Am, Is, Are…

A.

Observe the Table given below and compare the sentences.

I	Am	Speaking English.	=	Am	I	Speaking English?
You	Are	Speaking English.	=	Are	You	Speaking English?
He	Is	Speaking English.	=	Is	He	Speaking English?
She	Is	Speaking English.	=	Is	We	Speaking English?
It	Is	Speaking English.	=	Is	It	Speaking English?
We	Are	Speaking English.	=	Are	We	Speaking English?
They	Are	Speaking English.	=	are	They	Speaking English?

B.

Now look at the example given below

“Are you from England?’

You can answer closed questions with

“Yes” or “No”.

You can also answer closed questions with a slightly longer answer

“Yes, I am.”  Or “No, I’m not.”

Finally you can answer closed questions in the long form

“Yes, I am from England.” Or “No, I’m not from England.”

C.

For the verb be (am, is are…), we need is or are as question words, Study this telephone conversation. You are about to meet somebody you do not know:

# Are you older than me? ~ No, I’m not. We’re the same age.

# Are you taller than me? ~ No, I’m not. We’re about the same height.

# is your hair shorter than mine? ~ No, it’s not. It’s very long and straw blonde.

# Are your eyes the same colour as mine? ~ Mine are blue. What colour are yours? ~ Mine are green.

D.

We need is or are for yes/no questions when we talk about future arrangements and plans using either the present progressive or going to future:

Are you playing football Sunday afternoon?

~ Yes, I am.

Are you going to train on Sunday morning?

~ Yes, I am.

Is your son coming to watch you play?

~ No it’s not, but they’re going to show the highlights in the evening.

E.

We also need is or are for yes/no questions when we use the present progressive to talk about temporary actions and developing situations in the present. Note that for a question involving the subject pronoun I the verb form am is needed:

Are you working at the moment?

~ No, not really.

Am I disturbing you?

~ No, you’re not. Come in.

Are you laughing or crying?

~ Crying, mainly. This book is very sad.

Is it upsetting you?

~ Yes, it is. But I want to finish it.

Are you students? – Yes, we are students.

Are you teachers? – No, we are students.

Is there any water in this picture? – Yes, there is some water in that picture.

F.

Yes/no questions with the verb be (note that be can take many different forms: is / are / was / were / will be / going to be / has been / may have been / seems to be / etc.) are created by moving the verb be to the beginning of the sentence. In other words the subject and the verb change their positions in statements and questions.

Statement    : I am from England.                   Question   : Am I from England?

Has, Have, Had, Hasn’t, Haven’t, Hadn’t

A.

Observe the Table given below and compare the sentences.

I	Have	Got an English Book	=	Have	I	Got an English book?
You	Have	Got an English book	=	Have	You	Got an English book?
He	Has	Got an English book	=	Has	He	Got an English book?
She	Has	Got an English book	=	Have	We	Got an English book?
It	Has	Got an English book	=	Has	It	Got an English book?
We	Have	Got an English book	=	Have	We	Got an English book?
They	Have	Got an English book	=	Have	They	Got an English book?

B.

Some commonly used question forms and Answers.

1.

Has he come today?

He has come today.

He hasn’t come.

Yes, he has.

No, he hasn’t.

2.

Had he come yesterday?

He had come.

He hadn’t come.

Yes, he had.

No, he hadn’t

3.

Have they come today?

They have come.

They haven’t come.

Yes, they have.

No, they haven’t.

4.

Had they come yesterday?

They had come.

They hadn’t come.

Yes, hadn’t come.

No, they hadn’t.

5.

Has she come today?

She has come.

She hasn’t come.

Yes, she has.

No, she hasn’t

6.

Had she come yesterday?

She had come yesterday.

Yes, she had.

No, she hadn’t.

7.

Hasn’t he come today?

He hasn’t come today.

He has come.

No, he hasn’t.

8.

Hasn’t she come today?

