Shadowing Practice: Difference between "Ask", "Request" and "Question" | Learn English Grammar for Beginners - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hi everybody, my name is Alicia.

In this lesson, we're going to look at the three words ask, request, and question.

We're going to break down the different parts of speech and the different patterns we use when we use these words.

So, let's get started.

First, I want to talk about the word ask.

First, I want to look at the verb form of the word ask.

Most of the time when we say ask, we're using the verb form.

So, what does this mean?

To ask means to look for information.

So we use this word when we need to get information from someone.

We can also use ask to mean to make a request.

So you need someone to do something for you or you need someone to maybe make arrangements for you for something.

We can use it for requests as well.

So let's take a look at some example sentences

and then we'll talk about the basic patterns that we use with this verb.

Okay, let's take a look at the first example sentence.

The first example sentence is, I asked my friend to help me with my homework.

Here, we see the past tense form of the verb, asked.

After this is my friend.

So, in this sentence pattern, this is the person receiving the verb, the action of the verb.

So, the person doing it is I, me, and then the person receiving is my friend.

I asked my friend to help me.

So, in this case, we are making a request.

Let's look at the second example sentence.

He asked me for an update.

Again, we have the past tense form of the verb.

Here, the person doing the asking, the person acting is him, he, and the person receiving is me.

He asked me for an update.

So, in this case, we are looking for some information, right?

Or we are requesting information in this case.

So different up here, we saw request, or sorry, we saw a request for help in this case, or I asked my friend to help me.

So here we see an action.

Here we see information, information request.

Okay, next example sentence.

Let's ask the hotel staff for restaurant recommendations.

So, a suggestion here, let's ask the hotel staff for recommendations.

The verb here is just the base form, let's ask, right?

And the person or the people receiving the request are the hotel staff.

Again, we are looking for information here.

What do we want?

Restaurant recommendations.

Let's look at the last example sentence, and then we'll take a look at some grammar patterns we use here.

So, I asked for a raise last year.

I asked for a raise last year.

Again, past tense.

In this sentence, though, there's no person here, right?

We see I asked for a raise.

A raise means an increase in your pay, in the money you receive from your job, right?

So I asked for a raise last year.

Okay, so now that we've looked at these example sentences, let's take a look at the grammar patterns that we see here, because these are really important,

as you'll see later in the lesson, it's really important to know how to use these prepositions and the other words with the verb ask.

So the first pattern I want to look at is ask for noun phrase.

Ask for noun phrase.

We saw this in the last sentence here.

I asked for a raise, right?

So in this sentence, we are asking for information or we're looking, we're making a request from someone,

but we don't mention the target of the request.

We don't say, I asked my boss, or I asked my manager, or I asked the CEO, right?

We just want to note the topic, right?

The thing we requested, what we were looking for.

So we can do this with ask for noun phrase, yeah?

We could do the same thing with this sentence pattern as well.

Like, let's ask for restaurant recommendations.

We could remove this part here.

Let's ask for restaurant recommendation.

So we don't always have to make it clear who we want the information from.

We can do this with this pattern.

Ask for noun phrase.

The second pattern though uses a person.

So when you want to make it clear who you are talking to, who you have questions for, you can use this pattern for information.

When you want information, you can use ask person for noun phrase.

Ask person for noun phrase right here.

This preposition is very important.

So, let's ask the hotel staff for restaurant recommendations, right?

We are looking for information from a person or a group of people.

The second example sentence also does this.

He asked me for an update, right?

So, asked me, the person, for is the preposition here, and then our noun phrase is the update.

He asked me for an update.

So, this is when you want to get information from someone, okay?

The last pattern here is ask person to verb.

Ask person to verb this is

when you want to request someone do something you want someone to take an action of some kind

so ask person to verb we saw this in the first

example sentence I asked my friend to help me right I

asked my friend to help me in this case with my homework

so we see again the same pattern ask plus person However, our preposition here is to.

We cannot use for here.

I asked my friend for help me is totally incorrect.

Can't say that.

So, I asked my friend to help me.

If you want to use this pattern, use the verb ask to make a request for action,

please make sure to use the to preposition here and a verb.

Okay, great.

So, this is the verb ask.

Lastly, I want to make one more point about this word before we go to the next word in this lesson.

And that's about something that's kind of rare.

It's not super common.

100

However, if you maybe talk to British English speakers, or maybe even in some kind of business or professional situations,

101

you might hear ask used in the noun form sometimes too.

102

But there's a very specific way that we use it as a noun.

103

So as a noun, it means a request or a favor, but we tend to use it in situations where it's a big favor

104

or a really big request or something kind of dramatic or extreme.

