This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2569, as well versus two versus also in English.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times.
Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.
To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All Ears English app for iOS and Android.
Start your seven-day free trial at allearsenglish.com forward slash app.
Do you know when to use as well instead of to or also?
How can you use these words to build subtle but important connections and share what you have in common with someone?
Find out today.
Do you feel like you know English but you're always using the same basic words?
You can't find the precise or professional phrase when it matters.
Maybe you only hear sounds when natives speak.
Without subtitles you're lost.
Fast speech, similar sounds, accents, it all blends together.
And when you do speak, you hesitate.
You overthink every sentence.
You worry people don't understand you or that you don't sound natural.
It's not a confidence problem.
It's a clarity problem.
You can solve it by knowing your current level.
Our two-minute fluency quiz shows you your current English level for free.
So you stop guessing and start improving.
Go to allersenglish.com slash fluency score and find out what's really holding your English back.
One more time.
Go right now to allersenglish.com slash F-L-U-E-N-C-Y-S-C-O-R-E.
Hey, Michelle, how's it going today?
Good.
Lindsay, how are you?
Feeling good.
I know that we are both coffee fans.
Yes.
Big coffee fans.
Do you like tea as well or just just coffee?
I do.
The other day I did have some tea.
When I studied abroad in London, I remember.
So I had an internship and everybody was drinking tea all the time.
Tea with milk.
And I got into it there and I started to really like it.
My mom is a huge tea drinker.
So but I don't it's not something that I have regularly.
I'm still a coffee girl.
What about you?
Do you like tea?
Yeah, my my core is coffee for sure.
That's what I want in the morning.
You're made of coffee.
Made of coffee.
Yeah.
But sometimes, you know, maybe in the evening, if I want something like to be cozy or something I'll do like a kind of tea.
Like I really like matcha.
Um, that's a special kind of tea, but I'm not a huge like black tea person.
So, you know, like the Irish breakfast, English breakfast, not, not a huge, I'm not huge on those.
Yeah.
Um, but when?
When I opened up the question today Michelle, I asked you.
I actually asked you.
Uh, I know, we like coffee.
Do you like tea as well?
Right.
Right um yeah good yeah, so good question.
So we have a listener question about this today, because this is this is a really good thing to talk about too, and as well and this question comes to us from youtube, from wind lover three guys you can ask your questions on youtube as well 100, and if you are, If you prefer to watch the podcast, you can do that over on YouTube.
So go over straight to YouTube right now.
Type in All Ears English Podcast.
It will come up.
You can hit subscribe right away and you can learn that way if that's what you prefer.
So Michelle, shall I go ahead and read the question?
Sure.
All right.
So Windlover3 says, great episode.
Can you guys make an episode on whether or not we can use to and as well interchangeably?
Do they mean the same thing in some context?
Thank you so much for your wonderful podcast.
You guys bring a smile to my face every time I see you talk.
Lots of love, Krishna.
Oh, that's so wonderful.
Yes, thank you for the great question, a very specific and for the very sweet message.
We really appreciate you.
Yeah.
And, speaking of amazing listeners, I want to shout out to two of our listeners who actually both left us reviews in Apple podcast.
And by the way, these are five star reviews, which is amazing.
But we'll read your name on the show no matter what your review is.
We just want to hear from you.
Just take the effort to go over and review and rate our show and we will announce your name on the show.
So special.
Thank you to Smile from China on January 5th, who reviewed us in Apple Podcasts and English with Speak a You from Hungary on January 4th.
So thank you so much to these amazing listeners.
Thank you guys so much.
We really appreciate it.
Okay, so let's get to it.
So to and as well.
Yes.
So do both of these essentially mean the same thing, Lindsay?
Yes, totally.
Yes, totally.
Yes. it basically means in addition, right?
In addition.
Exactly.
So let's start with two.
So again we're guys.
We're talking about T O O here, not T O So double O Um So two.
That's very common, very natural sounding could be formal or informal.
Yep.
And generally, I would say it comes at the end of the sentence.
What do you think about this?
Yep.
Usually at the end of... Actually, almost always, right?
