Date: 22.11.2020
SIMPLE PRESENT: TO BE
LISTENING
To be quick to understand and react to things.
I didn’t sleep well last night. That’s why I’m not really on the ball today.
“To be on the ball”
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Students will be able to form sentences using simple present with the verb to be
• Students will be able to identify the forms of the verb to be in simple present.
MOST FREQUENT WORDS
it's 29% is 29% be 22% that's 20%
CANCODE spoken corpus is 30% be 26% it's 26% are 18% 10-million-word corpus (CIC)
5-million-word
MOST FREQUENT WORDS
5-million-word written corpus
are 30 %
be 33%
is 36
%
WHAT IS THE VERB BE IN THE SIMPLE PRESENT?
• It is the most import verb in the English language.
• It is difficult to use it because it is an irregular verb in almost all of its forms.
TO BE
ARE IS
AM
S i n g u l a r I am You are He is She It P l u r a l We are You They
USES
We use the verb to be to talk about:
ages
occupations
prices
the time
feelings and states
nationality
colours
We are not teachers. We are students.
To be and occupations.
•
FORMS
•
Infinitive To be
Be
Bare infinitive
WHAT IS ITS AFFIRMATIVE FORM?
Full form
• I am
• You are
• He/she/it is
• We are
• You are
• They are
Contracted form
• I’m
• You’re
• He/she/it’s
• We’re
• You’re
• They’re
Full form
WHAT IS ITS NEGATIVE FORM?
Contracted form
• I am not
• You are not
• He/she/it is not
• We are not
• You are not
• They are not
• I’m not
• You aren’t
• He/she/it isn’t
• We aren’t
• You aren’t
• They aren’t
YES/NO QUESTIONS EXAMPLES
1. Is Brad Pitt French?
No, he isn’t. He is American.
2. Is Angelina Joli American?
Yes, she is. She is American.
3. Are Brad Pitt and Angelina Joli French?
No, they aren’t. They are American.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anne O’ Keeffe, Michael McCarthy and Ronald Carter (2007). From
Corpus to Classroom: Language Use and Language Teaching, pp. 34-36.
Cambridge University Press