know?" means in a moment.

Okay, so I mentioned "Do you know?" is used when you want to find out the answer to something.

What about "Did you know?"

"Did you know?" is actually different.

I'm going to show you an example of "Did you know?" and then we'll talk about the meaning.

"Did you know Mount Everest is the world's tallest mountain?"

So many of you know this.

When I ask a "Did you know?"

question with DID, it means I know the answer.

I know Mount Everest is the world's tallest mountain, but I want to tell you a fact.

It's a way for me to tell you facts about things or to give you information.

I don't know if you know this information, but I want to tell it to you.

So I use "Did you know?"

I also want to see "Do you know this information?"

And so if someone says "Did you know Mount Everest is the world's tallest mountain?"

you might say "Yeah, I knew that."

or "Oh, wow, I didn't know that."

So you might give an answer like this.

So I have a lot of "Did you know?"

questions about the English language.

Before I get to these fun questions where I'm going to give you some facts about English,

I just wanted to explain when we might use a "Did you know?"

question.

Well, first of all, teachers, like myself, love "Did you know?"

questions.

So if you're in a classroom or a conversation with a teacher, the teacher wants to teach

something, they might say "Oh, did you know?" and give you some information.

So teachers often use this.

There are types of books out there that talk about facts.

So you might get a book about science, and in the science book it might say something

about volcanoes.

"Did you know this about volcanoes?

Did you know this about the weather?"

And so fact books or information books often use "Did you know?"

Parents, moms and dads, grandparents, family members often use "Did you know?" with children.

They might say "Oh, did you know, son, that the capital of Canada is Ottawa?"

So it's a way parents can teach their children information.

Also, people who love facts might use "Did you know?"

So you might have a friend who likes to tell you things about the world, they might use

something like this.

"Oh, did you know that in - I can't think of a fact right now - did you know the closest

planet to the sun is Mercury?"

So you might have a friend who asks you these kinds of questions, or other types about information.

So I am a teacher, and I am also a person who likes facts.

So I am going to share some facts with you about the English language using "Did you

know".

So all of these facts I know, that's why I'm using "Did you know".

I know the answers to all of these, but I want to share them with you.

So my first fact is "Did you know the most common letter in English is E?"

So if you're looking at English books, the letter E comes up more frequently than any

other letter.

Let's look at some other facts about English.

Alright, so time for some facts about English.

So my first fact, "Did you know".

And you'll notice when people use "Did you know", they often have a voice they do with

it.

"Did you know", okay, I'm going to tell you what the longest word in English is.

It's really hard to pronounce, so I'm going to say this sentence.

This word is actually 45 letters long, so I'll go slow, and then I'll tell you what

it means.

"Did you know nu-mono-ultra-microscopic-silico-volcano-coniosis is the longest word in English?"

So what does it mean?

Well, it's not a common word.

I have never seen this word except in fact books, where they ask you what's the longest

word in English.

So please don't memorize this word, it's not a common English word.

What it means is it's a medical word, and it is a medical word that refers to a lung

disease that is caused by silica, which I believe is a type of mineral.

So what you can do to participate in these "Did you know" questions is when I ask a question,

I want you to say to the screen, you can say "Did you know it?", "Yes, I did", or "No,

I didn't know that", that's interesting.

Alright, so let's look at our next fact.

"Did you know the word'swims' is the same if you rotate it?"

So if you rotate the word "swims", this is an S, if you rotate this M, it becomes a W,

you have an I, if you rotate the W, it becomes an M, and then you have an S. So "swims"

rotated spells "swims".

So you can answer "Yes, I did know that" or "No, I didn't".

Alright, so this next fact is great, especially for people who like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet

and different plays by Shakespeare.

Great question, "Did you know William Shakespeare", so he's a famous playwright of Romeo and Juliet,

"Did you know William Shakespeare invented many new English words?"

I'll give you a couple of examples of some of the words he created.

He created the word "critic", "unreal", "uncomfortable", and "torture" as a verb.

So there are many words William Shakespeare created in the English language, so we owe

him a big thank you.

Alright, well let's now look at some other facts about English.

Alright, so some more English facts, and just to remind you, I know the answers to all of

these facts, and that's why I'm using "Did you know", because I want to share the information

with you.

So, my next fact, "Did you know about 4,000 words are added to the English language or

the English dictionary every year?"

4,000's a lot, but don't be scared.

You might think, "Oh, 4,000 new English words every year?"

Of course, we don't - not all English speakers know all of these words.

A lot of them are slang, so it's okay that there's 4,000 every year, but that's a lot.

Alright, the next fact, "Did you know there are more people in the world who learned English

as a second language than there are native English speakers?"

So this is actually quite an important fact, because there's a good chance you're going

to be using your English with somebody whose second or third or fourth language is English,

so it's good to practice listening to different accents and practice speaking English with

people from around the world.

Alright, the next fact, "Did you know English is an official language of 67 countries?"

And remember, you can answer these questions by saying, "I did" or "I didn't".

Alright, let's look at a couple more facts.

Okay, so I could go on forever with English facts, but I know we have limited time, so

I'm just going to teach you three more facts about English.

So what are they?

Well, "Did you know the U.S. does not have an official language?"

Many people think the U.S. has the official language of English, because there's many

English speakers in the U.S., but in fact, the U.S. does not have an official language.

What about Canada, where I'm from?

Well, Canada has two official languages, French and English.

"Did you know the most common adjective in English", so the most commonly used adjective,

is "good"?

And that's good, because most of you know the word "good", so you can feel happy you

know a very common English word.

"Did you know that the most common English noun is 'time'?"

That's another word a lot of you guys probably know, and it's a good one to know if you don't,

because "time" is the most common noun in English.

Alright, so our last fact, "Did you know over 80% of the information stored on computers

around the world is in English?"

So, English is really the language we use for information, especially on the internet

and on computers.

So, that's another reason why it's a good thing you are learning English.

So, for practice, here's what I want you to do.

We talked about "do you know", and just to remind you, we use "do you know" when we're

talking about something we don't know and we want information, so it's a question to

get information.

We use "did you know" when we're giving a fact that we already know and sharing it with

someone.

So, I want you to make sentences with "do you know" and "did you know".

You can try to make three "do you know" sentences and three "did you know" sentences.

For the "do you know", if you want, you can post them in the comments.

You might ask a question like, "Do you know what are the best stocks to buy?

Do you know the price of gas in Egypt?"

You can write whatever questions you want.

And then you can write some "did you know" questions.

And remember, for "did you know", you know the answer, so I might ask a question about

myself.

"Did you know my favourite colour is purple?"

So they can be simple like that.

And if you want, you can answer each other's questions if you know the answers, so this

is a great way to practice in our comments section.

You can also come visit our website at www.engvid.com, and there you can take a quiz to practice

what you learned in this video, and to practice the differences between "did you know", "do

you know", so it's a great way to practice.

You can also come and subscribe to my YouTube channel.

There are many different videos on writing, and reading, and pronunciation, vocabulary,

slang, conversation, and all sorts of other topics related to English.

I hope you enjoyed this video.

Did you know I really enjoyed making it?

Well, I hope you enjoyed it, and until next time, take care.