Universidade Católica de Moçambique

Instituto de Educação à Distância

Greetings and verb to be; numbers and dates; verb to have and
family; verb to do; present simple; telling the time; present
continuous; plurals; prepositions.

Name: Ester Vasco André Bengula

708237478

Curso: Lic. em Ensino de Biologia

Ano de frequência: 1º Ano
Turma: D
Disciplina: Inglish.
2º Semestre
Docente: dr. Janeiro Daniel.

Chimoio, September, 2023

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Contents Page
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1
Greetings ................................................................................................................................................ 2
Verb To Be ............................................................................................................................................. 2
How to say the DATES in English ........................................................................................................ 5
Numbers in English................................................................................................................................ 6
Verb TO HAVE and family relationships ............................................................................................. 9
Family Relationships ............................................................................................................................. 9
Verb To Do .......................................................................................................................................... 10
Present simple ...................................................................................................................................... 11
Telling the Time ................................................................................................................................... 12
Present Continuous .............................................................................................................................. 14
Plurals .................................................................................................................................................. 15
Prepositions .......................................................................................................................................... 16
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 18
References ............................................................................................................................................ 19

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Introduction
The present work focuses on the resolution of exercises related to greetings and verb to be from first
unit, numbers and dates from unit two verb to have and family from unit three, verb to do from unit
four, the present simple from unit five, telling the time from unit six, the present continuous from
unit seven plurals from unit eight, and prepositions for unit nine. This is the work of English
language from Catholic University done through support of English year 1 module about solving
most of the exercises contained in the module from unit 1 until unit 18. The present work is assigned
as both an individual and an independent work to be submitted to the tutor within the deadline
strictly established.

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Greetings
Meeting someone for the first time:
We usually say: ‘good morning/good afternoon, nice to meet you’, when we meet someone for the
first time. (Apart from ‘How do you do’ which is formal. The answer could be: ‘nice to meet you
too’ or ‘same here’. ‘Nice meeting you’ is to tell him/her good bye.

Meeting a colleague:
‘Good morning/good afternoon, how are you?’
The answer could be: ‘Fine, thank you/thanks, how about you?’
‘Have a nice day/evening/weekend’, to tell him/her good bye.

Less formal: meeting friends

‘Hi, how are you doing?’
The answer could be: ‘I’m good/ok…how about you?’
‘Take care/take it easy’, to say good bye

Verb To Be
The verb to be is a very important verb in English language because it helps us explain the condition
or characteristics of people and things (Matola, Langa & Magombo, 2013). In the study of grammar,
we say that this verb shows state of being. This verb is very irregular. It is important to know its
correct forms in the past, present, and future tenses.

Simple present tense with ‘be’

The verb ‘be’ is different from the other verbs in this tense. Let’s look at ‘be’ first: Here is
the positive form (positive means a normal sentence, not a negative or a question. This is sometimes
called ‘affirmative’)

Positive Positive Short Form

I am I’m
you are you’re
he is he’s
she is she’s
it is it’s
we are we’re
they are they’re

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Next, here is the negative. It is very easy. You only add ‘not’.

Negative Negative short form

I am not I’m not
you are not you aren’t
he is not he isn’t
she is not she isn’t
it is not it isn’t
we are not we aren’t
they are not they aren’t

And finally let us focus about the question form of the present simple with ’be’. Firstly, here’s
the ‘yes / no’ question form:

Yes / No Questions
am I ?
are you ?
is he ?
is she ?
is it ?
are we ?
are they ?

The irregular verb to be is the most complicated of all the English verbs—and it just so happens to be
the most used, too. The to be verbs are am, are, is, was, and were, along with the bare infinitive be,
the present participle being, and the past participle been.

What are the to be verbs?

Here’s a quick list of the to be verbs and their functions:

To be verbs: Function:
Be bare infinitive
am, is, are present tense
was, were past tense
Been past participle
Being present participle, gerund

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The verb to be means to exist (I am here), to occur (The meeting is Tuesday), or to have the
characteristics of something (She was a quiet child). It is the most common verb in English, partly
because of its additional uses in grammar: to be verbs can be auxiliary verbs that help create other
tenses or linking verbs that help describe the subject of a sentence (Smalzer, 2022).

