How to Pronounce the Sound -s after -th or -st in English

hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia

the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them

maybe first question comes from Leon hi Leon

Leon says hi Alicia number one I'd like to know why we have to place incarnate

and Galore after nouns and two how do you pronounce the S after a th or st

sound like months and scientists would be glad if you answer okay all right so

regarding your first question these are examples of what are called post

positive adjectives so these are adjectives that come after a noun in

English we usually use pre positive adjectives so those are adjectives that

come before a noun however for a number of reasons there are some adjectives

that we place after the noun so your examples incarnate and galore usually

come after a noun so for example you might know the devil incarnate or there

was food galore at the event for example these are just situations that are kind

of set phrases honestly unfortunately there's not really a rule it's just one

of those things that you need to remember so regarding your second

question about the S sound in a word like months your tongue touches the back

of your teeth and we make like a quick s sound months months so the th sound

almost disappears it's sort of like when you're saying the or this or that that

really quick th sound in a word like scientists however scientists is very

difficult to say in rapid speech so we make it like a long s sound scientists

so it just sounds like scientists thanks for the question let's go on to your

next question the next question comes from karema hi

Karima karema says hi Alicia I want to know the difference between right now

and right away and when can we use both of them okay right now sounds more

direct than right away right now is like a command actually so this is something

that you might hear parents use like for kids so like go to your room right now

is a really good exam of how right now is used right away

however is used in more formal situations like in business situations

or work situations to show that something will be done immediately but

it sounds a bit soft some examples can you please order lunch for our meeting

yes right away please take care of this right away so I hope that this helps you

understand when to use these two thanks very much for the question okay let's

move on to your next question next question comes from Liliana in is Jose

Concepcion sorry hi Lu Jana what is the difference between mistake and error

nice question mistake tends to be used more for human actions things that we

did are things that we caused humans us people our activities some examples and

made a mistake with this recipe she found a mistake in the textbook

error is used for machines like computers so if there's a problem with

the like machine that you're using or like your printer or something you'll

see an error message not a mistake message examples printer error error

downloading file there are some cases where we might use error to talk about

the things that humans do but for kind of a general guide this is

basically the difference I hope that that helps you thanks for the question

ok let's move on to your next question next question is from Silas hi Silas

Silas says hi Alicia what does straight up mean and how can I

use it in a sentence yeah straight up means like honest true

genuine real it's kind of got a positive feeling about it it tends to be used a

little bit more by young people I would say more by young men but anyone can use

it some examples a straight up forgot my wallet he's straight up passed out in

the car on the way home you have to be straight up with your roommate so you

can see that straight up does have a casual feel it also kind of has a

friendly feel though it is talking about like an honest or a true or a real

situation or an attitude so I hope that this helps you understand the use of

straight up thanks very much for the question ok let's move along to your

next question next question it comes from Ahmad SAR waar hi Ahmad Ahmad says

hi Alicia what is the difference between lái lái lying and

laying how do you use and pronounce these words in your daily life yeah I

talked about this question in episode 21 of this series you can check that out

and find some more example sentences there so to review lay uses a direct

object lie does not examples lay down your bag here lie down on the sofa so in

the first example sentence your bag is the direct object of the verb lay lay

down your bag here in the second example sentence lie down on the sofa

there's no direct object in that sentence so as I said in the previous

episode what makes this difficult is that the past tense of the verb lie is

lay he laid down on the sofa we lay down and went to sleep in the first example

sentence he lay down on the sofa there's no direct object we don't see a direct

object in the second sentence either so we know that this lay is actually the

past tense of lie and not the present tense lay keep in mind however the past

tense of lay is laid examples we laid our bags on the table she laid her keys

on her desk each of these example sentences has a

direct object so a bag and keys so if you want to know is this layer is this

lie look for a direct object that'll tell you which verb you're dealing with

so your question is about the progressive forms of these verbs laying

and lying so an example in the progressive tense our cat keeps laying

dead animals on our front door he's lying on the sofa

that's the progressive form of lie so there's no direct object there I hope

that that helps you okay so that's everything that I have for this week

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for some other things that can help you with your English Studies thanks very

much for watching this episode of ask Alicia and I will see you again next

week bye bye