How to Explain Something in English - Basic English Phrases

Okay! I think we're rolling.

So, let's get started.

Hi, everybody and welcome back to our weekly live stream.

My name is Alisha.

And, this week we're going to be talking about this topic, “How To Explain Processes.”

So, today's live lesson is going to be about using sequence words like, “first,” “then,”

“after that,” “next.”

I'm also going to talk about a key grammar point, the difference between “if” and

“then,” which is something lots of my students have trouble with.

So, we're going to do that.

At the end of this live lesson, we're going to put everything together to make a simple

everyday life process.

In this case, a recipe.

So, lots to do.

I see lots of you are already in the YouTube chat.

Hi!

Hi, guys.

Thanks for coming.

And then, we're getting Facebook up as well so we'll start in maybe just a couple minutes.

Good.

But, in the meantime, a couple of announcements, maybe one big announcement.

If you missed this, last week, the channel hit a million subscribers.

Very, very exciting.

And, as I mentioned last week, also, there's a special video on the YouTube channel only.

So, if you haven't seen that video yet, please, go to YouTube and check out that video because

the team put together a special deal for the YouTube subscribers only.

So, please, please, please go and check that out if you haven't already.

Also, there's kind of a funny video, some stuff, some of my mistakes from the last few

years, like the last six years, so it's actually--it's kind of fun to watch even if you don't get

the deal, I suppose.

So, please go check that out.

That's on the YouTube channel.

Here, I tweeted about it earlier before.

But, you can check the YouTube channel only, so not Facebook but the YouTube channel only.

So, please do that.

But, today we have a different topic.

The topic as I said is “How To Explain Processes.”

So, sequence words, for example.

So, we have a lot to do for today.

I think I want to begin.

I see Facebook is up, which is good.

Is Twitter up?

And also, you can watch the stream now on Twitch, too, which is great.

So, I think that everything is rolling so we'll get started.

Oh, I don't see Twitter yet.

Is it okay if I go, though?

Okay, well, for now.

Let's get rolling into today's topic.

So, I want to begin for today by introducing two questions.

These are questions that you can use when you want someone's help with something.

You don't know how to do something and sometimes students say, “Can you teach me how to do

something?”

They use the verb, “teach,” but in American English, actually, we use the verb, “show,”

instead of the verb, “teach.”

So, I want to begin today by introducing these two questions you can use to ask someone to

help you with something.

So, they are, first, “Can you show me how to,” so, “how” mean, this is a question

asking for help with a process.

So, “Can you show me how to use the computer?”

“Can you show me how to use this software?”

So, this question, “Can you show me how to blah, blah, blah?” it should be followed

by a verb.

A verb in the simple present tense.

So, “Can you show me how to use Twitter?”

“Can you show me how to use the webcam?”

something like that.

Use the simple present tense in this question one.

So, that's one expression but a key point is here we use the verb, “show,” not the

verb, “teach.”

I don't think you'll have a communication problem if you use the verb, “teach,”

but this sounds more natural in American English.

Second one is this expression.

“I don't know how to blah, blah, blah.”

“I don't know how to use the software.”

“I don't know how to buy a ticket.”

“I don’t know how to," again, a present tense verb expression here.

“I don't know how to do something,” in present tense.

Then, a request, “Can you show me?”

“Can you show me?”

So, here, you see the same thing.

“Can you show me?” as a simple request, or, “Can you show me how to do something?”

I want to start today with these two, just basic questions that you can use when you

need help with something.

So, this is one.

Then, today, basically, I want to focus on answering these questions.

So, if someone asks you one of these questions, how can you show them how to do something.

I want to focus the next part of today's live stream on how you can you can actually show

someone a process, how you're going to explain a process.

So, let's take a look next at some sequence words, some transition words.

You'll see them over here, Just a second.

This is just a sample list.

There are a lot more words you can use than these.

But, for today, I want to use these as kind of just some nice focus words that we can

use in lots of different situations.

So, just a quick explanation.

So, “first,” number one, this is your first step, the first thing you need to do

in a process or in a sequence.

Then, second, “next,” we can use it to mean the next step after that, similar here,

“after that.”

So, these words, “next,” “then,” and “after that,” are kind of very general

transition words that you can use in many, many different situations.