She hasn’t come today.

She has come.

No, she hasn’t.

9.

Haven’t they come today?

They haven’t come today.

They are come.

No, they haven’t.

10.

Hadn’t he come yesterday?

He hadn’t come yesterday.

He had come.

No, he hadn’t

11.

Hadn’t she come yesterday?

She hadn’t come yesterday.

She hadn’t come yesterday.

She had come.

No, she hadn’t.

12.

Hadn’t they come yesterday?

They hadn’t come yesterday.

They had come.

No, they hadn’t.

C.

The auxiliaries have and had are used as ‘helping’ verbs in the construction of the past and past perfect form of all main verbs. They are often pronounced as contracted weak forms in affirmative sentences and contracted weak forms are also used in the negative. Study the following examples and say them to yourself as you read them:

‘They’ve been living in Calcutta for three years now, but they still haven’t got used to the heat.’

‘He’s collected his medication from the chemist, but the hasn’t actually taken any of the pills yet.

‘Have you seen my green pullover anywhere, Sandra?’ ‘No, sorry, I haven’t.’

‘This was a lie, for she’d borrowed his green pullover and had forgotten to return it.’

‘They told me that they’d lived in Wiltshire all their lives, but had never visited Stonehenge.’

‘We have paid for the flights, but we haven’t paid the travel insurance yet.’

D.

‘Have / ‘have got’

When we are talking about possession, relationships, illnesses and characteristics of people or things we can use either have or have got. The have got. The have got forms are more common in an informal style. Have got has the same meaning as have.

To make questions and negative sentences with have got we use the auxiliary verb have. Question, with have got must be formed as follows:

-How many subsidiaries have your company?

-It has two.

-How many sisters do you have?

-I’ve three (Sisters).

-Do you all have your own bedrooms?

-Sue’s got her own bedroom, but neither Debbie nor I have. We have to share. (Note in this last example that ‘have to’ is used as an alternative to must because the need to share is imposed on the sisters.)

-Have you got a new car, Paul?

-Yes I have. I bought it last week.

-Has it got air conditioning?

-No it hasn’t. But it’s got a CD player.

-Do you have very many CDs?

-I’ve hundreds.

Note the way in which we form short answers and question tags with have got and have:

-Have you got a sore throat as well as a running nose?

-No, I haven’t.

-But you’ve got a high temperature, haven’t you?

-Yes, I have.

-Does this music school have enough pianos?

No, it doesn’t.

-But you have enough opportunities to practice, don’t you?

-No, we don’t.

“Wh” Questions

What is your name?

My name is Venkat.

What is this?

This is a book.

What are these?

These are books

What is your father’s name?

My father’s name is Satyanarayana Yellamelli.

What is your mother’s name?

My Mother’s name is Mangayamma.

What is your brother’s name?

My brother’s name is Sriram Chandra Rao

What is your sister’s name?

My sister’s name is Lakshmi

What is your father’s age?

My father is fifty two years old.

What is your mother’s age?

My mother is forty six years old.

What is the name of your teacher?

The name of my teacher is Mr. A.V.L.S.Rama Rao

Where do you study?

I study in Shree Shiridi Sai Degree College

Where do you live?

I live in AR Riyadh

How old are you?

I am thirty two years old.

How many brothers do you have?

I have one brother.

How many sisters do you have?

I have two sisters.

How old is your brother?

My brother is twenty four years old.

How old is your sister?

My sister is thirty four years old.

How much money do you have?

I have very little money, only $10.

How many magazines do you read?

I read four magazines.

How many articles have you written?

I have written five articles.

How many dogs have you reared?

I have reared two dogs.

Which is your favorite colour?

My favorite colour is white.

Which is your favorite game?

My favorite game is cricket.

Which is your favourite fruit?

My favourite fruit is Mango.

Which season do you like?

I like the rainy season.

Which is your house?

This is my house.

Which are their houses?

Those are their houses.

