ASK - Basic Verbs - Learn English Grammar

Want to speak real English from your first lesson?

Sign up for your free lifetime account at EnglishClass101.com.

Ask not what you can do for your channel.

Ask what your channel can do for you. What?

Hi everybody, welcome back to Know Your Verbs.

My name is Alisha.

In this episode, we're going to talk about the verb, “ask.”

So, let's get started.

The basic definition of the verb, “ask” is to make a request.

Here are the conjugations, present tense, “ask, asks.”

Past tense, “asked,” past participle, “asked,”

continuous or progressive, “asking.”

Let's talk about some additional meanings of this verb.

First is “to require.” Here are some examples.

“You're asking too much of us.”

“They asked a lot of him this year.”

So, in these example sentences, the verb, “asked” means

to require or to require something from someone else.

In the first sentence, “You're asking too much of us,”

means you are requiring too much of us

or you're requiring too much of something we are able to do.

“Asking too much” shortens this expression.

So, it's not only require but like, requiring the capabilities

or requiring something a person or a machine or an object is able to do.

So, “require,” yes, but also “require," plus, "capabilities.”

>>In the second sentence, we see this as well.

So, the second sentence was “They asked a lot of him this year.”

They required a lot of him.

We can't quite replace “require” for “asked” here

but the nuance here of “ask” is they required a lot of his capabilities

or they required a lot of work from him this year.

So, “asked” instead, condenses all of that.

Requiring him, requiring his work or his service, or something.

So, we condense all of that into one word, “asked” here.

The next meaning is “to set as a price.”

Here are some examples,

“The seller is asking $10,000 for the boat.”

“She asked for $100 for her old laptop.”

Alright, in both of these examples sentences,

“asked” shows the price of an item, the price a seller chooses for an item

or the price the seller hopes to receive for an item.

It's the price that the seller has set for something.

In the first example, we see “asking” in the progressive

or the continuous tense.

“The seller is asking $10,000,”

meaning the seller currently hopes to receive $10,000 for the boat.

So, if it's helpful, you can imagine the seller

asking the buyer for this amount.

The seller requesting this amount from the buyer for this amount.

So, the seller is asking for $10,000 for the boat

but we removed the preposition “for,” “asking 10,000 dollars for the boat,”

is essentially requesting the seller for $10,000.

So, “requesting the seller for,” is a long way of saying this expression.

We can shorten this to “asking.”

“The buyer is asking $10,000 for.”

In the second example sentence, we see,

“She asked for $100 for her old laptop.”

So, in this example sentence, we do see the preposition “for.”

“She asked for $100 for her old laptop.”

We can include the preposition “for” but it is okay to drop it in these cases

where it is clear that the meaning is a price for an item.

So, “she asked” is past tense.

So, a past tense situation,

“She wanted to receive $100 for her old laptop.”

Meaning, she asked for or she requested the buyer pay $100 for her old laptop.

So, “requested the buyer pay” is shortened to “asked for” in this case,

so, we can use it with or without the “for” preposition.

The next meaning is to call on for an answer.

Here are some examples,

“He asked his boss about the upcoming changes.”

“She asks her neighbors for help every year.”

So, “to ask,” in these cases,

it's not quite a request in this case but rather we're looking for information.

We're looking for an answer.

We have a question about something or we need some information

and so, we inquire for information.

I suppose you can think of it like making an information request in that way

but we're looking for some kind of answer.

We go to someone to get information, to get an answer about a question.

In the first example,

“He asked his boss about the upcoming changes.”

The information he wants is about these changes,

maybe at his company.

So, “he asks” means he's looking for an answer.

He asked his boss for information.

He's looking for an answer about something.

In the second sentence,

“She asks her neighbors for help every year,”

means she's looking for answers.

Some things she needs an answer to.

She's looking for help.

She's looking for assistance, answers for some problem that she has.

So, she inquires about information, she's looking for information.

To get an answer to something

like a problem or an issue you need to solve,

we can use "ask."

Next is “to invite.”

Here are some examples,

“I asked some friends to come over this weekend.”

“Why don't you ask your co-workers to go out for a drink?”

So, in the first example sentence, we can replace “asked” in the past tense

with “invited” in past tense and the meaning stays the same.

“I invited some friends to come over this weekend.”

We can use “invite,” of course, if we want

but invite sounds slightly more formal than “ask.”

Instead of using the more formal “invite,” we can use the more casual “ask”

like, “I asked some people to come over this weekend,”

sounds slightly less formal than “invited.”

In the second example sentence, the same thing is true.

“Why don't you ask your co-workers to go out for a drink?”

We can replace “ask” here with “invite.”

“Why don't you invite your co-workers out for a drink.”

Again, “invite” sounds slightly more formal than “ask.”

So, “ask” sounds a little bit more casual so it sounds a little bit more natural

and a little more friendly than the word “invite.”

Okay.

Now, let's look at some other words we can add to “ask”

to make different meanings.

First is, “Ask for it.”

This means, to behave in a way that invites punishment or retribution.

So, “retribution” means-- it can refer to punishment

or it can refer to a reward as well,

but in this case, it's more for a negative reaction.

Let's look at some examples,

“The drunk guy in the bar is shouting at everyone.

He's really asking for it.”

“Your boyfriend broke up with you?

Well, you kind of asked for it. You never made time for him.”

So, in these example sentences,

we see some behaviors that invite punishment

or that invite a negative outcome.

In the first example,

a drunk person in a bar is shouting at everybody

so the speaker says, “He's really asking for it,”

meaning the drunk guy is inviting punishment,

is inviting a negative outcome because of his behavior.

“He's really asking for it.”

We see that this is used in the progressive form,

“He's asking for it,” meaning that his current behavior,

the behavior he is showing now is inviting punishment

or is inviting a negative outcome.

In the second sentence,

where a speaker is probably having a conversation with someone,

They say, “You broke up with your boyfriend.

Well, you kind of asked for it,” past tense,

"because you didn't make time for him."

"You didn't make any time for him," shows that, perhaps, in the past,

the listener did not behave in a way that invited a positive outcome,

meaning you asked for your boyfriend to break up with you

or you invited this negative outcome because of your actions.

You did not make time for your boyfriend,

therefore, he broke up with you.

So, you did not have the correct behavior.

You invited a negative outcome because of your actions.

Okay, the next one is, “ask for trouble.”

This means to behave in a way that is likely to end in trouble.

This is very similar to “ask for it” but instead of just receiving punishment,

it could just be a troubling situation that results.

Let's look at some examples,

“That kid is running around kicking his classmates.

He's just asking for trouble.”

“Trying to enter the country without a passport

is just asking for trouble.”

So, in both of these sentences, we see “asking for trouble”

is used in the progressive tense.

So, doing some action is likely to result in a troubling situation in the future.

Perhaps it's not necessarily punishment but it's going to cause trouble.

It's going to cause a problem.

In the first example,

a kid running around kicking his classmates is a bad behavior

and it's going to invite trouble.

In this case, it's probably going to be punishment

but to say, "He's really asking for it,"

might suggest something a little bit too violent,

like to say, “He's really asking for it,”

sounds a little bit too much for a little kid.

So, perhaps, “He's asking for trouble,”

suggest that he's causing a troubling situation.

The kid might not have severe strong punishment

as a result of his actions but he could end up in trouble

because of his behavior.

In the second example,

“Trying to enter the country without a passport

is just asking for trouble.”

It doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a punishment

for trying to enter the country.

While it might be likely that trouble does result

or that punishment does result,

it's more general to say just asking for trouble.

So, this action trying to enter the country without a passport,

this action is just asking for trouble,

is inviting some troubling situation to occur.

Okay, I hope that this video helps you level up your understanding

of the verb, “ask.”

If you have any questions or comments or if you know a different way

of using the verb, “ask,”

please let us know in the comment section below this video.

If you liked the video, please make sure to give it a thumbs up,

subscribe to the channel and check us out at EnglishClass101.com

for some more resources.

Thanks very much for watching this episode of Know Your Verbs

and I'll see you again next time.

Bye-bye.

Ask and you shall receive.

Coffee?

We've asked all the questions today, goodbye.