English Help Online's Blog

A couple of weeks ago some of my students asked me what the difference was between “ok with” someone and “ok for” someone. I thought it was a very good question, so I’d like to share the answer with you today.

When we say something is ok with us, it means that it is agreeable to us. However, when we say something is ok for us, it means that it is convenient for us. For example:

A: How about having Korean food for dinner tonight?

B: Sure. That’s ok with me. I like Korean food.

I wanted to go to Egypt for vacation, but it wasn’t ok with my wife. She really hates hot places.

I’d like to see an action movie tonight. Is that ok with you?

A: I’d like to get together with you at 3:00 this afternoon. Is that time ok for you?

B: I’m afraid not. I have another appointment at 3:00, but 4:30 is ok for me.

________________________________________________________________

A: How about meeting in Brentwood?

B: That’s not good for me. I live really far from there.

In the last example, I used “That’s not good for me”. I think this sounds more natural than “That’s not ok for me”. When we talk about a convenient time, we usually use “ok for”, but when we talk about a convenient place, we usually use “good for”. In both cases, we must use the preposition “for” because it’s about being convenient.

Last week, one of my readers asked me to write about the difference between “if” and “whether”, so here it is.    🙂

We use “if” when we want to talk about imagining a certain situation. In these cases, “if” can be placed either at the beginning or in the middle of the sentence. For example:

If I won a lot of money in the lottery, I’d buy a big house and travel all over the world.

I’d buy a big house and travel all over the world if I won a lot of money in the lottery.

If I were you, I wouldn’t do that.

I wouldn’t do that if I were you.

If I decide to go out tonight, I’ll give you a call.

I’ll give you a call if I decide to go out tonight.

We can use both “if” and “whether” when we want to talk about the possibility of a certain condition being true or not. For example:

I need to find out if Ryan is coming to the party.

I need to find out whether Ryan is coming to the party.

I need to find out whether or not Ryan is coming to the party.

I need to find out whether Ryan is coming to the party or not.

Nancy didn’t tell me if she likes her new job.

Nancy didn’t tell me whether she likes her new job.

Nancy didn’t tell me whether or not she likes her new job.

Nancy didn’t tell me whether she likes her new job or not.

As you can see, we often use “or not” when we use the word “whether”. It’s not absolutely necessary for the sentence to make sense, but it’s a very natural way to speak. It can be placed after “whether” or at the end of the sentence.

Finally, we use “whether” when we want to talk about deciding between two or more options. It is possible to use “if” in these situations as well but, in my opinion, the word “whether” sounds more natural. For example:

Whether you go to university or not, I’ll always be proud of you.

If you go to university or not, I’ll always be proud of you.

I don’t know whether I should have the chocolate cake or the apple pie for dessert.

I don’t know if I should have the chocolate cake or the apple pie for dessert.

I hope that is clear to everyone and especially to my reader who requested it.

Recently, one of my students asked me what the difference between “suggest” and “recommend” was. I thought that would make a good blog entry, so that’s what I’ll go over today.

We use “suggest” when talking about giving someone an idea in general, and we use “recommend” when telling someone that a certain choice or option is the best one. For example:

I suggest that you wear a nice suit tomorrow. The company president is going to be visiting the office.

If you want to cook delicious dishes, I suggest that you buy fresh ingredients.

My brother suggested a Greek restaurant for dinner tonight. What do you think?

I recommend that you try the chocolate cake for dessert. I think it’s the best dessert on the menu.

My friend recommended that we go to Spain for our vacation. He said it was the best country he’s ever been to.

The clerk in the bookstore recommended this book for people who are interested in Asian culture.

With the words “suggest” and “recommend” it’s very important to pay attention to the grammar because we often use a different verb tense called the subjunctive with these words. For example, many non-native English speakers say things like: “I suggest you to study economics.” or “I recommended my friend to try the apple pie.” These sentences are totally WRONG!

If you look at the example sentences I wrote above, you’ll see that the grammar is different. The grammar is as follows:

subject + suggest/recommend + that + another person + base form of the verb

It’s important to note that the verb which comes after “suggest” or “recommend” is always in the base form, even with “he” and “she”. That’s what makes this the subjunctive tense. We can also use this tense with the verbs “demand” and “insist”. Let me give you some more examples:

My friend wants to lose weight, so I suggested that he join a gym.

The waiter recommended that we not try the curry soup because it’s very spicy.

My customer demanded that I give him a refund.

My boss insisted that Pauline go home because she wasn’t feeling well.

Normally, we would say “he joins” or “Pauline goes” but, as I said before, we must always use the base form of the verb in these types of sentences.

However, if we put a noun directly after the words “suggest” or “recommend”, the sentence is not subjunctive. For example:

My brother suggested a Greek restaurant for dinner tonight. What do you think?

The clerk in the bookstore recommended this book for people who are interested in Asian culture.

Today I have a blog for you that will go over the difference between “say” and “tell”.

