Grammar for Beginners - Making Questions with "To Be"

Hi, this is Alex.

Thank you for clicking, and welcome to this beginner lesson on how to make questions with

the verb "to be."

So, by this point, you should know the conjugation with the verb "to be" and its various subjects.

Okay?

So you say, "I am," "you are," "he," "she," or "it is," "we are," "they

are."

So, we have some sentences on the board here.

Now, these are all present tense, so remember, these are present tense questions right now.

We have, "He is a teacher," "They are your friends," and "You are a student."

How do we make these into questions?

Very, very simple.

Okay?

With the verb "to be," if you want to find out if he is a teacher, you simply put the

verb "to be" in front.

Okay?

Same with this.

So here, "He is a teacher," the question becomes, "Is he a teacher?"

The question here becomes, the statement is, "They are your friends," so the question

is, "Are they your friends?"

Running out of space, that's okay.

"Are they your friends?" and "You are a student," becomes, again, put "are"

in front of the verb "to be," "Are you a student?"

Okay, now, in speaking, it is very important when making questions that your voice kind

of goes up at the end.

Okay?

So, "Is he a teacher?"

The way, the correct way to ask that question is, "Is he a teacher?"

So this, your voice goes up.

Okay?

Your voice goes up.

"Is he a teacher?

Are they your friends?"

Voice goes up.

"Are you a student?"

Your voice goes up.

Okay?

So again, with "I am," the question form would be, "Am I?"

So again, if I say, "I am a teacher," "Am I a teacher?"

Yes.

Okay?

You say, "You are," it becomes, "Are you?"

So again, if I say, "You are a student," the question is, "Are you a student?"

If I say, "He is a policeman," the question becomes, "Is he a policeman?"

If I say, "We are students," the question is, "Are we students?" and if I say, "They

are students," then the question is, "Are they students?"

Now let's look at the past tense and making questions in the past tense using the verb

"to be."

So for the past tense, the rule is exactly the same for the verb "to be."

Okay?

However, for the past tense, we say, "I was," "You were," "He, she, or it was," "We were,"

and "They were."

Okay?

So I have three sentences here.

First one says, "He was born in Iraq."

Second one, "They were hungry."

And the third one, "You were angry."

Okay?

So the same idea again, "He was" becomes, "Was he," "They were" becomes, "Were they,"

and "You were" becomes, "Were you."

So again, "He was born in Iraq."

The question is, "Was he, was he born in Iraq?"

And a question mark, "They were hungry," the question is, "Were they hungry?"

And "You were angry" becomes, in question form, "Were you angry?"

Okay?

So again, just remember for the pronunciation as well, when you're asking the questions,

"Was he born in Iraq?"

Voice goes up.

"Were they hungry?"

Voice goes up.

"Were you angry?"

Voice goes up.

Okay?

So this is a very, very easy way to remember how to make questions with the verb "to be."

Just switch the subject with the conjugated form of the verb "to be."

So remember, "I am" becomes, "Am I," "You are" becomes, "Are you," etc.

Okay?

So to test your knowledge of making questions with the verb "to be" in the present tense

and in the past tense, please check out www.engvid.com and do the quiz.

My name is Alex.

Thanks for watching.

Take care.