At the end of the sentence.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I can't think of where I would put it in the middle or the beginning, right?
So for example...
You have an idea?
I have it.
Well, I'll bring it up in a second, but it's not common.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
I think I know what you're going to say.
That's it.
We'll get to that in a minute.
So you could say, I love that movie too, right?
Someone just said that they just saw, like, I just saw the movie, Marty Supreme.
Have you seen it?
You saw it?
I really want to see it.
Is it really good?
Well, so here's my problem with that movie.
It's a well-done movie.
Timothy Chalamet, he's good.
He's a great actor.
But the problem is...
For me, the character is very unredeemable.
The character is very hard to like.
He's very unlikable.
So there was a moment where there was a scene with a dog.
I won't give it away.
I was like, maybe I can get back on board with this character depending on what he does here.
And he did the opposite of what I wanted him to do.
And then he lost me for the whole movie.
So it begs the question.
I came out of that movie thinking can I love a movie, even a very well done movie, if I don't like the main character?
Character like, most of the time you have something to identify you and like tie you to the main character.
Like there's some trait that you're like, oh okay yeah, like I want him to win here or her to win here right, but with him I'm like this is sort of a bad guy, Right.
Well, even there, I mean there are even movies where I can't think of a specific example, but where the main character is kind of the villain, but somehow they get you to side with them or understand them in some way.
Yes.
And you're like, why do I feel sympathy for this?
You know, things like that.
So that's interesting.
But sounds like this didn't.
No, I would be interested to know, if you went to see it, what you think because, in my opinion, not what everyone's going to think.
Maybe people will find something, but I just couldn't find it.
The guy to me was just kind of, well, I can't use that language on the show, but not a nice guy.
I don't know.
So anyways.
Yeah.
Really interesting.
Um, yeah, I w I would love to see that movie too.
Um, or here's another one.
I went to Costco yesterday too.
Right.
If you're talking to your friend and talk about your, Oh, I was at Costco yesterday.
Oh my gosh.
You know, Oh, I can't believe I didn't see you there.
Right.
Or did you grow up in New York too?
Right.
So clearly these conversations, these sentences are coming at the, in the middle of a conversation.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Not just out of nowhere.
Right.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But Lindsay, so this is what I was getting at.
Do you ever hear someone say something like, I too like that movie?
Yes.
But it really changes the tone because two, when we use two, I mean, what's the feeling, Michelle?
Is it pretty casual?
Yeah.
Casual, conversational.
Yeah.
But this really makes it very formal, very stiff.
Yes.
It's not really necessary to use it in this way, unless maybe somebody in a joking way, I could hear I have a feeling.
Chandler on Friends, you know, did something like oh, I too would love to do this.
Yeah, because he's silly, right?
He's silly.
And like there are times when you just want to be silly, but in the way you do that is by elevating your language choices, your word choices.
And this is a good example of how that would look.
Right.
Yeah.
But this is not very common.
I don't think that it's something that we should really focus on, but I did want to bring it to our attention.
Yeah.
And I'm sure it's also old English, right?
Using it that way feels like old English in a way.
A little bit old.
Yes.
Yeah.
So what about as well?
What do you think?
I think it's a bit more formal, but these days I feel like it's almost like that's.
That's not a problem.
Like I opened the show at the top of the episode by saying, you know, do you drink tea as well?
That felt totally conversational and casual to me.
Maybe it's just my personal choice, but I find myself interchanging things.
To and as well.
And I don't feel like it adds that like layer of that wall of formality that we've talked about before.
That creates distance sometimes for me.
Yeah, I know.
I agree with you.
I don't think it's something where it's like, oh, what are you, the queen?
Right.
I don't know.
I think it's like a slightly elevated, but not something like not unapproachable, not something that you should say.
Oh, I should never say this right.
This would sound ridiculous.
I don't feel that way about it.
But it is a bit more formal.
It's also at the end of a sentence.
So, for example, I try to jog every day as well.
Yeah, or I have that experience with data entry as well, right?
Or...
Are you graduating next year as well?
Yeah.