105

So here's an example conversation of this use of ask as a noun.

106

So person A might say, he told me he needs to borrow $10 ,000.

107

A lot of money, right?

108

And person B could respond, wow, that's a big ask.

109

So ask in this way sounds like request.

110

Wow, that's a big request.

111

But ask tends to be used in this case.

112

We don't really say, wow, that's a big request.

113

We often will say, wow, that's a really big ask.

114

I'm not sure about that.

115

We tend to use it in situations like this where we're kind of surprised about how extreme

116

or how large or how intense something is.

117

So you may hear this from time to time especially in like movies

118

and in media so please keep in mind this use is not super common

119

but you might hear it from time to time okay great

120

so this is how we use ask i want to compare this now to the verb request

121

so let's take a look at the verb form of request

122

and then we'll look at the noun form as well so verb to request to request means to ask for something.

123

So there is some overlap, there are some similarities in how we use these two verbs, right?

124

So let's take a look at the example sentences

125

and then we'll look at the grammar patterns we use with this verb too.

126

So first example sentence, we requested a table near a window for our dinner reservation.

127

So we requested a table near a window, okay?

128

Past tense here.

129

And then after this is a table.

130

We have this noun phrase after it.

131

This is the thing we are asking for, right?

132

So this is different from ask, right?

133

We have this object we want after the verb, immediately after the verb, right?

134

Okay, so let's look at the next example.

135

She requested an afternoon appointment.

136

She requested an afternoon appointment.

137

Again, past tense she requested.

138

And then we have our noun phrase here, an afternoon appointment.

139

So what did she want?

140

What did she ask for?

141

An afternoon appointment.

142

Okay.

143

Finally, last example sentence here, the university requested our professor give a presentation.

144

So in this sentence, again past tense, but here we have a person.

145

The university requested our professor give a presentation.

146

In this case, we are asking or requesting someone to do something.

147

So you can probably see we can use the verb request in a very similar way to the verb ask, yeah?

148

But we need to follow a few different grammar patterns to make these sentences correctly.

149

So let's take a look at these and compare them to the patterns we used with ask.

150

Okay, so the grammar patterns we see here are request plus noun phrase, right?

151

Okay?

152

So.. request a table.

153

We requested a table near a window, right?

154

So the noun phrase or just the noun in this case is directly after the verb.

155

We see this in the second example too.

156

She requested an afternoon appointment.

157

So that's our noun phrase.

158

It's directly after the verb here.

159

Remember when we talked about this kind of pattern, when we talked about a noun phrase type pattern with ask,

160

we use this for, ask for noun phrase, but we don't have this for here.

161

We don't say requested for something.

162

We just directly use the noun phrase after the verb.

163

So not we requested for a table, incorrect.

164

Or she requested for an appointment, no, incorrect.

165

No for here.

166

So this is one difference between request and ask.

167

Second one then.

168

The second pattern here is request plus person and verb.

169

Request, person, verb.

170

We see this in the third example sentence here, right?

171

The university requested our professor give a presentation.

172

So in this case, we are looking at a request, someone asking someone else to do something, right?

173

So we have request, person, and verb.

174

You'll notice in this pattern though, again, there's no preposition we saw over here in our action

175

request pattern we had ask person to verb we don't have

176

the preposition here right the university requested our professor to give

177

a presentation we don't use to there you may sometimes see

178

people using to in this position in kind of non -standard forms of english

179

but generally we do not put a to here so

180

if you want to use this pattern to talk about asking someone else to take action, you can use request, person, and verb, this pattern here.

181

Okay, great.

182

So next I want to take a look at the noun form of request.

183

So a request as a noun is something asked for, right?

184

Something we want, right?

185

So let's look at some example sentences so you can see how this word changes, the grammatical structure of the sentence changes.

186

So, I made a request for a new office chair.

187

I made a request for a new office chair.

188

So, we have request here as a noun.

189

Yeah, I made a request.

190

And we need to use a different verb when we want to use request as a noun.

191

In this case, I have made.

192

So, it's very common to say to make a request for something.

193

Also, you'll notice for comes after the noun, a request for the thing you want, okay?

194

Let's look at one more example of this.

195

Her request for time off was approved.

196

Her request for time off was approved.

197

Again, this one is the noun form, her request.

198

In this case, what did she ask for?

199

Time off, right?

200

So, this follows the preposition for,

201

Okay, so some common patterns I want to point out with the noun form of request are to make a request.

202

This is often the verb we use.

203

I want to make a request for something.

