Johnny Answers - Week of 17-11-08

Your Question

I am British exchange student's buddy now, and one day, when we have lunch together, she said, "You are what you eat." And then, I was confused but hesistate to ask. Johnny, what does it mean?

From Cathy_Yu

My Answer

Diet is important. If you want to be healthy eat good food. If you eat junk food you will feel bad. Some people even believe eating meat makes them angry and violent but this seems to be taking things a bit far!

I have some problems with this adverbs because I dont know where I have to put them: before the verb, after it... Could you help me, please? Thank you.

From alba

My Answer

Put them between the subject and the verb:

I seldom drink wine.
She often watches TV.
He never eats bananas.
We usually go to a restaurant on Fridays.

Both " would+verb " and "used to" can express action always do before, what is the difference?

From yinqicherry

My Answer

“Would” and “used to” are often interchangeable when talking about past habits:
When I was a boy I used to/would play football every Saturday.

However “would” is only used for actions but “used to” can be used for states as well.
My family used to have a big house in the country but now we live in the city.
In this case we can’t use “would”.

What's the difference between "beneath" and "underneath"?

From Alvin Shen

My Answer

Underneath or under is the word we most often use. So we say “She is under the bed”, to say “She is beneath the bed” sounds pompous.

However if somebody asks you to clean the toilet you might say it is beneath you, which means you think you are too grand to clean toilets. You couldn’t say it is under you.
So keep “beneath’ for abstract meanings: “She married beneath her”, and “under” for general meanings: “The boat is under the bridge”.

However you might like to use “beneath” for dramatic effect in your writing or to give more academic tone. “Beneath the earth’s crust lay a core of red lava” but remember “underneath” serves just as well.