To Be - Past Tense

To Be - Affirmative

Subject	To Be	Examples
I	was	I was tired this morning.
You	were	You were very good.
He	was	He was the best in his class.
She	was	She was late for work.
It	was	It was a sunny day.
We	were	We were at home.
You	were	You were on holiday.
They	were	They were happy with their test results.

To Be - Negative Sentences

The negative of To Be can be made by adding not after the verb (was or were).

Subject	To Be	Examples
I	was not	I was not tired this morning.
You	were not	You were not crazy.
He	was not	He was not married.
She	was not	She was not famous.
It	was not	It was not hot yesterday.
We	were not	We were not invited.
You	were not	You were not at the party.
They	were not	They were not friends.

To Be - Negative Contractions

The can make negative contractions of the verb To Be in the Past tense by joining the verb (was or were) and n't (e.g. were not = weren't). We don't make a contraction of the subject and the verb (e.g. I was).

I was not tired this morning.	OR	I wasn't tired this morning.
You were not crazy.	OR	You weren't crazy.
He was not married.	OR	He wasn't married.
She was not famous.	OR	She wasn't famous.
It was not hot yesterday.	OR	It wasn't hot yesterday.
We were not invited.	OR	We weren't invited.
You were not at the party.	OR	You weren't at the party.
They were not friends.	OR	They weren't friends.

* Notice that we don't have contractions for To Be in Past Tense affirmative sentences.

To Be - Questions

To create questions with To Be, you put the Verb before the Subject.

Affirmative	You	were	happy.
	Subject	Verb
Question	Were	you	happy?
	Verb	Subject

Affirmative	Question
I was late	Was I late?
You were sick.	Were you sick?
He was surprised.	Was he surprised?
She was from Italy.	Was she from Italy?
It was a big house.	Was it a big house?
We were ready.	Were we ready?
You were early.	Were you early?
They were busy.	Were they busy?

To Be - Short Answers

In spoken English, we usually give short answers in response to questions.

Was he from Japan? - Yes, he was (from Japan). The last part (from Japan) is not necessary. We use shorts answers to avoid repetition, when the meaning is clear.

Question	Short Answers**	Short Answers
Was I late?	Yes, you were.	No, you weren't.
Were you sick?	Yes, I was.	No, I wasn't.
Was he surprised?	Yes, he was.	No, he wasn't.
Was she from Italy?	Yes, she was.	No, she wasn't.
Was it a big house?	Yes, it was.	No, it wasn't.
Were we ready?	Yes, we were.	No, we weren't.
Were you early?	Yes, we were.	No, we weren't.
Were they busy?	Yes, they were.	No, they weren't.

** With To Be, We don't use contractions in affirmative short answers.

This - That - These -Those

	Singular	Plural
Here	This	These
There	That	Those

These words are called demonstrative pronouns and they are used to show the relative distance between the speaker and the noun.

We use this (singular) and these (plural) to refer to something that is here / near.

Examples:

• This is my car. (singular)
• These are our children. (plural)

We use that (singular) and those (plural) to refer to something that is there / far.

Examples:

• That is our house. (singular)
• Those are my shoes. (plural)

Note that the verb changes (i.e. singular / plural) depending on the pronoun that you use.

You can also use demonstrative pronouns with a noun.

Examples:

• This party is boring. (singular)
• That city is busy. (singular)
• These chocolates are delicious. (plural)
• Those flowers are beautiful. (plural)

If an action is near in time we tend to use this / these.
If an action has finished or is in the past we use that / those.

Examples:

• This is a good meal. (at the time of eating)
• Those girls we met last night were silly. (an event that happened in the past).

The expressions this is / that is are also common when you talk on the phone or you introduce people.

Examples:

• "Hello, this is Peter."
• Carol, this is my friend Simon. Simon, this is Carol.

There vs Their vs They're

A common mistake not only for students learning English but also for native speakers is the difference between There, Their and They're in written English.

This happens because both words sound the same when they are spoken.

Words that sound the same but have different meanings (and sometimes spelling) are called homophones. Therefore they're, their and there are Homophones.

Which words would make the following sentence correct?

• They’re/Their/There playing they’re/their/there video games over they’re/their/there.

The answer appears at the end of the post so let’s learn the rules meanwhile.

What is the difference between There, Their and They're?

THERE

There is the opposite of Here. It means “in that place” not here.

• A: Where is my book? – B: It’s over there.
• I will look for a hotel to stay when I arrive there.

There is/There are = to show that something exists.

• There is a book on the table
• There are many countries in Europe.