As an irregular verb, to be has its own unique forms. When conjugated for different subjects or
tenses, the verb to be can become am, are, is, was, or were. It’s also written differently in certain
verb tenses: The present participle of to be is being. The past participle is been, and the bare
infinitive form is be.

Forms of to be verbs
Simple present and past tenses
According to Matola, Langa and Magombo (2013), the verb to be is most commonly used in the
simple present and simple past tenses. These tenses each use their own special words for to be,
depending on the person and number of the subject.

Simple present tense

Singular Plural
First person (I) am (we) are
Second person (you) are (you) are
Third person (he/she/it) is (they) are

Simple past tense

Singular Plural
First person (I) was (we) were
Second person (you) were (you) were
Third person (he/she/it) was (they) were

The simple present and simple past tenses of to be are also used as auxiliary verbs to create the
present continuous and past continuous tenses, which show an ongoing or continuous action. As with
other tenses, in the continuous tenses, to be verbs are still conjugated to match the subject. The main
verb of the sentence comes after to be and is always in its present participle form (the –ing form),
regardless of the subject.

[conjugated to be] + [present participle]

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The present continuous uses the simple present tense of to be verbs (am, are, and is):

We are driving home right now.

The past continuous uses the simple past (was and were):

We were driving for hours yesterday.

How to say the DATES in English

For dates in spoken English, we always use ordinal numbers, i.e. Fourth of July, not Four of July.
Ordinal numbers = Numbers that show the order or sequence. Normally a -TH appears at the end of
the number. e.g. seven … seventh. In spoken English we ALWAYS use ordinal numbers for dates.
However, in written English you may write a normal (cardinal) number without the -TH or -ST etc.
after it. Even if it is not written, the ordinal number is still said in spoken English. In United States it
is NOT common to put the -th after the number in written English.

Order of Days and Months when saying the date

There are two ways of giving the date in English:

Month + Day: December 25 – used in United States.* OR

Day + Month: 25th December – used in the rest of the world.

* The exception is with the name of the US celebration the Fourth of July.

How to say the YEARS in English

Years are normally divided into two parts; the first two digits and the last two digits. **
2017 is divided into 20 and 17 so one would say twenty seventeen.
 1982 = nineteen eighty-two
 1999 = nineteen ninety-nine
 2017 = twenty seventeen
 2021 = twenty twenty-one

Writing the date in English

We need to be careful when writing the dates using only numbers. For example, Christmas day is
written:
 12 / 25 / 17 in United States (the month is first) and
 25 / 12 / 17 in the rest of the world (the day is first).

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To avoid confusion, when writing an email or any other written form of English, it is best to write
the month as its name (January, February, etc.) or its abbreviation (Jan. Feb. etc.) and NOT as its
number (Smalzer, 2022). And remember, the months are always written in Capital letters. In US
English, a comma is put after the day if it is followed by a year.

 March 17, 2016.

 December 22, 2012.

How can one ask for the date in English?

The main ways of asking the date are:

What day is it today?

– People will probably respond with a day of the week (It’s Monday) or the number (It’s the 19th).

What date is it?

– People may give the number (It’s the 19th) or the day/month (It’s 19th May or May 19th). They
will not answer with a day of the week.

What is the date (today)? OR What is today’s date?

– This is another way where you will get a number as an answer.
The response to your question will most likely start with…
The date is …
The date today is …
Today is…
It is… (most common)

Numbers in English
The cardinal numbers (one, two, three, etc.) are adjectives referring to quantity, and the ordinal
numbers (first, second, third, etc.) refer to distribution.

Number Cardinal Ordinal

1 One First
2 Two second
3 Three Third
4 Four fourth
5 Five Fifth

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6 Six Sixth
7 Seven Seventh
8 Eight eighth
9 Nine Ninth
10 Ten Tenth
11 Eleven eleventh
12 Twelve twelfth
500 five hundred five hundredth
1,000 one thousand thousandth
1,500 one thousand five hundred, or one thousand five hundredth
fifteen hundred
100,000 one hundred thousand hundred thousandth
1,000,000 one million Millionth

Examples
 There are twenty-five people in the room.
 He was the fourteenth person to win the award.
 Six hundred thousand people were left homeless after the earthquake.
 I must have asked you twenty times to be quiet.
 He went to Israel for the third time this year.

