You'll notice the negative (-) answers use auxiliary verbs in contraction form (it is = it's / I am= I'm). Of course, it's not always necessary. You can also say, " No, it is not" but it's much more common in spoken English to use these contractions.

If you would like to learn about auxiliary verbs in contractions, please view this previous lesson.

Every sentence needs a verb, whether an action verb, helping verb, or linking verb. Verbs are one of the most important parts of any sentence because it can show an action or state. It's basically what a sentence is all about!

In this comic, you'll see lots of AUXILIARY VERBS, also known as HELPING VERBS. These verbs provide extra information about a subject.

Below are examples of auxiliary verbs:
am, is, are, was, were, being, been, does, do, did, has, have, had, having, can, could, may, might, must, ought to, shall, should, will, would

When answering a question with Yes or No, it is considered much more polite to answer using auxiliary verbs than simply saying, "yes" or "no."

In this image, there are many examples of auxiliary verbs being used to answer the question, for example, "Yes, he is," " No, he doesn't."

You will also notice that auxiliary verbs are used when a question is being asked, for example, Can I touch your dog? Does your dog bite?

This is the form for a simple question sentence using an auxiliary:
Auxiliary + subject + main verb + other ?

Take a look at some more examples of auxiliary verbs used in questions and how to answer using the verbs in positive and negative short answers:

A lot of the times when we write, we forget to check our work for certain errors.The other day, my husband needed to forward an email to people at his work. In the subject line, he wanted to type "FYI," meaning "For Your Information", but the auto-correct on his phone changed it to "I'm dying." If he didn't check his work before sending the email, a lot of people at work would be a bit shocked to receive this email. Luckily he checked his work before sending!

Writing errors can ruin your credibility, reputation and can make people question, what else are you getting wrong? Did you put that much effort in your work? All too often they also create embarrassment!

There are four main areas to check for in your work before you submit. The acronym is COPS (Capitalization, Order & Organization, Punctuation, and Spelling). Print this out and always remember to check your work with the COPS before sending any resumes, papers and emails! 

Have you ever made or seen any funny writing mistakes?

This has been a question that's been asked many many times: what's the difference between "this" and "that?" When should I use them?

Both of them are used when talking about one item or one person (singular). The main difference between the two is DISTANCE.

THIS (singular) is used for an object or person that is physically very close to the speaker (the plural form of THIS is THESE). If you look at the woman in the picture above, she can literally touch the slice of cake in front of her. She doesn't need to walk over to it. Therefore, she says I WANT THIS ONE.

THAT (singular) is used for an object or person that is more distant to the speaker (the plural form of THAT is THOSE). He or she must point to it and can't just touch the object or person without moving closer to it. The boy in the picture above needs to walk over to the cake in order to get the cake.

You'll see from below that if you're standing in front of one object (singular) or many objects (plural) we would use THIS and THESE.

If you're standing far from one object (singular) or many objects (plural), we would use THAT and THOSE.

When we learn English, one of the most important things to know is how to talk about singular (one thing) and plural (more than one thing). You might  know that when there is one item (for example, 'book') we just 'a book' or 'one book.' When we want to say more than one book, we add the letter 's' after the word to become 'books.' 

In most cases, to make a singular noun to a plural noun, we add an 's' or 'es' after the word. 

However, as you can tell from the word 'jeans' there are some words that never have a singular form. Which means that even if there is just one item, we always use the plural form (jeans). If the word jeans is always plural, it also means that the noun takes on a plural verb ('are' not 'is'). 

As I've mentioned many times before, English can definitely get confusing  and it is near impossible to memorize everything. The best way to learn is to listen and speak more! It will start to become more natural for you!