355: ASK. Three Patterns You Need to Know / ASK po angielsku: 3 konstrukcje, które musisz znać

Hej there, this is Teacher Ola Podcast, episode 355, ASK. Three Patterns You Need to Know. You read English, you understand English, you've been learning for years, but when it's time to speak, your mind just freezes and the words don't come out. If that sounds familiar, you're not alone. My name is Ola and this is Teacher Ola Podcast. I'm here to help you finally speak out loud. And it's not about perfect grammar or fancy vocabulary. This is about your voice, your words, your real English. Hey there! Welcome back to the Teacher Ola Podcast and I have to tell you that the timing of today's episode is pretty perfect because the doors to Say It Out Loud course are open again.

And if you've been learning English for a while, you probably know the word ASK. Oczywiście, że to jest jedno z słów, które uczyliście dawno temu. Możecie wiedzieć ASK, ale czy automatycznie mówicie ASK ABOUT? Ask for, or ask someone to do something. Do those structures come to you when you're speaking? Or do you have to stop and think? And that's really what Said Out Loud is about. Not just knowing more English, but make English you already know easier to access, easier to remember and easier to use when you need it. So if you're ready to work on your speaking, you can join me at siol.pl, say it out loud, siol.pl.

The course is open now and I'd love to have you inside. We're going to start the program on the 20th of October 2026 and it is the last chance to join SIOL this year. If you need to check whether the course is the right next step for you now, Go to teacherola.com forward slash test. teacherola.com ukośnik test. If you're thinking, Ola, I've learned so many words already. I just can't seem to remember them when I need them. I have something for you. You can watch this. It's a replay of my latest webinar. It's called Autumn English Reset and in order to watch it, just go to teacherola.com forward slash reset.

teacherola.com forward slash reset. In that free webinar, I showed you how to memorize words and expressions Więc one nie są tylko gdzieś w Twoich notach, czy w aplikacjach, albo gdzieś na dół twojego mózgu. Cel jest w tym, aby te wszystkie rzeczy były dostępne, kiedy naprawdę je potrzebujesz. Kiedy mówisz, czy piszesz, kiedy masz rozmowę. I dzisiaj zaczniemy od jednego mało, ale niesamowitego słowa – ASK. Zacznijmy! Pomyśl, jak często mówisz słowo ASK po angielsku. Prawdopodobnie cały czas. Pytasz ludzi o pytania. Pytasz o rzeczy. Pytasz ludzi o rzeczy dla Ciebie. Jest to taki zwykły, mały wers, na który nie zauważymy.

I właśnie dlatego warto zobaczyć go bliżej. Wyobraź sobie, że jesteś w hotelu. I możesz powiedzieć, że zapytałam o podłogę. You might say, I asked for a room with a view. Or you might say, I asked the receptionist to change my room. And we've got the same verb in all three sentences, but what comes after ASK changes the meaning. And before we get into that, let's deal with the past form. ASK, ASKED, ASKED. The past form is one syllable and the ED ending is pronounced T.

Asked. Asked. Not as an extra syllable, so don't say asked. It's asked. Asked. Listen to these three sentences. I asked him yesterday. She asked me about it. We asked them for help. We asked them for help. Now let's start with ask somebody about something. When you ask somebody about something, You're asking for information about a particular topic. I asked him about his new job. She asked me about my holiday. I asked my colleague about the meeting. So you can ask about anything that you're interested in finding out more about.

So if you need more information about a person, a place, a job, an event, a situation, a price or a possibility about anything, then you need to ask somebody about that thing. I wanted to ask you about your trip. I called to ask about the course. And you don't always need to mention the person you're asking, ok? So we can skip the person. I'm calling to ask about the appointment. I'm calling to ask about the appointment. I wanted to ask about the price. I wanted to ask about the price. So very simply, ask about, once again, is what you use when you're interested in a particular topic.

Now let's change one little word, ask for. Ask for. When you ask somebody for something, you are requesting it. For instance, I asked the receptionist for a different room. So you're not asking for information this time. You're not asking for information about the room. You're asking the receptionist to give you a different room. And there are lots of very common things we ask for. Just sit back, relax, take a breath and listen. Chill out, just listen. I asked for some water. She asked for help. He asked for advice.