Which is your favourite flower?

My favourite flower is Rose.

Which is your favourite green vegetable?

My favourite green vegetable is spinach.

Who are your best friends?

My best friends are all.

Who will go to the club today?

Deepu and I will go to club today.

Who is he?

He is my friend Mr. Krishna Kumar Sait.

Who are they?

They are my friends.

Whose books are these?

These are my books.

Whom did they meet?

They met their friends.

When will he go home?

He will go home tomorrow.

When will he come back?

He will come back next week.

When did you come?

I came yesterday.

Why do you cry?

I cry because I am hurt.

Observe the table given below and compare the question words:

Question word     Verb                  +                      Answer

What                     is                your name?               My name is Venkat.

When                     is                the party?                 The party is on Tuesday.

Where                    are             you from?                 I’m from India.

Which                    is                your car?                  The red one is mine.

Who                      are             you?                         I’m Venkat.

Whose                   is                this web site?           It’s mine.

Why                      is                this book here?         Because it is!

How                      are             you?                         I’m fine, thanks.

Learn to ask Questions

A.

What is a question?

A question is a request for information. In written English a question should always end with a question mark (?) Asking questions is an excellent way to initiate communication because it shows other people that you’re paying attention and interested in their response.

B.

There are two types of questions you can ask to get more information:

1. Closed Question – can only be answered with a “yes” or a “no”. Closed questions are generally ineffective because they do not allow the speaker to explain his thoughts and feelings. For example:
• “Were you angry when she said those things about you?
• “Did you do that?”

2. Open – ended Questions – cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. Open-ended questions allow the speaker to express himself. For example:

·         “How did you feel about that?”

·         “What happened next?”

·         “What could you do to fix this?”

Open questions leave room for a description or opinion, and are more useful in eliciting information. Open questions are often called Wh... Questions.

C.

There are eight wh-questions – What, When, Where, Which, Who, Whom, Whose and Why and to this list we usually add how as they are all used to elicit particular kinds of information.

#. You use what when you are asking for information about something.

E.g.:

• What is that?

• What kind of person is he?
• What does he do at weekends?
• What time is it?
• What is Mary like?

#. You use when to ask about the time that something happened or will happen.

E.g.:

• When do you like going out?

• When does the bus leave?

# You use where to ask questions about place or position.

E.g.

• Where do you live?
• Where did you go on vacation?

# You use which when you are asking for information about one of a limited number of things.

E.g.:

• Which book did you buy?
• Which boy won the race?

# You use who or whom when you are asking about someone’s identity.

E.g.:

Who do you like?

Whom do you prefer for the assignment?

# You use whose to ask about possession.

E.g.:

Whose book is this?

Whose bag is that?

# You use why to ask for a reason.

E.g.:

Why is this book here?

Why not you paid the bills?

# You use how to ask about the way in which something is done.

E.g.: 

How lengthy was the film?

How much does it cost?

Remember!

Why is used to ask questions about the cause, reason or purpose for something. 

Example:

A: My aunt is buying that old house on Sixth Avenue.

B: Why?

Why questions can usually be answered by giving the reason straightaway. However, this is not acceptable in certain situations.

Example:

A: My aunt is buying that old house on Sixth Avenue.

B: Why?

Why questions can usually be answered by giving the reason straightaway. However, this is not acceptable in certain situations.

Example:

Q: Why is she screaming?

(in conversation)

A: She saw a mouse.

(in a written exercise)

A: She is screaming because she saw a mouse.

Compare the following:

When will you next be in London?

    The week after next.

When are you getting married?

    I’m not sure, next summer or autumn, perhaps.

Where are you getting married?

    In an old church near my village. It’s such a romantic place.’

Where does your fiancée come from?

    She’s from Ecuador.

Why didn’t you get married earlier?

    We've both been too busy, I guess.

How was your holiday?

    Oh, it was great. Just what we needed.

How do you like your coffee?

