Unit 3

1. Asking someone's job or occupation
    Question :

• What Do you do?
• What does he/she do?
• What do they do for living?
• What is your job/occupation?
• Do you work?
• What do you do (in the departement)?

     Answer :

• I work as a lawyer
• He/she is a colloge student
• They are fashion designers
• I'm a student
• Yes, I'm a technician
• I'm on the market research side

2. Telling about people's educational background
    Asking someone's educational background:

• When did you graduate from junior high school?
• What subject did you like when studied at networking technical program?
• Did you attend a seminar about CCNA course?
• What program study did you take when you studied at vocational school?

     Responses:

• I graduated from my junior high school last year
• I liked LAN/WAN installation
• Yes, i attended the seminar
• I took management and business study program

3.The Simple Present Tense

This page will present the simple present tense:

• its form
• and its use.

Before you continue the lesson read the following passage and try to see how the verbs are formed and used.

James is a taxi driver. He drives a taxi. But on Sundays he doesn't drive his taxi. He stays at home. The verb be, drive, stay are in the simple present. (more on the simple present of the verb to be)

The forms of the simple present

The affirmative form of the simple present:

I, you, we, they	play.
He, she, it	plays.

Remember the verbs in the third person singular (he,she and it) always take an "s". For example, "he plays, she sings,it works..."

Examples:

• Nancy and James speak good German.
• Nancy works in a restaurant downtown.
• The children play in the garden every weekend.

The interrogative form of the simple present:

Do	I, you, we, they	play?
Does	he, she, it

Examples:

• Do you speak good German?
• Does Nancy work in a restaurant downtown?

The negative form of the simple present:

I, you, we,they	do not	play.
	don't
He, she, it	does not
	doesn't

Examples:

• No, I don't speak German.
• No, she doesn't work in a restaurant downtown

The use of the simple present:

The simple present is used:

• to give your opinion - I like ice cream. I don't like spicy food.
• to talk about schedules - The library opens at eight. It doesn't open at 7.
• to talk about daily habits (routine actions)- Sara eats a cheese for breakfast every day. She doesn't eat cereal.
• to give facts - The earth circles the sun. The moon doesn't circle the sun.

The spelling of the third person singular form of the simple present:

All the verbs take an "s" in the simple present when conjugated in the third person singular (he, she, it) form:

Examples:

• I visit my parents every summer holiday. But my wife visits her parents every weekend.
• My brother meets his girlfriend everyday.

So the rule is:

He / she / it + Verb + S

There are however some special cases. Here are the spelling rules:

Silent e	Vowel + y	Consonant + y	Verbs ending in o	Verbs ending in s, z, sh, tch, ch
close = closes note = notes	play = plays say = says	study = studies marry = marries	go = goes do = does	miss = misses buzz = buzzes hatch = hatches finish = finishes teach = teaches

Examples:

• She drives to work every morning.
• He says he plays football on the weekends

Exception:

• The verb to have changes its forms as follows:
  I have two sisters and two brothers. But she has one sister and two brothers.
  I have = he / she / it has

Things to remember about the simple present:

1.In the interrogative forms, we use "do" or "does".

• "Do you like the house?"
• "Does she go to school?"

2; Verbs never take an "s" in the the negative and interrogative forms.

• "Does he speak German?"
• "Do they play soccer?"
• She doesn't like ice cream.

3. don't is the short form of "do not". You can say either:

• I do not speak Italian, or
• I don't speak Italian.

4.doesn't is the short form of "does not". you can say either:

• He does not listen to jazz music, or
• He doesn't listen to jazz music.

The verb to be

The verb to be is the most important verb in the English language.  It is difficult to use because it is an irregular verb in almost all of its forms.  In the simple present tense, to be is conjugated as follows:

Affirmative forms of the verb to be

Subject Pronouns	Full Form	Contracted Form
I	am	'm
you	are	're
he/she/it	is	's
we	are	're
you	are	're
they	are	're

Interrogative forms of the verb to be:

Am	I?
Are	you?
Is	he/she/it?
Are	we?
Are	you?
Are	they?

Negative Forms of the verb to be:

Subject Pronouns	Full Form	Contracted Form
I	am not	'm not
you	are not	aren't
he/she/it	is not	isn't
we	are not	aren't
you	are not	aren't
they	are not	aren't

Examples:

• Is Brad Pitt French?
• No, he isn't. He's American.
• What about Angelina Joli? Is she American, too?
• Yes, she is. She is American.
• Are brad Pitt and Angelina Joli French?
• No, They aren't. They are American.

4. Simple Past Tense

This page will present the simple past tense:

• its form
• and its use.

Before you continue the lesson read the following passage and try to see how the verbs are formed and used.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an Austrian musician and composer. He lived from 1756 to 1791. He startedcomposing at the age of five years old and wrote more than 600 pieces of music. He was only 35 years old when he died. The verbs "was, lived,started, wrote, died" are in the simple past tense. Notice that: lived, started,died are regular past forms. was, wrote are irregular past forms.

Regular verbs:

The verbs "lived, started, died" are regular past forms. The rule is the following:

Verb + ed

Examples:

The infinitive	The simple past
live	lived
start	started
die	died
visit	visited
play	played
watch	watched
phone	phoned
marry	married

For the spelling of the -ed forms click here.

Irregular verbs:

The verbs "was, wrote" are irregular past forms. "Was" is the simple past of "to be"; "wrote" is the simple past of "write".

More on the simple past of "to be" here.

There is no rule for these verbs. You should learn them by heart.

The infinitive	The simple past
be	was/were
write	wrote
come	came
do	did
meet	met
speak	spoke

As you can see we can not predict the simple past forms of these verbs. They are irregular. You should learn them by heart. Here is a list of irregular verbs.

The forms of the simple past:

The Affirmative form of the simple past:

I, you, he, she, it, we, they	played.
	wrote
	did.

Examples:

• I played tennis with my friends yesterday.
• I finished lunch and I did my homework.

The interrogative form of the simple past:

Did	I, you, he, she, it, we, they	Play?
		write
		do?

Examples:

• Did you play basketball yesterday?
• Did you watch television?
• Did you do the homework?

The negative form of the simple past:

I, you, he, she, it, we, they	did not/didn't	play
		write
		do

• I didn't like the food in the wedding last Saturday.
• I didn't eat it.

Remember:

didn't is the short form of did not. You can say either:

• I did not play basketball, or
• I didn't play basketball.

The simple past tense of the verb to be:

This page will present the simple past tense of the verb to be:

• its form
• and its use.

The affirmative form:

I, he, she, it	was.
you, we, they	were.

Examples:

• I was in London in 1999.
• Pam was in London in 1999, too.
• We were together.
• She was my girlfriend.

The interrogative form:

Was	I, he, she, it?
Were	you, we, they?

Examples:

• Were you in London last year?
• Was Pam with you?
• Were you together?

The negative form:

I, you, he, she	was not.
	wasn't.
You, we, they	were not.
	weren't.

Examples:

• I wasn't in Paris in 1999.
• Pam wasn't in Paris in 1999.
• We weren't in Paris.