I think it just maybe sounds compared to two slightly more well-spoken, right?
Like it's everyday language, but it's slightly more well-spoken everyday language, let's say.
Let's say that.
Maybe just shy of being elevated, just being a little bit more articulate, I think.
I think.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, it could be good for something like a job interview.
Oh, and then I know how to do this program as well, right?
So that I could definitely see as being really good elevated situations.
But again...
You can't, I don't think you can go too wrong by saying as well, even in a casual situation.
It's just a little different.
Yeah.
And what we, the example we gave, the off the wall Chandler example, I too like that movie.
Can we do that too with as well?
What do you think?
I mean, I suppose you could, you can get away with it.
You know, no one's going to.
I think it sounds a little bit more awkward.
A little more awkward.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But you know, you know, if you want to play with language, play with it.
That's what we're here for.
Exactly.
You find the connection, play around with things, you find your personality.
And I think that's what a lot of our listeners.
I was speaking yesterday with one of our amazing listeners who was a winner of the survey pool the contest, the survey contest.
And you know talking about How much we want to make sure that we can be ourselves in English, right?
And if that is who you are, like Chandler, right?
Silly and want to elevate your language sometimes, go for it, right?
Yeah.
We want to give you guys that ability to be flexible like that.
Definitely.
Yeah.
Residence Day savings are happening now at the Home Depot with up to 40% off select appliances.
Looking to upgrade your fridge?
Check out LG's newest model, serving up ice in all kinds of styles.
Cube, Crushed, Craft Ice, and now new Mini Craft Ice straight from the dispenser.
All right.
So then there is the outlier here also, Michelle.
What do we do with this word?
Yeah.
So also there's also also this one has the same meaning.
I would say it's neither it's neither formal or nor informal.
In my opinion, I don't really I think it's either one.
This one.
The difference is it's more in the middle of the sentence and Um we use it before the main verb.
Yeah.
Although sometimes you can put it at the end too, right?
Like, at least I do.
I don't know.
I love her music also, or I also love her music.
Both work for me.
Yes.
Um, yeah.
So, uh, I think I'm going to touch on that in a second.
I can't remember.
But yes, I would say that. as well.
Yeah.
Um so you, you know um.
So, for example, I also love her music.
Or do you have uh, do you also have two dogs?
Right.
Or I also had a red car growing up.
Yep.
Um, good way of relating to people, right?
Immediately showing that you have something in common with someone which builds connection.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
You could say I have a red car also, um, Right.
You know when I looked into this.
You know some of my research said that it's not quite as natural sounding.
But I do think you will hear it.
And I don't think that it's something that you should be afraid of.
Yeah, I completely agree.
Yeah.
We imagine if we spent all our time in paralysis worrying that we're breaking a rule or we're breaking a norm and then we don't connect.
So that would be a tragedy, right?
What would even be the point of speaking English, right?
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
So, but if you're using these to agree with someone and connect, you definitely want to show that with your intonation as well.
So, you know, I don't think you would want to say, I also love that movie, right?
Yeah, that doesn't really make me want to keep talking to you.
No, you would say, I also love that movie.
Yep, exactly.
Or you could say, again, the intonation goes across to and as well to, right?
There we go, to. um, I ate eggs for breakfast too.
Right.
I love that book as well.
Right.
You don't need to go crazy.
You don't need to be like, Oh, I ate breakfast for eggs too.
Oh my gosh.
Unless that's your personality.
But you know you still, even if you're keeping it kind of low key, just adding that little extra.
Oh, I ate eggs for breakfast too.
Now, um, And you also could be adding information, right?
That's another thing you could be doing with these.
So I went to Paris last year.
I also went to Tokyo.
Or she decided to leave her job last year.
She moved too.
Yeah.
So it's additional information.
What else, Michelle?
We dated for three years.
We were engaged as well, but it didn't work out.
Right.
And just going back up to the using it to kind of show the commonalities.
It's really good for perspectives.
Like I ate eggs for breakfast, too, is good.
But then what about your perspective on breakfast versus brunch?
Like, are you a brunch person or a breakfast person?
