Hi there! In English, as in many languages, the order
of the different types of words in a sentence is important.
This structure determines the meaning of a sentence.
In this video, we are going to look at the three main structures for verbs:
positive, negative, and questions. These three easy structures are the same for
any verb, in any tense. So this is the framework that all communication
in English is based on. I am Colin Munro and this is the English Language Club.
The most common way to use verbs is in the
positive structure. It looks like this: SUBJECT-AUXILIARY-VERB
For example “We are learning”
Most of the time in English the main verb, which tells the action of the sentence, is
preceded by another verb, called an auxiliary verb, this put the action of the main verb
in the proper context. It can tell us the tense of the verb or, if
it is a modal auxiliary verb it indicates permission, obligation, or possibility.
Check out these links for more on auxiliary verbs. For now in this video we are going to focus on structures.
So in positive statements all auxiliaries come directly before the main verb.
Here are some more examples of the positive structure with an auxiliary verb.
"She has helped people."
"We are walking together."
"They had planned the project."
"You have taken over the office."
"The house was built in 1952."
"I have been to Africa."
The subject tells us who performs the action of the main verb.
The auxiliary verb, sometimes called a helping verb, puts the action in its proper time and
context. It isn’t the action of the sentence though, so its regular meaning doesn’t apply;
it's just there for grammatical purposes. The action is defined by the main verb.
So we use auxiliaries a lot in English. To make them quicker and easier to say we
often use contracted forms. This means we kind of merge the subject pronoun and the
auxiliary verb into one word. So “We are learning.” becomes
“We’re learning."
“She has helped people.” becomes
“She’s helped people.”
“We are walking together.” becomes
“We’re walking together.” “They had planned the project.” becomes
“They’d planned the project.” and so on.
For more on contractions click here. Simple tenses, present simple and past simple,
are a little different. In these tenses when they are positive the
auxiliary is not really needed, but the structure is the same, we can just skip the auxiliary,
“do” or “did”. For example. "I eat breakfast."
"She helped me." "They had meatballs."
"It tickles." "We sent them."
"It goes well." With these, because there is no auxiliary,
we can’t use a contraction. So you can see how the basic structure is
the same for every verb and every tense. The second main structure that we are going
to look at is the negative structure. The structure is almost exactly the same as for
positive sentences, but we use the word “not” before the main verb to make it negative.
So lets make those original examples negative. "We are not learning."
"She has not helped people." "We are not walking together."
and so on.
Again we can use contractions with the negative
structure to make things quicker and easier to say.
So “We are not learning.” becomes “We aren’t learning.”
“She has not helped people.” becomes “She hasn’t helped people.”
“We are not walking together.” becomes “We aren’t walking together.”
“They had not planned the project.” becomes “They hadn’t planned the project.”
“You have not taken over the office.” becomes “You haven’t taken over the office.”
“The house was not built in 1952.” becomes “The house wasn’t built in 1952.”
“I have not been to Africa.” becomes “I haven’t been to Africa.”
Again, check out our video on contractions for more examples.
So with the positive structure we talked about how with the simple tenses we don't need the
auxiliary verb. However, this is not the case with the negative structure because now we always
need the auxiliary verb. So lets have a quick look at those simple
tense examples again and we'll make them negative.
“I eat breakfast.” becomes "I don't eat breakfast."
"She helped me." becomes "She didn't help me."
"They had meatballs." becomes "They didn't have meatballs."
"It tickles." becomes "It doesn't tickle."
"We sent them." becomes "We didn't send them."
"It goes well." becomes "It doesn't go well."
The only exception to this is the verb “to be”, this never uses an auxiliary for tense.
This is because the verb “to be” is very irregular, we have made other videos focusing
on this subject which you can see by clicking on this link.
So that is it for the negative structure. The third and final structure is the Question.
The biggest difference is that the auxiliary no longer comes directly before the main verb.
It moves to be before the subject. As in the negative structure, there must always be an
auxiliary verb. (Again, to be verbs are the exception.)
Sentences with this structure are questions and should, therefore, end with a question mark.
So lets make our examples into questions. "Are we learning?"
"Has she helped people?" "Are we walking together?"
"Had they planned the project?" "Have you taken over the office?"
"Was this house built in 1952?" "Have I been to Africa?"
There are other ways of asking questions. Click here for more on question forms.
So there are the three structures for verb use in English.
Positive: Saying that something happens. This starts with the subject and may have an
auxiliary verb. Negative: Saying that something doesn’t happen.
Again the subject comes first, then there
must be an auxiliary and the word not, and sometimes this can be contracted.
Question: Which we use to ask whether something happens.
In this structure the auxiliary always comes first and again there must be an auxiliary.
For example: “We have finished.” “We have not finished.”
“Have we finished?”
The verb, the subject, and any auxiliaries
can change based on how and when the action of the verb happens. But no matter what tense
the verb uses, the order will fit one of these structures.
Remembering these three simple patterns will help you speak English with confidence!
So thank you for watching. I hope you found it useful.
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