    With just a dash of milk and two sugars.

How about some cake to go with it?

OK, why not?

Conversation with Strangers

A.

Talking to complete strangers

• To be formal talk about the surroundings in Hotel/rest., etc…
• This is a nice/an interesting place, isn’t it?
• It’s quite busy/quiet/comfortable, isn’t it?
• With strangers, talk about the weather.
• It’s a nice/terrible day today, isn’t it?
• It’s a bit colder/warmer/nicer today, isn’t it?
• To be informal, give some information about yourself, and ask for some back:
• I’ve never been here before, Have you?
• I’m from (Spain). Where are you from?
• Complain about something:
• The service is really bad, isn’t it?
• They keep these places far too hot, don’t they?

B.

Talking to partial strangers

• To be normal, ask questions in an office/party:
• Do you live/work near here?
• Are you from (this part of the world)?
• What do you do (for a living)?
• Where do you live?
• Talk about the surroundings:
• This is a very quiet/pleasant/impressive place.
• To be informal:
• I don’t know (this part of the world). Do you?
• It’s difficult to park here. Do you find that?

C.

Personal information

• To ask about someone, use:
• Where do you live?
• What do you do? /What’s your job?
• Where are you from/where do you come from?
• Where does your family live/come from?
• What sort of work/music / food/ art do you like?
• To talk about yourself, use:
• I live in (Brussels)
• I’m a (student), I work (in an office)
• I’m from / I come from (Munich)
• My family lives in/come from (Berne)

D.

Read the following word groups aloud several times. Please don’t try to learn by-heart. Your sub-conscious mind will do that job, even without your knowledge, and rush onto your tongue whenever required. Yes, your job is just to read these word groups aloud several times.

Where were you born?

I was born here.

Have you lived here all your life?

Yes, I have.

Whom will you get the money from?

We’ll get it from our parents.

What will you spend the money on?

We’ll spend it on books and supplies.

Do you want me to wait for you?

No. I can take care of everything myself.

Can’t we meet a little later then?

Sure. I’ll be through in about half an hour.

What took you so long?

I had a lot of things to do.

We’d better hurry, or we’ll be late.

I thing you’re right.

I’m starting my vacation next week.

You ought to see as much as you can.

That’s what I think too.

You really ought to travel by bus then.

Where did you get that book?

From the library in my neighborhood.

Is it a good library?

Come with me and see for yourself.

We’re going to be late for the meeting.

When does it start?

It starts in exactly fifteen minutes.

I think we’ll be on time.

Something is bothering me.

What’s bothering you?

I think I left the lights on in my apartment.

Well, there’s nothing you can do about it now.

What does that sign say?

It says “No Smoking”.

What are you doing?

I’m putting out my cigarette.

I’m sorry I’m late for our appointment.

What happened?

The traffic was very heavy.

It’s always bad at this time of the day.

Familiar Expressions to Stimulate Listeners

A.

It’s a good idea to use familiar expressions to stimulate the listeners. It’s all in the way it’s done, which should be both original and tasteful. Use the present tense as much as possible, as well as the imperative, and avoid tenses like the past perfect, past conditional, or subjective. Also, consider how to use silence to your advantage. And work on your English, to avoid common faults. Create smooth transitions between sections of your conversation. Here are some short words and phrases that are good for transitions. Try to complete the following:

Actually…

But…

Who more than…

On the other hand…

What’s more…?

On the contrary…

In fact….

Once again…

Therefore….

And….

For example…

Similarly…

Another thing….

Now….

A second point….

Here….Immediate/….

In the same way…

Since…

So…Then….

In other words…

Finally…

Of course….

In spite of / Despite everything….

And that’s not at all…

It’s even better than that…

Wait, the best is yet to come…

But first, you should know a few things….

Now, and this is the most important…

And you will see why…

Now you understand why…

But there’s one thing more you have to do…

You might be asking yourself…

As you already know…

B.