I find that people are usually not both.
Right.
I know what you are.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm not a bruncher.
Yeah, breakfast people.
I don't want to wait to eat.
I'm hungry.
That's how I feel.
No, I'm starving when I wake up.
There's no, I'm not like an intermittent faster where I can wait until Yeah, you know, 1130 to eat breakfast.
Yeah.
And I guess when it comes to the negative, we're getting into things like either neither, right?
I'm not a brunch person either.
Right.
So that's a different episode for another day.
We actually did do something on that just recently.
Um, I'm going to give you the episode in a second.
Yeah.
I love it.
All right.
So hang out guys for the role play and you'll get that episode to follow up from today.
Perfect compliment to today's episode, right?
Yes.
And and I wanted to say there is there's more to all of these, and there you know like, for example, you might hear somebody say also um, we might want to talk about.
You know There's different ways conversationally that you will hear them.
We wanted to give you some of the basics today.
And if you have any follow-up questions, then, you know, please definitely let us know.
Love it.
All right, let's get into our situation here.
Michelle, you and I are coworkers and meeting up on a Monday morning, Manic Monday.
Okay, here we go.
All right.
How was your weekend?
Good.
Thanks.
Yours?
Good.
I spent a lot of time binging TV shows.
Oh, I watched a lot of TV too.
Oh yeah.
I slept a lot as well.
Oh, I also definitely fell asleep every night by nine.
We are so exciting.
It must be winter time, right?
In this conversation, right?
Yeah, for sure.
Not doing anything, binging TV shows and sleeping.
But everyone needs a weekend like that sometimes, don't they?
Yes.
Exactly, exactly.
That's fine.
Sometimes it's hard for me to say oh, I'm just going to take today to relax or whatever, because you know you feel like you're wasting time.
But um, sometimes we need that, guys.
You need it.
Yes, exactly.
So we use two as well and also in this role play.
So first you said i asked you how your weekend was and you said good, i spent a lot of time binging tv shows, right.
And then you said i said uh.
And then you said oh, i watched a lot of tv too, mm-hmm.
And again, what you said earlier is important Michelle, with the intonation.
Right.
It's just a slight variation.
You do need that to to really stick out and be clear, though.
Right.
Yes.
Yeah, exactly.
So then let's see.
I said I slept a lot as well.
And again, that's adding the information.
So you didn't say I slept a lot, but I'm adding information here.
Mm hmm.
Mm hmm.
And then I said, oh, I also definitely fell asleep every night by 10.
And again, this is important.
This is connection here because we're identifying with each other.
Right.
We're showing like, well, it's human to want to sleep and watch Netflix.
So we're showing that we're both human and maybe that leads to a greater connection or a friendship.
Right.
Yep.
Love it.
Definitely.
Guys.
Check out episode 2555.
So this is the perfect, it's like a pairing of wine and cheese, right?
The perfect match.
Or chocolate and peanut butter, don't forget.
Or peanut butter and jelly.
Capture the connection when you agree with someone in English.
So 2555.
So that one.
We did things like so do I, so are we?
Uh, neither am I.
We also just talked about me too.
So much going on here.
Do not miss that episode.
Beautiful.
Love it.
Guys, go back and check out.
It's not too far back.
It's just 2555.
Michelle, any final takeaways for today?
We'll use this for connection.
Um, and you know, just um, always be looking for things that you have in common with people, because the more that you can find those, the more you're going to connect.
Love it.
So good.
And it could be the most basic things like, did you binge a TV show or not?
Or maybe it's something like you wouldn't have shared with someone else, but because that person has shared that they were binging TV shows, you want to say like Hey, me too.
Right?
Yeah.
So there's a lot that can be done here.
So really good stuff today, Michelle.
Guys, don't forget to leave us your rating and review for the show wherever you listen, and hit subscribe if you're on YouTube.
All right.
Good.
All right.
Thanks for chatting about this with me today.
And thank you again to Krishna for this great question.
All right.
See you soon.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to all ears English.
Would you like to know your English level?
Take our two minute quiz.
Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score.
And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything.
See you next time.