For English teachers: How to explain to your students "to do" and "to be" as auxiliary and notional verbs?

Question

I`ve faced a problem: my elementary students keep confusing "to be" and "to do" as auxiliaries in Present Simple.
For example, - I am her sister. - DO you her sister? or I love winter because I is like snow and cold. or Is she do washing up?

I`m really desperate! Can anyone give me a piece of advice?

KJinCali79 · Accepted Answer

I think your question is a little bit confusing because of the examples you gave. Your example "I am her sister" is an example of the verb "to be" as a main verb, not as an auxiliary verb.  So it's important to note, that be, do and have can also be main verbs.  Auxiliary verbs in English are "be" "do" and "have."  There are other modal verbs that function in a similiar manner, but for simplicity we can just look at these since they are the most common.BE is used to create a continuous tense, or a passive voiceDO is used for questions or negative declarations.BE To make a continuous tense, we use "be + present participle of main verb" Example:  She is meeting her friend at the park.  --"is" is the conjugation of the auxiliary verb "to be", and "meeting" is the present participle of the main verb "to meet" To make a passive voice, we use "be + past participle of main verb"  Example: The car was stolen.--"was" is the conjugation of the auxiliary verb "to be", and "stolen" is the past participle of the main verb "to steal"DO is used primarily for questions, and negative declarative statements.   To form a question, we use "do + subject + verb".  Example:  Do you like the snow?   Did you finish your homework? To form a negative declarative statement, we use "do + not + verb".  Example: I do not like the snow.Note, that when using "be" the auxiliary verb "be" and the main verb are both conjugated.  When using "do" only the auxiliary verb "do" is conjugated (do, does, did) and the main verb is left in its infinitive.

Anonymous · Answer

I don't think you need to be overly concerned. These are elementary students after all, and this is one of the finer points in the English language, so you shouldn't be expecting them to get it down absolutely pat, right off the bat. And anyway, "be" and "do" are "in the same ballpark," as far as meaning, and if you use one where the other should be, the sentence should still be more or less understandable. I can easily understand all of the erroneous sentences in your post.

Native speakers learn all of this by experience, but in an environment where they are interacting continuously with other native speakers, which your students don't have. This is a point of English that can only be learned by experience, so your students need some significant time to get the hang of it.

Terryxpress · Answer

For what it is worth, this is what I would do:
1. TELL THEM TO PRETEND THAT FOR THIS LESSON, THERE IS NO WORD "do" IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
2. Go over the conjugation of 'to be':
I am a teacher
He is a teacher and she is a teacher, and it is the blackboard.
We/they are teachers etc.
Then over putting these statements into question form:
"Am I a dentist? Am I a butcher? Am I a teacher etc for each of the conjugations.
3. Stress how, with 'to be', the verb simply goes to the front of the sentence to form the question.

4. Then, introduce a verb form with an auxiliary such as 'has read' - a verb form like this that they are familiar with - but at this stage, not Present Continuous, so as not to use a form of 'to be' - and conjugate with that:
I/we have read the book.
He/she has read the book. etc
Write each of these on the blackboard, leaving space between them (you'll see why next) and print the auxiliary with, say, blue chalk, and the main verb with red chalk.

5. Then write ALL of these in question-form on the blackboard - I/we//he/she/they - each one under its corresponding indicative form:
I have read that book.
Have I read that book? etc

6. Ask if they notice something - the point being, that the auxiliary moves to the beginning to form the question.

7. Then - then do the Present Continuous:
I am teaching.
Am I teaching?
She is teaching
Is she teaching etc.
Stress how here again, the auxiliary verb moves to the beginning of the sentence.

8. When they are sure of this, introduce a sentence like, "I go to school"
But...but there is no auxiliary verb to move to the beginning!!
Then tell your class that you fibbed earlier, and...
...introduce 'do' as a 'dummy' auxiliary, used only when the verb form in the indicative statement hasn't one.

Hope that is some help.

Canadian45 · Answer

Virginia AlabamovnaI`ve faced a problem: my elementary students keep confusing "to be" and "to do" as auxiliaries in Present Simple.For example, - I am her sister. - DO you her sister? or I love winter because I is like snow and cold. or Is she do washing up?I`m really desperate! Can anyone give me a piece of advice?

Primarily you have to get your students to understand the difference between action verbs and state verbs.
"to do" is mainly an action verb, while "to be" is mainly a state verb.

I have many things to do today.
I am very busy today.

Then there is the confusing aspect of continuous tense, as in 'He is studying now.' But start with the above.

Virginia Alabamovna · Answer

KJinCali79, I know but can you imagine my students` faces when I tell them all this information?=) I need some teacher`s tips to solve this problem. You know, they get upset when they see that they make this mistake again.

