Speaker 1: Let me ask you something besides English, do you study
any other languages? I mean, except for your native language?
Think about those questions, because without any further delay, I
think it's time to dive right into today's English lesson.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael oh Rye.
Speaker 1: Thank you, John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael here from
Happy English and I help people speak English better. This
is Happy English Podcast Episode eight thirty one. Besides accept
and without, Hello, and welcome, thanks for joining me for
another episode of the Happy English Podcast. I'm your English teacher, Michael,
and I'm so glad you're here. Today. We're going to
dig into three little words that cause big confusion for
a lot of English learners, besides accept and without. At
first glance, the words besides accept and without all kind
of seem like they're doing the same thing, talking about
adding or leaving something out. But actually each one has
its own job. So let's break it down, and we're
going to start with besides besides means in addition to it,
adds more to the group. If you're talking about something
you already have or do. Besides lets you add more
to that idea. Like the other day, someone asked me
what kind of food I like. I said, well, besides pizza,
I like burgers and hot dogs. So yeah, I love
pizza and burgers and hot dogs too. It's an addition.
Here's another example. Besides working at the supermarket, Jack has
a part time job at a bookstore. So Jack has
two jobs supermarket plus bookstore. And if you're throwing a party,
you might say, besides, John and his wife, Frank and
Mary are coming too, so we're adding more people to
the guest list. Get the feel for that. It's like
you're building a list and besides helps you add to it. Now,
let's talk about accept, which does the opposite of Besides.
Accept is all about exclusion. It means not including or
but not, So instead of adding something to the list,
you're taking something out. Like that fast food place has
everything except pizza, so they've got burgers, fries, tacos maybe,
but not pizza. Or check this out except Friday. Jack
works both jobs every day. That means Friday is the
one day Jack's off the hook. And if you say
accept John and his wife all our friends are coming
to the party. That means John and his wife are
the only ones not joining. Everyone else is coming. Now
here's a little twist. Sometimes you'll hear except four and yeah,
that's a thing too. Both except and except four can
be used before nouns. So everybody came to the party
except Serena is the same as everybody came to the
party except for Serena. Both are fine. But if you
want to show a contrast, like everything was great except
for this one little detail, you would use except for
like my trip to Paris was amazing except for the rain,
So the rain was kind of a bummer, right, Or
I cleaned the whole house except for the bathroom. The
bathroom is still waiting its turn. By the way, except
for this podcast, I'd like to suggest you listen to
the All Years English podcast with Lindsey, Michelle and Aubrey
so you can learn how to connect in English. All
Ears English it's all about connection, not perfection, and with
over two hundred million downloads, they know a thing or
two about connection. Fun fact, All Ears English has been
ranked number one in US Education language courses. In Apple
cool Right, there are new episodes five days a week,
and this week's episodes include the difference between trip, travel
and journey in English, five different meanings of the phraser
verb take off, and they show you how to connect
over a situation that's swelled out of the ordinary in English.
To get all of this and more, open your search
bar right now on your podcast player, type in all
ears English and hit follow. Now let's get into without.
This one's a little different. Without means not having or
in the absence of. You can use without with a
noun like I like my coffee without milk, or like
in the office we started the meeting without Jack. That
guy is always late, by the way, can you read
that book without a dictionary? And you can use without
with an ing verb. You know, a gerrand like Jack
never makes a decision without consulting his wife. And all
of my friends can tell you I won't start eating
without washing my hands. Here's one more. Jenny left the
office without saying anything that's unusual. So here's the real difference.
Except is used when you're talking about leaving someone or
something out of a group. You're showing one member that
doesn't fit. But without is just about something being absent,
not there, not part of the picture at all. There's
no group involved. Let's compare these two sentences, we played
golf without Jack. That means Jack wasn't there. It doesn't
say anything about him being part of a group. But
everyone played golf except Jack. Now you're saying Jack was
part of the group. He just didn't play. Here's another one.
I like coffee without milk. That's just how I like
my coffee, no milk in the cup, and no group
here either. I like coffee without milk, but I like
all kinds of fruit except kiwi. That shows Kiwi is
part of the fruit group, but it's the only one
I don't like. And here's a quick bonus grammar tip.
You can use accept followed by a base verb, so
you can say things like I never go to the
mall except to buy Christmas gifts, or my dog Rosie
does nothing all day except sleep and eat. Again, these
examples are using except with a base verb, and we
don't say except four in these cases. So let's wrap
all this up. Use besides to add something besides pizza,
I like sushi. Use except to leave something out of
a group. Everyone from the office came except Jack, and
you use without to talk about not having something. I
like tea without sugar cool. I hope that clears things up.
By the way, the best way to remember English like
this and any other word or phrase in English, is
to take that word or phrase, write it in a
sentence that's true for you or true in your world,
and then memorize your sentences. And let me say this.
You can get more practice using your English when you
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And on top of that, each episode has exercises where
you can practice this English point with speaking and writing
checked by me. To learn more, well, just visit Myhappy
English dot com and choose podcast lesson eight thirty one. Remember,
learning out other language is not easy, but it's not impossible,
and I'm here to help you on your journey.
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