Check Questions

The following phrases may be used to check whether the listener understands what you are saying along with possible responses:

Okay? Right?

Is that clear?

Are you with me?

Got/Get it so far?

Am I making sense?

Do/Can you follow me?

Does that make sense to you?

Am I making/Have I made myself clear?

Do you see what I mean / What I’m getting at?

Do I make myself clear/understood?

Do you understand me?

C.

Responses

Mmmm/Uh-huh.

Yes, sure…

Oh yes, go on

Of course

Yes, get on with it More or less, yes

Sort of Well, not really

Well

D.

Checking that the listener is listening

Are you listening?

Did you hear what I said?

What do you think?

Do you agree?

Can you summarize what I just said?

Are you all right? / Is there anything wrong?

E.

When the listener has not understood.

What I said was…

What I really mean is/meant was…

What I’m really saying/ trying to say is…

What I meant was….

That’s not really what I was getting at...

Let me put it in another way….

That’s not quite what I meant to say it’s not actually / quite that simple / complicated

There’s more to it than that….

It’s really more a case/question of….

Sorry, let me explain it more clearly/in another way /better

That’s not exactly what I meant to say.

F.

When the listener misunderstood you and started to get upset:

No, don’t get me wrong; what I meant to say was….

No, don’t misunderstand me…

You must have misunderstood me….

No, I didn’t mean that…

That’s not what I said /Meant.

That’s really not how I meant for it to be received.

I certainly didn’t mean for it to be delivered in that way.

Yikes, let me start allover again.

G.

Telling a story or presenting facts in an interesting or dramatic way.

You’ll never believe this/it…

You won’t / may not believe this/it, but….

This hard to believe, but…

Believe it or not…

Can you imagine?

And just imagine…

Imagine my surprise when…

I was surprised to find out…

Surprisingly/Strangely enough….

I couldn’t believe my eyes/ears!

Do you know what happened then?

What do you think he did?

And you know what?

Guess what?

You’ll never guess what happened next!

Are you sitting down? You’d better sit down!

And then, to add insult to injury…

As if that wasn’t enough…

H.

Adding surprising or shocking elements to a story

And that’s not all of it!

And there’s more!

But wait, there’s more!

And there’s something else, too!

And that’s not the end of it!

And listen to this!

I.

EXERCISE

Today, Sharukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan were running away from paparazzi when they got in your cab. You took them to Mumbai Airport. Tell your friend about what happened.

Bringing a Conversation to a Close

A.

Getting someone to explain something you have not understood

Read the following phrases below. Work with a partner. Speaker A introduces some difficult words and phrases into the dialogue so that Speaker B has to ask for explanations using these suggested strategies:

1. What do you mean?
2. What do you mean by_______?
3. Do you mean that ____? OR Does that mean that____?
4. What exactly does that mean?
5. What are you saying/trying to say?
6. Don’t you mean___?
7. What exactly does_______mean?
8. Could/Would you explain this word, please?
9. Sorry, I didn’t understand the word….
10. Sorry, I’m lost. /I’m afraid you lost me there.
11. Sorry, I don’t/didn’t quite follow you / what you were saying about…
12. I’m not sure I understand/follow you.
13. I’m afraid I don’t understand.
14. I don’t quite see what you mean/what you are getting at I’m afraid….
15. I’m sorry, I’m not quite clear on…
16. I don’t get you/I don’t get it ‘I don’t get the point.

B.

General apologies:

“I am sorry you feel that way.”

“I’m sorry about this situation.”

“I apologize for this situation.”

“I feel bad that you are upset about this.”

C

More specific apologies:

“I don’t blame you for being upset. I would be too.”

“I am very sorry about your bill. I thought we had corrected it.”

“I apologize for this situation. We’ll get this straightened out right away.”

“Please accept my apology for the misunderstanding.”

“It is our fault and I am sorry we didn’t do what we said we would.”

D.