But, I recommend, when you are telling someone, when you are explaining a process, it's good

to try to use many different transition words.

If you always use, “next,” “next,” “next,” it sounds a little bit unnatural.

So, try to use some different words, try to mix up your vocabulary choices here.

Okay, I want to look at the next two here, I have, “once you've done that,” and “once

you've finished that.”

So, here you can see, I have, “once you've,” this is “once you have.”

“Once you have done that,” “Once you have finished that.”

Please keep this pronunciation point and this grammar point in mind.

“Once you've,” “once you have done that.”

This is a present perfect tense expression.

This means, so basically, when you finish an action or when something has been completed,

go to the next thing.

Okay.

And then, our final two.

Our “last” and “finally.”

“Last” and “finally,” you use these to introduce the last or the final step in

the process that you are explaining, “last” or “finally.”

Today, we're going to use almost all of these to explain a couple of processes.

Of course, as I said, there are many other words you can use but these are quite nice

ones for today, I think.

Also, I'm going to explain today's lesson and in terms of using speech but you can also

use these in emails, in written correspondence, in letters, anytime you need to teach someone

or show someone something.

Also, when you're explaining a process, a grammar point for today, please use present

tense to explain your steps.

So, I'm going to give some example sentences and use this in just a moment, too.

So, this is our introduction for today.

These words we'll use today to give kind of some—yeah, to give a couple of examples

of some ways to explain sequences.

Okay.

But, we're about 10 minutes in, before we go on to the next part, our kind of focused

grammar point for today.

I think we need to take a break, yes, maybe, I think, perhaps.

Yes, that is true.

Okay.

So, before we go on.

Oh, just keep going.

Okay, I'll just keep going.

Sure, okay, okay.

Oh, the break.

Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Okay.

So, yes, we are supposed to take a quick break.

If you're just joining, today's focus is on explaining processes but we always have kind

of some free stuff for you, guys.

This week, as we had last week, we have some free PDF documentation.

This week, I'm kind of focusing in on like this business English one.

I thought this would be nice because I find at work sometimes—actually, just yesterday,

I had to explain how to do something and so this was kind of nice, actually.

These are free, these are something you can download from the website, from EnglishClass101.com.

Actually, below the video on YouTube and above the video on Facebook, there's a link to get

this stuff for free.

I think you saw, maybe quickly, a screenshot.

Yeah, there it is.

These are all the free PDFs you can download from our website from EnglishClass101.com.

If you would like to get these for free please, check the link below the video on YouTube

or above the video on Facebook, on Twitter, on Twitch, wherever you're watching.

So, these are free.

So, today, yeah, I thought the business one would be nice for today.

There's kind of actually some business expressions you can use like, “I'd like to introduce,”

is sort of a way to begin telling someone about something.

Please check this out.

Okay.

But, with that, let's go on to the second part of today's lesson.

If you're just joining today's lesson, today, we're talking about “How to Explain Processes,”

how to show someone how to do something.

If you're just joining, of course, please make sure to like the video, super helpful,

and share if you like to.

Great!

So, we talked about some sequence words at the beginning of today's lesson.

There they are.

Thanks, Kyle.

These are the sequence words I introduced in the first part of today's lesson.

I want to give a quick example.

Let's look at a three-step sequence of how to use these.

I'm going to start my sequence with the expression, “first.”

Let's imagine for this practice, we're going to fill out, we're going to write our information

on a website like filling out a form online.

We'll start with the expression, “first,” then we follow with a present tense verb.

So, “First, enter your name,” for example.

As I said before, we're going to use present tense to do this.

So, “First, enter,” “enter.”

“Enter” means like put in fill in, like a form.

Me typing.

“First, enter your name.”

This is step one.

I've shown that with “first” here.

After that, so, I just used “after that” but in my sentence, I'm going to use “then,”

to show the next step.

I'm going to use a different verb this time.

So, “Then, fill out the form.”

Here, again, this is my present tense verb.

“Then, fill out,” “fill out” that's a phrasal verb which means put your information

into something.

First, “fill out the form,” after that.

Then, the last step.

In this case, the final step in the sequence, in this explanation, is “Once you finish

that.”

As I explained before, “once you finish that,” here's my present perfect tense,

“Once you have finished that, hit enter.”

