Grammar Checkup #1 | Subject Pronouns | 'be' Verbs | Basic English Grammar Course

This is a checkup for subjective pronouns and ‘be’ verbs.

Let’s take a look at the board.

The first sentence.

“___, are bags.”

Now, bags are things.

So we can’t say “he” or “she” or, you know, any of those.

We have to use “it” or “they”.

Now, we have “are….

bags”.

With an ‘s’.

So that means more than one.

We have to use ‘they’.

“They are bags.”

Okay.

The next sentence we have an animal.

“____ is a dog.”

Okay.

But just one.

Right? ’a’ dog.

So this time we use ‘it’.

“It is a dog.”

Now let’s look at these two.

“The girl is an artist.”

We have ‘the girl’.

What is the subjective pronoun for one girl?

“She.”

“She is an artist.”

These two sentences have the same meaning.

They’re the same.

Okay, and on the bottom, we have a question.

When we ask a question, we have to put the ‘be’ verb first.

“Are ___ pandas?”

“Are ___ pandas?”

With an ‘s’.

That means more than one.

So, we say, “they”.

“Are they pandas?”

“Yes, ____ are.”

Again plural.

So we just use the same.

“They.”

“Yes, they are.”

Okay, let’s move on to the next part.

Okay, now we’re going to focus on negatives and questions.

Okay, the first sentence says,

“I’m a student”.

Okay, “I am…I’m a student”.

Okay.

What if I’m a teacher?

Okay, it’s not true.

I need ‘not’.

Right…

Remember, ‘not’ goes after the ‘be’ verb.

“I am…am not.”

And then the noun. “…a student.”

“I’m not a student.”

Okay.

“They are teachers.”

Okay.

And now we have some other people...

and that’s not true.

“They are not teachers.”

Again, after the ‘be’ verb ‘are’ and before the noun ‘teachers’.

“They are not teachers.”

Okay.

Now, I’m going to ask you a question.

And you have to answer.

“Are you a student?”

“Are you a student?”

Well, you’re taking my class, you’re learning English.

So, “Yes, I am.”

Okay, you should say, “Yes, I am.”

But how about this one?

“Are you a monkey?”

“Are you a monkey?”

Of course the answer is “No, I’m not”.

“No, I’m not”.

Okay, let’s move on to the last part.

Now for this last part, we’re going to look at some sentences,

but there’s something wrong in all of these sentences.

So you have to find the mistakes.

The first sentence says, “I’m student”.

Okay, look, “student”.

There’s no ‘s’.

That means just one.

Just one.

So remember, if there’s just one, we have to put ‘a’.

“I’m a student.”

Let’s look at the next one.

“They are student”.

Okay.

This one says, “They are”.

This means there is more than one.

More than one student.

So, what do we have to do?

We have to say “They are….

students”.

We have to put an ‘s’ to show there’s more than one student.

“She aren’t a baby.”

“She.”

That’s one person.

One girl or woman.

“…a baby.”

That’s one person.

But we put “aren’t”.

Now that’s wrong.

We have to say... ‘isn’t’.

“She isn’t a baby”.

“You isn’t a cat”.

Now, for the subjective pronoun ‘you’,

we have to have the ‘be’ verb ‘are’.

So not “You isn’t a cat”, but “You aren’t... a cat”.

“You aren’t a cat.”

Okay.

“Are it a cat?”

Okay. “…a cat.”

That’s one animal.

So, do we need ‘are’?

No, we need the ‘be’ verb ‘is’.

“Is it a cat?”

“Is it a cat?”

Okay, so that was the checkup for subjective pronouns and ‘be’ verbs.

I hope you guys understood and I’ll see you in the next video.

Bye.