to BE

Welcome to season 7 of FYI. This season instead of tackling topics we’ll discover the most common verbs in the English language. If to be or not to be is the question, then today it’s definitely to BE. We’ll BE all that we can BE on this week’s episode of FYI!

Transcript

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welcome to season 7 of FYI this season instead of tackling topics we'll discover the most common verbs in the English language if to be or not to be is the question then today it's definitely to be we'll be all that we can be on this week's episode of FYI welcome to do for your info English you got it got it hello hello hello welcome welcome to a very special episode why well they're all special but folks this is the kickoff of season 7 so FYI that's for you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you we've looked at so many different topics throughout our six seasons and now I decided this seventh season we're going to get to know the most common verbs in the English language my Amigos and we're going to get to know them inside and out so I'll tell you something right now before we begin if you want to follow along and you want to get all the examples I'm using and have the m materials as a study reference all you have to do is go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso and you can join my Curious community and that will give you access to a bonus episode every week which as you'll see in this week's bonus episode and in every bonus episode in season 7 we'll do a series of translations at the end a translation test to make sure you guys got the simple structures as well as the more challenging structures that we look at when we look at each verb and you'll also get idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs in the bonus episode as well as examples of it in movies and music so what can I say except I'm really excited about this season I think the content is going to be awesome and very useful for you FYI and also I think the accompanying material the PDFs are going to really help you a lot and at the end of this season you'll have PDFs you'll have your own book that goes into detail with examples of the most common verbs in the English language and of course we've got to start with the verb to be to be or not to be it's basic I think it's the most used verb in any language and in Spanish you split it in two It's s andus well in English we don't the difference would be to be bored versus to be boring so if you're bored if you're boring the same thing with interested and interesting that's how we do the in English so to be or not to be I'm sure you recognize that one and that also helps us when we're thinking wait how do I use the negative of the infinitive well if it's I told you I'm going to be there it's I told you I'm not going to be there so let's start by defining the verb and its uses with some examples the verb to be functions as a linking verb as we know it connects the subject of a sentence with a subject complement that can be noun an adjective or a prepositional phrase that describes or identifies the subject it can also be used as an auxiliary verb to form continuous and passive verb tenses now what does that mean not really much right now until we put it into practice but passive verb tenses I'm sure you've used them before you've used The Continuous what are you doing I'm watching that's the continuous so right now it just sounds like a lot of tenses but don't worry we're going to break it down so by the end of these two episodes you will be very familiar with this useful the most perhaps useful verb in the English language let's conjugate it as always that's very important in the present tense I am he she or it is they are we are you are you so the past tense is where I've noticed most of my students make mistakes with was and were and we'll take a look at that a little bit later on the past participle everybody seems to know that one it's been let's look at the pronunciation though here because these are words that are very common but often mispronounced especially that word is you don't know how many times I've heard students say e it's not e eat is it's is it is it it's not eat it's its so that's another thing we're going to focus on here not just knowing these essential verbs but also knowing how to say them correctly uh was and were people don't normally have problems with that one bin I've heard some people say Vin I've been no I've been those bees have to be plosive in English and the present participle and the Geren form which are being as you call it so let's take a look at some uses with examples and again I want you guys to practice aloud if you're patrons you have the PDF so you can follow along but more important than following along visually is following along aloud so say everything after I say it not just the translations at the end so the first one as we said is as a linking verb this describes a state or a condition for example in the present she is happy easy right but that's not natural the natural way to say things is to contract them which is weird because a lot of my students have told me Alberto my students told me not to contract uh not my students my teachers told me not to contract and I said well I want to talk to them right now because when you do not contract you sound like a parent reprimanding his or her child okay that's what it sounds like to me at least so she is happy let's contract it she's happy she's happy what about the past tense they were tired estan gados they were tired not TI tired what about to identify a person or a thing we just looked at the pronunciation of this this is a book you can't contract this one so it's this is no thisis this is a book A book the past tense that was my friend there's another one we cannot contract you see you see what happened there when I just said we cannot contract it sounded very harsh mu mu now a lot of you are also familiar with with this verb as an auxiliary verb as well let's take a look at it in the continuous tenses now I'm going to say it without Contracting it I want you to contract it all right I am reading a book that's the present continuous I am reading a book it's happening right now did you say I'm reading a book very good don't ever say I I've heard a lot of students pronounce that M like an N remember this when we pronounce m M our mouth is closed at