204

Or you might also hear in more casual situations or in like work or school situations, to put in a request for something.

205

This is used like in this situation, like when you want a new something at work or you want to get time off, that kind of thing.

206

You might also hear to submit a request for something as well.

207

Generally, I think the make a request pattern is probably the most common one here.

208

But please note, we always use for after this to describe the thing that we want, that we're looking for.

209

Okay, great.

210

So with ask and request in our minds, let's move on to the third word for this lesson, which is quite different from the first two.

211

So the last word is question, question.

212

So we can use question as a verb and as a noun.

213

So I want to start by talking about the verb form

214

because it has some very different meanings from the ones we've talked about so far in this lesson.

215

So there are two I want to focus on today.

216

First is to ask about something.

217

So when we question someone, we ask someone questions about something, okay?

218

So this might sound a little bit confusing, like why do you, aren't you saying the same thing twice, right?

219

But kind of a feeling when we use question as a verb, it's kind of like saying we're asking someone many questions about something.

220

We're asking a lot of things, but we only have to use one verb to express that.

221

So this might be confusing, so let's look at the example.

222

Here, the police questioned the suspect about the robbery.

223

The police questioned the suspect about the robbery.

224

So suspect, the suspect means someone that.. the police thinks did a crime, okay?

225

They did something bad.

226

So it's not confirmed, but they think this person might be the bad guy or bad girl.

227

So the police questioned, past tense here, questioned the suspect.

228

So questioned the person about the topic, the robbery in this case.

229

So we have questioned here.

230

The use of this verb makes it sound like the police asked a lot of things, but we use only one, right?

231

Questioned means they asked many, many questions, not just one.

232

So this is the purpose.

233

This is the usefulness of the verb question.

234

Let's look at one more example.

235

The CEO was questioned about the company scandal.

236

The CEO was questioned about the company scandal.

237

Here we have a passive sentence structure, right?

238

Who questioned the CEO?

239

We don't know or it's not important.

240

We want to focus on the situation with the CEO.

241

So the CEO was questioned about plus the topic of the question.

242

So about the company scandal.

243

So this is one way that we use the verb to question.

244

It means to ask many, many things.

245

Okay.

246

Though the second one, the second use of the verb question is quite different.

247

We can use to question to mean to doubt something when we're not sure about something, or when we maybe feel like something isn't right,

248

we can use to question to express that.

249

So let's look at these examples.

250

I question your reasons for quitting your job.

251

I question your reasons for quitting your job.

252

This means like, I doubt your reasons for quitting your job, or your reasons for quitting your job are not clear to me, they don't make sense to me.

253

We use the verb question to express this uncertainty, to express this doubt.

254

One more example sentence.

255

Sometimes our team questions our manager's judgment.

256

Sometimes our team questions our manager's judgment.

257

So your manager's judgment.

258

Judgment means the ability to make good decisions.

259

Yeah.

260

So sometimes our team questions our manager's judgment.

261

Means sometimes our group, our work group, doesn't really think that our manager has a good sense of how to make good decisions.

262

So this use of question is quite different from the first use of question, but they're both very commonly used.

263

The first one tends to be used more in news articles, like I talked about crime -related topics or scandal -related topics,

264

something that like an official group, like the police or an investigative group, they need to ask someone a lot of questions about something, in those kinds of news articles,

265

this use of the verb is very common.

266

This one, when we use it to talk about doubt, it might be more in interpersonal situations, like kind of dramatic or extreme life situations, perhaps, too.

267

Okay, so last, let's take a look at the grammar patterns that we see here, and then we'll finish up with a very, very easy point, maybe that most people are comfortable with.

268

So let's look at the grammar patterns we use with the verb forms of question here

269

so first is question person about topic question person about topic we see this pattern in these two example sentences

270

so when we want to ask many questions to someone

271

so we ask a lot of questions about a specific topic

272

we use this pattern to do it question the person and sometimes we don't include this part about topic.

273

So in this sentence, for example, the police questioned the suspect.

274

In some cases, when the situation is clear, like we know there was a robbery or whatever, if you're reading a news article, sometimes you just see this sentence,

275

the police questioned the suspect.

276

So maybe we already know it's about the robbery.

277

So sometimes we don't include the topic if we understand it from the situation.

278

But if you want to include that, to be clear, you say about and the topic.

279

So about the robbery, about the noun phrase, whatever it is.

280

Okay, the second pattern that we see is just question and noun phrase.

281

So that's used in this situation when we want to express our doubt about something.

282

Question plus noun phrase.

283

In this situation, in this sentence, we see I question your reasons.

