How to Use English Modals? Can vs Could! Ask Alisha

58,093 views ・ 2018-02-03

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This week we're doing a pronunciation roundup, let's go!
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Hi, everybody, welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions
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and I answer them, maybe!
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The first question is from the wrong spreadsheet.
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Okay, first question this week comes from Danny.
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Danny says, “How do we say the ‘TH’ sound naturally?
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Sometimes I can't stick my tongue out too much when speaking or, for example, when I
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say something in a long sentence quickly.”
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A couple things to consider.
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One, there are two ‘TH’ sounds.
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There's the “TH” sound, like in “think;” and “this.”
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Whereas Danny's talking about, your tongue kind of sticks out between your teeth, but
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it's not such a big motion, actually, so it's not like you have to be really dramatic with
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how much you stick your tongue out, like “tha.”
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It's a bit too much.
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Maybe when you practice, you can do that to kind of get used to how it feels but when
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I say that sound, when native speakers make that “TH” sound, we're only sticking our
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tongue out a tiny bit, a really small bit between our teeth.
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So, “think.”
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It's like the tip of the tongue only, so with practice, that sound will get easier.
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The other sound, though, with “TH,” is something we hear in a word like, ‘the’,
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‘the’, so the tongue is actually, like, just touching the back of my teeth.
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“The,” or maybe like the back of my teeth and the top of my mouth a little bit, the
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way that the sound is produced is a little bit different.
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So, when I say “think” and “the,” there are a little bit different sounds, so
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keep this in mind.
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If you're trying to say “the,” don't use the motion to pronounce the word “think.”
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If I'm saying “the,” “the,” “the” with a really exaggerated “TH” sound like
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in “think,” it's going to slow me down.
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So, think about that.
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Next question!
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Next question comes from Maxim.
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Hi Maxim!
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Maxim says, “How do you pronounce, ‘I shouldn't have done it,’ ‘I couldn't have
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done it,’ and ‘I wouldn't have done it,’?”
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So, here, these are negative past perfect statements.
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I'm using kind of exaggerated pronunciation here, “I should not have” becomes “shouldn't've,”
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but a native speaker, a native English speaker, an American English speaker will say “shouldn’t
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a,” “shouldn't have done it,” “couldn't have done it,” and “wouldn't have done
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it.”
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“Wouldn't've” and “couldn't've” have that same “vu” sound, but again, it makes
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it hard to say all of those sounds clearly in speech if we're focusing a lot on saying
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those sounds clearly in speech, our speaking slows down, so we say “shouldna,” “couldna,”
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“wouldna.”
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“Shouldn't have,” “couldn't have,” and “wouldn't have.”
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I guess it's sort of the in-between like the medium kind of pronunciation there but when
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speaking rapidly a very fast like native level speed will say, “shouldna”, “couldna”
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and “wouldna.”
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So, give those a try, “shouldna,” “couldna,” “wouldna,” “shouldn’t have,” “couldn’t
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have,” “wouldn’t have,” “should not have,” “could not have,” “would
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not have,” “shouldna,” “couldna,” “wouldna.”
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Hope that helps.
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Okay, next follow-up question.
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Now, follow-up question to this question comes from Sunil.
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Sunil, hi.
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Sunil asks, “Can we use “could” for the future?”
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So, I’m guessing this is talking about future plans, in which case yes you can.
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When you’re thinking about something you want to do or you’re trying to decide what
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you might do, you can use “could” just to talk about the possibility of something.
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We use could to say something is just possible.
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For example, “I could go to the beach this weekend,” or “I could sleep in late tomorrow
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if I want to,” or “I could go and visit my parents next week.”
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So, these are all statements of just simple possibility.
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We’re not saying, “I’m going to do that,” or, “Maybe I’ll do that.”
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We’re only saying that it is possible so that’s what we use “could” for.
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If we’re talking about future plans, yes, we can use “could” for simple possibility.
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Next question is another follow-up question.
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Follow-up question to from Bahar.
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Hi Bahar.
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Bahar says, “My question is about ‘can’ and ‘could.’
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When I want to use these when asking for something how do I use can and could in the right situation?”
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When you’re making a request, “can” is going to sound more casual, “could”
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is going to sound a little more polite.
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If you’re visiting a friend’s house, you can say, “Can I have something to drink?”
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or “Could I have something to drink?”
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“Could” sounds more polite in that case.
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“Can” is probably a little more natural since they’re your friend.
