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To be

Native speakers use the short form, such as I'm, he's and so on. 
It is better to begin using the short form as soon as possible. 
After some time only the short form will be used in the lessons. 
But for now let's practice the long form of be in order to understand the structure better.

"It" or "They"

It is a pen

English has no masculine or feminine like other languages. 
So the pronouns it and they are used to talk about objects. 
Look at the pictures and memorize the words:

It is a ball.	It is a glass.	It is a pen.	It is a calculator.	They are tickets.
They are paper clips.	It is a watch.	They are gloves.	They are eggs.	It is a hat.

Exercise 1    Say the correct form of be.

1. It ___ a ball. 2. It ___ a book. 3. It ___ a pen. 4. They ___ paper clips. 5. It ___ a glass. 6. They ___ tickets. 7. It ___ a watch. 
8. They ___ pants. 9. It ___ a calculator. 10. They ___ gloves.

Answers

1. is 2. is 3. is 4. are 5. is 6. are 7. is 8. are 9. is 10. are

Plurals

The letters -s and -es are usually used for plurals. Notice that the article a is never used with plurals.

It is a ball.	They are balls.

Articles: "a", "an"

What is it? It is a pen.

The article a is used with consonants, and an is used with vowels. Remember not to use the articles a or an with plurals. Look at the examples:

It is a pen.    It is an egg.

Exercise 3    Say correct form of be.

1. He ___ a postman. 2. She ___ a cook. 3. I ___ a student. 
4. They ___ journalists. 5. He ___ a waiter. 6. We ___ engineers. 
7. He ___ a tourist. 8. They ___ customers. 9. I ___ a model. 
10. She ___ a waitress.

Answers:

1. is 2. is 3. am 4. are 5. is 6. are 7. is 8. are 9. am 10. is

Nationalities

Be is used to talk about nationalities.
Ex: Where are you from? I am from Japan. I am Japanese.

Location

Be is used to talk about location. Look at the examples:

Exercise 5    Say the correct form of be.

1. John ___ in the living room. 2. Sue ___ in the bedroom. 3. Mike ___ in the office. 4. We ___ in the kitchen. 5. The people ___ in the lobby. 6. The boss ___ in the warehouse. 7. The students ___ in the cafeteria. 8. Mother ___ in the kitchen. 9. Father ___ in the living room. 10. I ___ at home.

Answers:

1. is 2. is 3. is 4. are 5. are 6. is 7. are 8. is 9. is 10. am

The Prepositions at and in

He is at the concert.

The prepositions at and in can cause problems for English students. At is used to talk about places and events.

Examples:
He is at work.  She is at home.  We are at school.
He is at the concert.  She is at the theater.
They are at the beach.

In is usually more specific.

In is used when something or someone is inside something else. When we talk about the rooms of a house or building, for example, then in is used. At is used with events or places, such as concerts, movie theaters, universities and so on.

However  at is always used with work and home, and sometimes at and in are both used in similar situations. It is possible to say in the office if the speaker is close to the location. But speakers use at the office if they are not close to the location. Look at the examples:

Exercise 7    Use in or at with the sentences.

1. She is ___ home. 2. Tom is ___ work. 3. They are ___ the museum. 4. I am ___ the bedroom. 5. We are ___ the classroom. 6. He is ___ the exhibition. 7. She is ___ the kitchen. 8. We are ___ the living room. 9. They are ___ the theater.
10. Susan is ___ the university.

Answers:

1. at 2. at 3. at / in (close) 4. in 5. in 6. at 7. in 8. in 9. at / in (close) 10. at

The Possessive Adjectives

This is my pen.

Let's learn the possessive adjectives. Look at the table:

Whose?

Whose   is this?

Whose  is this?

Whose is this?

Whose is used to know who owns something. Notice that  this is used for questions, but be is used for answers.

The Family

Who is he? He is my father.

Father, Mother, Son, Daughter, Brother, Sister
father-in-law - mother-in-law
son - daughter
son-in-law - daughter-in-law
brother - sister
brother-in-law - sister-in-law
husband - wife
uncle - aunt
grandfather - grandmother
cousin - cousin

He is my father.	She is my mother.	He is my brother.

Colours

What color is it? It is white.

Be and adjectives

My father is tall. 

Be used with adjectives. Adjectives describe people, places and things. Try to memorize the words below.

Tom is tall. Bill is short.	Tom's house is big. Bill's house is small.	The bottle is full. The bottle is empty.
English is easy. Math is difficult.	Lucy's father is old. Lucy is young.	The pants are long. The pants are short.

Look at how negatives are used with be.

• tall - short    Tom is tall. He is not short.
• big - small    Tom's house is big. It is not small.
• full - empty    The bottle is empty. It is not full.
• easy - difficult    English is easy. It is not difficult.
• old - young    Lucy's father is old. He is not young.
• long - short    The pants are long. They are not short.

Be and short answers

Are you Mexican? Yes, I am.

It is sometimes necessary to use short answers with be. 
First the contractions must be learned.

Look at how short answers are formed:

Remember to say Is he tall? and not He is tall?