We asked for directions. I asked for permission. They asked for a refund. Two especially useful chunks are ask for help and ask for advice. If you need help, just ask for it. I didn't know what to do, so I asked my friend for advice. I didn't know what to do, so I asked my friend for advice. And then there's a very common phrase. Can I ask you for a favour? Or Can I ask you a favour? You might use it before making a request. Listen to this example. Can I ask you for a favour?

I need someone to pick me up from the airport. It's a good example of a phrase that's worth remembering as a complete chunk, ok? Complete chunk. If you listen to the webinar or if you want to learn more about chunks and the importance of language chunks, please go to teacherola.com forward slash reset and rewatch that webinar because this is crucial. Learn chunks. Ok, więc kompletny kształt. Uczy się kompletnego kształtu, zamiast konstrukcji swoich słów słowo po słowie, bo to jest przeszkód czasu. I to jest droga, która tylko prowadzi Cię do konstantnego przetłumaczenia. Konstantnego przetłumaczenia od polskiego do angielskiego, słowo po słowie.

Nigdy nie robisz tego. Uczy się kształtów. Więc tu są inne bardzo zwykłe kształty. Listen. Can I ask you something? Can I ask you something? And that's often simply a way of introducing a real question. Can I ask you something? Why did you leave so early? Can I ask you something? Why did you leave so early? You can also say Can I ask you a quick question? Quick question. That's also a very common chunk. Can I ask you a quick question? So we've got Ask somebody about When we are interested in a topic. Ask somebody for something when we're requesting something.

And now let's look at the third pattern. Third and the last. Ask somebody to do something. This is what we use when we want another person to perform an action. Listen. I asked him to call me later. I asked him to call me later. She asked me to wait. My boss asked me to send the email again. Or they asked us to leave. So the structure is simply ask a person to do something. Ask him to call. Ask her to wait. Ask them to help. Ask me to explain. And the negative version is just as useful.

Ask somebody to call. Ask about the price. Ask for help. Ask somebody to explain something. Once you've got those patterns in your head, you can use them in hundreds of various situations. And there's one more useful point here. You don't always have to mention the person. I've told you about this before, so listen again. You can say I asked about the job. Doesn't matter who I asked. Doesn't matter. I asked about the job. I asked for more information. You don't always need to add the person, to mention the person. Depends on you. But when you're asking somebody to perform an action, the person is usually part of the structure and you don't want to skip the person.

For instance, I asked him to call me. She asked me to wait. And let's finish with a little bit of practice, but don't just listen to this part. I need you to say the sentences, of course, out loud. And I know, and you know, you can do this. So let's. No matter where you are, no matter how many people are around you, you can do it. Yeah, let's be crazy. Let's talk to ourselves. Listen and repeat out loud. I'll say each sentence twice. Here we go. I asked him about his new job. I asked him about his new job.

I'm calling to ask about the appointment. I'm calling to ask about the appointment. I asked the receptionist for a different room. I asked the receptionist for a different room. They asked for a refund. Can I ask you for a favor?

I asked him to call me later. I asked him to call me later. That's it. Three patterns, three different uses and all of them are things you can start using immediately. And the next time you hear someone say ask, don't just hear the verb, ok? Listen, please focus, listen to what comes after it. Is it ask about? Is it ask for? Ask somebody to do something. That's where you'll start noticing the patterns becoming automatic.

Hopefully, ask about, ask for and ask somebody to do something are already feeling a little more natural. And don't forget to download the worksheet now. It's very important. Please do it. Practice them yourself. Go to teacherola.com forward slash 355 and download it or just check your inbox because it's probably already there. If you downloaded previous worksheets, you have it now. OK. And yeah, if you're thinking about joining Say It Out Loud, the course is open now and we will begin the whole journey on the 20th of October. So please check if this course is the right I if you haven't watched my reset webinar yet, Autumn English Reset, you can catch the replay

Thank you so much for listening. Please rate and review this podcast. Subscribe if you haven't yet. And above all, as always, stay fearless, take care and say it out loud. I love you. I believe in you. And I know you're ready to speak English. I'm your teacher, Teacher Ola, and you've been listening to Teacher Ola Podcast. Bye for now.