Daily English Shot

Hello everyone,

Today I have an exercise for you. The sentences below are missing "am", "is" or "are". I know you can find the right places for them!

Let's take a look:
1. The weather ______ nasty today.
2. I ______ not famous.
3. This suitcase _____ heavy.
4. These suitcases _____ heavy.
5. Look! There _____ Jenny.
6. My sister and I ______ good hikers.
7. Emma ____ at home. Her kids _____ at school.
8. I _____ an Uber driver. My sister _____ a journalist.

I think this exercise is very easy. What do you think?

Now that we've looked at both positive and negative forms of the verb "to be" and we know what they look like in their short and long forms, I suggest reading a few sentences and count all the forms of "to be" that you find.

Here goes:
- I'm hot. Can you turn on the air conditioner, please?
- I'm 35 years old. My brother is 32.
- Jenny is ill. She's in bed.
- My sister is scared of sharks.
- It's midnight. You're late again!
- Jenny and Sarah are good friends.
- Your glasses are on the table.
- I'm hungry. Let's get something to eat.
- Jenny isn't interested in fishing. She likes rock-climbing!
- It's cloudy today, but it isn't cold.

So, how many forms of the verb "to be", both short and long, positive and negative, did you find? Please share in the comments!

Hello everyone,

Today, let's recap what we've already learned about short and long forms of the verb "to be" and take a look at its positive and negative forms.

Positive forms are, well, positive :). They state and affirm. I will mark them with a (+) sign from now on. For example,
(+)
I am = I'm
He/She/It is = he's/she's/it's
We/You/They are = We're/You're/They're

Negative forms have a negative particle "not" after the verb, and have the opposite meaning. An important thing to pay attention to is the negative short forms - there are 2 instead of 1. I will mark them with (-).

I am not = I'm not
He is not = He's not = He isn't
She is not = She's not = She isn't
It is not = It's not = It isn't
We are not = We're not = We aren't
You are not = You're not = You aren't
They are not = They're not = They aren't

Today I am offering a simple exercise to practice short forms of the verb to be in present tense. Look at the long forms and write a short one (he's/you aren't etc.):
1. he is _______________
2. we are _____________
3. she is not __________
4. that is _____________
5. you are not ________
6. I am not ___________
Were you able to find short forms for all of them?

Hello everyone,

When you read the text about Jenny in my last post, you probably noticed that some of the forms of the verb "to be" are shortened. Yes, they can be long and short - containing 2 words or contracted into 1.

Let's take a look at them:

I am = I'm
You are = You're
He is = He's
She is = She's
It is = It's
We are = We're
They are = They're

My favorite thing about English grammar is that it's pretty structured. Every word in a sentence has its place.

Let's look at a short text about Jenny. Every sentence in it contains the verb "to be" in one of its forms (am/is/are) that we discussed earlier.

Let's read it and pay attention to the place this verb occupies in a sentence:

My name is Jenny.
I'm 21.
I'm American. I'm from Boston.
I'm a student.
My favorite color is green.
My father is a journalist and my mother is a teacher.
My favorite sports are tennis and swimming.
I'm interested in music.
I'm not interested in politics.

Was it easy to read and understand?

I will start with the basics of English grammar: the verb "to be" in present tense. But before we look at the verb and its conjugations, we need to think about our pronouns first.

Personal pronouns describe the main character in a sentence. Here is their list:
- I
- you
- he
- she
- it
- we
- they

Please note that *you* can be used when we speak about one person or when we address many people.

As for the verb *to be* in present tense, its forms are:
- am
- is
- are

Why do we even need it? What are these small words for? Are they rather insignificant, just like articles "a" and "the" and can be omitted without much loss to the meaning of the sentence? No. Just as the pronoun is the subject of the sentence, its main character, the verb is the action of the sentence, what's happening in it. So these small words do matter.

Let's think a little more about the verb "to be". Who can you be? Where can you be? These are the 2 distinct meanings it has: you can be someone and you can be somewhere. For example,
"I *am* a teacher." (who)
"He *is* in Miami." (where)
From these examples we see that big meanings can hide behind small words.

Hello everyone,

Let's think some more about learning a new language. As we build our 4 language skills that I mentioned in the previous post - reading, writing, speaking and listening - we need to learn the grammar and build our vocabulary.

In my view, grammar is the language skeleton or its structure. Vocabulary helps us decorate this "skeleton", make it prettier with a larger choice of words, so to say.

In the past, my students used to ask me about the relative importance of those 2 things. I think both are important, and here we will work on both.

Please let me know what you do to learn English grammar and build vocabulary in the comments!

When you start learning a new language, you are actually building several skills at once. Let's see: you need to be able to accept new information in it. We do this by listening and reading. And you need to express yourself in it by speaking and writing.

Which of those skills is the hardest for you to work on? Which one is the easiest? Please let me know in the comments! :)

Hello everyone,

I thought I'll introduce myself - the face behind this page. My name is Natalia and I love English in all its aspects: I appreciate how structured the grammar is and how creative the idioms can be. I started learning this language when I was 10 and have been learning it for 30+ years since then. No, it doesn't get boring. :)

Although, my first language is Russian, I speak English every day, on a regular basis because I now live in an English-speaking country.

I bet a lot of you have a question about the name of this page - why is it called a "Daily English Shot"? The word "shot" has many meanings:
- firing a gun or a cannon;
- an attempt to hit a target by firing at it;
- a hit of the ball in sports;
and
- a photograph.

However, there is one more meaning of this word - and it's a small concentrated drink, like a shot of liquor or espresso. And that's exactly what I want my page to be: a daily dose of English learning for you, like a cup of coffee or a shot of espresso in the morning.

Welcome to my page and let's get started.