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Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them. Maybe.

First question this week comes from Rizal....Kuswandi again? Hi again, Rizal.

Rizal says, Hi Alisha, what is the difference between task, duty, job, and assignment, and how do we use them? Thanks.

Okay, good question.

Let's start with the word duty.

Duty is the least commonly used of these words that you've introduced here.

We use duty to talk about our responsibilities or our obligations.

We use this word, however, for kind of specific jobs.

So people who work in like the government who do like civil service related jobs

and people who are members of the military use the word duty to describe their responsibilities.

For example, my duty is to serve my country.

It is my duty as mayor to do the best I can for my city.

We don't use the word duty or the plural duties very much except in these kinds of settings.

You might see this on like a contract, or perhaps a job application or a job information form.

But in general, the word duty is most commonly used in these kinds of environments.

Let's move on, then, to the word job.

So we use the word job to refer generally to the type of work we do.

Like I'm a teacher.

I'm a photographer.

I'm in finance.

So it's our job, our job title or the kind of work that we do.

That's our job.

I make YouTube videos as part of my job.

We're journalists, so we have busy jobs.

Okay, finally then, the words task and assignment.

These really do have quite similar meanings.

Ah, but assignment is used more when we're students.

Like when we have homework, we often call it a homework assignment.

So that's something we have to take home, complete, and bring back.

We use assignment to mean like a thing that we need to do.

Assignment is also used quite specifically in the journalism and media related fields.

So, when we receive a task, when we receive something that we need to travel for,

like we travel and we interview someone, or we travel to collect information,

that's called an assignment in the journalism and media related fields.

So in that case, assignment can be quite specific to a field.

In most other cases, though, just talking about your to-do list, the everyday items you need to take care of,

we use the word task to describe that.

So, in like your computer or your smartphone, or maybe in a notebook somewhere, you might have a task list.

So your task list is your list of responsibilities, small things you need to do throughout your day or throughout your week.

Task is probably the most commonly used word from this list that you have presented here.

Some examples.

I have an assignment in LA this month.

Where's your next assignment?

So, for other work, for most general work, we can use the word task to talk about those small things we need to do throughout the day.

I hope that this helps you understand the differences between these words.

Thanks very much for the question.

Okay, let's move on to your next question.

Next question comes from Trane again. Hi, Trane.

Trane says, Hello Alisha, what's the difference between just and only?

Ah, good question.

It does depend on how the word is used in the sentence.

In some cases, just and only can be used interchangeably.

We can use them in the same way.

Let's compare with two sentences.

I want just one cookie.

I want only one cookie.

So here in both of these example sentences, just and only precede,

precede means come before, the word or the expression "one cookie".

So they're modifying "one cookie".

We always put just and only directly before the word or phrase that we're modifying.

Please be careful.

A point that many native speakers make mistakes with is they'll put it before the verb not before, like the actual thing they want to modify.

So in these example sentences, we can use the two words in the same way.

They mean like, one thing.

That's it. We want to emphasize the one thing.

In other situations, though, ah, the two words have different functions.

So, we can use just to talk about very recently completed actions,

to talk about actions that were planned for completion very recently, and to talk about actions that are going to happen in the very near future.

For example, I just finished my homework.

I was just about to call you.

I'm just about to leave.

So these are example sentences, which in order, are recently finished action, recently planned action that did not happen,

and upcoming action in the very near future, we can use just to do this, but we cannot use only to do this.

So this is an example of the various ways that just can be used.

Only is used for that kind of emphasis feeling that we talked about in the cookie example sentence.

If you want some more information on the placement of only and how it affects the meaning of a sentence, please check out the whiteboard video that's on the YouTube channel.

The details, the use of the word only, and the placement of the word only.

It's a big point for native speakers and learners alike. I think so.

I hope that that helps you.

Thanks very much for the question.

Okay, let's move along to your next question.

Next question this week comes from Gerardo.

Hi, Gerardo.

Gerardo says, How does the letter T sound in the words "party" and "started"?

Yeah, good question. So the T sound in words like this, it becomes quite soft. So you'll notice,

in these patterns, we have a vowel followed by RT and then something at the end.

In this case we're looking at like -ed, or maybe Y sounds.

