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Today I have a verb for you which is very useful; it’s the word “deserve”. It is used when we want to say that a person should get something. It can be used in positive ways or negative ways.

So, a good person should get positive things – a good person deserves good things; a bad person should get negative things – a bad person deserves bad things.

However, life is often unfair, so sometimes good people get bad things even though they shouldn’t get them – good people sometimes get bad things, but they don’t deserve them. Bad people sometimes get good things that they shouldn’t get – bad people sometimes get good things that they don’t deserve.

Let me give you some specific examples:

I’m really happy for my co-worker! He just got a promotion. He works really hard, and he really deserves it!

My mother is such a wonderful woman. She really deserves to be happy!

That man killed many people. He deserves to be put in prison for a long time!

My boss just got demoted at work. He really deserved it because he’s so lazy!

My friend’s husband just left her for a younger woman. She doesn’t deserve to be treated like that. She was a loyal wife to him for a long time!

I think Jane was one of the best dancers in the competition, but she came in fifth place. She didn’t deserve such a low score!

My co-worker just got a raise he didn’t deserve. He’s only been with the company for six months!

The guy who stole my car only got only two weeks in prison. He didn’t deserve such a light sentence!

There are a couple of words here you may not know. In my fourth example, I use the word “demoted”. This is the opposite of “promoted”. In other words, the person was given a lower position at the company as a punishment.

In my seventh example, I use the word “raise”. This word is used to mean a higher salary.

Finally, in my last example, I used the word “sentence”. This word has two meanings. The first one you probably already know – a collection of words. However, in this case, the meaning is different. Here it means the punishment given to someone in a court of law.

Today, I’d like to go over a word which my students usually use incorrectly: “almost”. I’m not sure about other languages, but in Japanese and Korean the word for “almost” has a slightly different grammar than it does in English. That is the reason why many people in those countries make mistakes when using it.

So, “almost” means “just less than” when talking about the quantity of something or the time. For example:

It’s almost 3:00 now.

The class is almost over.

There are almost 100 people who work in my department.

Almost 600 million people have gone to Disneyland since it first opened.

Almost all of the people at my company speak English well.

Almost everyone I know likes to watch movies.

Almost none of the people in my family have been overseas.

Almost nobody in the class could pass the test. I think only two people passed it.

So please note that if we use “almost” with a number, the number follows directly after “almost”. However, if we use “almost” with a noun such as “people”, we have to put another word between them; such words are often “all”, “every”, “no”, “none”, etc. We can also use it with words like “everyone” and “nobody”. However, we CANNOT say something like “Almost people in Japan like sushi.” Instead, we have to say something like:

Almost all people in Japan like sushi.

Almost every Japanese person likes sushi.

Almost everyone in Japan likes sushi.

The second way to use “almost” is when we want to talk about something which came close to happening but actually didn’t happen. For example:

My mother was in an accident. She almost died, but she’s going to be alright. 

My husband and I almost went to Italy for our honeymoon, but we decided to go to Hawaii instead.

Someone threw a rock at me. Luckily it didn’t hit me, but it almost did.

I was almost late for work today. I got to the office right at 9:00.