Reading decimals
Read decimals aloud in English by pronouncing the decimal point as “point”, then read each digit
individually. Money is not read this way.

Written Said
0.5 point five
0.25 point two five
0.73 point seven three
0.05 point zero five
0.6529 point six five two nine
2.95 two point nine five
Reading fractions
Read fractions using the cardinal number for the numerator and the ordinal number for the
denominator, making the ordinal number plural if the numerator is larger than 1. This applies to all

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numbers except for the number 2, which is read “half” when it is the denominator, and “halves” if
there is more than one.

Written Said
1/3 one third
3/4 three fourths
5/6 five sixths
1/2 one half
3/2 three halves
Pronouncing percentages
Percentages are easy to read aloud in English. Just say the number and then add the word “percent”.

Written Pronounced
5% five percent
25% twenty-five percent
36.25% thirty-six point two five percent
100% one hundred percent
400% four hundred percent
Reading sums of money
To read a sum of money, first read the whole number, then add the currency name. If there is a
decimal, follow with the decimal pronounced as a whole number, and if coinage has a name in the
currency, add that word at the end. Note that normal decimals are not read in this way. These rules
only apply to currency (Alexander, 2020).

Written Spoken
25$ twenty-five dollars
52€ fifty-two Euros
140₤ one hundred and forty pounds
$43.25 forty-three dollars and twenty-five cents (shortened to “forty-three twenty-five” in
everyday speech)
€12.66 twelve Euros sixty-six
₤10.50 ten pounds fifty

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Verb TO HAVE and family relationships

We use the verb TO HAVE to talk about possession. Example: I have two pens. She has three
sisters. John has long hair. Speakers of Portuguese often mistake the verb TO BE (SER/ESTAR)
and the verb TO HAVE (TER).
Example: Tenho fome = I am hungry. Tem 32 anos = He is 32 years old.

Example: I don’t like chicken. John doesn’t play tennis. (negatives)

Do you like chicken? Yes, I do. / No, I don’t. (question)

Does Maria study English? Yes, she does. / No, she doesn’t. (question)

What kind of food do you like? I like fruit. (question)

What kind of music does she like? She likes rap. (question)

Family Relationships
Masculine Feminine
Grandfather Grandmother

Father Mother

Husband Wife

Uncle Aunt

Son Daughter

Brother Sister

Cousin Cousin

Nephew Niece

Grandson Granddaughter

Brother in law Sister in law

Exercises
Use the words in the table above to complete the sentences below about the Sitoe family.

(1) Victorino is Dangarilane’s father.

(2) Berta is Pedro’s sister.

(3) Pedro is Maria’s brother.

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(4) Victorino is Rosa’s husband.

(5) Dangarilane is Chicumba’s sister.

(6) Rosa is Maria’s mother.

(7) Chicumba is Victorino’s son.

(8) Berta is Rosa’s daughter.

(9) Maria is Chicumba’s sister.

(10) Pedro is Dangarilane’s brother.

Verb To Do
Exercises

Answer these questions about yourself.

(1) Where do you go to school? I go to Catholic University.

(2) What do you eat for breakfast? I drink tea with bread.

(3) What do you usually drink in the morning? I drink tea.

(4) Do you go to school by bus? Yes, I do.

(5) Do you like going to school? Yes, I do.

(6) What do you like about your school? I like Biology and English language.

(7) What do you like doing in your free time? I like chatting with my friends and doing my school
works.

(8) What do you do at the weekend? I do my washing and cleaning my house.

(9) What do you like to watch on TV? I like to watch the news and soap opera.

(10) What time do you usually go to bed? I usually go to bed at 9 pm.

Rewrite these sentences as questions.

(1) You always speak Italian with Andrea. Do you always speak Italian with Andrea?

(2) He is coming back to Italy. Is he coming back to Italy?

(3) Her husband leaves for work at 8.30. Does her husband leave for work at 8.30?

(4) You and Peter live in the same house. Do you and Peter live in the same house?

(5) We are having an English breakfast. Are we having an English breakfast?

(6) John and Mary often go to bed late. Do John and Mary often go to bed late?
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(7) Mike is looking for his suitcase. Is Mike looking for his suitcase?

(8) He usually eats a lot for dinner. Does he usually eat a lot for dinner?