Practice Dialogues

A)
Fred:    How do you do. My name is Fred Sanders.
Elliot:   How do you do, Mr. Sanders. I'm Elliot Jake.

Bill:    Hello Bob!
Bob:   Hi Bill! How are you?*
Bill:    I'm fine thanks. And you?
Bob:   Oh, I'm fine.

    *Hello and Hi are generally informal and used between people who know 
each other, though not always. How do you do is used in more formal situations.

B)
Lisa:     Hello, Mary. How are you?
Mary:    I'm fine, thanks. And you?
Lisa:     I'm fine, thanks. Mary, this is my friend Mike from Canada.
Mike:    How do you do.
Mary:    How do you do.

Martin:   Lewis, this is Steve Ostrofsky.
Lewis:    How do you do.
Steve:    How do you do.
Lewis:    Where are you from, Steve?
Steve:    I'm from Pittsburgh.

A:    Where is Arnold?
B:    He's in the bathroom.

A:    Where is my calculator?
B:    It's in the bedroom.

A:    Goodbye!
B:    Goodbye! See you later!

Vocabulary Review

Time

What time is it? It’s 12:45.

Notice how be is used with time.
Sometimes it is possible to see a.m. and p.m. written with time.
A.M. is the time after midnight through the morning. P.M. is the afternoon and evening.

7:30 a.m. or 7:30 in the morning
1:00 p.m. or 1:00 in the afternoon.
7:30 p.m. or 7:30 in the evening

Good morning!

Good afternoon!

Good  evening!

Exercise 3    Look at the times

1. 5:30 p.m. It's 5:30 in the afternoon. Good afternoon!
2. 6:00 p.m.
3. 7:00 a.m.
4. 8:45 a.m.
5. 6:30 p.m.
6. 10:00 a.m.
7. 11:45 p.m.
8. 4:30 p.m.
9. 5:00 p.m.
10. 9:15 a.m.

Answers:

1. It's 5:30 in the afternoon. Good afternoon! 2. It's 6:00 in the evening. Good evening! 3. It's 7:00 in the morning. Good morning! 4. It's 8:45 in the morning. 
Good morning! 5. It's 6:30 in the evening. Good evening! 6. It's 10:00 in the morning. Good morning! 7. It's 11:45 in the evening. Good evening! 8. It's 4:30 in the afternoon. Good afternoon! 9. It's 5:00 in the afternoon. Good afternoon!
10. It's 9:15 in the morning. Good morning!

It is possible to say "seven-thirty" (7:30) or "half past seven". You can also say "a quarter after eleven" (11:15) or "a quarter to twelve" (11:45). However remember that numbers are used very often, especially in the United States.

Exercise 4    Answer the questions.

1. What time is your appointment? (9:00) It’s at 9:00.
2. What time is your lecture? (1:30)
3. What time is your English lesson? (10:45)
4. What time is your football game? (2:15)
5. What time is your meeting? (8:30)

Answers:

1. It's at 9:00. 2. It's at 1:30. 3. It's at 10:45. 4. It's at 2:15. 5. It's at 8:30

Prices

How much is the watch? It's one hundred and thirty dollars.

Look at how we say prices.

$1.29	$2.69	$9.20	$230.00
$48.00	$1.50	$29.00	$5.00

Might + Be

That bicycle might be John’s.

Might is used by people who aren’t sure about something.

For example the phrase He might be at home means that It’s possible he’s at home, but I’m not sure.

Around the House

Where is my towel?

cup	shampoo	towel	bowl
toilet paper	razor	toothpaste	fork

Be and the Present Continuous

I'm eating.

The Present Continuous requires Be + verb / -ing. The sentence I'm eating expresses action at the moment of speaking.

The preposition "to" and "in"

We're going to English class.

Students often confuse the prepositions to and in. To is used with motion. For example, He is going to work.
In is not generally a motion preposition. Ex: He is in the bedroom. Just remember that  
to is always used with motion verbs, such as go, walk, fly and so on.

Examples:

• I'm going to work.
• I'm going to the store
• She's going to the doctor.
• They're going to the park.

Exercise: Practice using to or in

1. We're going ______ the store.
2. He's ______ the living room.
3. Tom is going ______ Japan.
4. Lucy is ______ the swimming pool.
5. Ted is going ______ the concert.
6. I'm going ______ work.
7. Bill is ______ his garage.
8. They're going ______ the football game.
9. I'm ______ my apartment.
10. Arnold is going ______ the library.

However home is an exception. We always say I’m going home, and not I'm going to home. Home requires no preposition with motion verbs.

Examples:

• He's going home.
• He's running home.
• He's walking home.

Sports

He's playing soccer.

He's playing baseball.	They're playing tennis.	She's swimming.
They're jogging.	He's cycling.	He's playing soccer.

The Article

She's an English teacher.

The articles a, an and the can be a problem to understand. It is better to try to understand articles one step at a time. There are two types of articles – definite and indefinite. A and an are indefinite. This means they are used with nouns which are not expressed specifically by the speaker. Remember that an is used with vowels (a, e, i, o, u). Let's start with jobs.