Here, I've used again present tense verb, “hit.”

This “hit,” though, doesn't mean strike, doesn't mean punch something.

“Hit” is a casual word which means click, like click a mouse button somewhere.

Like when we click a mouse button, to push a button, we can say, “hit.”

So, “Hit enter,” “hit the enter button.”

This is a very simple sequence.

I've got step 1, step 2, step 3.

“First,” “then,” “once you've finished that.”

And, I use present tense verbs because present tense is used for regular action.

Something that is always true, general facts.

These are always going to be true, these are the steps in a process.

So, we need to use present tense to do this.

Okay, good.

If you have questions, please, let me know.

I'll try to watch the chat.

There's a lot going on too.

The next thing I would like to talk about, I want to quickly, maybe over here.

I don't have much space.

I want to talk about a key grammar point because I want to use this in the last part of today's

lesson.

Today, I want to talk about the difference between these two words, “if” and “when.”

“If” and “when,” lots of people struggle with this because there's a key difference

between these two.

Remember, “if” is used for something that has just a chance of happening.

So, “if” is something has a chance of happening, “when” is used for something

that has a 100% chance of happening.

So, you might think, “Why does this matter?

Why it is important?”

Because, the listener, if they hear, “if,” they think, “Okay, there's a chance something

might happen.”

But, if the verb or if the word, “when,” is used, then there's an expectation something

is going to happen.

We're going to use this point in a sequence.

But, I want to give a quick example of times when this can cause a problem, if you use

the wrong word here, if you choose “if” or “when” incorrectly, it can cause a

miscommunication issue.

For example, if I say, “If I have time, I'll call you,” for example.

Here, I have “if.”

Same sentence, “When I have time, I'll call you.”

So, the difference here is important because in the first example sentence, “If I have

time, I'll call you,” that means the speaker thinks there's a chance he or she might not

have time.

“If I have time, I'll call you.”

There's only a chance.

If you use “when,” like, “When I have time, I'll call you,” that means the speaker

expects to have time and the listener probably expects the speaker is going to call, it's

going to happen.

So, if you use “when,” but you mean “if,” you might have some communication problems.

So, this is a key point to remember for today.

Because, we're going to use all of these, “if” and “when,” and all of these

sequence words in the last part of today's lesson, to make a simple sequence.

So, “if” and “when.”

Actually, I made I made a whiteboard video about this so I hope you can see that on the

channel sometime soon.

But, this, yeah, this is an important point.

Okay, good.

I don't see any questions yet so we're going to keep going.

But, I think we need to take another short break.

Can I scroll down just a little bit in my notes there, Kyle?

Is it okay?

Thank you.

Okay, good.

Okay, yeah, good.

I did get everything.

I just wanted to make sure that everything was there.

Okay, good.

So, we're about almost 20 minutes into today's lesson.

A couple example sentences coming in.

Good, Hector.

Hi, Hector on YouTube says, “If I were rich, I would invite you to Tahiti.”

Oh, my.

Okay, interesting.

“If I have time, I'll call you, maybe.”

in Facebook.

Hmm.

“If I have money, I will buy a car.”

Yeah, “If I had,” “If I had money,” so, slightly different grammar point from

today then.

Can't figure out my accent?

I have an American accent.

I am from the west coast of the USA.

Okay, good.

So, let's continue to our break.

Quick break time.

So, if you missed it before or if you missed it last week, we have, as always, free stuff

for you, guys.

So, this week, we have, of course, in the link below the video on YouTube, above the

video on Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, we have free PDFs.

Tada!

So, today, like I said, I'm kind of focusing on business English.

I thought that would be a nice one to practice with this grammar point because you can use

these to explain things to your co-workers.

So, this is just one example of what you can find.

It's for free on EnglishClass101.com.

You can find a few phrases for meetings up here, as I said, like, first, “I want to

introduce blah, blah, blah,” or some other things here like, “We're here today to,”

that's another one as well.

You could use that to introduce something.

So, please, check these out.

These are from the link below the video on YouTube, above the video on Facebook, Twitter,

Twitch, check it out.

There!

For sure.

So, these are totally free.

If you don't have an account, you can make an account in just a few minutes, I think.

Actually, I think you can use this sequence to make an account.

I think you can do that on the website.

So, you can try that.

