Tip 1
sentences with regular simple verbs versus the verb -to be- in the Simple Present.
In English, when we want to give general information about something or someone, we will use simple verbs.
That is, a verb without any addition such as live, go, take, open, close. These verbs mainly help us describe:
- facts
- Frequency of actions and habits
- permanent situations
My name‘s Asaf, I live in Israel, I‘m 33 years old and I work as an English teacher. I teach English 5 times a week. I have one sister, she is a student and she lives in the United States. I enjoy listening to music in my free time.
– We will note that there are two types of constructions both belonging to the Simple Present but are phrased differently:
- I live in Israel (permanent situation)
- I work as an English teacher (permanent situation)
- I teach English 5 times a week. (frequency of action/habit)
- I have one sister (fact)
- She lives in the United States (fact/permanent situation)
– What all the sentences above have in common is that they included regular simple verbs.
When we build sentences with the verb -to be” we get a structure that still provides general information but different than most sentences in the Simple Present and is somewhat a distinct category within the same tense:
My name is Asaf (fact)
I am 33 years old (state)
She is a student (state)
We built “a defining sentence” about my sister and myself that provided general information but did not include a regular simple verb in it. In such sentence we use the verb -to be-. Its forms in the present are -am,is,are-.
My name is Asaf = השם שלי אסף
I am 33 years old = אני בן 33
She is a student = היא סטודנטית
When you translate the sentences above into certain languages (like Hebrew) you find that the am, is, are disappear since they have no translation in the present.
On the other hand, in the past and future there is a form of the verb -to be- in Hebrew as the following example shows:
I am 33 years old – אני בן 33
Last year, I was 32 years old – שנה שעברה הייתי בן 32
Next year, I will be 34 years old – בשנה הבאה אהיה בן 34
Note down the differences between your own mother tongue and English and you’ll be quickly be on your way to speaking better English.
Tip 2
Helping Verbs: “the missing link”
Imagine yourself having a conversation with an Native English speaker for a moment, what are the 2 things that the conversation consists of?
Any conversation naturally consists of a question and answer interaction. Hence, learning how to ask a question in English is one of the most basic and important skills you can acquire.
The point is, there is a fundamental difference between certain languages and English in this area. In English, unlike in some languages, there is something called auxiliary verbs with which we construct questions.
What does it mean? Below this paragraph I have listed 3 questions in X language and I want you to try to translate them before you scroll down to find out the answers.
1) When does he start work every day?
2) How many years has he been working for the company?
3) When did he join the company?
Correct Form:
1) When does he start work every day?
2) How many years has he been working for the company?
3) When did he join the company?
The words in red are helping verbs. I’m sure at least some of you built the question in the following way:
1) When he start work every day?
2) How many years he working for the company?
3) When he joined the company?
In many languages such as language X and Y there is not such thing as helping verbs. In English, however, we almost always use a helping verb when we build a question as seen in the aboove examples.
- there is an exception to this – mostly for subject question. This will be examined in the next tips.
In summary: remember, after a question word in English there will almost always come a helping verb.
How do we use them? Decide which one to use? Understand their meaning? More about this on the next tips 🙂