the end M when we pronounce n our mouth is open at the end so how would we say it I'm I want to hear that M think of your favorite food I'm reading a book I'm reading a book The Past continuous she was cooking dinner can we contract that one no see it's important to know when you can and can't contract as well she was cooking dinner not din dinner what about future continuous they will be traveling tomorrow can we contract that one they will be traveling tomorrow yes we can they'll be they'll be traveling tomorrow we can also use it in passive voice constructions the passive voice how would we say this the cake is being baked the cake is being baked now can we contract it you tell me absolutely the cakes being baked and I want you to listen to that baked too even though it's an ed D it's a t sound say it with me the cakes being baked is the cake being baked remember anytime we want to make it a little a little bit harder and also make sure we don't just know that translation what we do is we put it through the ringer so this let's take this one as an example the cake is being baked a is the cake being baked question the cake isn't being baked negative indirect question do you know if the Cake's being baked and that's how you really know that you know the structure inside and out and it reminds me of the idiomatic expression you say you say in Spanish we say it Takes the Cake I hope this episode Takes the Cake all right here let's try this one this is the past passive voice again it's not important what it's called it's more important that you recognize it and know how to use it so the letter was written by him just be careful you don't know how many times I've heard students say Wren no it's write wrote written and the best way to practice irregular verbs is every day I write letters or emails let's be realistic yesterday I wrote an email and lately I've written a lot of emails and patrons I want you guys to take notes that's why you have these PDFs so anything like right there where it says the word baked remember the the idea is to interact with the materials and if you guys want to do that as I said you can get these PDFs by being in my community on patreon my students are awesome I've got to say I'm proud of each and every one of you and I know that you're going to make the most of this season 7 and in the bonus part we're going to put you to the test as well as well as look at some pop culture so a nice round of applause for all my patrons a shout out to my super duper students Martha Javier and Bako and don't forget about my Interstellar students Garmin lenina Issa bako David Jose Maria and Edgard if you guys want to join our curious community and get tons of amazing content to help you really improve your English and get hooked on English go over to patreon.com Alberto Alonso or contact me because I'd be more than happy to give you guys a sample unra I really believe these PDFs are very useful and we're going to cover the most common verbs so you really want to get into it you really want to give it your all this season okay where were we and they go uh uh and they start to stutter and I say no no no no it's where were we it's almost a tongue twister for my students but it's a basic sentence right where were youas where were we are you repeating aloud I hope you're repeating aloud so where were we we were with existential sentences and this is to indicate the existence of something as the name implies so here we go again I'll give it to you uncontracted so you can hear that verb to be but then I want you to contract it into natural English okay there is a problem it's difficult for me to not contract them okay so there's a problem right there is a problemos there's a problem let's put it through the ringer how can you ask me that is there a problem very good tell me K there isn't a problem do you know if there's a problem if you were able to do all four of those for that sentence great job Amigos all right here's another one in the past tense there were many people at the party okay there were we don't contract so that one we don't have to worry about well it's good it's good that we know when to contract and when not to there were many people at the party Fiesta there were many people at the party good did you say it correctly let's make it a question were there were there many people at the party yes there were many people at the party Deo there weren't many people at the party do you know if if there were many people at the party are you keeping up all right let's go on to questions and negative sentences all right biis how would you say bis are you coming are you coming are you coming are you are you coming are you coming yes I'm coming let's put it through the ringer because this is an easy an easy enough structure that I think everybody should know it are you coming see Bingle yes I'm coming no no no I'm not coming Sav do you know if you're coming all right did you get it right all right the next one was he there El was he there that's the question right can you give me the affirmative yes he was there de he wasn't there do you know if he was there now this one's getting a little bit more difficult but as you'll see the episode starts to get a little bit more difficult and at the end of the episode we're looking at totally native idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs as well all right let's take a look at a couple negative sentences I'm not tired no[Music] I'm I'm not tired are you tired are you tired are you tired and do you know if he's tired isos do you know if he's tired all right good job and the last one in questions and negative sentences I hope you're following along and making your own notes I'll give you some notes some guidelines but of course you always have to interact with your books these PDF documents are made to be marked up and written no WR and written all over all right let's try it they weren't ready they weren't ready they weren't ready were they ready were they ready no they weren't ready yes they were ready do you know if they were ready all right are you keeping up folks we're really trying these structures here we're putting them through the ringer as we say then we've got some condition usage as well so how would you say this one we're going to test not just the verb to be here but your knowledge of the present conditional so a hypothetical or unreal situation just