To be - negative forms and contractions

To Be - Negative Sentences The negative of To Be can be made by adding not after the verb. Subject To Be Examples I am not I am not from Spain. You are not You are not Australian. He is not He is not thirty years old. She is not She is not a secretary. It is not It is not a small cat. We are not We are not stupid. You are not You are not teachers. They are not They are not single. To Be - Negative Contractions There are two ways of forming contractions of To Be in negative sentences. One is with a contraction of the subject and the verb (e.g. I am = I'm) OR a contraction of the verb and not (e.g. are not = aren't) I'm not from Spain. --- --------------* You're not Australian. OR You aren't Australian. He's not thirty years old. OR He isn't thirty years old. She's not a secretary. OR She isn't a secretary. It's not a small cat. OR It isn't a small cat. We're not stupid. OR We aren't stupid. You're not teachers. OR You aren't teachers. They're not single. OR They aren't single. * Notice that the only possible contraction for I am not is I'm not. Exercise: Exercise 1: Verb TO BE negative

WH-QUESTIONS WITH BE

Wh- questions (open questions)

Essentially, there are two types of questions: Yes / No questions and Wh– questions. Wh– questions are so called because with the exception of the question word how, all the question words begin with the letters Wh. They are also called open questions because the number of possible responses is limitless. This means they must be answered with more information than just a simple “yes” or “no.”

Who is used to obtain information about a person or people.

question		response
Who is at the door?		Tom is at the door.

What is used to request information about somebody or something.

question		response
What is this?		This is a bird.

When is used to obtain information about the time period in which an action occurs.

question		response
When is the party?		It's in March.

Where is used to obtain information about the location of a person or thing.

question		response
Where are you from?		I am from Dominican Republic.

How is used to obtain information about the way something happens, or the manner or way somebody behaves or does something.

question		response
How is your mother?		She is fine, thanks.

Exercise:

Exercise 1: Wh- questions and to be

They meet

Julia and Sammy meet in a cycling accident! Then they want the same taxi. Will they get on?


CLICK HERE TO PRACTICE ------->   EPISODE 01: THEY MEET

PREPOSITIONS OF PLACES

Prepositions of place show the relationship of place between the nouns to the other parts of a sentence.

IN:

In indicates something to be present in a place or enclosure. 

Example:

• Your shirt is in the closet. (Does not indicate an exact place)
• He lives in Australia.

ON:

On indicates a position above but touching the object.

Example:

• The phone is on the table. (Phone is touching with the table)
• He is on the third floor.

UNDER:

Under is the opposite of on and means ‘below the surface of’ something.

Example:

• The cat is under the table.
• The carpet under my feet is very soft.

IN FRONT OF

In front of means a position facing someone/something.

Example:

• He parked his car in front of my house.
• I have a pool in front of my resthouse.

BEHIND:

Behind means at the far side of something (might be out of sight). It is opposite of in front of.

Example:

• He parked his car behind my car.
• I have a pool behind my house.

NEXT TO: 

Next to and Beside mean the same thing. It usually refers to a thing (or person) that is at the side of another thing.

• At a wedding, the bride stands next to the groom

EXERCISES  

EXERCISE 1: Where's the cat ?

EXERCISE 2:  Where is Bart ? 

The indefinite article: 'a' and 'an'

We use the indefinite article, a/an, with singular nouns when the listener/reader does not know exactly which one we are referring to:

Police are searching for a 14-year-old girl.

We also use it to show that the person or thing is one of a group:

She is a pupil at London Road School.

 We use a before a consonant sound:

a banana (starts with /b/)

a university (starts with /j/)

and an before a vowel sound:

an orange (starts with /o/)

an hour (starts with /au/)

Note that the choice of a or an depends on sound, not spelling.

We do not use an indefinite article with plural nouns or uncount nouns:

She was wearing blue shoes. (plural noun)
She has short, blonde hair. (uncount noun)

EXERCISES 

EXERCISE 1:  Articles(A, An, The)

EXERCISE 2: The indefinite article 1

THIS/THESE

Demonstratives

This and these

We use this (singular) and these (plural) as pronouns:

• to talk about people or things near us:

This is a nice cup of tea.
Whose shoes are these?

• to introduce people:

This is Janet.
These are my friends John and Michael.

EXERCISES

EXERCISE 1:  This or these 
EXERCISE 2:  This/These
EXERCISE 3: Is this ? - Are these ?

The verb BE

The verb to be

The verb to be is the most important verb in the English language.

Affirmative forms of the verb to be

Subject Pronouns	Full Form	Contracted Form
I	am	'm
you	are	're
he/she/it	is	's
we	are	're
you	are	're
they	are	're

Use of the simple present of to be

The principal use of the simple present is to refer to an action or event that takes place habitually, but with the verb "to be" the simple present tense also refers to a present or general state, whether temporary, permanent or habitual.

• I am happy.
• She is helpful.

The verb to be in the simple present can be also used to refer to something that is true at the present moment.

• She is 20 years old.
• He is a student.

EXERCISES 

Exercise 1:  To Be-Present 

Exercise 2: The verb be (am, are, is) in a text

Exercise 3: Verb to Be