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If you are, however, at like someone’s office, you’re visiting a colleague you might instead
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use, “Could I have something to drink?” or “Could I have a glass of water?” that
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sounds a little more formal.
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If you’re worried, just go with “could” it sounds a little more polite.
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It’s always correct.
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And, Bahar has a second question “Are ‘would’ and ‘might’ similar a little bit and do
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both of them consist of possibility?”
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Yes and no.
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“Would” is used to talk about potential situation.
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So, we’ve talked about on this series before a pattern like, “if I were blah blah blah,
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I would…” like, “If I were a teacher, I would teach Math,” or “If I were rich,
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I would buy a house.”
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So, we use “would” to talk about unreal situations.
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In terms of like actual possibility, like future plans, we don’t really use “would”
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in that way.
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“Might,” however, yes, we do use “might” to talk about possibilities.
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We use “may” and “might” to talk about something that has a fairly good chance, maybe
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like a 30% to 50% chance or so of happening like, “I may study later,” or “I might
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meet up with my friends for dinner tonight.”
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The difference between “may” and “might” in American English in this usage, in terms
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of talking about possibility, is that “might” is more casual.
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“Might” is more often used in daily conversation.
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“May” sounds a bit formal, “may” sounds like a little bit too polite in most situations.
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“Might is the one we use.
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So, “might” refers to possibility.
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“I might do something,” “He might do something,” “I might not do something
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as well.”
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So, in these situations, “might” is used for possibility, yes.
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So, “would” is used more to talk about potential, potential in an unreal situation.
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Next question!
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The next question comes from Hung Mai Lyn.
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I hope I pronounced it right.
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Hung Mai Lyn says, “Hi, how do you pronounce, ‘I’d like’ and ‘I like,’ please.
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Thank you so much.”
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Aha!
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This is a very common question.
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“I’d like” versus “I like.”
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Lots of people asked to how do I listen for the difference between these two, “I’d
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like” and “I like.”
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I’m trying to pronounce it very clearly right now.
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“I’d like” and “I like,” of course, there’s a “D” sound but when native
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speakers speak quickly, the “D” sound kind of disappears.
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“I’d like to,” “I like to.”
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My tongue touches the top of my mouth when I make the “D” sound.
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“I’d like,” I think a better key to help you when you’re listening for this
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sound, and I think that this is something native speakers unconsciously do, is we listen
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for the grammar in the entire sentence.
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We’re not listening specifically for the “I like” or the “I’d like” there.
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We’re listening to the grammar in the sentence.
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If, for example, it’s at a restaurant and you say “I’d like a beer, please.”
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That sentence makes sense meaning “I would like a beer, please.”
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If we say, “I like a beer, please,” it’s grammatically incorrect.
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“I like beer,” is correct.
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“I like beer,” or “I’d like a beer,” “I would like a beer,” those sentences
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are correct but they communicate different things.
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So, listen for the grammar in the sentence.
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If you can listen to the grammar of the sentence, overall, it can help you identify, “Did
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the speaker say “I like” or “I’d like?”
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This is a key point I think.
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Next question comes from Aya, Aya, Hi Aya!
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“How do I pronounce words like ‘important,’ ‘written’ and ‘mountain’ in an American
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accent.”
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Ah!
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“Important,” “written,” and “mountain” all have these “T” sounds in the middle
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of the word but native speakers don’t pronounce the “T” sound clearly like I just did.
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Instead, we say, “impor’nt,” “wri’n,” “moun’n.”
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This has like an apostrophe sound, almost.
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So, “important,” “impor’nt,” we drop the “T” sound or it sounds very soft.
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So, this is how these three words are pronounced.
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You might hear this in other words, too.
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Thanks for the question though.
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Next question!
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Next question comes from Kesavarish?
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Casavarasch?
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Sorry.
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“What is the difference between ‘tonight’ and ‘this night’?”
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We use “tonight” in everyday conversation.
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“What are you doing tonight?”
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“Where are you going tonight?”
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“Tonight, I want to,” “Tonight, I’m going to blah blah blah.”
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We only use “this night” for like very formal speeches, for example.
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“Tonight” is the one that we use in everyday conversation.
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Those are all the questions that I want to answer this week.
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Thank you so much for sending your questions.
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Remember, you can send them to me at Englishclass101.com/ask-alisha.
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I’ll check them out there.
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If you like the video, please make sure to give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel
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and check us out at Englishclass101.com for some other good resources, too.
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Thanks very much for watching this episode of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next week.
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Bye-bye!
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Hmm! Pronunciation is hard.
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