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Take our advice to avoid mixing up these English words.
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Do you ever mix up the words advice and advise?
You're not alone.
These words trip up many English language learners.
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Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
Hey, Aubrey.
I'm doing great today.
How are you?
I am excellent.
I have a question.
Okay.
Have you recorded any episodes recently for our other podcast, the Business English Podcast, that you thought our listeners here All Ears English listeners should definitely hear?
Actually, yeah, I'm glad you asked this, Aubrey, because we don't want our listeners to be missing.
Just last week I recorded a great episode with Michelle where we answered a listener question about advice and advise.
Yeah.
Oh, these are mixed up really often.
I know I love that episode and I'm excited that we're going to share this one here, because we use these a lot at work, right?
But also we use them in everyday conversations too.
Yeah, it's so true.
And I think if we can nail this, especially for our listeners at their level, the B1 B2, C1 level, if you guys can nail these key differences, it's going to really move you up to that next level.
Don't you think, Aubrey?
I mean, we have to get this to become fluent in English.
Absolutely.
I agree.
So we're going to share that episode with you guys today.
Lindsay and Michelle share fantastic tips to help you understand and correctly use these words advice and advise.
And if you missed that episode, you might not be following the Business English podcast.
So pause the episode right now guys, and enter Business English by All Ears English into your search bar and follow the podcast.
Yeah, go ahead and hit that follow button.
Now we're going to go and present you with this episode from the Business English Podcast.
Let's have a listen.
Hey, Michelle, how's it going today?
How are you feeling?
Good, Lindsay.
I am feeling good.
Excited to be recording.
Me too.
Yeah.
Lindsay, do you like to get advice from people in the business world?
I like it a lot, actually.
I mean, i've learned over the years that i have to be careful, i have to think about where's that advice coming from.
Yeah like, think about that person's circumstances.
Are they giving me advice?
That's kind of biased or something, but i do.
I, i need advice all the time.
So yeah, i mean yeah, i think.
Well, i think that well, that's good that you say that, because i think that if you if, if you think you don't need advice, that's bad.
Yeah yeah, that means you think like oh, everything is perfect and you and you don't have nothing to learn from anybody, and that's that's a dangerous place to be, I think.
Or, even worse, you're afraid to ask for it, like you're ah yeah, you're so proud that you know something's wrong, but you just keep going.
And it's really important to be able to reach out for help right in every aspect of our lives the business world, our personal lives.
So yes, we're all about getting advice, Definitely.
Well, today we are going to answer a listener question that uses three very useful words that are really helpful in business and with this topic of advice.
That might be one of the words.
Yeah, I love it.
But before that guys, if you haven't already listened, go on over to the Business English Podcast, episode 193.
This was Get the Biggest Bang for Your Buck with this episode.
Love that one, guys.
Go over and check that out.
And then make sure, by the way, that you hit follow right here on Business English.
So that way it'll come right up in your queue.
You can make it a part of your daily life.
That is how we get better, you know?
So can I read the question from Masoud?
Please.
Okay.
Yes, please do.
Okay.
Masoud asks.
As a listener to your podcast, I found it very useful and it helps a lot to help me improve my understanding and speaking English.
If you can help explain the difference between using these words advice, advise and guide I will be thankful.
Masood.
Ah, lovely question.
And thank you for your question, Masood.
Great, very specific question um, very useful.
I snatched this up for business english because i thought it would be really helpful for um, this business topic, so we're gonna go through it with a business angle today, but of course, this can be used in not business as well.
Yeah, of course, if you.
You know guys, if you want to add daily life english to your listening queue, of course, add all airs english podcast.
Right, that's our other podcast, our amazing show.
Go and hit follow on that one too, so you get the business angle over here and over there you get a much broader lens on all aspects of english.
All right, definitely All right.
So let's get into it.
So let's go with advice first.
So Lindsay, what is advice?
Okay, this is a noun.
We have to remember this is a noun, Michelle.
That is the super important piece. it's uncountable.
That's also the other important piece, right?
A lot of times, I've heard students say like, oh, some advices, right?
It's uncountable.
So this is a common mistake.
So now you know.
And I think I know why it's a common mistake.
For example, in Spanish, consejos is advice and that is counted, I guess, in Spanish, right?
And So that's how we can get confused.
