Made by Luis Walle.

Interrogative words or question words:

There are 2 types of questions, opened and closed questions:

A closed question requires a yes or no answer, for example: Are you happy? Yes, I am happy/No, I
am not happy

An opened question gets different answers, for example: What is your name? My name is
Kevin/Peter/Samantha/Karen, etc.

*In order to ask an opened question it’s necessary to use an interrogative word (IW) or question
word (QW).

Questions words help us to obtain more specific information, the following chart will help us to
identify some question words.

Question word Asks for (in other words)

what object, an action or information/profession

where place

when time, the moment

what time specific hour

how the way or condition/manner

how often frequency

how long a period of time/duration

why reason

who (subject) the does of an action

who…fot, whit, to (complement) the receiver of an action, or the companion

how many quantity (countable nouns)

how much quantity (mass nouns), a piece

which a specific item/options

what kind of a type of something

whose possession, the owner of something

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 Made by Luis Walle.

Verb to be in present is used to express 5 different things, name, nationality profession or

occupation, location and description. Description involves age, civil status, physical condition,
moods (feelings)

Verb to be is not used for actions unless the actions comes in progressive form (ING) in this case,
the name of the structure will be present progressive and it is used to express actions that occur at
the moment of speaking

**present progressive can also be used to express a near future (in few hours, tomorrow, next week,
etc.)

NAME
AM NATIONALITY
(QW) + IS + ☺ + PROFESSION/OCCUPATION + ?
ARE DESCRIPTION
LOCATION
Verb + ING

NAME
AM NATIONALITY
(YES,) + ☺ + IS + PROFESSION/OCCUPATION
ARE DESCRIPTION
LOCATION
Verb + ING

NAME
AM NATIONALITY
(NO,) + ☺ + IS + NOT + PROFESSION/OCCUPATION
ARE DESCRIPTION
LOCATION
Verb + ING

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EXAMPLES:

A: Who is she? B: She is Karen.

A: Is she French? B: No, she is not French.

A: What nationality is she? B: she is American.

A: What´s she? B: She is a Doctor

A: is she married? B: No, she is single.

A: Is she happy? B: Yes, she is happy.

A: Where is she? B: She is at the university

A: What is she doing? B: She is feeding her pet.

A: Are you working tomorrow? B: No, I am not working tomorrow.

A: What are you drinking? B: I am having a delicious lemonade.

A: Where are you going? B: I am going to the grocery store.

Exercise: Fill in the blanks using a suitable QW, verb to be (am, is, are) or the verb in the parenthesis
in the correct form negative and affirmative.

1.- Where _____ your brother _______(Study)

He _____(Not) _________(study), he is ________ (watch) tv.

2.- _______ are you ______(eat)? It looks delicious!

It _______ a chocolate pizza, you should try it.

3.- _____ _____ that guy?

He ______ a friend of mine.

4.- ______ you married?

No, I _______(Not) married, I am divorced.

5.- What ______ you _________(watch) on tv?

I ______ __________(watch) the news.

6.- Who _____ I? ______ ____ I? I cannot remember anything.

You ______ my friend, and you had an accident.

7.- ______ _____ your birthday?

It _____ on Oct 21st

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 Made by Luis Walle.

Simple present is used to express habitual actions in our life (habits in present), activities that we
do daily. We need an auxiliary for questions and negative. Auxiliary ¨Do¨ for I, you, we, they and
auxiliary ¨Does¨ for he, she, and it.

** Simple present can be used with a future meaning when we have a schedule already established.

For questions and negative, we use the verb in Simple Form (SF) for all the pronouns, since we have
an auxiliary, on the other hand in an affirmative sentence for 3rd person it is necessary to add
S/ES/IES

 Add (ES) for 3rd person (he, she, it) only in affirmative sentences if the verb ends in these
sounds: X, SH,SS,CH,O

Examples: I fix, she fixes, I finish, she finishes, I kiss, she kisses, I watch, she watches, I go, she goes.

 Change the ¨Y¨ for an ¨I¨ and then add (ES) for 3rd person (he, she, it) only in affirmative
sentences if the verb ends in written ¨Y¨ and is preceded by a consonant

Examples: I cry, she cries, I study, she studies, I play, she plays.

*Changing the ¨Y¨ for an I¨ does not apply for the verb play, since it is preceded by a vowel, in that
case we only add an ¨S¨.

 Add (S) for 3rd person (he, she, it) only in affirmative sentences for the rest of the verbs.

Example: I clean, she cleans, I eat, she eats, I take, she takes.

**Contraction; don’t and doesn’t are used commonly for native speakers, but are not recommended
for formal writing.

DO
(QW) + + ☺ + VERB(SF) ?
DOES

(YES,) + ☺ + VERB (S/ES/IES)

DO
(NO,) + ☺ + + NOT + VERB (SF)
DOES

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Examples:

A: Do you work? B: Yes, I work / No, I do not work.

A: Does she work? B: Yes, she works/ No, she does not work.

A: where do you live? B: I live in Coyoacan.

A: Does your mother work? B: Yes, she does.

A: Where does she work? B: She works at an international company.

A: Do you wake up every day? B: yes, I wake up at 5:00 am.

A: What time does the airplane land? B: It lands at 3pm.

A: who do you live with? B: I live with my friends.

Exercise: Fill in the blanks using a suitable QW, auxiliary (do, does) or the verb in the parenthesis in
the correct form negative and affirmative.

1.- Where ______ you ________(work)?

I _______ at sky.