Present simple
The simple present (also called present simple or present indefinite) is a verb tense which is used to
show repetition, habit or generalisation (Alexander, 2020). Less commonly, the simple present can
be used to talk about scheduled actions in the near future and, in some cases, actions happening now.
The simple present, present simple or present indefinite is one of the verb forms associated with the
present tense in modern English. It is commonly referred to as a tense, although it also encodes
certain information about aspect in addition to present time. The simple present is the most
commonly used verb form in English, accounting for more than half of verbs in spoken English. It is
called “simple” because its basic form consists of a single word (like write or writes), in contrast
with other present tense forms such as the present progressive (is writing) and present perfect (has
written).

Exercises

Write the third person Present Simple verb.

Study - Studies Have - has

Run - Runs Forget - forgets

Fly - Flies Learn - learns

Eat - Eats Do - does

Be - Is/are Carry - carries

Drive - Drives Meet - meets

Worry - Worries Come - comes

Like - Likes Go – goes

Write sentences in the Present Simple using the pictures and the words below.

Example: (a) He drinks a beer.

(a) He drinks a beer.

(b) She takes a photo.

(c) John saws the wood.

(d) Maria types on the computer.

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(e) You carry a sofa.

(f) They take photos.

(g) We iron the clothes.

Telling the Time

Exercises

Write these times in words.

(a) 11:15-------eleven: fifteen.

(b) 12:30------twelve: thirty.

(c) 9:00------- nine o’clock.

(d) 7:45------- seven: forty-five.

(e) 3:50------- three: fifty.

(f) 8:23-------- eight: twenty-three.

(g) 5:41---------five: forty-one.

(h) 4:33--------- four: thirty-three.

Write the following times in words. Use AM, PM, in the morning, etc.

(a) 11:00--------eleven o’clock AM;

(b) 09:23------- nine: twenty-three in the morning;

(c) 06:50-------- six: fifty in the morning;

(d) 14:25-------fourteen: twenty-five in the afternoon;

(e) 01:30-----one: thirty AM;

(f) 18:54------- eighteen: fifty-four in the evening;

(g) 13:10------one: ten in the afternoon;

(h) 12:04--------twelve: o four PM.

(i) 07:15-------seven: fifteen in the morning;

(j) 10:12------- ten: twelve AM;

(k) 16:37-------four: thirty-seven in the afternoon

(l) 02:40------ two: forty in the morning;

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(m) 13:29-------thirteen: twenty-nine PM;

(n) 19:21-------- nineteen: twenty-one in the evening;

(o) 05:59-------- five: fifty-nine AM.

Using this second way of telling the time, write the following times in words. You can also use AM,
PM, and in the morning, etc.

(a) 11:12---------eleven: twelve in the morning;

(b) 08:23---------eight: twenty-three AM;

(c) 06:50------ six: fifty in the morning;

(d) 14:25--------two: twenty-five PM;

(e) 01:30-------one: thirty AM;

(f) 18:54---------eighteen: fifty-four in the evening;

(g) 13:15--------one: fifteen PM;

(h) 12:04-------twelve: o four in the afternoon;

(i) 07:19---------- seven: nineteen in the morning;

(j) 10:53--------- ten: fifty-three AM;

(k) 16:37--------four: thirty-seven PM;

(l) 02:40---------two: forty AM;

(m) 13:29--------thirteen: twenty-nine in the afternoon;

(n) 19:21--------- nineteen: twenty-one in the evening;

(o) 05:59----------five: fifty-nine in the morning.

How many different ways can you say the time in these watches?

(a) One: forty-six (in the morning, AM, in the afternoon, PM)

Fourteen minutes to two

(b) Eleven: twenty-eight (in the morning, at night, AM) Twenty-eight minutes past eleven

(c) Nine: twenty-three (in the morning, AM, at night) Twenty-three past nine

(d) Three: five (in the morning, AM, in the afternoon, PM) Five past three.

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Present Continuous
Smalzer (2022) aver that the present continuous (also called present progressive) is a verb tense
which is used to show that an ongoing action is happening now, either at the moment of speech or
now in a larger sense. The present continuous can also be used to show that an action is going to take
place in the near future.

Use

Use the present continuous with normal verbs to express the idea that something is happening now,
at this very moment. It can also be used to show that something is not happening now.