It should only take a moment.

So, please, do check this out, it's free.

And, the team put together, if you checked in the past but you have not checked recently,

the team added like seven totally new ones a few weeks ago.

So, definitely, go check that out.

Okie dokie.

Let's continue.

Great!

Nice job with the example sentences too.

“If I had time, I would go to the USA.”

Very nice, good, Rocha.

“I'm watching for the first time.”

Hi, thanks for joining!

Okay, let's go then to the last part of today's lesson.

The final part, I want to put everything together.

I'm going to erase this.

Don't worry because this is a video so you can watch this video back on our Facebook

page or our YouTube page.

I’m going to keep the “if” and “when” there on the board.

Okay, we're going to look at a sequence, an actual sequence.

I made a disgusting recipe for this lesson.

It's not a real recipe but just to practice today's grammar and to practice today's speaking

points.

I want to introduce a simple recipe that we can explain in this lesson.

So, with that, let's begin a disgusting carrot soup.

Let's look at the first sentence, the first step in this sequence.

Great.

Oh, thanks, Kyle.

So, the first step in the sequence is here, “First, pour water into a pot.”

So, here, I have the verb, “pour.”

This is very, very common for like recipe instructions, if any of you cook.

But, we're going to use the same sequence words we used before to do that.

So, “First, pour water into a pot,” is our first step for the sequence.

Okay, then, the next step here will be to turn on the heat.

“Turn on the heat” means like start the fire if you have a gas kitchen or like start

the electricity.

So, turn on the heat.

So, again, I have a present tense verb here, “Next, turn on the heat,” is the present

tense verb.

Okay.

In the next step, though, I want to I want to use “when.”

We have our first two steps here.

Step 3 is going to use “when.”

So, let's take a look at that next step.

Awesome.

The next step here is, “When the water boils, add carrots.”

So, here, I'm using “when” because I know, in this case, I know the water is going to

boil.

So, I use “when.”

So, if you don't know this word, “boil,” the word, “boil,” it's hard to see there,

sorry.

If you don't know the word, “boil,” “boil,” means the water starts to bubble, it reaches

100 degrees Celsius.

Alright, so it starts to bubble.

I know the water is going to boil because I turned on the heat in step 2.

So, I should use when here, not “if.”

“If” is used to explain a chance, something that has a chance of happening, “when”

is used for something we know is going to happen.

So, I use “when” in this step here.

Okay, so, “When the water boils, add carrots.”

Okay, this is not an appetizing recipe.

Then, let's go to the next step.

The next step I'm using this point.

Maybe some of you have seen this video on the YouTube channel, the difference between

“by” and “until.”

“Until,” here, so, “Cook the carrots until they are soft,” is the next step.

So, the image here is that the carrots are cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking.

And then, at one point, they become soft.

So, at this point, I can stop this step.

So, I can stop cooking the carrots.

That means it's done.

So, in other words, at this point, carrots are done.

I should stop with them.

This shows a point in time where something changes.

Here, my action, I'm continuing one action, cooking carrots and I stopped the action here

at this point.

That's what “until” means in this step.

Okay.

Then, let's go to our penultimate.

Oh, “penultimate,” that's a good vocabulary word for you, guys.

Kind of an advanced vocabulary word, “penultimate.”

“Penultimate” means the step before the last one or the thing before the last thing,

“penultimate.”

Our penultimate for today is, yes, this one, “If the water starts boiling over, turn

down the heat.”

Okay, there's a lot happening in this sentence here.

Let's first look at this verb, “to start boiling over.”

So, we talked about the verb, “to boil,” but “to boil over” -- I am not an artist

as we established last week.

If “to boil over” means there's water boiling in a pot, but, “to boil over”

means the water comes over the edge of the pot.

So, the water starts coming out of the pot.

That means “to boil over.”

So, the water starts boiling over, it starts boiling over.

That's one.

So, here's my beautiful description.

This is water boiling over in a kitchen somewhere.

Hopefully, not your kitchen.

So, “If the water starts boiling over, turn down the heat,” “turn down,” just like,

“turn down the volume,” if you're listening to music, “turn down the heat.”

Finally, here, I have used the word, “if.”

I've used “if: here because there's just a chance that the water is going to boil over.