2.- ________ _______ your sister (study)?

She ________(study) low.

3.- ______ he _______(call) you every day?

Yes, he _________(call) me every day at the same time.

4.-How _______ your parents _________(celebrate) Christmas?

They __________(celebrate) dancing all night long.

5.- _________ books ______ your mother _______(have)?

She ________ many books.

6.- How long ______the movie _______(last)?

It _________(last) 2 hours and 15 minutes.

7.- _______ you _______ (have) boyfriend?

No, I _______(not) _________(have) boyfriend.

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Verb to be in past is used to express 3 different things, profession or occupation, location and
description. Description involves age, civil status, physical condition, moods (feelings)

Verb to be is not used for actions unless the actions comes in progressive form (ING) in this case,
the name of the structure will be past progressive and it is used to indicate that actions occurred in
an specific moment in the past and it focuses in the continuity of the action.

Was is used only for I, she, he, it, and were is used only for you, we, they.

WAS PROFESSION/OCCUPATION
(QW) + + ☺ + DESCRIPTION + ?
WERE LOCATION
Verb + ING

WAS PROFESSION/OCCUPATION
(YES,) + ☺ + + DESCRIPTION
WERE LOCATION
Verb + ING

WAS PROFESSION/OCCUPATION
(No,) ☺ + + NOT + DESCRIPTION
WERE LOCATION
Verb + ING

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Examples:

A: Where were you? B: I was in my car.

A: Was your sister with you? B: Yes, she was with me.

A: When was your birthday? B: It was last week.

A: Were they dancing at the party? B: No they were not dancing.

A: was it raining yesterday? B: Yes, it was raining, but only a drizzle.

A: Why were you eating so much? B: Gosh! I was so hungry.

A: What were you doing last night? B: I was watching tv.

Exercise: Fill in the blanks using a suitable QW, verb to be in past (was, were) or the verb in the
parenthesis in the correct form negative and affirmative.

1.- _________ your sister ____________(study) for the exam?

No, she _______(not), she ______ ________(gab) with her boyfriend

2.- Someone ________ __________(sleep) in my bed.

It ________ (not) me.

3.- ______ you blue yesterday?

Well… I ______ kindda sad

4.- _______ you __________(smoke)?

No, I ________(not), but my friends _________(smoke).

5.- _________ __________ with you the other day?

It _________ my cousin, we ________ _________(cook) together.

6.- __________ you married 5 years ago?

No, I __________ (not) married, I _______ single.

7.- _______ _______ your day?

Wow, it _______ terrific, I ______ ________ (have) fun.

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 Made by Luis Walle.

Simple past is used to express past actions, and action that started in the past and finished in the
past. We need an auxiliary for questions and negative. Auxiliary ¨Did¨

For questions and negative the verb is in Simple Form (SF) for all the pronouns, since we have an
auxiliary, on the other hand in an affirmative sentence the verb must be in simple past

(QW) + DID + ☺ + VERB(SF) ?

(YES,) + ☺ + VERB (SIMPLE PAST)

(NO,) + ☺ + DID + NOT + VERB (SF)

Examples:

A: What did you eat yesterday? B: I ate chicken breaded breast and salad.

A: Who did you go to the party with? I went to the party with my friends.

A: What did you say? B: I didn’t say anything.

A: When did you study? B: I studied last week.

A: Did you dance tango? B: Yes, I danced tango.

A: Did they help you? B: Yes, they helped me.

A: Did you fly on airplane? B: Yes I flew on with Interjet.

Writing rules for regular verbs in simple past.

1.- Regular verbs ending in a silent ¨e¨take ¨d¨ example: close ---- closed.

2.- Regular verbs ending in a vowel + ¨Y¨ take the ¨ ed¨ example: play ---- played.

3.- Regular verbs ending in a consonant + ¨Y¨ take ¨ied¨ example: marry ---- married.

4.- All the other regular verbs take the ¨ed¨ example: visit ---- visited.

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Pronunciation rule for Regular verbs in past.

1) If the verb ends in a voiceless sound, like /s/, /ch/, /sh/, /x/, /p/, /k/, the “ed” particle will be
pronounced like /t/:

Missed touched pushed mixed stopped talked

2) If the verb ends in a voice sound like /n/, /m/, /l/, /r/, /y/, /w/, /z/, and vowel sounds the “ed”
particle will be pronounced like /d/:

Cleaned climbed smelled stayed followed closed played

3) If the verb ends with the letters “t” or “d”, the “ed” particle will be pronounced like /ed/ or /id/:

Wanted needed

Exercise: indicate the correct pronunciation of the particle ED (t,d,ed,id)

barked ___________ laughed ___________ started ___________

brushed ___________ missed ___________ stopped ___________
called ___________ played ___________ tied ___________
changed ___________ protected ___________ typed ___________
erased ___________ seemed ___________ walked ___________
explained ___________ lselected ___________ watched ___________
imagined ___________ smiled ___________ worked ___________

Exercise: Fill in the blanks using a suitable QW, auxiliary (did) or the verb in the parenthesis in the
correct form negative and affirmative.

1.- Where ________ you ________(Eat) last weekend?

I __________(eat) in my house.

2.- Where ______ you ________(go) on your last vacation?

I _________ to Cancun.

3.- _________ ________ you cook last Christmas?

I __________(not cook) anything, I ________(Buy) turkey

4.- _______ Karen _________(help) you?

No, she _________(not help) me, but Tania _________(help) me

5.- _________ you __________(finish) the exercise?

Yes, I __________(finish) it.