In today's lesson we are going to look at a few advanced be structures. Be plus two infinitive. Be to be
plus past participle. Was/were to have plus past participle. And was/were to have been plus the past
participle. I know all of this might look a bit confusing, but I am going to explain everything.
At the end of this lesson I have a little test for you with nine questions.
Let me know in the comments below, how did you do on the test? Did you get nine out of nine?
Six out of nine? Let me know! My name's Arnel, let's start.
Let's begin simply with a grammar structure you already know, future plans. You can see my timelines.
New students are going to meet their teachers next week. In two days I am going to fly to
Halifax for a conference. You know we need be going to infinitive for future plans.
Think about your own future plans, what are you going to do this weekend?
Mini reminder: The infinitive is verb number one, with to. To play, played, played. To play
is my infinitive, with to. To eat, ate, eaten. To eat is my infinitive with to. So that's clear.
How can I make these future plans more formal? More official?
New students are to meet their teachers next week. In two days I am to fly to Halifax for
a conference. You can see today's grammar, be + to infinitive. Do we really use this to speak about
the future? It looks like the present. Yes, we can use this structure to speak about future plans in
a formal way. You might see this first sentence in an email that is sent to all of the new students.
You might hear this second example in a business meeting.
Formal, so it would be very unnatural to say: I am to buy ice cream for dessert.
Is this a formal or official situation? I know ice cream is really important, but in this case you
need to say I'm going to buy ice cream for dessert. Or, I'm gonna. I'm gonna buy ice cream for dessert.
Formal. Official. This sounds like the news.
The President's Convoy is to pass through Rickman Avenue at noon tomorrow. The President's Convoy is
going to pass through Richmond Avenue at noon tomorrow. Formal/official? Less formal.
And a convoy, a convoy is a group of cars or trucks that travel together. Usually
um something to do with the police or the military. So you can imagine the President needs a convoy.
Students are to protest Rising tuition at the nation's capital.
Students are going to protest rising tuition at the nation's capital.
Formal/official? Less formal. I found a real life example in infrastructure intelligence.
Government to spend an extra 12.5 million pounds on flood defenses. This is a headline,
and you know headlines are usually shortened. So here, be is missing. Government is to spend
an extra 12.5 million pounds. If we scroll down we can see the full grammar. The government is
to spend 12.5 million. I could be less formal and say: The government is going to spend 12.5 million.
So it's pretty common to see the shortened version in a headline, and the full version in the
body of the text. And I get this question a lot: Is today's lesson American English or British English?
This grammar is the same everywhere, it's not American English or British English.
And if you're curious, I'm American.
We spoke about future plans, but what about past plans? Notice my timelines.
A property development company was to cut down a 200 year old oak tree.
A property development company was going to cut down a 200 year old oak tree. Notice I
use was, was to infinitive, past plan. The talk show audience was ecstatic.
Ecstatic is a great adjective. It's a combination of excitement and happiness.
The talk show audience was ecstatic to hear that they were all to receive a free 55-inch TV. Wow!
They were going to receive a free 55-inch TV. Notice were, were too infinitive past plan.
Did these things actually happen?
At a point in the past, you don't know if your plan will happen or not. Just like in the
present you can't guarantee your future plan will happen. But, when we use this grammar, most
likely the action did happen. The tree was cut down, the audience did receive their free TVs.
So how can I talk about a plan, a past plan, that didn't happen?
Was/were to have plus past participle.
Mini reminder: The past participle is verb number three. We've already looked at this.
To play, played, played. Played as my past participle. To eat, ate, eaten. Eaten is my past participle.
A property development company was to have cut down a 200 year old oak tree,
but too many members of the local community protested this. Was to have plus past participle.
And remember, cut. Cut is an irregular verb. Cut, cut, cut. So cut is my past participle.
With my second example I need to change this one a little bit more, because it's not possible to
be ecstatic about something you didn't receive... Talk show audience members were to have received a
free 55-inch TV. However, the company providing the TVs never fulfilled their promise. Both of these
are past plans that did not happen, and usually you'll see this structure with but or however.
Mini review: Be too infinitive, future plan, formal. South Bank dental clinic is to offer
free dental care to senior citizens beginning next month. Past plan, formal. The CEO was to
visit all company branches over the summer. Past plan that did not happen, formal. Was
were to have plus past participle. Employees were to have received a five percent raise.
