Are you OK? - No, I'm not.

Please refresh the page to get the latest updates.

Materials Daily News

Forming Questions and Negative Sentences With the Verb 'Be'

Beginner

After this lesson, you will be able to ask what something is and say what something is not.

Exercise 1

Sentence Practice

These questions are yes-no questions. They are the most basic kind of question as they can only be answered with 'yes' or 'no'.

Grammar Focus

Verb 'be': forming questions

To form a yes-no question, first think of the sentence in the positive form, then switch the positions of the subject and verb.

Positive sentence: You are OK.
Yes-no question: Are you OK?

Verb 'be': negatives

In order to form a negative sentence, add the word 'not' after the verb 'be':

Affirmative sentence: I am OK.
Negative sentence: I am not OK.

The word 'not' is often contracted to 'n't': You're not OK = You aren't OK. He's not OK = He isn't OK. We're not OK = We aren't OK. They're not OK = They aren't OK.

Note

"I am not OK." and "I'm not OK." are never contracted to "I amn't OK."

Exercise 2

Dialogue Practice

Read the dialogues aloud with your tutor.

With Nouns

	Matt Are you an English teacher?
	Zach No, I am not.
	Matt Are you a doctor then?
	Zach No, I'm not. I'm a student.

With Prepositional Phrases

	Nina Is Patrick at home?
	Arisa No, he is not.
	Nina Is he at work then?
	Arisa No, he isn't. He's at the hospital.

With Adjectives

	Lauren Are they American?
	Andrei No, they are not.
	Lauren Are they British then?
	Andrei No, they aren't. They're Russian.

Exercise 3

Fill in the Blanks

Fill in the blanks to complete the sentences.

	Zach Are you Russian?
	Edith No, I (1).

Give an answer that fits in blank 1

	Haruto Am I a child?
	Teacher No, you (2).

Give an answer that fits in blank 2

	Chloe Is your father Brad Pitt?
	Jimmy No, he (3).

Give an answer that fits in blank 3

	Jim Is this book new?
	Librarian No, it (4).

Give an answer that fits in blank 4

	Camille Are you or your sister fluent in Spanish?
	James No, we (5).

Give an answer that fits in blank 5

Exercise 4

Sentence Building

Introduce yourself and describe the subjects of the pictures.

Say who you are and who you are not. [Age → "I am 35. I am not 40."]

name
job
nationality
city

Describe the subjects of the pictures by saying what they are and what they are not. [Color → "It is red. It is not blue."]

name
color
size