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Phrasal Verbs
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Grammar - Elementary
To Be
|
To Be |
||
| Positive | Negative | Question |
|
I am You are He is She is It is We are You are They are |
I am not You aren't He isn't She isn't It isn't We aren't You aren't They aren't |
Am I? Are you? Is he? Is she? Is it? Are we? Are you? Are they? |
Examples.
My father is a doctor.
Venice and Milan are beautiful cities.
What a surprise! We are the first people in the cinema.
Questions
To make questions using the verb 'to be', you do not use auxiliary verbs such as 'to do' or 'to have' that other verbs and tenses use. You just need to invert the subject and verb, as shown in the table above.
Examples.Are you from Brazil or Argentina?
How old are your two sisters?
Is it an old dog?
Are we ready yet?
Negatives
To make negative sentences using the verb 'to be', you only need to add 'not' after the verb.
Madrid isn't in Portugal.
They aren't married, they are divorced!
I am not very happy today.
It's common also to use contractions, using an apostrophe to replace vowels.
Examples.We aren't.
He isn't.
They aren't.
I'm not.
Adjectives
Adjectives in English are always singular and before the noun.
A big tree.
Three red cars.
I want a large red apple.
There are complex rules that determine adjective order. At this level, it is enough to understand the following.
| Opinion | followed by | Size | followed by | Color | followed by | Nationality |
Examples.
A large green tree.
A magnificent blue Italian vase.
A terrible Swedish movie.
Pronouns and Possessive Adjectives
| Subject Pronouns | Object Pronouns | Possessive Adjectives |
|---|---|---|
|
I You He She It We You They |
Me You Him Her It Us You Them |
My Your His Her Its Our Your Their |
Subject Pronouns
We use before a verb:
I live in Italy.
We go to the cinema every Saturday.
They don't speak English.
Object Pronouns
We use after a verb, as a verb's object.
I like him.
We speak to them every day.
He told us in the morning.
Possessive Adjectives
We use to show possession before nouns.
My name is James.
His car is blue.
Our house is in Liguria Street.
Question Words
We use different question words in English to ask different types of questions, questions about people, times, places, etc.
The words can also be used alone to make informal questions:
Q: I love this TV show.
A: Why?
Q: I have to see my mother.
A: When?
Here are the most common question words in English:
| Question Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
|
Why When Which How Whose What Where Who |
Asking about a reason Asking about a time Asking about a choice Asking about manner Asking about an owner Asking about a thing Asking about a place Asking about a person |
Examples:
Why do you study so much?
When do you go on vacation? July?
Which pizza do you want tonight?
How do you change a car wheel?
Whose dog is this?
What is your address?
Where is the party tonight?
Who is your favorite movie actor?
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