Virginia Alabamovna · Answer

Thanks for your comment! I`ll try to use it.
Or may be I just should beat them when they make a mistake?=)

CalifJim · Answer

Virginia AlabamovnaI`m really desperate! Can anyone give me a piece of advice?

You might try doing only exercises with "be" first, and then only with "do", before doing anything that requires a choice between the two.

Omitting passives, which it seems they are not ready for anyway, am, is, and are only occur in certain patterns: with a noun, adjective, prepositional phrase, or a verb with -ing. Lucy is a good student. Lucy is afraid of snakes. Lucy is in the garden. Lucy is studying for an exam. When you make a question or a negative from these, you can't add "do". Simply stressing that do (or does) can't be an auxiliary for am, is, or are may help.

If you're dealing with the main verb of a sentence other than be, you can explain that there are theoretically four forms, all with do.

Jack does know the answer. (Statement)
Does Jack know the answer? (Question)
Jack doesn't know the answer. (Negative statement)
Doesn't Jack know the answer? (Negative question)

Only the statement form consistently drops the do - unless emphasis is required.

Jack does know the answer. (Emphatic statement)
Jack knows the answer. (Normal statement)
______________________

With these few principles in mind, you can construct drills for your students. They are very dull and repetitive, but I think they are necessary for developing automatic responses that just begin to "sound right" for the students.

In all of these I put what the teacher says first followed by what the student responds.

1. Inversion exercises. (Purely inversion, as used for questions)

you are / are you?
she is / is she?
we are / are we?
I am / Am I?
...

you do / do you?
he does / does he?
Jack does / does Jack?
Mary does / does Mary?
...

You can include other auxiliaries and modals here if you want.

you will / will you?
he can / can he?
I should / should I?

1b. Inversion with complete short sentences.

You are ready. / Are you ready?
We are going. / Are we going?
He is tired. / Is he tired?
You are glad. / Are you glad?
They are talking. / Are they talking?
...

You do see it. / Do you see it?
I do know that. / Do I know that?
Sam does want it. / Does Sam want it?

1c. Inversion with contractions.

You're right. / Are you right?
We're students. / Are we students?
______________

All of the patterns above can be done for negations as well.

You are / You are not (aren't)
I am / I am not
Joe is / Joe is not (isn't)

You do / You do not (don't)
Lucy does / Lucy does not (doesn't)
______________

All of the patterns above can be done backwards.

Am I going? / I am going. (I'm going.)
Are we ready? / We are ready. (We're ready.)
...
Do I know? / I do know.
Do they want this? / They do want this.
...
________________________________________________________

2. "Do support" exercises.

I want that. / I do want that.
Jerry knows the answer. / Jerry does know the answer.
Tom sees the bridge. / Tom does see the bridge.
We take an exam. / We do take an exam.
...
___________________

Combining 1 and 2. "Do support" followed by inversion.

3a. With the intermediate form stated.

I want this one. / I do want this one. - Do I want this one?
George knows that. / George does know that. - Does George know that?
Franny says so. / Franny does say so. - Does Franny say so?
AND CAREFUL:
Tom does that often. / Tom does do that often. - Does Tom do that often?
...

3b. With the intermediate form unstated.

We need this. / Do we need this?
They use that. / Do they use that?
The students see it. / Do the students see it?
...

And, of course, all the backwards patterns:

Does Franny say so? / Franny does say so. - Franny says so.
Do they like it? / They do like it. - They like it.
...
_____________________

This is getting ridiculously boring, so I'll let you work out your own exercises if any of this makes pedagogical sense to you.

Good luck.

CJ

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Virginia AlabamovnaI know but can you imagine my students` faces when I tell them all this information?=) I need some teacher`s tips to solve this problem. You know, they get upset when they see that they make this mistake again.

A lot of useful information has already been posted. I just like to toss my two cents worth into the mix, and hope not to create more confusion. I can see why you have a hard time explaining it to your students.
I am not a native speaker but I have spent the last 30 years studying this language and from my experience, if we tryto cover all aspects of the "Be" verb and "To" infinitive verbs all at once, any learner will be so confused that he will have a difficult time sorting them out later, because they can be used as a main verb as well as auxiliary.

"Be" as a main verb goes with adjective and nouns: He is happy, describing a state, or being.
He is a rich man. "Be" in present form as an auxiliary verb: He is washing his car". I will not touch the passive property for now.

"Do" used as main verb in present form: I do my laundry on the weekend. As auxiliary in question form: Do you like pizza?
Here, Like is the main verb and "Do" functions as an auxiliary.
In past form as a main verb: I did my laundry two days ago. In question form in past tense: Did you wash you hand ? Here,
"Did" functions as an auxiliary (or helping verb) and "wash" is the main verb.

That being said, we can't not say" He do you happy?", or "Are you wash hands?" because of these basic rules.

For English teachers: How to explain to your students "to do" and "to be" as auxiliary and notional verbs?

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions