Make or Cook Dinner? Have or Eat Dinner? Basic English Grammar

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Hi, everybody.

Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them,

maybe.

First question this week comes from Isaac Alexander.

Hi, again, Isaac.

Isaac says, “Hi, Alisha.

What's the difference between ‘make’ or ‘cook dinner’ and ‘have’ or ‘eat

dinner?’”

About “make” and “cook dinner,” there's really not a difference unless you want to

be really, really specific and you're just like using a microwave or an oven to heat

up food, in that case, it's probably more correct to say, “make dinner.”

Regarding your second question about “have” or “eat dinner” or any other meal for

that matter, they have the same meaning, yes, but we tend to use “have” more when we're

making invitations like, “Do you want to have lunch?” or “Do you want to have dinner

with me?”

We use it a bit more in those cases.

We use “eat” more when we're talking about our personal plans.

I think “have” just sounds a little bit softer for an invitation.

I hope that this helps you understand some of the small nuances there.

Thanks very much for the question.

Okay, let's move on to your next question.

Next question comes from Sumwang.

Hi, Sumwang.

Sumwang says, “Hi.

Can you describe what a stereotype means?”

Yeah, a “stereotype” as a noun is kind of like an unfair or kind of a negative idea

about a person or a thing based on some common characteristics.

Some examples of stereotypes are, “Women love shopping,” or, “Men love sports,”

or “All Indian food is spicy,” for example.

Even though it's something that might be true in many cases, it's not true in all cases.

So, this is a stereotype.

I hope that that helps you.

Okay, let's move on to your next question.

Next question comes from Ronnie Gontalida.

Hi, Ronnie.

Ronnie says, “How do you properly use the period and the comma in sentences along with

the proper grammar?”

Use periods at the end of a sentence.

In the most basic form, a sentence is a subject and a verb.

So, like, “I walked,” or “He slept,” or “She swam,” for example.

We put a period at the end of a sentence.

“I watched the new Batman movie,” “The neighbors ate all my popcorn.”

Those are more complex sentences.

We use commas then when we’re connecting independent sentences with coordinating conjunctions.

A coordinating conjunction is like “an,” “but,” “or,” “for,” “so,”

“yet.”

Like, “I watched the new Batman movie, and the neighbors ate all the popcorn.”

So, “I watched the new Batman movie,” comma, “and the neighbors ate all the popcorn.”

That's when I would use a comma.

That's one example.

Actually, there's a video on the channel I made about how to use commas.

It's an introduction to using commas so I recommend you check this video out to learn

more about commas.

So, I hope that that helps you.

Thanks very much for the question.

Okay, let's move on to your next question.

Next question comes from Karima.

Hi, again, Karima.

Karima says, “I think the verb, ‘address’ has different meanings.

Could you tell me some of them?”

One of the meanings of “address” is to write the mailing address on a letter or a

package.

Like, “Please address your envelope to…”

Or, “I have a package addressed to so-and-so.”

“Address” also means to deal with something or to handle an issue usually a problem, something

negative.

“How do you plan to address this situation?”

Or, “When are you going to address this issue?” for example.

That means deal with or handle something.

Another meaning of “address” is to give a formal speech or to talk directly to someone.

Like, “The president addressed the country in a televised speech,” or, “The CEO plans

to address the employees in the morning meeting.”

So, there are three different examples of how to use “address.”

Again, if you want to know more about definitions, I highly recommend checking a dictionary.

Okay, hope that helped you.

Let's go on to your next question.

Next question comes from Marcelo Oliviera.

Hi, Marcelo.

Marcelo says, “Hi, Alisha.

What do these expressions mean?

‘To scrape the bottom of the barrel’ and ‘last resort.’”

“To scrape the bottom of the barrel” means to use only the people or the things that

you have available and this means that they're typically not of good quality.

Some examples, “I had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find this computer for work,”

“You put that guy on your team?

You're scraping the bottom of the barrel.”

Your second question about the word, “last resort” means like your last option, the

last thing that you are able to do or the last thing you can possibly do.

You have no other options in a situation, you turn to your last resort.

“I might not have enough money to launch my business.

My last resort is asking my parents for a loan.”

“If this job doesn't work out, his last resort is to start working in his friend's

company.”

So, I hope that that helps you understand those two expressions.

Thanks very much for the questions.

Alright, that's everything that I have for this week.

Thank you, as always, for sending your questions.

Remember, you can send them to me at EnglishClass101.com/ ask-Alisha.

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Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alisha and I'll see you again

soon. Bye.