Using Perfect English: ABOUT vs AROUND vs APPROXIMATELY - Learn English Grammar

hi everybody my name is Alisha welcome

back to English class 101 comms YouTube channel today I'm going to talk about

the difference between about around and approximately there are a few things to

talk about and a few key differences between these fairly similar words so

let's get started okay the first word I want to talk about

is the word about about is a word that means reasonably close to actually this

is the single point that each of these words has in common each word today

means reasonably close to but we'll talk about the details later

so about means reasonably close to and we use it in casual situations so I want

to talk about a few times when we use the word about some of these mean

reasonably close to but I'll also explain some other grammatical functions

of this word so when we want to express something that is reasonably close to

something else with the word about we can use this word to talk about numbers

to talk about quantity how much or how many of something so for example I ate

about 10 cookies so here about means reasonably close to it's a guess or an

estimate we can use it to talk about quantity next we can use it for a space

but this is one that's used more commonly in British English in American

English we don't typically use about to refer to a space by this I mean for

example the sentence they walked about the neighborhood as I'll show you later

American English speakers we typically use the word around instead of about but

to walk about means reasonably close to the neighborhood or within the

neighborhood so to walk about something to stroll about something refers to

nearby another place or again reasonably close to a place around a location so we

can use this to talk about spaces as well we can use about to talk about time

as well so a time of day in the morning in the

afternoon also a specific old clock time like 3 o'clock 4 o'clock 5 o'clock for

example I want to arrive at about 3 o'clock I want to arrive at about 3

o'clock or we could say like can you have it done by about tomorrow morning

so these are estimates time estimates that we can use the word about with

finally a different function this does not mean reasonably close to but

actually this means reasonably close to an action starting or an action

finishing so it's slightly different we're not really making an estimate here

we're talking about an upcoming or a recently completed change in an action

or in a status so for example they're about to fall this is a sentence that's

making a guess something that is going to happen reasonably close in the future

they're about to do something so in these situations we use the word about

before a verb something that's going to happen very soon reasonably close in the

future if it's helpful to think of it in that way one more example sentence we

are just about to sign the paperwork we are just about to sign the paperwork so

something is going to happen soon in this case signing paperwork is the

action that is going to happen we are reasonably close in time to that action

happening so we can use about in these cases let's move on to the next word for

today though the next word is around around so as I said a round also means

reasonably close to as we'll see in a few examples in just a moment we also

use around in casual situations so these are informal situations although it's

okay to use this in more formal situations it's not necessarily impolite

here we can use around with numbers as we did with about we can use this to

talk about quantity so for example around 15 people are coming so again

this is an estimate I guess around 15 people using about here creates the same

meaning about 15 people are coming fifteen people are coming in this case

around and about are used in exactly the same way and have exactly the same

meaning they're both making an estimate or a guess here however when we use

around to talk about a space we use around more in American English to refer

to a location near another space so for example they walked around the

neighborhood I gave the example in British English of they walked about the

neighborhood which might be more common in American English we use they walked

around the neighborhood so around the neighborhood can mean actually going

outside the neighborhood as I'll show you in just another example sentence or

it can mean just within the neighborhood so in a place nearby the speaker's home

for example so when we when we use around in American English it typically

means at least for a space it means near a location you might hear the word about

used in British English though let's go to the next situation we use this for

time as we saw with the word about so for time we can say I'll be there around

7:00 p.m. I'll be there around breakfast for example so a time of day a point in

the day or a specific o'clock a specific a.m. or p.m. time we can use around

before that just as we used about so again around and about have the same

function in these sentences I'll be there about 7:00 p.m. I'll be there

around 7:00 p.m. both have the same meaning okay

lastly circumference --is and circuits so a circumference is the distance

around something and a circuit is like making a circle around something else so

when you want to talk about a circumference or a circuit like making a

circle making a loop around something you can use the word around so for

example your head is 56 centimeters around so we use around to refer to a

size a circumference in this case or another example we bicycle around the

lake meaning around the outside of the lake we bicycle in a loop around that so

we use around in this way too about the outside of something or the

distance around something in a loop okay finally the last word for today is

approximately approximately so just as we talked about with about and around

approximately means reasonably close to something else so we use it again to

make an estimate to make a guess however approximately is usually used in more

formal situations you might see this in academic writing for example or perhaps

in a speech or in a presentation it's more natural to use approximately in

formal situations if you use approximately in an informal situation

it might sound a little strange a little too polite so please be cautious we use

approximately four numbers for quantity estimates again so for example

approximately 50 people attended the event approximately so just as we've

placed the word before the number here in this case 50 we can substitute around

or about in this sentence to make it a little bit less formal but using

approximately makes it sound a bit more formal so approximately around and about

can all be used here but the level of formality is the only thing that changes

all right we can also use approximately for time to make a time estimate sound a

little bit more formal for example will be working in la for approximately three

years so again we could use around or about here but approximately sounds a

little bit more formal and so this may be is a sentence we could use in a

business presentation or when explaining a plan something like that in a more

formal situation so please keep in mind approximately has fairly limited uses

around and about however have a few other functions to consider but when

you're making guesses when you're making estimates especially for quantities

especially for time in most cases about and around can both can both be used

approximately is fine as well but you will sound more formal okay so those are

a few differences between the words about around and approximately if you

have any questions please let us know in the comments if you like the video

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episode and I will see you again soon