284

So your reasons is the noun phrase.

285

So I doubt your reasons.

286

In the second example, our team questions our manager's judgment.

287

Our manager's judgment is the noun phrase here.

288

So this is the pattern that we use to express doubt.

289

Okay, great.

290

So with all of this in mind, let's go to the very last point for this lesson.

291

A very easy refresher that we use question as a noun.

292

This is the most common way that we use question as a noun so it means

293

inquiry so

294

when we want to know something we ask a question right we use it with this verb right here right

295

so we use this in sentences like i have a question

296

about the menu right i have a question about something this

297

is one of the most common ways to use this verb

298

one more we'd like to ask you some questions about your work experience

299

so this is maybe a job interview type question So we tend to use question mostly in the noun form, but in case you see it as a verb,

300

this is how we use it.

301

So it's maybe a good idea to think about the verb form

302

if you're reading something or listening to something and you hear question used, but it doesn't seem to fit into this use, right?

303

You can think about how we use it in the verb form as well, because these are used sometimes, especially in the news.

304

All right, that was a lot of information, but I hope that you got a good idea of the differences between ask and request and question.

305

Remember, there are some key differences in the grammar patterns that we use for these verbs.

306

Most notably, don't forget these little, little differences like using two and not using two and using four and not using four and so on.

307

So you can practice making some sentences that use these two patterns

308

but express the same idea if you want to get some practice with this.

309

So I will wrap up this lesson there, but I hope that this was helpful for you.

310

Of course, if you have any questions or comments or if you want to practice making some example sentences with this information, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video.

311

Don't forget to check us out at EnglishClass101 .com for some other tools

312

and resources that you can use to work on improving your English skills.

313

Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon.

314

Bye!

📺 Mismo canal

Learn Some New Uses of the Preposition "in" in English | Daily English Conversations #01

KidsTeensDaily Conversation

125 Must-Know English Words for Everyday Life

TeensDaily ConversationHigh School Students

Introduce Yourself in English in 30 Minutes

KidsTeensDaily Conversation

Learn English - Greetings in English, how to Answer the Question "How are you?"

TeensDaily ConversationHigh School Students

✨ Recomendar Video

405 oraciones

Learn English Grammar | Easy Simple Past Tense for ESL Beginners 📚 @GetSetEnglish

KidsTeensDaily Conversation

129 oraciones

Prepositions of Place, and Other Ways to Describe Location and Motion - An English Lesson!

KidsTeensDaily Conversation

26 oraciones

9 Ways to Ask for Help in English

KidsTeensDaily Conversation

76 oraciones

How to use How long does it take in English with examples

KidsTravel EnglishTeens

43 oraciones

23 Easy English Phrasal Verbs for Beginners

KidsTeensDaily Conversation

31 oraciones

A1 English Grammar Imperatives

KidsTeensDaily Conversation

359 oraciones

Wh- Questions — What / Where / When / Who / Why / How | How to Ask Questions in English

KidsTeensDaily Conversation

91 oraciones

What Is Subject-Verb Agreement? | Learn the Basic Rules with Examples

KidsTeensDaily Conversation

1444 oraciones

Day 2: Speak English in 30 Days | 100 Most Common English Words Used in Daily Life

KidsTeensDaily Conversation

264 oraciones

০ থেকে English Speaking ফ্রি কোর্স - Class 9 | এক ক্লাসে Preposition শিখুন

KidsTeensDaily Conversation

143 oraciones

Asking for and Giving Directions | English for Beginners | Daily English Conversations

KidsTravel EnglishTeens

Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Esta lección de conversación de nivel A2 se basa en el vídeo “Difference between "Ask", "Request" and "Question"”. Las palabras que más se repiten: verb, request, noun, pattern, sentence. Este vídeo tiene 314 frases y 3536 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 21:35. El hablante habla a un ritmo natural de unas 164 palabras por minuto, cercano a una conversación cotidiana. El 87 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés, por lo que el vocabulario es fácil de seguir.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
verb sustantivo	/vɝb/	verbo
noun sustantivo	/naʊn/	nombre, nombre sustantivo
phrase sustantivo	/ˈfɹeɪ̯z/	frase
topic sustantivo	/ˈtɑpɪk/	tema, tópico
lesson sustantivo	/ˈlɛs.ən/	lección
grammar sustantivo	/ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/	gramática
judgment sustantivo	/ˈd͡ʒʌd͡ʒ.mənt/	juicio, juzgamiento
tense sustantivo	/tɛns/	tiempo
recommendation sustantivo	/ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/	recomendación
robbery sustantivo	/ˈɹɑbəɹi/	robo, choreo
presentation sustantivo	/ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/	presentación, exposición
scandal sustantivo	/ˈskændəl/	escándalo
incorrect adjetivo	/ˌɪn.kəˈɹɛkt/	incorrecto
compare verbo	/kəmˈpɛɚ/	comparar, parangonar
dramatic adjetivo	/dɹəˈmætɪk/	dramático