Basically we use “say” when talking about communicating something in general, but we don’t emphasize the person to whom we are talking. We use “tell” when we want to emphasize the person to whom we are talking. For example:

A: What did you say? I couldn’t hear you.

B: I said I wanted to go home.

_________________________________________________________________

A: What did you tell your husband?

B: I told him I wanted to go home.

I want to say something. I really appreciate your kindness to me this week.

I want to tell you something. I really appreciate your kindness to me this week.

Is there something you want to say?

Is there something you want to tell me?

It is possible to use “say” when emphasizing the person to whom we are talking, but we must put the preposition “to” after “say”. For example:

A: What did you say to your husband?

B: I said I wanted to go home.

I want to say something to you. I really appreciate your kindness to me this week.

Is there something you want to say to me?

While it is possible to use “say to”, I think English speakers use “tell” more often when emphasizing the person. However, “say to” has a softer feeling and “tell” sounds more direct. Please note that in the first example person B did NOT say, “I said to him I wanted to go home.” as the response. Because “to your husband” was used in the question, it’s unnecessary to repeat “to” in the answer.

Also, please note that in the second example the person did NOT say, “I want to say to you something.” When we use the words “something” or “anything”, they always come after “say”.

Finally, there is another way to use the word “tell”.  We can also use it when talking about giving direct orders to someone. For example:

My boss told me to finish this report by tomorrow.

I told my friend to meet us at the station at 7:00.

I told my sister not to go into my room.

My mother told me to not be late for dinner.

In these situations when we use “tell”, it sounds very strong. If you want it to sound softer, you can use the word “ask”. For example:

I asked my friend to meet us at the station at 7:00.

Nick asked Susan to move over so he could sit down.

I asked my sister not to go into my room.

My mother asked me to not be late for dinner.

So, in these cases, “tell” or “ask” is followed by the infinitive (to + base form of a verb). In negative forms, we can use “not to…” or “to not…” with the words “tell” or “ask”. However, in my opinion, it’s more natural to use “not to…” with negative sentences of this kind.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Over the holiday I’ve been trying to think of more entries I can write for “the difference between words” category. The one I thought of for today is the difference between “happy” and “glad”. I had to think about this one very hard, but I finally realized the difference between these two words.

The first thing you should know about these two words is that “happy” indicates a stronger feeling than “glad”.

In addition, generally speaking, we use the word “happy” when talking about something that personally gives us joy. We use the word “glad” when we want to say that another person’s good fortune makes us feel good. For example:

I got a high score on my test! I’m so happy!

I’m really happy because my boyfriend finally asked me to marry him!

I’m so glad you had a good time at my party last night.

I’m really glad that your husband is doing well at his job.

However, we can also use “glad” to talk about a situation that affects us directly, but the feeling is less strong than if we say “happy”. For example:

I’m really glad the weather is good for our barbeque today.

I’m glad that you will be able to come to my party.

We can also use “happy” when talking about things that only affect other people but, in these cases, we usually have a close relationship with them because the word “happy” is quite strong. For example:

I’m so happy that your father is going to recover from his illness! Say hello to him for me.

I’m really happy for my friend Bill! He just got a big promotion at work! He really deserves it!

Recently I was teaching how to take and leave messages and my students asked me the difference between “call back” and “call someone back”. They thought it was the same thing, but it’s not. I want to write about that for today’s blog entry.

In English, when we say we will “call back” later, it means we will call again without leaving a message right now. However, when we say we will “call someone back”, it means we are returning a message from another person. For example:

A: Would you like to leave a message for Mr. Jones?

B: No, it’s ok. I’ll just call back later.

_________________________________________________________________

A: Would you like to leave a message for Mr. Jones?

B: Yes. Could you please ask him to call me back as soon as possible?

A: Alright. I’ll have him call you back when he arrives at the office.

_________________________________________________________________

Ms. Peterson called earlier, but you weren’t here. She said she’d call back at 3:00.

Ms. Peterson called earlier, but you weren’t here. She wants you to call her back at 3:00.

I know this can be a little confusing but try to remember it like this: If the words “call” and “back” are next to each other, the meaning is call again. If they are separated by another word like “you”, “me”, “him”, “her” or a name, it means that someone has to return the call.

Recently there have been a few times I’ve had to explain the difference between the pronouns “it” and “one” to my students, so that’s what I’d like to write about today.

Basically, the difference between using “it” and “one” is about articles (the, a/an). If we use “a/an”, then the pronoun is “one”. If we use “the”, then the pronoun is “it”. We also use “it” with other words such as “this” or “that”. For example:

A: Do you have a pen?

B: Yes, I have one.

_________________________________________________________________

A: Do you have the pen?

B: Yes, I have it.

_________________________________________________________________

A: Would you like to see a diamond ring?

B: Yes, I’d love to see one.

_________________________________________________________________

A: Would you like to see this diamond ring?

B: Yes, I’d love to see it.

We can also use “it” with personal pronouns such as “my”, “your”, etc. For example:

Do you like my sweater? I bought it on sale yesterday.

