Hi,

I'm teaching English in Thailand and my Thai co-teacher has asked me a grammar question that I can't answer.

Can anybody help me save face..............

What are the rules concerning auxiliary verbs............

How do you decide whether to use you use to do,to have or to be..........as an auxiliary verb.

All help welcome.............

Edited August 30, 201312 yr by Scott

They are use to express tenses, aspects, modality or voice

That's such a broad question. It depends on the type of auxiliary.

Edited August 30, 201312 yr by Loaded

In partial reply to your mail, here's something I taught my students.

"The skies were cloudy, and in view of the weather, I didn't know whether to shear the wethers or not."

(wethers are ex-male sheep)

*edited out*


And as for "use to do", isn't that the sort of basic grammatical error that is weeded out before people try to teach English? (The same grammatical mistake was included as an option in a test I had to do on applying to do a CELTA.)

Edited August 30, 201312 yr by Scott

O.k.........sorry.........

I'll try to be more specific.I'm teaching elementary school aged kids.

So sometimes when you ask a question you use to do as the auxiliary verb and sometimes to be....as in

DO you like English and ARE you hungry.

The Thai teacher asked me which is right....DO you hungry or

ARE you hungry.

I answered it's ARE you hungry and she said WHY.

What do I say next

O.k.........sorry.........

I'll try to be more specific.I'm teaching elementary school aged kids.

So sometimes when you ask a question you use to do as the auxiliary verb and sometimes to be....as in

DO you like English and ARE you hungry.

The Thai teacher asked me which is right....DO you hungry or

ARE you hungry.

I answered it's ARE you hungry and she said WHY.

What do I say next

That is the BIG difference between English and Thai speech in conversion.

O.k.........sorry.........

I'll try to be more specific.I'm teaching elementary school aged kids.

So sometimes when you ask a question you use to do as the auxiliary verb and sometimes to be....as in

DO you like English and ARE you hungry.

The Thai teacher asked me which is right....DO you hungry or

ARE you hungry.

I answered it's ARE you hungry and she said WHY.

What do I say next

In general for Present Simple contexts

Auxiliary do/does if there is already a verb in the question. EG Do you drive a car?

Verb to be if there isn't. EG Are you fat? Are you an American?

Both expect a yes/no response.

Edited August 30, 201312 yr by Loaded

I have done some editing to keep the nonsensical posts out of the thread.

Please try to stick to the topic and please try to remember that not everyone has access to decent internet, or a computer. Numerous people post on devices, such as mobile phones and spelling, grammar and punctuation are more difficult. This is an internet forum and our goal is to discuss things related to education. We hope that the environment can be helpful and relaxed.

You may let your participles dangle if you wish.

In partial reply to your mail, here's something I taught my students.

 

"The skies were cloudy, and in view of the weather, I didn't know whether to shear the wethers or not."

 

(wethers are ex-male sheep)    

I think your students are confused. I am and I understand English.

What's an ex male sheep?

Roast lamb?

I think he's trying to diplomatically say that it's one that has been castrated.

Thank you LOADED,

that answers my question.

Tell them you don't understand the question. And present the rules verbatim from the text book and KISS.

In partial reply to your mail, here's something I taught my students.

"The skies were cloudy, and in view of the weather, I didn't know whether to shear the wethers or not."

(wethers are ex-male sheep)

I think your students are confused. I am and I understand English.

What's an ex male sheep?

Roast lamb?

Confused because the first comma should come after the "and"...in my opinion?

O.k.........sorry.........

I'll try to be more specific.I'm teaching elementary school aged kids.

So sometimes when you ask a question you use to do as the auxiliary verb and sometimes to be....as in

DO you like English and ARE you hungry.

The Thai teacher asked me which is right....DO you hungry or

ARE you hungry.

I answered it's ARE you hungry and she said WHY.

What do I say next

In general for Present Simple contexts

Auxiliary do/does if there is already a verb in the question. EG Do you drive a car?

Verb to be if there isn't. EG Are you fat? Are you an American?

Both expect a yes/no response.

Do you driving a car? Doesn't work. There must be more to that rule.

This is why I have never been comfortable teaching English. I can answer the questions but have no idea how to explain to someone how I came up with the answer.

In general for Present Simple contexts

Auxiliary do/does if there is already a verb in the question. EG Do you drive a car?

Verb to be if there isn't. EG Are you fat? Are you an American?

Both expect a yes/no response.

Do you driving a car? Doesn't work. There must be more to that rule.

This is why I have never been comfortable teaching English. I can answer the questions but have no idea how to explain to someone how I came up with the answer.

Which part of "Present Simple" do you have difficulty with? I suggest that you buy yourself a copy of either Raymond Murphy or Michael Swan's excellent English grammar books and keep them near at hand until such time as you get to grips with the subject.

In the question: "Are you hungry?", hungry is an adjective not part of the verb. In the question: "Do you drive?" drive is an action verb and you are asking about an ability to perform an action. Hungry is a state of being, hence the use of the verb "to be". It also must be remembered that there are no 'answers' for some forms of spoken English. Idioms defy the rules.

I learned to diagram sentences when I was young. It makes the structure of English clearer. Unfortunately, it is a lost art.

In general, you probably need to either:

Do some study on the different grammar jargon/rules

or

Tell the Thai teacher that you aren't sure why it is that way, as native English speakers don't generally learn all of the complex grammar terms because we already learnt how the language works when we were babies (since its our native language).

