Blog Educacional/LANA: ABA INGLÊS 145

Friday Message
2/2/2018
Contracted forms of "to be"

Hello there!

I hope you’re well and enjoying your Friday!

Seu progresso:

Beginners

Today we’re going to look at the contracted forms of the verb “to be” in the present simple. Remember that contractions are very common in informal writing and speech in English.Hoje vamos estudar as formas contraídas do verbo "to be" no presente simples. Lembre-se que as contrações são muito comuns quando a gente escreve ou fala de maneira informal em inglês.

Before we continue, here’s a reminder of the verb “to be” in the present simple:

I am

You are

He / She / It is

We are

You (plural) are

They are

To make a contraction with a subject pronoun and the verb “to be”, join the two words and replace the first letter of the conjugated verb “to be” with an apostrophe. Para fazer uma contração com um pronome sujeito e o verbo "to be", una as duas palavras e substitua a primeira letra da forma conjugada do verbo "to be" com um apóstrofo:

I am

I'm

You are

You're

He / She / It is

He's / She's / It's

We are

We're

You (plural) are

You're

They are

They're

Have a look at the following dialogue between Richard (R) and Sandra (S) to see contractions in everyday speech:

S: Hey, Rich! I heard you’re going to Brazil this week!Olá Rich! Me disseram que você vai para o Brasil esta semana!

R: Yes, I’m leaving on Thursday morning. Sim, vou quinta-feira de manhã.

S: You’re so lucky. I’m just staying here the whole summer.Que sorte você tem! Eu vou ficar por aqui o verão inteiro

R: That’s unfortunate. Did you hear that John’s coming with me to Brazil?He’s buying his ticket tonight. We’re both really excited. Que má sorte! Você sabia que o John vai me acompanhar ao Brasil? Ele vai comprar o bilhete esta noite. Os dois estamos muito emocionados!

S: Have a great time! Divirtam-se muito!

To make a negative sentence, just add “not” after the contraction. For example,

- I’m not happy because it’s raining.Não estou contente porque está chovendo.

- She’s not coming to the party.Ela não vem à festa

- They’re not tired today.Eles não estão cansados hoje.

- We’re not going to the party because we haven’t been invited.Não vamos à festa porque não fomos convidados.

It is also possible to say “you aren’t” instead of “you’re not”, “he / she / it isn’t” instead of “he / she / it’s not”, “we aren’t” instead of “we’re not” and “they aren’t” instead of “they’re not”. For example,

- She isn’t coming to the party.

- They aren’t tired today.

- We aren’t going to the party because we weren’t invited.

I hope this has been helpful! Remember that for more on this subject, you can check out unit 3 of the online ABA course.

Have an awesome weekend!

Take care,