So, guys, avoid that translation, directly translating from your native language.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
So, I mean, advice is basically asking what to do.
I mean, I'm thinking of the word counsel, right?
Yeah.
So, for example, I'm going to ask Bernie's advice on design.
He's so good at making those decisions.
Michelle, do you have any go-to people that you go to?
Maybe this is a question you already had prepared, but do you have anyone that you go to for advice in general?
Let's get to it.
No, no, no, no.
I wrote that same question for you.
You wanted to ask me that.
I did.
No, but I can answer it too.
I would say my parents a lot and Dan.
I mean, just like the people that are like very much the closest to me there have been.
You know there are always going to be specific times where i might seek out more specific type of help or um, i mean, i guess a lot of times this is not with business but as a mom, you know my my, my friends, um will always be talking about oh, like this is happening with the sleeping, or this is happening with the eating, or this is happening with oh yeah whatever, and so a lot of times i might you know you have different people for different types of advice, you know.
Ooh, I love that idea.
So important.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What about you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
For personal life advice, I think my partner, for sure my parents, but less and less my parents because they're getting older uh, and they just have different things going on.
Right.
Yeah.
Um, For business advice, I think peers, I have certain peers that are in a similar place.
So I'll set up calls with them on a regular basis.
And it's kind of nice just to feel someone else is in the same place and dealing with the same challenges, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So it can be different for different scenarios.
So but guys, that's advice.
So let's just change one letter.
And what does it become, Lindsay?
All right, advise.
So the letter changes to what?
How do we spell this?
If you guys are in the app you're listening, in the iOS Android app you'll see the spelling because you'll have the transcripts.
But how do we spell it?
A-D-V-I-S-E.
But you'll notice we don't pronounce it advice because that's what the C... I don't know.
Yeah, exactly.
In British English I feel like maybe don't know, maybe i'm wrong, but i'd have to check that out.
But anyway, but advise is spelled with an s but pronounced like a z, so it's kind of confusing.
Advice it is confusing, i have you know.
It's funny because um, my son is starting to get interesting in spelling now and interested in spelling yeah yeah, and like he'll try and spell something and and so, more and more and more i'm realizing English.
What in the world is going on with the spelling and the letters and the?
And this sounds like this but it's pronounced like this
That's fascinating.
Now that I'm watching him do it.
I'm like, Oh, I'm sorry, man.
Like you got a lot of you got a long way to go here.
Good luck.
Yeah, bring those on to our podcast.
Go ahead and bring some of those ideas.
We'd love to hear about those in another episode.
What are some words that you're discovering that are not spelled logically, that you never thought about because you learned them when you were a kid?
Yeah.
Okay.
I will.
I will.
Now I will take, I will keep a note in my head of when we come up on one because it happens a lot.
Um, so, but what is advise?
So this is just the verb guys.
So the first one advice was the noun.
Now this is the verb and it's the same meaning.
It's just that you are, so you're advising someone, you're telling them about something.
It's the action of giving advice.
Okay.
Giving instruction or giving advice.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you might say something like, who advised you to make all those changes?
Yeah.
Does this feel formal to you?
Advise?
Like who advised you?
Are there any other casual options there?
Well, who told you?
Who told you?
Yeah.
That's what I would say.
There's a little bit of a difference between who told you to make those changes and who advised you right yeah, hold is more demanding, like you have to advise.
Yeah yeah, advise is more giving you this idea or giving you that advice right, so it's a little bit different.
Um yeah, but yeah okay michelle, so do you advise anyone on your in your life, on what to do?
I mean, do people go to you for advice?
Do you advise anyone?
See, here we're throwing these different words.
Do I advise anyone?
Do I give them advice?
I think Dan asks me for advice on certain things with his work.
Yeah, I think that's normal.
Yeah, yeah.
I think we've learned along the way that it can be really helpful to have your partner in that, you know, with those types of decisions, or so yeah, I think I like to give him advice where I, where I have it.
Sometimes my mom might ask me for advice.
That's kind of cool.
I like that.
I like that.
What else?
What else do we need to know here okay?
Well um, the word guide.
So this is the last one that the listener asked about.
So this is interesting because it can be a noun or a verb.
Right, lindsay?
This is different from advice or advise.
This is a new word.