A raise is a salary increase, more money. They were to have received a five percent raise,
but drastic changes in the world market made this an impossibility.
Can you give me an example sentence in the comments below?
Be + to infinitive. We already know we can use this structure for future or past plans.
But we can also use this for orders What do I mean by that? Orders, something you must do, or
something you are expected to do. Employees are to complete their work satisfaction forms by Friday.
Employees must complete their work satisfaction forms by Friday. It's clear this isn't a plan, it's
something they're expected to do. They must do this. What's the difference between these two sentences?
In this case these mean the same thing, it's just about variety.
I recently got this book from the library. It's um The Aerialists by Katie Munich. And while I
was reading I found an example of today's grammar. I thought, perfect, I'm gonna share this with you.
So this book was published in 2022, but the story the story is set in 1891. 1891 in Paris...
Two of the characters want to practice acrobatics in the street at night. Why? That's not important
for today's lesson. The main character is a young girl who has to watch for policemen.
If a policeman comes she needs to wave a handkerchief to warn the acrobats.
A handkerchief is a piece of cloth people used in the past to blow their noses or to wave goodbye.
The character says this: There would be gendarmes, a type of French policeman,
walking these streets and I was to raise Ena's handkerchief above my head if I saw one.
Be past to infinitive. This was expected of her, it was an order.
This was another example of more formal English because it's written English.
This structure um especially in the negative, can be heard in in spoken English.
You are not to touch my stuff when I'm gone. You must not touch my stuff when I'm gone.
Here this is a little clip of a mother and a daughter talking, they're talking about a man.
I think it's kind of cute, he reminds me of a dog that nobody wants. You are
never to think he's cute, never. Okay, you can see the mother is being pretty protective.
You are never to think he's cute, never, that's an order.
Let's compare plans and orders. Macy is to serve the guests tea and coffee. Is this a plan or an
order? The grammar looks the same. Without context, we don't know. Plan. Macy wants
the guests to feel comfortable. So she is going to serve them tea and coffee, that's her plan.
If it's an order... Maybe Macy is an intern, and her boss told her to serve tea
and coffee. But without any context this is most likely an order. Why? Because serving tea and
coffee isn't really a formal or official thing. Also, don't confuse today's Grammar with this.
The purpose of exams is to test students knowledge. The function of the liver is to
filter blood. We see be to infinitive. But we're obviously not talking about plans or orders,
you always need to look at the context. Here, the infinitive is showing purpose. Remember in English,
the infinitive is used in so many different ways. It's all about context. Don't isolate the grammar.
We've already looked at these two structures. But what we haven't looked at is:
Be + to be + past participle. Here are two sentences from earlier in this lesson:
Plan and order. Are these sentences active or passive? These are active sentences.
And if you're thinking what is she talking about active, passive? I do have a full lesson
on the passive voice, I'll leave the link down below for you. If you're not really comfortable
with the passive voice, I do suggest you watch that first before continuing with this lesson.
So these sentences are in the active voice, let's change them to the passive voice.
Free dental care is to be offered to senior citizens beginning next month.
By Southbank dental clinic is optional.
Work satisfaction forms are to be completed by Friday. By all employees is optional. Be to be plus
past participle. Passive voice. Let's do another example: Our new app is to be launched next month.
Every customer is to be told about our new app. Be to be plus past participle,
passive voice. Okay, let's look at another example from earlier in this lesson:
Remember this structure here is about a past plan that did not happen.
Let's turn this into the passive voice. A 200 year old oak tree was to have been cut down
by a property development company, but too many members of the local community protested this.
Was to have been plus past participle. That is the passive voice of a past plan that didn't happen.
I think this structure is probably a student's
worst nightmare. We have was have and been in the same sentence.
Was to have been verb 3 to the verb 1
pa to be verb 3 was was......
I know all of these structures might feel mixed up in your brain,
but the best way to start learning this grammar is by recognizing the grammar,
and that's what we're going to do in the test. Hello! I think I might be really small right now
but let's do this test. I have nine descriptions and nine example sentences.
Can you please connect the description to the example sentence? We'll do one together.
Number one. Future plan active voice, connects to G. Members of the British royal family are
to visit Montreal in December. Can you connect the remaining eight? Pause the video to do this.
Okay, here are the answers.
How did you do? Let me know in the comments, I'm really curious, and give me a couple of example
sentences. Practice this grammar! Thank you so much for watching, I'll see you next time. Bye!