LONGMAN ENGLISH GRAMMAR PRACTICE

10 Be, Have, Do

10.1 'Be'as a full verb (1)

10.1 A Some uses of the imperative of 'be': 'Be careful!' [> LEG IO.I,10.5, App 41]

Write 2:

Study:

ШВ

1 Be is a 'helping' (or auxiliary) verb when it 'helps' other verbs, for example to form the present

or past progressive [> 9.2B, 9.4B]: He is reading. He was sleeping.

2 Be is a full verb when we use it with nouns (She's a teacher) or adjectives (She's tall).

3 Be + noun or adjective in the imperative has limited uses.

We use be with nouns to mean 'act like': Be a dear and answer the phonel

or to mean 'become': Be a better cook! or 'pretend to be': Be a monster, granddad!

Don't be is more common: Don't be silly! Don't be a fool!

4 We use be only with adjectives that describe 'passing behaviour':

Be + careful, patient, quiet, etc. Don't be + careless, impatient, silly, etc.

But not with adjectives which describe 'states', like hungry, thirsty, pretty.

Write 1 : Rephrase the words in italics using be.

1 Act like an angel and fetch my newspaper, please.

2 Don't act like a silly idiot!

3 The advertisement said: 'Become the proud owner of a new sports car!'

4 Don't become a writer. You'll regret it

5 You play the part of Batman and I'll pretend to be Robin

Using (Do) be... or Don't be..., what would you say to these people? Write two sentences for each,

choosing from: afraid, brave, careful, careless, critical, friendly, generous, mean, noisy, quiet.

1 Some children who are making a lot of noise.

2 Someone who has just broken a cup

3 A friend who refuses to give any money to charity

4 A friend who is always criticizing other people

5 Someone who is afraid of going to the dentist

10.1 В The use of 'aren't' [> LEG 1 о.7п.з]

Study:

E3

The full form Am I not is rare. We use Aren't I...? (Not "Amn't I") in:

• negative questions: Am I not late? Aren't I late?


• negative Wh-questions : Why am I not invited? -> Why aren 't I invited?


• negative question tag: I'm late, am I not? I'm late, aren't I? [> 13.3]
  We use aren't I only in negative questions and negative question tags, never in negative
  statements: lam not late. -> I'm not late. (Not 7 aren't late")

Write: Supply negative forms of be.

1 You ШЖ&. cold, are you?

2 I'm right I?

3 You're American, you?

4 She's here already she?

5 We're late again we?

6 They're French, they?

7 He angry, was he?

8 You were early, you?