So, we're planning, we know the water is going to boil but we don't know, there's not a 100%

certainty, we don't know the water is going to boil over, there's a chance only.

So, here, we should use “if.”

If you use “when” here, it sounds strange.

If you say, “When the water boils over, turn down the heat.”

It's like you expect the water is going to boil over.

It's better to use “if” here.

Alex, yes, it is a cooking recipe for a disgusting carrot soup that I made for this grammar lesson.

Okay, great.

So, finally.

I guess our final two steps, I combined them together.

Tada!

“Cook for 30 minutes, then eat.”

So, we've turned down the heat, we cooked the carrots till they’re soft, the last

step is just cook.

Like, maybe, let it cook in the pot.

So, over low heat, then eat, I guess.

This is not supposed to be a delicious soup at all but just a way to show you how to use

these words, how to connect these words using these transition words.

So, “first,” “next,” “when,” “until,” “if,” “then.”

We could use “finally,” so, “Last, cook for 30 minutes and then eat,” something

like that is okay too.

So, there's no 100% correct way to explain a sequence every time.

You can use your own transition words, feel which one sounds best to you and yeah, make

your sequence accordingly.

Good.

We only have a couple minutes left.

Oh, my gosh.

I hope that this was useful.

There are a couple questions.

Woozi in the YouTube chat says, “What about, ‘Wait for 5 minutes.’”

Yeah, that's fine.

You can say--you mean the last step, so, “Cook for 30 minutes, then wait for 5 minutes.”

Or, you can use the verb for cooking—Sorry, we have a cooking vocabulary word.

For cooking, you can say, “Let cool.”

You can put the dish name here if you want, but generally, you can just say, “Let cool

for 5 minutes,” or “Let cool for 30 minutes.”

We also have “Let rest,” in cooking which we use for meat, though, too.

If you let the meat rest, it becomes juicier and then there's like after cooking time.

So, “Let cool,” is another word that you can use to do that.

“Finally,” yes.

You can use “finally” to end the recipe if you like.

Yeah, so, “Finally,” before the last step, “Finally, let cool 5 minutes then eat,”

is fine too.

Yes, it is the worst carrot soup ever.

I do not recommend trying this recipe.

Sounds terrible but I wanted to make a simple recipe to explain today's points, yeah.

Alright.

We're out of time for today.

Yeah, I know spamming my cooking recipes.

We're out of time for today.

So, we have to finish up this lesson.

If you missed the lesson, don't worry, you can watch this video on YouTube or on Facebook,

so please, definitely check it out.

You can review it there right away after we finish here.

We’re finish with today's topic but we will be back, of course, next week.

So, next week's lesson we're going to change gears, change topics a little bit.

Next week's lesson is going to be “TOEIC Tips.”

So, “TOEIC,” this is a test.

Some of you have questions about test taking in general like how to get a better score

on this test, how to get a better score on that test.

So, we're going to talk about the TOEIC test next week, what it is, how to improve or how

to do a better job when you take the test.

We're going to focus on the TOEIC and some test-taking stuff for next week's lesson.

So, please join us next week, April 4th.

Wow, it’s already April.

April 4th, that's Wednesday nights, 10 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.

So, Eastern Standard Time, remember is New York City time.

If you don't know your local time just use your Google skills and you can find it pretty

quickly, I think.

No, we don't have an Instagram class.

We have class on Facebook and YouTube and Twitter and Twitch, no Instagram class.

Thanks, okay.

So, this will be our topic for next week.

Hey, Mio!

Yeah, do you want to tick-tock?

I know you!

Thanks for watching.

Yeah, so, this is next week's topic, next week's lesson, so please join us.

We're looking forward to seeing you there.

And, since this lesson, I'm going to go away now.

So, please be sure to check the link below the video on YouTube and above the video on

Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch to get your free stuff for this week.

Please go download that right away and you can grab all the free things immediately.

Free!

Some vocabulary study tools.

There are a lot of these.

Also, just a to make sure to check out the 1 million subscribers video on YouTube and

grab that deal if you like as well.

But, we'll finish here for today.

Thank you so, so much for liking the video and for sharing the video.

It's amazing.

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for joining us in your studies this week.

Have a great day, have a great night.

Enjoy the rest of your week, your weekend and we'll see you again next time.

Bye-bye.