This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2038.
This episode is specially made for you.
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Today we teach two adverbs that are especially challenging in English for both native speakers and language learners.
We share a pro tip so you know whether to use specially or especially in conversations.
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Hey Aubrey, how's everything going with you today?
Great.
How are you?
Anything coming up that you're excited about?
Well, I'm excited to fly home.
I am doing a red eye, so that part's going to be tricky.
I'm excited to be on the East Coast this weekend, but I'm expecting excited to spend Father's Day with my dad, because I'm flying out just for him and he can't wait.
So it's going to be great.
What about you, Aubrey?
Oh, I'm jealous you get to spend Father's Day with your dad.
That's so fun.
I will get to see my dad this summer, but I won't be with him for Father's Day.
But I am excited.
We've planned this really fun boat trip for a weekend in Idaho.
We've got to schedule everything in advance.
And so I'm especially excited for that day at the lake.
That's going to be amazing.
Yeah.
So that'll be the highlight, right?
The day on the lake.
So good.
Yeah.
So what are we talking?
I heard the word especially a few times in our examples, talking about our plan for the summer.
What are we getting into today?
We're talking about what we're especially excited for.
We are getting into the difference between the words, especially and specially, which this can be confusing for native speakers and language learners.
So it's actually inspired by something that happened to you recently, right, Lindsay?
Yeah, I don't remember exactly what I was saying in that ad, but we were writing one of her.
So we're in a partnership with Lululemon, as you guys know, an amazing brand offering athleisure clothes.
So we've enjoyed working with them.
And I was preparing one of our messages and I think I stopped for a minute and I thought Do I write specially or especially?
Right.
And I'm sure you're able to like think it through and figure it out.
But just even those few moments of trying to think about it.
Right.
Because it is tricky and it can we have to sometimes think, OK, now which one?
Let me think about what the sentence means.
So if this.
These two words have tripped you up.
You're not alone.
This happens to everyone.
Yeah, this is something that happens to native speakers, English teachers, right?
It's not easy.
So let's break it down, Aubrey.
What do they have in common?
They're both what?
And this is what makes them confusing is that they can both be used to mean particularly, but they do have different meanings.
So both are adverbs.
Let's dive into each one specifically with some examples to really clarify this.
All right, here we go.
So number one let's talk about specially without the E, And I want to highlight another challenge here could be for a lot of our native Spanish speakers.
There may be a tendency to add an E in front of an S.
Have you noticed that?
That's something we really need to watch out for and be aware of.
I had a friend that went to Stanford and he was Spanish speaking.
He was Latino and he had a t-shirt that said S Stanford with an E before it.
And he was just owning it.
He's like, I'm always going to say S Stanford.
Yeah.
We all have our own.
You know, there are things that you know.
Native English speakers speaking French would always do right.
We could talk about that.
So every language to another language has a pattern.
That's just something I want you guys to be aware of.
If you do speak Spanish, just be aware that you may want to add an E.
So this could get a little confusing, but let's get into specially without an E.
Right, that's a really good point, because the pronunciation that's.
The only difference here is we're adding this E sound before one.
So this is somewhere where it really doesn't matter.
It changes the meaning.
Yes.
So yeah, specially without an E means that something serves a particular purpose.
So let's get into a couple of examples here.
Okay, here we go.
First example, this presentation was... specially created for this audience.
Okay.
Yeah.
So it means it was created for this particular purpose for a specific audience, right?
Or you might say the kennel was specially adjusted so the dog can leave when he wants to.
It means it was created for this particular purpose of letting the dog come and go.
Okay.
Okay.
So we're talking about purpose here with specially without the E, right?
We should share our pro tip here, actually.
I was going to talk about it after especially, but I'm going to point it out right here that the pro tip is we use specially before a verb.
And then especially is going to be coming before adjectives and adverbs.
So in both of these examples, you can see this presentation was specially created.
The kennel was specially adjusted.
Something will be specially made.
It'll always be before verb.
That's a major pro tip, right?
That's a huge cheat sheet right there.
Exactly.
And as you're first using them, you might have to think just a second.
Okay, what comes right out?
Oh, it's a verb.
Okay, specially.
Yeah.
So that verb is was in these examples, right, Aubrey?
Exactly. right?
And was, so was this like your auxiliary and then created and adjusted, right?
So really it's often a past participle that's coming after.
So if the verb is was created, specially goes between them, was adjusted.
That's a good point, Lindsay.
I'm glad you pointed that out, that it comes between your auxiliary and your past participle.
Okay.
So we're saying that we could not say, just to be totally clear for our audience, could not say this presentation was especially created for this audience, right?
No, exactly that's the mistake.
If you say especially, and then a verb, you're using the wrong one.
It has to be especially okay, all right.
So those.
So we're going to go into more examples for specially, but let's get into especially with the e at the beginning yeah yeah, so this is used to emphasize that someone or something is over all others, Right.
So, for example, she's an excellent speaker, especially when presenting about finding purpose.
Right.
So you could say, you know, she's an especially excellent speaker.
Then you're saying like above all others, she's especially excellent.
Or like in this sentence, we're saying she's a great speaker, especially when she's talking about her expertise, what she really knows about.
