What's the DIFFERENCE between HIS and HE'S?

This question has two elements: Pronunciation and grammar.

PRONUNCIATION: HIS vs. HE'S

The difference between the sounds i: (he's) and I (his) is the most difficult sound for all students regardless of their native tongue.  To read more about the difference between these sounds, to practice pronunciation pairs and to understand the pronunciation element in depth, read The Most Commonly Mispronounced VOWEL Sounds.

GRAMMAR: HIS vs. HE'S

The difference between HIS and HE'S is fairly simple, but students get confused because of the pronunciation.  The grammar is straight forward and easy to understand when explained.

HIS is the possessive adjective for HE, of course:

I--my

You--your

He--his

She--her

It--its

We--our

They--their

Ex.  Don't work on his computer because he's still finishing his reports. 

HE'S=HE+IS.  It's that simple!  He's is a contraction for the verb TO BE:

I'm=I am

You're=you are

He's=he is

She's=she is

It's=it is

We're=we are

They're=they are

Ex. He's working on his thesis right now, so please don't disturb him!

I hope this helps....if not, leave a question below.  Have a great weekend :)

What's the difference between WAS and WERE?

Here is another post for my beginning ESL students about the difference between WAS and WERE, a very simple concept, yet many of my students still have a bit of trouble remembering the conjugations and often confuse the pronouns.

Past Tense: TO BE

I           WAS

You     WERE

He        WAS

She      WAS

It          WAS

We       WERE

They    WERE

As you can see here, we have two groups of pronouns for each conjugation.  (I, he, she and it take on WAS, while (you, we and they) take on WERE.  Now let's take a look at negative statements and their abbreviations with apostrophes:

Negative Past Tense: TO BE

I was not= I wasn't

You were not=You weren't

He was not=He wasn't

She was not=She wasn't

It was not=It wasn't

We were not=We weren't

They were not=They weren't

A quick note about apostrophes: Apostrophes take the place of a letter or letters.  In this case it's only one letter...the letter 'o'.

Interrogative Past Tense: TO BE (Interrogative is a fancy word for question...)

Now remember that with the verb form TO BE and forming questions, we just switch the subject and the verb.   (I was tired./Was I tired?)  Also remember that we don't need to use any auxiliary verbs with the verb TO BE (such as do, does or did...)

Wasn't I a great speaker?

Were you not at work today?

Was he eating dinner?

Was she calling you?

Was it the final decision?

Were we late?

Were they at the police station?

Now we can add (Who, What, When, Where, Why) to these questions:

Why wasn't I a great speaker?

When were you at work today?

Where was he eating dinner?

What was she calling you about?

Why was it the final decision?

When were we late?

Why were they at the movies?

Here is an old post about interrogative present tense TO BE in case you're curious. 

I hope this helps!

What's the difference between AM, IS and ARE?

While this may seem easy, at times it can be tricky for beginning and even intermediate ESL Learners...so it's definitely worth taking a closer look.

Let's begin with the basics of the verb TO BE:

I            AM
You       ARE
He         IS
She        IS
It            IS
We        ARE
They      ARE

Now as you can see we use AM only with "I."  We use IS with "he," "she," and "it."  Finally, we use ARE with "you," "we," and "they."

How about the negative forms of the verb TO BE?

Well, there are actually two forms of the negative in English with the verb TO BE, except in the first person singular:

I'm not 
You're not OR You aren't
He's not OR He isn't
She's not OR She isn't
It's not OR It isn't
We're not OR We aren't
They're not OR They aren't

The verb TO BE is the most important verb in any language, so it's very important to learn these conjugations. If you have trouble remembering them, write each form down 5 times in your notebook.  You can do it!

When do I use DO/DOES/DID?

The structure of questions in English varies depending on the verb.  Verbs are divided into two categories:

1. to be
2. ALL other verbs (DO/DOES/DID)

If the verb is (to be), then the grammar will be different. If the verb is any other verb except (to be), then we use DO/DOES/DID as the helping or auxiliary verb.  We also use DO/DOES/DID for negative statements, but for this post, let's take a look at questions.  At the end of this post, you can find information about questions using the verb TO BE.

Questions: ALL Other Verbs (Using DO/DOES/DID)

To form questions in English using any other verb except (to be), we must use the helping or auxilary verbs: DO/DOES/DID.  Remember that DO/DOES we use in the present tense with the following subjects:

• PRESENT TENSE (AUXILIARY VERB): DO/DOES

Do (I, you, we, they) understand English?
Does (he, she, it, your mother, the man) speak well?

• PAST TENSE (AUXILIARY VERB): DID

And we use DID in the past tense with all subjects:
Did (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) pass the exam?

• When forming questions with DO/DOES/DID, we use the following format:

Question Word + DO/DOES/DID + Subject + Verb
What                 + do                      +you        +like to do on the weekends?

We use DO/DOES/DID with the present and past simple tenses as seen below.

Examples:

• He likes to play baseball.= Does he like to play baseball?
• They went shopping yesterday.= Did they go shopping yesterday?
• They do their homework after dinner.= Do they do their homework after dinner?
• She travels to Asia every summer.= Where does she travel every summer?
• We go jogging at 7:00 am every morning.= When do you go jogging?
• I went to class four times per week.= How often did you go to class?

Questions: TO BE

To form questions using the verb to be, all we do is switch the position of the subject and verb.  Remember, we use the verb to be in the present, past, continuous, future (going to) and passive constructions, as seen below.

 

Examples:

• He is Italian= Is he Italian? (present)
• They are going to participate in the contest=  Are they going to participate in the contest? (future)
• She is leaving soon!= Is she leaving soon? (continous/future)
• The door is closed.= Is the door closed? (present passive)
• The children were swimming all day long.= Were the children swimming all day long? (past continuous)
• He is being interrogated by the FBI.= Is he being interrogated by the FBI? (present continuous)

I hope this helps.  If you have any suggestions for future blog posts, just write under the Q&A page on my blog ;)