This document provides a lesson plan on the present simple verb "to be" in English. It covers the affirmative, negative, and interrogative forms of the verb with different subjects. Key points include: - The verb "to be" conjugates as "am, are, is" depending on the subject. Contractions like "I'm" are also used. - Examples are given to illustrate how to express locations, traits, ages, and other descriptions using the verb "to be". - Forming negative sentences simply requires adding "not" after the verb. - Yes/no questions switch the subject and verb, though this is irrelevant in Spanish. Short answer responses are also common.

1. Institución Educativa del Sur
INESUR
Asignatura: Inglés Tema: Present simple. Verb “TO
BE”
Docente: Camilo Alexander Florez Erazo Duración estimada: 4 horas
Objetivos de la clase
 Revisar e introducir a la gramática inglesa con verbo to be (ser, estar).
 Recordar pronombres personales. Identificar estructuras afirmativa, negativa e interrogativa de una
oración en presente simple con verbo to be
THE VERB TO BE
In the following lecture, we are going to study the present simple of the verb to be forms (am, are, is).
First of all, we might recall the personal pronouns in English. The pronouns give prior information about the
subject who might perform a certain action.
English Spanish
I Yo
You Tú / Usted
He Él
She Ella
It Eso
We Nosotros
You Ustedes
They Ellos
The verb to be forms are related to each personal pronoun as follows. There is, for each of the cases a contraction
expression which is more accurate to the actual speech sound made by natives when they speak:
Pronoun To be Contraction Spanish
I am I’m Yo soy / yo estoy
You are You’re Tú eres / estás
Usted es / usted está
He is He’s Él es / Él está
She is She’s Ella es / ella está
It is It’s Eso es / eso está
We are We’re Nosotros somos / nosotros estamos
You are You’re Ustedes son / ustedes están
They are They’re Ellos(as) son / ellos(as) están
The previous table represents the AFFIRMATIVE FORM of the verb to be.
Summarizing:

2. Pronoun To be
I am
He / She / It is
You / We / They are
The verb to be is widely used in many expressions in the English language. Mainly used to describe or tell us
the condition of people, things, places and ideas. We can tell the subject’s age, nationality, job or other traits.
For example:
English Spanish
I am in the living room Estoy en la sala
You are an accountant Eres contador(a)
He is Colombian Él es colombiano
She is 14 years old Ella tiene 14 años
It is in the cupboard Eso está en la alacena
We are at the mall Estamos en el centro comercial
You are married Ustedes están casados
They are at home Están en casa
Take a closer look at some the equivalent translations in Spanish for each example shown in the table. Notice
the pronoun in Spanish is not written for all of them. This is known in Spanish as Unspoken Pronoun
(Pronombre tácito). This is due to the fact the verbs in Spanish forms are more explicit than their peers in
English, thus the pronoun can be inferred from the verb conjugation but this is not a rule of thumb for the
common speech. The pronoun should be used when emphasizing the information in many cases.
NEGATIVE FORM
To deny any information, we simply add the particle “NOT” after the verb to be:
Pronoun To be + NOT Contraction Spanish
I am not I’m not Yo no soy / yo no estoy
You Are not You’re not / aren’t Tú no eres / tú no estás
Usted no es / usted no está
He Is not He’s not / isn’t Él no es / Él no está
She Is not She’s not / isn’t Ella no es / ella no está
It Is not It’s not / isn’t Eso no es / eso no está
We Are not We’re not / aren’t Nosotros no somos / nosotros no
estamos
You Are not You’re not / aren’t Ustedes no son / ustedes no están
They Are not They’re not / aren’t Ellos(as) no son / ellos(as) no están
Example
They are not married. They are just together (Ellos no están casados. Sólo están juntos)

3. QUESTION FORM (YES/NO)
When a question is made the subject / pronoun and the verb to be switch places. This is usually irrelevant in
Spanish. Moreover, in English the questions are specified by the last question mark only.
Affirmative sentence: They are in the park (Ellos estan en el parque)
Question: Are they in the park? (¿Ellos estan en el parque?)
The term yes/no question refers to the fact it only has two different answers, one which confirms the question
information and one that denies it. For the previous question, the possible two answers would be:
Are they in the park? (¿Ellos estan en el parque?)
Yes, they are in the park (Si, Ellos estan en el parque)
No, they are not in the park (No, Ellos no estan en el parque)
These are known as complete answers. They are not very common in regular speech as the short answers.
Are they in the park? (¿Ellos estan en el parque?)
Yes, they are.
No, they aren’t.
More complex questions require the use of the Wh. Clauses which we will study in further stages of the course.
Actividad
1. Leer la guía. Traducir si es necesario. Copiar los contenidos en el cuaderno en inglés (y en español si lo
cree necesario para su comprensión) como primer contacto con la escritura en inglés.
2. Desarrollar el taller adjunto a la guía (Workshop - Verb to be.docx)