Bringing a conversation to a close

I've got to go now…

I really must go/must be going/must be off, now…

Well, I should be/I’d better be going/moving/getting on my way…

I guess I ought to get back…

I must be back to work…

I’m awfully sorry, but I’m expecting someone in five minutes.

I’d better let you go. I’d better not take any more of your time.

Thanks for your time. Once again, thank you very much.

It’s been very nice talking to you.

We’ll have to get together again some time.

Well, anyway, keep in touch.

Well, anyway, keep me posted.

Let me know how to get on.

So, I’ll see you soon/next week.

See you some time soon, I hope.

I apologize to cut you short, but I’ve got to wrap this up.

I hope everything goes well.

Look after yourself.

Take care.

Well, I have an n appointment now.

I’m in quite a hurry too.

Good to see you. Goodbye.

Goodbye. Take care of yourself.

It’s getting late, and I have to go now…

We’re sorry you have to leave.

Please excuse me, won’t you?

Certainly. Come back soon.

I’m glad to have met you.

Thank you. It was nice to have seen you.

I hope we can get together again.

Yes. I’ll be looking forward to it.

I think I have to leave now.

Must you go so soon?

I’m afraid I really have to.

Well, it was fun to get together again.

E.

Proverbs and platitudes which can be used to conclude a conversation:

That’s life.

That’s just the way it goes.

That’s the way of the world.

Things always work out for the best.

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

You never can tell.

Let’s wait and see.

Doesn’t time fly so fast?

It happens to the best of us/to us all.

It comes to us all.

You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth.

You can’t please everyone.

You can’t win them all.

You can’t have everything.

Every could has a silver lining.

It’ll turn out for the best.

Changing the Subject in a Conversation

A.

The dialogue can be extended by introducing new topics. The following phrases or transitions can be used

Oh, by the way…

That reminds me of…

Speaking about/of…

Talking of …

Before I forget…

Oh, I nearly forgot…

Oh, while I remember…

I just thought of something…

Oh, there’s something else I wanted/meant to say/ask you…

Oh, I knew there was something I meant/wanted to tell you

Oh, I know what I wanted/meant to say/tell/ask you…

This has nothing to do with what we are talking about, but…

I know this is changing the subject, but…

Changing the subject for a minute…

Funny / strange you should mention/say that…

That’s funny, because something similar…

Incidentally…

B.

Interrupting a conversation

You can use the following interrupting strategies to break into a conversation:

I’m sorry to interrupt…

Sorry to break ink but…

Sorry, may I interrupt you for a second…

Excuse me /Pardon me for interrupting, but…

If I may interrupt for a second...

C.

Returning to the topic

As I was saying…

Now, what was I saying…?

Where was I…?

Going back to what I was saying…

Let’s go back to…

In any case….

D.

Common Fillers in Conversation

The thing is…

I see, what you mean..?

The sort/kind of thing…

It’s like this, you see…

Right then…

Let’s say…

What I’m trying to say is…

Now, where should I start…?

That’s a good/interesting question…

What I would say is….

How shall I put it…?

Let’s put it this way…

The best way I can answer that is…

I’ll tell you what…

Now let me think/see…

I’ll have to think about it…

To be quite honest/frank…

As a matter of fact….

Let’s see now….

I wonder if…

E.

Asking for Repetition

Sorry, what did you say? / What was that again?

What was the word/ the first word/his name/the last sentence again?

Would / Could you repeat that/ what you said / that name / the last word, please?

Could you repeat that for me, please?

Would you mind repeating that?

Sorry, can you say that again, please?

Sorry, would you mind speaking a bit slower?

I’m sorry; I couldn’t /didn’t hear what you said.

I’m sorry. When /who / where / what time did you say?

Hang on / just a minute, say that again? I didn’t quite catch that…

Did you say....?

Did I hear you right when you said…?

I would like to confirm that you said…

Excuse me, can I just confirm that….