Short Answers in English

Hi, my name is Rebecca from engVid, and in today's lesson, we're going to learn how to

answer questions in English with a short answer, okay?

Now, of course, when somebody asks you something, you can always just answer "yes" or "no",

but usually in English, it's not polite to only say "yes" or "no".

We usually say "a little bit more" just to sound more polite and to make it seem a little

bit more like a sentence rather than just a grunt.

A grunt is when we just say something quickly, all right?

So you don't want to do that.

So let's look at how we can answer and also how to answer correctly in terms of the grammar,

all right?

So I've written some examples on the board in the present tense, in the past tense, and

also with the present perfect, all right?

So let's look at this question.

Do you play tennis, right?

So the rule when we want to answer the question is we take the auxiliary, which in this case

is "do".

Auxiliary is a word that's added to make it a question in this case, all right?

So "do" you play tennis, right?

When you ask the question, you don't usually just say "you play tennis".

You can say that, but it's very informal.

So usually we say, "Do you play tennis?"

So the answer is really easy.

You can just say, "Yes, I do."

So what are we doing?

We're taking the auxiliary "do" and we're adding it to the answer.

So "Do you play tennis?"

"Yes, I do."

Or "No, I don't."

Correct?

The mistake that students make is if you ask them, "Do you play tennis?"

they might say, "Yes, I play."

Now that would be wrong in English.

It's not right to say that.

What you should say is, "Yes, I do" or "No, I don't" if the question started with "do".

So if somebody asks you, I'm asking you, for example, "Do you speak French?"

So what would your answer be?

Hopefully you said either, "Yes, I do" or "No, I don't."

If I ask you, "Do you like pizza?"

you could say, "What?"

"Yes, I do" or "No, I don't."

All right?

Let's look at the past tense.

Same rule applies in the past tense, except here the auxiliary changed.

Because it's the past tense, simple past tense, we're using the word "did".

Correct?

"Did you finish your homework?"

So same thing, right?

"Yes, I did."

"No, I didn't."

"Did you write to Mary?"

"Yes, I did" or "No, I didn't."

"Did you pass the exam?"

Hopefully your answer is, "Yes, I did" or "No, I didn't."

Let's look now at the present perfect tense.

Same rule applies, you're going to do exactly the same thing, except here we're starting

with "have".

Right?

"Have you seen that movie?"

So you could answer, "Yes, I have" or "No, I haven't."

You see again, "have" comes into the answer.

"Yes, I have" or "No, I haven't."

Right?

If you ask someone, "Have you read that book?"

You could say, "Yes, I have" or "No, I haven't."

"Have you visited Thailand?"

"Yes, I have" or "No, I haven't."

Okay?

So you can see it this way, how to make the short answers sound polite and also correct.

Alright?

If you'd like some more practice with this or any other aspect of English, we have many

such videos on our website, which is www.engvid.com.

Please feel free to go there, there are lots of other videos and there's also lots of quizzes

on this as well as on many other aspects of English.

Alright?

So, thanks for watching and good luck with your English.

Bye for now.