When we say She's a nurse we are just describing her profession, but not necessarily who she is specifically. The is definite.

• She's the nurse helping the patients.
• He's the mechanic working on our car.

In these examples we are talking about the people specifically and their activity at the moment. There is one person doing a task, and that is the person we are talking about in a definite sense. Therefore we use the definite article the. Also we say He is the president, or She is the director because we are talking about one specific person. There is usually only one president or one director.

Exercise: Choose the correct article a, an, or the

1. She's ________ waitress.
2. He's ________ company president.
3. She's ________ sales representative from Japan.
4. ________ man talking to Tom is my boss. 
5. ________ woman with the blonde hair is my wife.
6. I'm ________ tourist.
7. ________ tourist in the corner is waiting for you.
8. She's ________ principal of our school.
9. Sarah is ________ actress. I'm ________ actor.
10. Where is ________ translator?

"Do" and the Simple Present

He does.

Look at the verb forms below. Notice how be is not used, so with the Present Simple we don't say I'm, he's and so on. We use I, he, she, it, we, you and they without be. Instead we use do.

Notice that he, she and it use does. It is very different from be.

She gets up early every day

Exercise: Use the verbs cook, begin, finish, get up and shop to complete the sentences.

1. I ________ every day at . 7:00.
2. We __________ at the local supermarket.
3. She __________ work at 9:30 in the morning.
4. I __________ work at 6:00 in the evening.
5. My husband __________ our dinner almost every evening.

He eats toast in the morning

The Present Simple is routine action. We use the Present Simple to talk about daily, repetitive events. Remember that the Present Continuous is used to express action at the moment.

• I get up every day at 7:30.

• My wife eats cereal in the morning.

• I study English in the evening.

We often use a time expression when we use the Present Simple - every day, in the morning, in the evening, etc.

Adverbs of frequency

He always plays basketball in the afternoon.

Now it's time to memorize some adverbs of frequency:

Asking direct questions with "Do"

Do you speak English?

When we need to ask questions about routine action then do is necessary. Let's start first with direct questions. Direct questions are used to get a yes or no response. 

Look at the chart below:

It is important to remember that he, she and it use does. And I, you, we and they use do. For example, You get up early? This is incorrect. Questions about routine require do or does.

Short Answers

Do you speak Italian? Yes, I do.

Like be we also use short answers with do.

Asking Opening Questions with "Do"

Where do you live? I live in New York.

Open questions require a much more detailed answer than just yes or no. There are various possibilities.

• What do you do?    I'm a lawyer.
• What kind of magazines do you read?    I read sports magazines.
• What time do you get up?    I get up at 7:15.
• When do you go out?    I usually go out on the weekend.
• Where do you live?    I live in New York.

Again there is the habit of students to forget do and ask, for example, What kind of magazines you read? This is incorrect. You must use do when asking questions about routine or repetitive action.

There + Be

There's a post office on the corner.

There are some apples on the counter.	There are some taxis in the parking lot.	There are some slippers in the corner.

We use There + Be to talk about where people and things are located. There is is used for singular, and There are is used for plural.

The sentence There is a book on the table means that a book is on the table. The phrase There is is used to begin the sentence. Notice how some is used with plurals. This is quite common with There + Be, so it is necessary to try to use some as often as possible. It sounds more natural.

• There are some taxis in the parking lot.

• There are some children in the yard.

About to and in

Paul is in his car. He's going to work.

It's necessary to review the prepositions to and in. Remember that in is not really a motion preposition. Sometimes people use in when talking about entering a place (although into or inside is more acceptable). But for destination to must be used. It isn't possible to say, for example, I'm going in work. You must say I'm going to work.

Prepositions of Location

The bank is next to the laundromat.

Study the prepositions below and practice the example sentences.

next to	behind	in front of	across from, opposite

• Rita is standing next to Jeff.

• Mark is sitting behind Tracy.

• Tracy is sitting in front of Mark.

• The shopping mall is across from the movie theater.

near	between	around the corner	on the corner

• My house is near the stadium.

• The bank is between the cafe and the laundromat.

• The post office is around the corner.

• The police station is on the corner.
  

Prepositions of Movement

Tina is going to school.

Study the prepositions below and practice the example sentences.

to	along	across	into

• I'm going to work.

• They're jogging along the river.

• She's walking across the street.

• Paul is going into the supermarket.

around	through	down	up

• I walked around the swimming pool.

• The teacher is walking through the corridor.

• The children are running down the hill.

• The children are running up the hill.

Going to

I'm going to go to the movies.

Going to is used to talk about the future. Notice again how the verb be is used.

Notice how only be changes in the phrases above. The verb eat remains the same.

If + might

If it's sunny tomorrow, we might go on a picnic.

It's necessary now to learn about English conditionals.
Conditionals are used to express a connection between two events. Basically one clause depends on the other.

Notice that the first clause is present simple.     If it rains, ...   If John works hard, ... This is a basic rule with this conditional. We can't say, for example, If it will rain. We say If it rains, and then express the possible future intent or consequence.

What's Felix going to do?

... I might stay home.	... I might go skiing.	... I might rent a video.