Hello! How are you today?
We're here again to study a few more language items,
I hope you're ready!
Now that I've asked how are you today,
I feel like doing some quick review of something we saw on the last video.
Do you remember we talked about the question word "how"?
We use this question word to greet people as I've just done asking,
"how are you today?"
But when you don't know how to do something,
you'll also use "how" by asking:
These questions are used to ask about the way to do a task or a procedure.
Let's check some examples!
You see, that can be done by pressing a button for some car models,
while for others you need a key.
To be honest,
this is a question I'd probably ask myself.
You may also ask:
How about starting the car? If you don't know how, you can ask!
We've also seen that "how"
could be combined with other words to form questions about certain subjects.
When you want to know someone's age, for example,
you'll use the question phrase "how old", + interrogative form of the verb "to be".
This question will come up when you pick up the car,
because there are different age allowances in different American states.
If I just want to ask about your age and you're alone, the question is:
And note that you'll also use the verb to be" to answer the question.
There were also the widely used question phrases "how much" and "how many",
that we'll use to ask questions about quantity.
This question is about the price of something,
and we use "how much" because it refers to money,
which is an uncountable noun.
Nobody would ever ask:
We're referring to money, but we omit it from the question.
But you know guys,
"how" is not the only question word that combine with other words
to form questions.
Other question words will do the same!
Let's take a look at the question word "what".
You know this one, right?
Say you don't know what the word "trunk" means,
you can ask:
And the answer may be:
Also, if you want to know about the glove compartment,
you can ask:
And the clerk would show you, saying:
Other questions you can ask using "what" are:
We can see that the sentence structure for these questions is:
"What" + the interrogative form.
I wonder what would happen if we placed a noun right after the question word "what".
Ok guys,
we can combine "what" with nouns to create questions
that will be used in specific context,
but the structure will be slightly different.
Check it out.
Here we have "what kind" to ask about the type of something.
When we use it, the sentence structure changes a bit.
We use "what kind of car",
and then the interrogative form "would you like".
We can also combine "what" with size and color,
to ask questions about the car.
Just pay close attention that "what" precedes the noun it refers to.
Is "what" the only question word used to ask when presenting choices?
There is a question word quite like "what", but it's not the same.
They're similar, but used in different way, that's "which".
Here's the main difference:
We use "what" when we have unlimited options,
and "which" when we have limited options.
So, if I ask you:
I'm not presenting any options,
then you may choose whatever color you like.
Black, blue, grey, white, red, yellow.
Now, if I ask:
I'm giving you clear options,
and this is when we use "which".
Let's see it in a dialog!
The clerk asks:
Then the costumer answers:
To which the clerk replies:
In this dialog the clerk first asks what the costumer is looking for,
before checking what is available.
He uses "what type" to ask this question,
because there are probably too many options.
Let's go back to the dialog,
the clerk checks what is available and says:
And the answer is:
As you can see, the clerk clearly tells the customer
the three types of car available.
So, which is used to ask the question because now there are limited options.
Can you see the difference?
You must be thinking "wow!"
"That sounds confusing!"
What if I use one instead of the other?
It's ok guys! People will understand you anyway.
But of course,
it's always nice to do things right to avoid misunderstandings.
You've probably noticed the structure "would you like"
in many examples we've seen.
Well,
there are many ways to make offers and requests in English.
But the best way to do that without running the risk of sounding rude
is to use "would you like".
Let's see a few examples.
Note that in the interrogative form we have "would" + subject,
in this case "you", because we're making an offer,
and there's the thing we're offering.
Now we have an affirmative answer:
Now take a look,
we have the short form "I'd" instead of "I would",
which is very common in spoken language.
Also, we have the answer:
Well, the complete answer would be:
But it's not necessary to repeat the whole thing,
it was all right there in the question, right?
All you've got to do is say "I'd love to".
Just like that, ending with "to".
Let's think of other similar questions we can ask.
When you rent a car,
there will come the moment where you have to choose the additional services.
That's when the questions with "would you like" will come up.
You can accept or refuse.
The negative answer would be:
"Wouldn't" is the short form of the negative form "would not",
and it sounds more natural in the spoken language.
If you say it like "would not"
it will sound as if you're emphasizing the negative,
which might sound weird.
Now,
if you want to answer in the affirmative form,
you can either just say "I would" or the complete sentence.
And don't you forget and here I repeat myself,
just like "wouldn't" is more natural in the spoken language,
so is "I'd".
Or else, you might sound like you're too formal or too emphatic.
Ok, so I used "would" to form the expression "would you like".
And this is about it, right?
Nope!
"Would" is a modal verb,
and that means that it may come as an auxiliary to any verb.
For example:
In this example we have "would" + "drive",
referring to a hypothetical situation.
Now you know how to use the modal verb "would",
so, it's time to do the exercises and make sure you're good to go,
or check where you need improvement.
I'll be back soon with a new video, see ya!