THEIR

Their is a possessive adjective which is used before a noun. It shows possession, that something belongs to them.

• Their house is big.
• All of their friends were crazy.
• The children put their books in their school bags.

THEY’RE

They’re is a contraction of they are.
e.g. They’re happy = They are happy

They’re is usually before an adjective or a verb ending in ING.

• They’re very interested in the project.
• I personally think they’re crazy!
• They’re singing loudly.

Example sentence...

So now you know the difference let’s try the original question:

• They’re/Their/There playing they’re/their/there video games over they’re/their/there.

The answer is:

• They’re playing their video games over there.

Why?

They’re playing (they’re is used before a verb ending in -ing making it the progressive tense)

Their video games (their is a possessive used before a noun to show possession)

Over there (there because it means not here, in that place)

There is - There are

We use there is and there are to say that something exists.

Positive Sentences

We use there is for singular and there are for plural.

• There is one table in the classroom.
• There are three chairs in the classroom.
• There is a spider in the bath.
• There are many people at the bus stop.

Contractions

The contraction of there is is there's.

• There's a good song on the radio.
• There's only one chocolate left in the box.

You cannot contract there are.

• There are nine cats on the roof.
• There are only five weeks until Christmas.

Negative Form

The negative is formed by putting not after is or are:

• There is not a horse in the field.
• There are not eight children in the school.
• There is not a tree in the garden.
• There are not two elephants in the zoo.

The Negative contractions are:

There's not = There isn't

There are not = There aren't

There Are with ANY

When we want to indicate that a zero quantity of something exists we use there aren't any.

• There aren't any people at the party.
• There aren't any trees in my street.

We also use this structure with uncountable nouns:

• There isn't any water in the swimming pool.
• There isn't any sugar in my coffee.

Questions

To form a question we place is / are in front of there.

Again we use any with plural questions or those which use uncountable nouns.

We also use there is / are in short answers.

• Is there a dog in the supermarket? - No, there isn't.
• Are there any dogs in the park? - Yes, there are.
• Is there a security guard in the shop? - Yes, there is.
• Are there any polar bears in Antarctica? - No, there aren't.
• Is there any ice-cream in the freezer? - Yes, there is.

How Many with Are There

If we want to find out the number of objects that exist we use How many in the following form:

How many + plural noun + are there (+ complement).

• How many dogs are there in the park?
• How many students are there in your class?
• How many countries are there in South America?
• How many Star Wars films are there?

Subject Pronouns

The subject of a sentence is a person or thing that performs the action of the verb.

Subject pronouns are used to replace the subject (person or thing) of a verb.

We do NOT normally say:

• John is tall and John is intelligent.

Saying the word "John" twice is repetitive and does not sound natural.

We replace the Subject (John) that appears the second time with a subject pronoun to avoid repetition (and in this case to avoid saying the name John again.)

So we would say:

• John is tall and he is intelligent.

We replace the second "John" with the Subject Pronoun "He".

What are the subject pronouns in English?

These are the subject pronouns we use in English

Subject Pronoun	Singular or Plural - Who?	Masculine or Feminine
I	Singular - first person	masculine or feminine
You	Singular - second person	masculine or feminine
He	Singular - third person	only masculine
She	Singular - third person	only feminine
It	Singular - third person	object / thing / animal
We	Plural - first person	masculine or feminine
You	Plural - second person	masculine or feminine
They	Plural - third person	masculine or feminine

When do you use IT?

IT is normally used when we refer to objects, things, animals or ideas (and not normally people).

• The dog is big. It is also hairy. (It = the dog)
• My bed is small but it is comfortable. (It = my bed)

Sometimes when we don't know the sex of a baby (we don't know if it is a boy or girl), then we can use IT.

• Their baby is very small. It only weighs 2 kilos. (It = the baby.)

We use IT we when talk about the time, weather or temperature.

• It is five o'clock (= the time is five o'clock)
• It is cold today. (= the weather is cold today.)
• It is 30º outside right now. (= the temperature is 30º outside right now)

Spelling Rules -ING

The following is a guide to the correct spelling of –ing forms of verbs and gerunds.

The general rule when changing a verb into its -ING form is just to add -ING to the end of the verb.

Infinitive	ING form
to feel	feeling
to go	going
to work	working
to sleep	sleeping

• She wasn't feeling very well.
• He is working on a new project.
• The children are sleeping so be quiet.

Spelling exceptions

The following exceptions exist when spelling words ending in ING:

1). If the verb ends in an E we remove the E and add ING.