Well, that above all other topics, she is especially good.
And just to go back to the top of the episode there, this is the word we used in the beginning, right?
I said, I'm excited to go back to the East Coast, excited for eating seafood, but I'm especially excited to spend Father's Day with my dad.
Exactly, right?
And it's all of these are being followed by adjectives or adverbs, right?
Especially excited, especially often, often it'll be an adjective right there.
And then what's interesting is There won't always sort of the best pro tip here is specially before a verb and especially before everything else, because specially will always be followed by this verb.
That's a good one.
What's our second example?
You could say, our team worked especially well together on that project.
So here it's followed by an adverb, especially well.
So we're saying more so than other projects, for example, right?
Exactly, right?
They worked better on this one than all of the other projects we might be referring to.
I love it.
Okay, so we already went through the pro tip, which I find super useful and helpful for our listeners.
Anything else we need to know before we go into a role play?
Yeah, I just threw up this sentence.
So I don't know what was in that Lulu ad but I'm like oh, this would be fun to do like a sentence that might have been in it that would have both to say like your shorts are specially designed followed by the verb there for pickleball and are especially comfortable.
So here we have them both in the same sentence, especially before your adjective.
Especially comfortable, meaning the same as particularly comfortable.
And then specially before a verb.
Specially designed.
I love it.
I love it.
Yeah, that makes it really clear, right?
Yes, this is going to really help whether native speakers are listening or language learners.
I think now at least it will be clear if you look at the sentence what word comes right after.
You'll know which to use.
Yeah.
And this is an episode that native speakers might want to listen to for sure.
Right.
I'm going to refer it to some friends.
If ever someone makes a mistake, I'll be like, oh, here, listen to this podcast episode.
It's true.
It's true.
Here we go.
So in this role play, we are planning a friend's birthday party.
All right, here we go.
So I want this to be an especially fun party since it's our 30th birthday.
Absolutely.
I had a cake specially designed that I think she'll love.
Perfect.
Janice picked out some especially fancy decorations and I'm picking up balloons.
Oh, fun.
And we have personalized gifts that were specially made for her.
It's going to be great.
Great.
Okay.
Now let's go through each one so our listeners can really see the differences here, right?
Just to make sure we drive this home.
So first I said, I want this to be an especially fun party, right?
And so clearly fun, there's an adjective there.
We're not using a verb.
So it has to be especially fun.
Yes.
And then I said, absolutely.
I had a cake specially designed.
So because you have that verb right after the past participle of to design, you know it's specially without the E Specially designed.
Yeah.
And we could always flip this.
Just imagine you could say I had a cake designed in a special way.
Right.
Or yeah, you could.
Because it's the same meaning, right?
You're saying it's done in a particular way, in a special way for this person.
Yeah.
So it's just kind of taking that in a special way and turning it into just saying it in a different way.
Exactly.
Turning it into an adverb, right?
Exactly.
From special to specially.
Yeah.
Okay.
And then I said, perfect.
Janice picked out some especially fancy decorations, right?
So my adjective there is fancy, right?
And they're especially fancy.
Exactly.
And then I said, we have Personalized gifts that were specially made for someone.
So what this means is like if you have someone's name engraved on something or pick something out particularly special for a person, that's when you can say something was specially made for them.
Right.
It makes me think of when we were in school as kids, we used to get those LL Bean backpacks.
I don't know if you did that, but then you could have your little initials engraved in the backpack.
It was like fancy.
Very fancy.
I know.
But yeah, that was a thing we got all excited about.
So weird what you get excited about.
It's so true.
My mother-in-law has an embroidery machine and every now and then she'll embroider the kids names on towels or bags or whatever.
And it's so exciting for them just to have like their name on something.
I love it.
And also actually, I want to point out a mistake I made earlier when we were talking about these words.
I made a very kind of mistake that sounds awful to my ears.
I said, especially.
I just I thought we were going to gloss over that, Lindsay.
You're not alone.
Native speakers will often add that X sound.
It's actually a big marker in African-American English.
So I don't even consider it a mistake.
I'm like, you know what?
That's more of a regional dialect.
Sometimes that's how it's said.
So that's, yeah, no big deal.
No big deal.
But just to let you know, guys, yeah.
I mean, it's, you know, the word is especially.
For sure.
All right.
All right.
What is the takeaway for today?
Yeah.
So these adverbs, specially and especially, can be very confusing.
But today's tips, especially that pro tip, is really going to help you know which to use so that you can use them both confidently to connect in English, because we do use them all the time.
Yes.
I love the pro tip.
And guys, get into it.
Don't be afraid to mix and match these.
Try them out.
See how it goes.
If you're with a native speaker, ask them.
Yo, if they know the difference, right?
Get into a conversation.
This could be a connection moment with them.
Who knows, right?
They might want to know from you.
There's a very good chance actually, that they'll like think about it for a second and be like, uh no, actually I'm not sure which to use when.
So funny.
All right.
Good stuff.
So guys, if you want more amazing episodes like this one, go ahead and hit, follow on All Ears English and we'll see you in the next episode.
Take care.
I'll see you next time, Lindsay.
Have a good one.
You too.
Bye.
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