So a noun form of guide is basically someone or something that gives information.
So, like a guide could be a person who tells you what to do, gives advice, but it could also be an set of instructions like a paper guide, a tv guide, it could be a book right, that you take when you're traveling.
Like the lonely planet guide was a big name when i traveled around the world in my 20s.
I think it probably is.
Tour guide, tour guide guide yeah, tour guide.
Yeah, there's so much we could do here with guide for sure.
Yeah yeah right, exactly.
So you could say something like robbie will be your guide for any questions you may have about your first days at the job.
And that's interesting because in this case, you know it's not Robbie's profession to be a guide at work, but he's been given the role.
So it's used as a role as well as an actual job, like a tour guide or.
Yeah.
So really kind of a diverse word.
Right.
It definitely is.
And then as a verb to guide someone, it's like to show him to show them the way.
Right.
So like what's an example of that?
Okay.
Here's an example, guys.
She guided him around the office so that he could meet all his coworkers.
So it doesn't mean like she like physically moved him around the office.
She just walked and maybe he followed her or something like that.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Or you could say I need you to guide me because I don't really understand all of the directions for the assignment.
Yeah, interesting.
And then there's also self-guided right, like a self-guided tour, i guess.
Yeah, you know this idea of do you, when you travel michelle, do you like to do those like those free tours you can find in a lot of cities, or do you like to do more self-guided stuff?
Just take your guidebook, kind of make your way around?
Um, i like a little bit of both.
Um, i like a little bit of both.
What i don't like is um, where you have to listen.
Oh yeah, you just listen and follow it around.
I i either want to do it on my own or i want a real person.
Like i don't want to have one of those things.
What about you a headset?
Well, for the headsets, i feel like there are certain places where you have to to get the full experience, like alcatraz.
Have you ever been to alcatraz?
I have when i was, but when i was probably like eight.
Yeah, alcatraz guys, is an old, now defunct.
I think it's defunct.
Uh, jail um in the San Francisco Bay.
And you can do the guided tour and you could hear the voices of the prisoners.
It's a really cool activity to do for like young ish kids.
You know, you hear the voice.
I don't know.
It's, there are things where you kind of need that.
That is a good point.
Yes.
That's a good point.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're talking about when it's just someone lecturing you, right?
Right.
Yeah.
Like I can't, I can't go through like an art museum and just listen.
I just, I can't, that's not, That's not me, but a lot of people would love that.
So that's, yeah, I get it.
Great.
I get it.
All right.
But yeah, basically these are all very similar.
So you guys, you got to remember the word families, you know.
Guide as a verb though, is very similar to advise, right?
So, or guide as a noun might be similar to the word advisor, like a student advisor.
So lots of different options here today, but let's do a small fill in the blank activity just to drill down on this, give it a little more practice.
So Lindsay, let's see if you can get it.
Okay, a little quiz, a pop quiz.
Yes, a little quiz, a pop quiz.
All right.
She blank her employees to start looking for new jobs.
Oh, not a good sign, right?
No. am I going to choose a word here that fills me blank?
Okay.
Yeah.
I would say she advised, I would take the verb there, right?
Cause she did something in action.
Yay.
One point for me.
Yay.
Okay.
The next one, this is all for you.
Um, I need some blank.
What should I do about the upcoming project?
This one, I would go for advice because it's a noun, right?
I need something.
I need some advice.
What should I do about the upcoming project?
Nice.
And it's nice to just be straightforward when you, when you're asking someone for advice, just be straightforward.
Like I need help.
You know, instead of trying to get it in a sneakier way or I don't know, don't be ashamed to ask for help.
No, no, absolutely not.
The last one, open the blank and take a look.
You'll find your answer there. open the guide.
And this could be a guide for anything.
We talked about guidebooks.
You know all sorts of.
I guess you could say like a cookbook is a kind of a guide, but we don't use it in that way.
Do we?
No, no, no.
Yeah.
But it is guiding you on how to cook.
So yeah, you could say that.
Um, do we have time for a role play?
Yeah, we have a couple of minutes.
I know that our listeners love role play.
So let's do it for them.
Here we go.
All right.
So You are my coworker and it is my first day.
All right, here we go.
So if you need any advice on tech, Billy's your guy.
Hi, Billy.
Perfect.