So, in the examples that you included "party", it's like a D sound, and "started".

So party and started. It's like a D sound.

The T sound, that /t/, is not pronounced.

"Party" and "started" are difficult to say in fast speech.

We make the sounds much softer, like a D sound, party and started.

So three more words that follow the same pronunciation rule are parted, blurted, and sporty.

So here we see vowel plus RT plus something else.

So we have sporty in the last example.

And then these words that end in ED with parted and blurted.

So you'll notice that that T sound becomes very soft like a D. So parted, blurted, sporty, party, started.

So this is a kind of a good guideline, I think, for when you see that RT and you see a vowel before it.

Ah, but it's not at the end of a word, so please note that this pronunciation rule applies when the T is not the last letter in the word.

If, for example, the word is start or part or blurt, the T sound is quite clear.

But when it's not the last letter in the word, it's like started, party, blurted.

Then the T sound becomes more like a D sound.

So we would not say blurted, party, started.

It's a little too much.

It's kind of difficult to say in fast speech.

So I hope that this helps you with the pronunciation of T sounds that follow this spelling rule.

Thanks very much for the question.

Okay, let's move on to your next question.

Next question comes from John.

Hi, John.

John says Hi, Alisha.

I would like to ask the difference between can't and couldn't.

Is it possible to use both of them to say something is impossible to do at present?

Which of the two is preferred, or can I just use them interchangeably?

Thanks.

Um, in statements, we use can't for present tense and couldn't for past tense.

Examples: I can't help you right now.

He can't come to the phone.

We couldn't finish all the food.

She couldn't find the stapler.

So can't is used to refer to impossible things in the present.

Couldn't is used to refer to impossible things in the past, so we cannot use them interchangeably.

So present tense: can't, past tense: couldn't.

Less commonly, there is the expression "I couldn't."

So we use this expression when there's something kind of tempting or interesting that we're a little bit interested about.

But we kind of want to, like, hold back a bit.

So, for example, like "Three doughnuts for me? I couldn't."

So it's like there's some kind of temptation or something like that.

But that's a sort of set special expression, and it's not so commonly used.

Another example might be like "A promotion? But I would have to leave all my team members behind. I couldn't do that."

So it's kind of like there's a reluctant feeling to do something. So it doesn't necessarily mean the speaker is going to choose one way or the other.

But it's just kind of this shocked or, like surprised expression that shows a decision is difficult.

So in that case, "I couldn't" refers to a present tense feeling like "That's not possible. I shouldn't do that."

That's kind of the feel there.

But in all other cases, as I talked about in my example sentences, we use couldn't for past tense impossibility.

So please use can't for present tense, couldn't for past tense.

I hope that this helps answer your question.

Thanks very much for sending it along.

OK. On to our next question this week.

Next question this week comes from Stanislove. Hi Stanislove. Stanislove says,

What idiom can I use to describe past work

if its results were unuseful and unnecessary and there was no practical outcome, but that wasn't clear from the start?

In my native language, this is called "work for a shelf".

It means that the results will be put on a shelf and then forgotten.

Ah, interesting. Actually, we use "shelf" in this way, too.

When we say we're going to put something on a shelf after we finish it, it doesn't really mean that it was unnecessary or unuseful, but it's just kind of like you say.

There's not really a practical outcome for it.

Like we finish this thing, it's done.

I'm not going to do anything with it.

I'll just put it on the shelf.

We also use this as a verb. "To shelf something" means to put it off to the side and kind of forget about it.

Like something that's finished.

We don't have to deal with it anymore.

We shelf that thing.

Some examples.

I shelved that vase I took a week to paint.

Don't leave that project on the shelf.

So in this case, in English, it doesn't necessarily mean that the item was bad or was not useful or whatever.

It just means it's like, not so important right now.

So we put it on the shelf.

We like, don't think about it so much.

We just put it somewhere where it's not in the way, sometimes literally.

So I hope that this helps answer your question. Interesting one.

Thanks very much for sending it along.

Okay, That is everything that I have for this week. Thanks.

As always, for sending your questions, remember, you can send them to me in "EnglishClass101.com/ask-alisha".

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Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next week.

Bye bye.

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