Examples:
 You are learning English now.
 You are not swimming now.
 Are you sleeping?
 I am sitting.
 I am not standing.
 Is he sitting or standing?
 They are reading their books.
 They are not watching television.
Exercises

Complete the Present Continuous table

Present Negative Question

He’s drinking He isn’t drinking Is he drinking?

We’re eating We aren’t eating Are we eating?

She is sleeping She isn’t sleeping Is he sleeping?

It’s playing It isn’t playing Is it playing?

You’re studying You aren’t studying Are you studying?

I’m talking I’m not talking Am I talking?

They are reading They aren’t reading Are they reading?

He is singing He isn’t singing Is he singing?

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What are the gerunds of the following verbs?

Write--------------- writing; Put----------- putting;

Stop----------------stopping; Play---------- playing;

Read-------------- reading; Sit-----------sitting;

Marry------------marrying; Swim--------- swimming;

Talk------------- talking; Watch--------- watching;

Dance----------dancing.

Plurals
Exercises

Try to write the plurals of the following words.

Singular Plural Singular Plural

Elephant Elephants class classes

Monkey Monkeys student students

Army Armies Match matches

Toothbrush teeth brush television televisions

Fax Faxes Lady ladies

Country----------countries; Trousers---------trousers

Tomato---------tomatoes; baby-------------babies

House----------houses; person------persons/people

Wolf--------wolves; street---------streets

Church--------churches; scissors-------scissors

Fly---------flies; student--------students

Thief----------thieves; watch--------watches

Tooth--------teeth; foot--------feet

Library-----------libraries woman--------women

Dream-------------dreams brush----------brushes

Child-------------children

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Prepositions
Prepositions are words that show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and another word or
element in the clause. Example: Robins nest in tall trees. The preposition “in” shows the relationship
between the noun “trees” and the subject-verb clause “[r]obins nest”; therefore, “trees” is the object
of the preposition “in.” A prepositional phrase includes the preposition itself, the object of the
preposition, and any modifiers (e.g., “tall”).

Exercises

1. The window is in front of the plant. FALSE

The window is behind the plant.

2. The flowers are in the vase. TRUE

3. The computer is under the desk. FALSE

The computer is on the desk

4. The pillows are on the bed. TRUE

5. The glasses are beside the wine. TRUE

Prepositions of place

(a) We usually study in the classroom;

(b) I sit behind my classmates;

(c) The lecturer gives lecture between the blackboard and the students;

(d) We keep our schoolbags under the chairs;

(e) The lecturer sits in front of the students;

(f) Paulo sits beside Maria;

(g) The chalk is on the desk;

(h) The lamps are above the classroom;

(i) Arlindo sits next to Armando;

(j) I prepare my seminars inside the library;

(k) I live near the faculty;

(l) We enjoy the break outside the classroom;

(m) The security man stands up against the wall when he is working.
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Here is a description of my house. Fill in the gaps using in or at.

We live in an old house at the end of a quiet street in Birmingham. There are four rooms downstairs.
I have my study on the left at the front of the house. There are a few chairs in the room and at one
corner there is a table with a computer-that’s where I do most of my work. The sitting room is also at
the front of the house, on the right as you come in. The kitchen is at the back. It looks out over the
garden. There is another small sitting room at the back of the house. There are four bedrooms
upstairs, two at the back. There is a bathroom at the end of the corridor.

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Conclusion
To conclude, solving exercises makes students improve and master or consolidate contents already
studied. Therefore the units were sequenced in a productive way so as to enable students to follow
the right flow of the contents in a way that by the end of the module the student can speak English
through the module. The first aspects were based on how to greet someone and introduce oneself to
somebody else, but so that the speaker can utter this dialogue it is necessary to conjugate the verb to
be especially in the present simple; so, that was the content of the first unit. Cardinal and ordinal
numbers were also discussed together with the verb to have, verb to do, present simple, telling the
time, present continuous, plurals and prepositions.

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References
1. Alexander, L. G. (2020). Longman English Practice – for intermediate students, Longman Group
UK Limited, United Kingdom.
2. Matola, J., Langa H., & Magombo, J. (2013). Inglês 12ª classe, Plural Editores, Moçambique.
3. Smalzer, W. (2022). Basic grammar in use. 2nd edition United Kingdom: Cambridge University
Press.
4. UCM (2006). Faculty of education and communication. First year English course English
Department.

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