So he advises the team on how to use everything.
Yep.
He's the expert.
If he isn't there.
There's even a written guide he made that you can check out, but he's usually here.
Oh, great.
Nice, so Billy is our go-to.
Billy, yes.
Thank you, Billy.
All right, so what did we say here?
So I said, if you need any advice, and which one is that, the noun or the verb?
That's the noun.
Yeah, so if you need any advice on tech, Billy's your guy.
And that's a bonus phrase for today, Billy's your guy.
Yeah.
You might hear somebody's your guy, somebody's your girl, right?
It'd be fun to do another episode on, sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, Michelle.
What were you saying?
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, I think it'd be fun to do another episode on the expression, I got a guy.
Like, I got a water guy.
I got a silver guy, if you sell silver.
Like, you have a guy for everything.
It's an expression, right?
Yes.
Do you know anybody who has a guy for everything?
Most people, like, over the age of 50, I feel like, always say that.
Like, I got a guy.
You can call my leather guy.
My water heater guy.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yes.
That's funny.
For sure, it is funny.
So then I said, perfect.
So he advises the team on how to use everything.
So which form is that, Lindsay?
Yeah, he advises the verb, right?
The action.
He is taking the action of advising, right?
And then I said, yep, he's perfect.
Sorry, he's the expert.
If he isn't here, there's even a little written guide.
I'm making up words here.
I'm like saying words, I'm making up imaginary words.
There's even a written guide he made.
You can check.
All right.
So there, that's the noun.
That's a noun, the guide.
There's a written guide.
Okay.
Yes, exactly.
Oh my gosh.
Well, but this is a great question.
I mean, this is very useful for business.
And it's good to know the word forms, the grammar here that we went over.
Lindsay, anything you want to say before we wrap up?
Yeah, I think final point, guys, be careful when you're translating from your native language.
As always, that's a rule for every day on Business English.
And don't be afraid to ask for help.
Just get this vocabulary down and then go and ask because imagine what you could be missing.
There's so much wisdom out there, Michelle, for business and life, don't you think?
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
We have so much to learn from each other and you'll miss out if you don't ask.
Yeah, I think we start to realize that as we get older and we scramble to try to get the stories of our elders right.
We scramble our grandparents, even our aging parents.
We ask them at the end of their lives, we ask them to write down everything and we spend more time listening.
But what if we spent that time listening throughout our lives, you know, because they do have that wealth of help and knowledge, right?
Yeah.
Actually, my mom just got me a I was I was just showing this to my friend.
She got me a dish towel that says OMG, my mother was right about everything.
Mom's always right, right?
Yeah, that's what we learn as we get older.
I love it.
So good.
We'll come back to this topic another day, Michelle.
Yeah, you have a good day.
I'll talk to you.
All right, you too.
Bye, Lindsay.
Take care.
Lindsay, I love the level of detail that you and Michelle went into the different pronunciation why it matters that advice is an uncountable noun.
But especially just clarifying that advice is a noun, advice is a verb.
This is so helpful to avoid mixing them up.
Yeah, we love to go into detail.
And you know the key difference is over on the business English podcast we show you what it means in the business world, right?
But it doesn't have to just be the corporate world.
It could be any.
If you work in a small company or if you work in a restaurant, whatever it is, it applies to work english.
Aubrey, so super important.
Yeah yes, but even if you're not working in english right, this it's.
There's so much vocabulary, so many tips over on the business english podcast that you guys do not want to be missing out on, so we want to make sure we publish three times a week over there and they're all such great episodes.
Oh my gosh guys, open up your search bar.
If you enjoyed that episode, don't miss these three episodes that we do on business English.
So open up your search bar right now.
Type in business English.
You will see the yellow come up.
Look for the yellow.
Right, Aubrey?
We love yellow.
You can't miss that bright yellow.
We love it.
Yeah.
And hit the follow button on that show.
And starting in mid-February around this time we're going to be publishing on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays on Business English.
So three new episodes a week.
Good stuff.
Yes.
Lindsay, Michelle, and I are all co-hosts over there.
It's so fun.
So we're excited to see you over there on Business English as well.
All right.
And we'll see you guys over there.
Aubrey, thanks for being on the mic today.
Awesome.
Thanks, Lindsay.
Bye.
Take care.
Bye.
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