like in Spanish how do you say that one if I were you I would go if I were you if I was you were it's always were but you got to convince over 300 million Americans to stop saying it wrong so again I usually say was but when I'm teaching I tell them you know if you're going to take an exam in Cambridge well you're gonna want to put were because that's the correct form but I would say if I was you if I was you Tech if I were you I would go can we contract that anywhere if I were you I'd go if I were you I'd go all right let's try a difficult one let's try the past conditional okay I don't even know if I said it right in Spanish you know the one I'm looking for though it's a tough one so if she had been there or she had if she' been there she would have helped have right foral and then you say it repeat after me if she'd been there she' she had if she'd been there she would have helped would have apostrophe is of or a she would have she would have helped she would have helped I hope these little tricks and tips are helping you and what about in imperatives and commands right be quiet be quiet how would you say that's a that's a false friend it's not quiet be still be still what about tenu be careful this is the imperative when we're giving instructions when we're giving orders all right let's take a look at some more examples now and then we're going to take a look at some synonyms and antonyms and then we'll wrap up the first part but just remember in the second part if you don't join us you are going to be missing out because we're going to look at all the different phrasal verbs we're also going to look at idiomatic expressions and we'll also have a little test at the end to make sure that you guys got it all and that you are being the best you can be oh and I forgot to tell you about that in the intro I said be all that you can be that I think it was the army or the Navy in the United States that was their motto Su slogan be all that you can be all right so you should know it now we already looked at it a couple times where were we where were we good job folks all right let's take a look at some examples here just to make sure you guys have got it perfectly all right the first one the sky is blue contract it for me the sky is blue the sky is blue as a linking verb the skies blue I think that's the usage we see the most the skies blue in presente let's try one in the past tense profess he was a teacher he was a teacher he's a teacher teacher he's a he's teacher no he's an astronaut he's a teacher very important question to know here you know you're making friends you're mingling and you say what do you do okay this one doesn't have the verb to be but I think it's important to know and we'll look at it when we look at make and do what do you do or what do you do for a living I'm a teacher he was a teacher we're not just studying the structures we're studying how to say the structures how to feel comfortable saying the structures and recognizing them and again you can always come up with your own examples all right let's practice a couple in the continuous tense as an auxiliary verb okay she's running in the park she's running in the park all right they were studying all night not studying studying they were they were studying all night they were all right what about in the passive voice as an auxiliary verb let's see if you get this one this is for Superstars okay so so it's the present continuous and the passive voice I'm trying to give you a little clue maybe I've just confused you more so the song is being sung beautifully yes Sing sang S no I'm not speaking Chinese I'm telling you how to conjugate the verb to sing so the song is being sung beautifully I always call the passive voice the documentary tense no B it's that tense all right and another one in the passive voice cuz again I think this is one of the more challenging uses the report was written no writing yesterday the report was written yesterday did you say it correctly nice job all right in existential sentences there's a chance there is second there's a chance we might win we may or we might win right okay there were no seats available careful with the pronunciation too available there were no seats available and you sit in a seat we don't say seat down we say sit and you guys know it in Spain you're always saying K well that's the sound sit in your seat sit in your seat all right here's a question example you shouldn't have to think too much about that one it's pretty basic is it raining no did you say e I hope you didn't say EIT is it raining is is it is it raining all right another question were you in the meeting or at the meeting on were you in the meeting were you at the meeting were you were you I almost go over it right all right a couple negative sentences I want it to be conjugated I'm not interested I'm not interested he was not invited he was not invited or contos he wasn't he wasn't invited and conditional sentence because I know that one's difficult let's go with the present conditional do you know it if I were Rich if I was rich if I were rich I would travel the world or I would travel around the world all right guys and we'll wrap up with some imperatives some synonyms and some antonyms and I hope you guys will join us in the bonus episode remember all of this is available to you you can follow along all right imperative be on time you have to be on time be patient be patient what about this one well you could say be conscious but it would be much more common to say be aware instead of be conscious be aware be aware of your surroundings for example it's a very common usage of that be aware of your surroundings all right and some synonyms to wrap up we've got exist right to be to exist Renee deart I think there I am look there's another very famous idiomatic expression from history which uses the verb to be another synonym seem he seems happy appear remain and stay and antonyms words that mean the opposite of to be to exist to cease cease isad say it with me cease and it reminds me of an idiomatic expression you never cease to amaze me die you know about that one stop disappear and vanish and speaking of disappear we've got to disappear right now but I really hope you guys enjoyed this I hope and I know you'll make the most of it and I hope you guys will join us in the bonus episode on the verb to be be there or be square[Music][Applause][Music] the