This probably won't be the last time she asks you complex grammar questions, and so you need to find a long term solution.

For myself, I'll tell teachers what the correct sentence is, but won't get into a discussion of the technical terms. Instead I generally just admit I don't know and refer them on to one of our other teachers who does know (Although I think that the proper answer usually goes in one ear and out the other anyway).

In general for Present Simple contexts

Auxiliary do/does if there is already a verb in the question. EG Do you drive a car?

Verb to be if there isn't. EG Are you fat? Are you an American?

Both expect a yes/no response.

Do you driving a car? Doesn't work. There must be more to that rule.

This is why I have never been comfortable teaching English. I can answer the questions but have no idea how to explain to someone how I came up with the answer.

Which part of "Present Simple" do you have difficulty with? I suggest that you buy yourself a copy of either Raymond Murphy or Michael Swan's excellent English grammar books and keep them near at hand until such time as you get to grips with the subject.

Totally agree. Two excellent text books which English teachers shouldn't be without.

There are also excellent activity sheets for pair work which is a bit of fun for the students, with a massive prize for the winners. (jelly beans?)

p 02.PDF

p 03.PDF

The Thai teacher asked me which is right....DO you hungry or

ARE you hungry.

I answered it's ARE you hungry and she said WHY.

What do I say next

"Do you single?"-

In partial reply to your mail, here's something I taught my students.

"The skies were cloudy, and in view of the weather, I didn't know whether to shear the wethers or not."

(wethers are ex-male sheep)

Wethers are castrated male sheep, they are still males in that they are not females.

"You may let your participles dangle if you wish."

For someone who has had the cut, wouldn't that be past participle?

The Thai teacher asked me which is right....DO you hungry or

ARE you hungry.

I answered it's ARE you hungry and she said WHY.

 

What do I say next

 

"Do you single?"-

In this example "are" is not an auxiliary verb, iy is a main verb. I think "do" can only be used in connection with another verb.

Sent from my i-mobile IQ 6 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

"Do" can be used with gerunds as in this example:

I do the shopping every Sunday.

(just to complicate things further)

Edited August 31, 201312 yr by JamieP

Think of auxiliary verbs, like DO as helper verbs.

Verbs that help verbs, therefore, you need another verb, gerund or not.

Do you like to eat spicy food?

Do you like eating spicy food?

Where as the verb "to be" will need adjectives and adverbs.

Are you a good driver?

Are you better at driving than me?

So tell your Thai teacher that's the rule, grammar is grammar and they have Thai grammar rules as well, and pray she/he does not ask anymore questions.

Edited September 3, 201312 yr by Kommiekat

In general for Present Simple contexts

Auxiliary do/does if there is already a verb in the question. EG Do you drive a car?

Verb to be if there isn't. EG Are you fat? Are you an American?

Both expect a yes/no response.

Do you driving a car? Doesn't work. There must be more to that rule.

This is why I have never been comfortable teaching English. I can answer the questions but have no idea how to explain to someone how I came up with the answer.

Which part of "Present Simple" do you have difficulty with?

Unfortunately I have difficulty with the whole term. This is precisely why I do not teach although I am often asked to. Might I also point out that if you failed to adequately explain the difference in terms that this native English speaker understands then it isn't very likely that an ESL learner will understand either.

Look at the affirmative sentence that corresponds to the question :

Are you hungry? -> You are Hungry.

Can you swim? -> You can swim.

Do you understand? -> You understand.

If the main verb of the affirmative sentence is to be or a helping verb (can, must, may, should, will, etc.), you form questions by switching the verb and the subject.

If the main verb of the affirmative sentence is a "classic" verb, you form questions by adding to do in front of the sentence.

Note that you don't "use 'to be' to form a question". 'To be' was in the original sentence and is still in the question after having changed the order of the words. In "Will you play?" there is neither 'to do' nor 'to be'. There was just an inversion between the subject and the verb.

To have is the only verb with which both methods can be used to form questions, on the condition that 'to have' be used to show possession, and not as an auxiliary.

You have -> Do you have? / Have you got?

You have played -> Have you played? (not "Do...")

KUNATEE,

That was the best answer yet and without a hint of sarcasm either,

I do need a good grammer referance book because if I have to write in here for advice I will just get the "holier than thow" croud mouthing off.

Raymond Murphy and Micheal Swan have been mentioned.

Any more recomendations for a Teachers guide to Elementry and High School grammer.

I live in a small town where the kids can't understand theirThai teachers when they teach them English so I help out by giving them classes in the evening.I teach English through the Thai language and do a good job.

Give me a break

KUNATEE,

That was the best answer yet and without a hint of sarcasm either,

I do need a good grammer referance book because if I have to write in here for advice I will just get the "holier than thow" croud mouthing off.

Raymond Murphy and Micheal Swan have been mentioned.

Any more recomendations for a Teachers guide to Elementry and High School grammer.

I live in a small town where the kids can't understand theirThai teachers when they teach them English so I help out by giving them classes in the evening.I teach English through the Thai language and do a good job.

Give me a break

My grammar isn't the greatest, but I make sure any grammar I teach, I know it inside out before class.

Some grammar will always cause you a headache though, I hate teaching reported speech (all over the place), phrasal verbs (annoying to teach) and dynamic & stative verbs (boring subject for the students). Plus, you will always find one or two grammar problems you can't get your head round - though I do enjoy trying to solve them - and, I still haven't been able to figure out why 'fruit' is uncountable and 'vegetables' are countable.