Infinitive	ING form
to live	living
to have	having
to make	making
to take	taking

• People are living longer now than they were 100 years ago.
• We are making a chocolate cake.
• He was taking his time to get ready.

2). If the verb ends in a consonant + vowel + consonant, we double the final consonant and add ING.

Infinitive	ING form
to stop	stopping
to sit	sitting
to plan	planning
to get	getting
to swim	swimming

• The policeman is stopping the traffic.
• We are planning a surprise party for our teacher.
• I think I am getting a cold.

3). If a two-syllable verb ends in a consonant + vowel + consonant, we do not double the final consonant when the stress is on the first syllable.

Infinitive	ING form
to happen	happening
to enter	entering
to offer	offering
to suffer	suffering

• What is happening?
• They are offering a discount.
• Many people are suffering from a lack of food and water.

4). But, we do not double the final consonant when the verb ends in W, X or Y or when the final syllable is not emphasized.

Infinitive	ING form
to fix	fixing
to enjoy	enjoying
to snow	snowing

• He fixing his bike.
• We are enjoying this great weather.
• It's snowing outside.

5). If the verb ends in IE we change it to YING.

Infinitive	ING form
to lie	lying
to die	dying
to tie	tying

• I know you are lying to me!
• You should water your plant more because I think it is dying.
• The little boy is tying his shoelaces.

6). If the verb ends in consonant + vowel + L, we normally double the final L and add ING.

Note: In the United States (US) they do not double the L when the accent is on the first syllable.

Infinitive	ING form (UK)	ING form (US)
to travel	travelling	traveling
to marvel	marvelling	marveling

• I have been travelling around South America for 6 months.
• He was marvelling at her beauty.

7). If the verb ends in a stressed vowel + R, we double the final R and add ING.

Infinitive	ING form
refer	referring
defer	deferring

• Are you referring to this one or that one?
• They are thinking of deferring payment of their mortgage.

8). If the verb ends in an unstressed vowel + R, we do not double the final R and add ING.

Infinitive	ING form
to offer	offering
to suffer	suffering
to whisper	whispering

• I am offering you a special deal.
• He is now suffering the consequences of his actions.
• I wonder what he is whispering in her ear.

Spelling -ED Ending Rules

The following is a guide to the correct spelling of words ending -ED.

Remember: Not all words that end in -ED are verbs in the past tense. Sometimes they are Past Participlesor they could even be Adjectives ending in -ED. For now we will mostly use verbs in the Past Tense as examples though the same rules apply to all words ending in -ED

The general rule when changing a word (or verb) into its -ED form is just to add -ED to the end of it.

Infinitive	ED form
to play	played
to wait	waited
to work	worked
to rain	rained

• He played with his dog in the backyard.
• I waited for them to invite me.
• She worked until late last night.
• It rained all day.

Spelling Exceptions

The following exceptions exist when spelling words ending in ED:

1). If a word ends in an E we just add the D to the end.

Infinitive	ING form
to live	lived
to love	loved
to smile	smiled
to dance	danced

• I lived in Japan for two years and then moved to Thailand.
• I loved the surprise you had for me.
• He smiled when he saw his wife come through the door.
• They danced until their feet hurt.

2). If the word ends in a Consonant + Vowel + Consonant, we double the final consonant and add ED.

Infinitive	ING form
to stop	stopped
to admit	admitted
to plan	planned
to refer	referred
to commit	committed

• The policeman stopped the thief from escaping.
• He admitted that he was wrong.
• We planned a surprise birthday party for our friend.
• I referred the students to the website where they could practice some more.
• They committed a serious crime and will end up in jail.

3). If a two-syllable verb ends in a Consonant + Vowel + Consonant, we DO NOT double the final consonant when the stress is on the FIRST syllable.

Infinitive	ING form
to happen	happened
to enter	entered
to offer	offering
to suffer	suffering

• What happened?
• I entered through the back door.
• She was offered a new position with a higher salary.
• Many people are suffered from a lack of food and water.

4). BUT, we DO NOT double the final consonant when the word ends in W, X or Y or when the final syllable is not stressed.

Infinitive	ING form
to fix	fixed
to enjoy	enjoyed
to snow	snowed

• He fixed his bike.
• We enjoyed our time in the North of Chile.
• It snowed yesterday.

5). If the verb ends in consonant + vowel + L, we normally double the final L and add ED.

Note: In the United States (US) they DO NOT double the L when the accent is on the first syllable.

Infinitive	ING form (UK)	ING form (US)
to travel	travelled	traveled
to marvel	marveled	marveled

• I traveled around South America in 2012.
• Her beauty marveled us.