Well, that sounds more like diving into Grammar. You might hate it, or you might not. Let’s start by giving Grammar a fair treat.
Grammar won’t be the obstacle to form sentences while ordering a coffee at the coffee shop.
Instead, Grammar will make it possible for you to articulate your speech, whatever that needs to be.
Let’s not refuse to learn the structures that will get your coffee.
Taking that positive note into consideration, let’s dive into our first session: Simple Present, with verb be.
Check these sentences. How are we giving information with them? Find similarities.
- The dog is happy.
- The trees are tall.
- The boy is my friend.
- The teacher is a doctor.
- The weather is hot outside.
- The children are students.
- The animals are hungry.
- The kitten is playful.
- The ocean is blue.
- The storybook is interesting.
If you look closely, you will notice that all sentences start with a singular person, animal, thing (the boy, the dog, the storybook), or with multiple ones (the animals, the children, the trees).
If you look even more closely, you will also notice that after such person, animal, thing -or persons, animals, things- you have the words “is” and “are”. They are verb BE, but at work.
A little about verbs: at work simply means conjugated
Yes, conjugated. Verbs do not work alone. They usually change shapes, so let’s take a look at what verb “be” can look like in some of its “shapes”.
Present Simple:
- I am
- You are
- He/She/It is
- We are
- You are
- They are
Past Simple:
- I was
- You were
- He/She/It was
- We were
- You were
- They were
Future Simple:
- I will be
- You will be
- He/She/It will be
- We will be
- You will be
- They will be
Present Continuous:
- I am being
- You are being
- He/She/It is being
- We are being
- You are being
- They are being
Past Continuous:
- I was being
- You were being
- He/She/It was being
- We were being
- You were being
- They were being
Future Continuous:
- I will be being
- You will be being
- He/She/It will be being
- We will be being
- You will be being
- They will be being
Present Perfect:
- I have been
- You have been
- He/She/It has been
- We have been
- You have been
- They have been
Past Perfect:
- I had been
- You had been
- He/She/It had been
- We had been
- You had been
- They had been
Future Perfect:
- I will have been
- You will have been
- He/She/It will have been
- We will have been
- You will have been
- They will have been
Present Perfect Continuous:
- I have been being
- You have been being
- He/She/It has been being
- We have been being
- You have been being
- They have been being
Past Perfect Continuous:
- I had been being
- You had been being
- He/She/It had been being
- We had been being
- You had been being
- They had been being
Future Perfect Continuous:
- I will have been being
- You will have been being
- He/She/It will have been being
- We will have been being
- You will have been being
- They will have been being
The conjugations for Simple Present Verb Be -the ones at the very top of the previous list of examples- are am, are, is. The rest of the list covers a range of tenses, from simple past, present, and future to continuous and perfect forms in English, so it looks and is complex. We will start at the top and cover only the Simple Present one this time.
Present Simple Verb Be:
- I am
- You are
- He/She/It is
- We are
- You are
- They are
My question at this point of the lesson is: Do you know all the personal subject pronouns? Do you know how to combine them with the Simple Present Verb Be conjugations -the right ones? Take your time and evacuate your doubts by going through your thoughts and your mental images.
If you do not have a mental image for I am , go ahead and make it. Here are some ideas on how to memorize Simple Present Verb Be in connection to the grammatical persons. When it comes to conjugations, what happens is that one of the possibilities (shapes, conjugations) of verb be will be activated for I, you, she, he, it, we, they, as you can notice above. It works like this for all verbs, just to give you a heads up.
A Bit Deeper Into Pronouns
I, you, he, she, it, we, and they are personal subject pronouns. Pronouns make reference to a noun. A noun is a part of speech that represents a person, place, thing, or idea. In a sentence, nouns typically function as the subject or object. For example:
- Person: Sarah, doctor, teacher
- Place: park, city, school
- Thing: table, book, car
- Idea: freedom, love, democracy
A pronoun, on the other hand, is a word that can function as a substitute for a noun. It’s used to avoid repetition of a noun already mentioned or to simplify sentences. Some common pronouns include:
- Personal Pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, they (these are the only ones we care about today)
- Possessive Pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs
- Reflexive Pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves
- Demonstrative Pronouns: this, that, these, those
- Relative Pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, that
For instance, in the sentences “Angel is a teacher. He loves his job,” “Angel” is a noun, and “He” and “his” are pronouns that refer back to the noun “Angel” to avoid repetition.
These connections are fixed, and you need to give yourself enough practice time until it’s not difficult to use them. Again, they are paramount to speak English, so do not advance any further until they have been understood and properly practiced.
Take a break from going deeper. Read the lesson again up until this point.
What’s left to do? Let’s practice with your homework about Simple Present Verb Be, and some on pronouns, too.