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Palabra	Significado
break down verbo	descomponerse, averiarse
wrap up verbo	envolver, arrebujar

Frases que vale la pena repetir

Frases cortas y completas del vídeo que puedes reutilizar en la conversación diaria:

Let's look at the second example sentence.
Let's ask the hotel staff for restaurant recommendations.
What do we want?
Let's ask for restaurant recommendation.
We don't really say, wow, that's a big request.

Gramática en este vídeo

Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:

Estructura	En el vídeo
Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace	was approved · was questioned
Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora	we've looked · have made · we've talked
Posibilidad con “might / may” might/may + verbo — algo posible pero no seguro	might hear · might say · may hear
Superlativos the -est / the most … — lo más alto o lo más bajo de un grupo	the most common

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

El hablante usa 44 contracciones y formas reducidas, como don't, we're, we'll. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.

Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, casual /ˈkæʒ(u)əl/, suggestion /səˈd͡ʒɛst.ʃən/, reservation /ˌɹɛz.ɚˈveɪ.ʃən/
Palabras largas — cuida el acento: recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, inquiry /ɪnˈkwaɪ(ə)ɹi/, uncertainty /ʌnˈsɜːtənti/, reservation /ˌɹɛz.ɚˈveɪ.ʃən/, investigative /ɪnˈvɛstɪɡətɪv/

Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:

s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: scandal /ˈskændəl/, skill /skɪl/
/v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: verb /vɝb/, approve /əˈpɹuːv/, passive /ˈpæs.ɪv/, reservation /ˌɹɛz.ɚˈveɪ.ʃən/, overlap /ˌəʊvəˈlæp/
/z/ — sonora, no /s/: phrase /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/, presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, confuse /kənˈfjuːz/, resource /ɹɪˈzɔːs/, reservation /ˌɹɛz.ɚˈveɪ.ʃən/

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
Empieza a velocidad 0,75×, haz shadowing frase por frase y vuelve a la velocidad normal cuando te resulte fácil.
Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como verb, noun, phrase.

¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?

Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.

Técnica de shadowing: lee la guía completa paso a paso →

Shadowing Practice: Difference between "Ask", "Request" and "Question" | Learn English Grammar for Beginners - Learn English Speaking with Video

Learn English - English in Three Minutes - Getting Contact Details

Learn English - English in Three Minutes - Asking "Where do you live?"

Learn English - English in Three Minutes - Asking About Names

Improve Your English Grammar

7 Benefits of Learning English

Learn English | Listening Practice - Listening to a English Weather Forecast

Learn English - Asking About Occupations, What is your Job?

Top 10 Job Interview Questions in English

Learn English | Listening Practice - Calling the American Doctor's Office

Learn English | Listening Practice - Reading a Journal in English

3 Surprising English Learning Lessons & Insights From a Plane Ride

Learn English | Listening Practice - At an American Restaurant

Learn English | Listening Practice - At an American Bookstore

Learn English with Songs - Perfect Tense - Lyric Lab

Learn English - Asking About Hobbies, What do you do for fun?

Learn the Top 25 Must-Know English Phrases!

Learn Some New Uses of the Preposition "in" in English | Daily English Conversations #01

125 Must-Know English Words for Everyday Life

Introduce Yourself in English in 30 Minutes

Learn English - Greetings in English, how to Answer the Question "How are you?"

Learn English Grammar | Easy Simple Past Tense for ESL Beginners 📚 @GetSetEnglish

Prepositions of Place, and Other Ways to Describe Location and Motion - An English Lesson!

9 Ways to Ask for Help in English

How to use How long does it take in English with examples

23 Easy English Phrasal Verbs for Beginners

A1 English Grammar Imperatives

Wh- Questions — What / Where / When / Who / Why / How | How to Ask Questions in English

What Is Subject-Verb Agreement? | Learn the Basic Rules with Examples

Day 2: Speak English in 30 Days | 100 Most Common English Words Used in Daily Life

০ থেকে English Speaking ফ্রি কোর্স - Class 9 | এক ক্লাসে Preposition শিখুন

Asking for and Giving Directions | English for Beginners | Daily English Conversations

Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Frases que vale la pena repetir

Gramática en este vídeo

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?