What’s your name? I’m sorry, but I can’t remember it.

Have you seen Ryan’s new car? I really like it.

Sometimes, when we’re talking about more than one object, we have to use the plural forms “them” and “ones” instead. However, the same general rule applies. Please note that some things we wear have a plural form such as “pants”, “shorts” and “glasses”.  For example:

A: Do you like these pants?

B: Yes, I do. I’ll take them.

_________________________________________________________________

A: Do you like these pants?

B: No, I don’t. Do you have any blue ones?

In these examples, we use “them” in the first example because we’re talking about the pants that the person is holding. We use “ones” in the second example because we’re talking about other pants that may or may not exist. So, the basic difference is that “it” and “them” are pronouns for specific things and “one” and “ones” are pronouns for things in general. Let me give you some more examples of “them” and “ones”.

Do you like French movies? Personally, I really like them.

I don’t like French movies. I think Spanish ones are much more interesting.

I love your glasses! Where did you buy them? I want to get new ones.

I hope this is clear. I know it can be confusing, so my advice, as always, is to memorize sentences and then change the small details in order to learn the English sentence structures. Eventually, your brain will just know when to use “the”, “a/an”, “it”, “one”, etc. Good luck!

Many people get confused about when to use “practice”, “train” and “exercise”, so that’s what I’m going to write about today.

The word “practice” is a word that describes doing an activity repeatedly in order to  become more skillful at it. The word “train” can be used to describe learning new skills for your job or putting your body into very good physical condition in order to be an athlete such as a boxer. Finally, the word “exercise” is used to talk about moving your body so as to get into or stay in good physical condition. Let me give you some examples:

I can’t play the piano well. I need to practice more.

If you want to speak English well, you have to practice as much as possible.

My son is good at basketball because he practices all the time.

I have to train more with this new computer software at my office. I’m still not sure how to use it properly.

I would like to train to become a member of the marketing team.

My friend wants to become a boxer, so he is training all the time right now.

I want to lose weight, so I have to exercise more.

I exercise about three times a week at the gym near my apartment.

I love to exercise! It makes me feel better after a stressful day at work.

The difference between “train” and “exercise” is that we only use the word “train” when a person is exercising a lot in order to become an athlete. Therefore, the majority of people use the word “exercise”.

Many of my students get confused between the words “shop”, “store” and “restaurant”, so I would like to go over that in my blog today.

Generally speaking, a “shop” and a “store” are places where you go to buy something. The difference is that a “shop” is usually quite small, and a “store” is big. On the other hand, a “restaurant” is a place where you go to eat something. Even if it’s for cheap food like hamburgers or chicken, we still call it a restaurant but, in that case, it will be called a “fast food restaurant”. Let me give you some examples:

I bought this necklace in a cute little shop near my house.

Is there a shop around here where I can buy some cigarettes?

ABC Limited is my favorite clothing store. They always have a good selection of the latest fashions.

XYZ Company is a huge chain of electronic goods stores. There are many locations all over the country.

I like to go to this cozy little Italian restaurant in Shinjuku with my girlfriend. It’s very romantic.

A: Would you like to go to the French restaurant for dinner tonight?

B: Actually I don’t have much time. Let’s just go to a fast food restaurant instead.

I don’t usually eat at fast food restaurants because it’s not very healthy.

There are some exceptions where we can refer to a restaurant as a “shop”. They are a  “pizza shop” and an “ice cream shop”.

In Japan, people often say “sushi shop”, but instead they should say “sushi bar” or “sushi restaurant”. A “sushi shop” is a small store usually on the street where people can buy sushi, but they don’t stay there to eat it.

Some people get confused between the meanings of “realize” and “understand”, so I’m going to write about that today.

In English, we use the word “realize” when we think about something that is confusing for us and then suddenly know its true meaning. We can also use “realize” when we suddenly discover the reality of a situation that we didn’t know before because something happens to make us understand it.

We use “understand” when we can comprehend information or a situation. For example:

After I thought about it for a long time, I realized I would have to get an education if I wanted to be successful in life.

I didn’t realize that restaurant was so popular until my friend and I went there. We had to wait 45 minutes to get a table!

I realized that I had left my cell phone at home when I put my hand in my pocket.

I first realized how hard it is to speak another language when I took a Spanish class about five years ago.

I understand why Jim is so angry about not getting a promotion because the same thing happened to me.

I didn’t understand the meaning of that word, so I looked it up in a dictionary.

I understand philosophy because it was my major at university.

A: Do you understand what Carol is talking about?

B: No, she’s always talking about science, so it’s over my head.

So, with the examples for “realize” we use that word because the person comes to know the reality of the situation because they think about it for a long time, they go to the restaurant and see that it’s popular, they feel their cell phone is not in their pocket and they take a Spanish class and have a hard time with it.

In the last example for “understand” I use the idiom to be “over someone’s head”. I wrote about this idiom before, but if you don’t remember the meaning, you can check my blog entry for March 28, 2010.