ניוזלטר 3 - פרזנט סימפל

Hello!

Through our Newsletters we hope to provide you with useful and interesting content that will help you improve your English. The Newsletter is our way of staying in touch with you, after you’ve completed a course with us, or even before you start one.

What’s in this month’s Newsletter?

In this month’s edition, we’ll discuss the meaning and usage of the word “own”. We’ll also talk about the Present Simple tense.

Let’s talk about the word “own”

“Own” is a word that many Israelis find difficult to use. The reason is that when it is used as a verb, there isn’t a corresponding Hebrew verb and the best way of translating it would be from the English verb, into a Hebrew noun. Sound complicated? Let’s take a closer look…

I own this house. (= This house is mine. It’s my property.)

The word “own” in the above sentence is a verb, just like “love”. One way of being sure that it’s a verb, is to try using it in different tenses:

1. I own this house now. (present)

2. I owned a house when I was younger. (past)

3. I will own a house when I am older. (future)

If we try to literally translate sentence number one into Hebrew, we’ll see that there isn’t a commonly used Hebrew verb that means “own”. Instead, we’ll use a noun: אני הבעלים של הבית הזה

Now that we understand the basic meaning of the verb, let’s look at other common usages:

• Owner – noun – I am the owner of this car. (=I own this car. This car is my property.)

• Own – adjective – I made the cake on my own. (=I made the cake by myself-nobody helped me.)

• Own up – verb – Be honest and own up to your mistakes. (=admit to making mistakes. Take responsibility.)

FYI (For your information)

The word “own” belongs to a group of verbs called “stative verbs”. Regular verbs describe actions (run, walk, read, write, swim, eat…), whereas stative verbs describe situations or emotions (love, like, hate, want, see, hear, know…).

What’s important for you to remember is that we don’t use the Present Progressive tense (see Newsletter number 1) with stative verbs. Instead, we use the Present Simple:

• I am running now (regular verb in Present Progressive).

• I see you now. (Stative verb – we use Present Simple, even though the “action” is happening now.)

• I know the answer. (Not “I am knowing the answer”.)

Before you go, let’s talk about the Present Simple tense

We use the Present Simple when we want to describe general truths (The sun sets in the west and rises in the east.), or reoccurring events (I take the train to work every day).

Although it’s called Simple, this tense is actually one of the most complicated. When it comes to Present Simple, students tend to have a hard time knowing if and when to use am/are/is, do/does, the letter s at the end of verbs and so on.

Let’s try to make it a little bit simpler to understand…

Present Simple sentences can be divided into two main groups:

1. Sentences without a “regular verb”

In English every sentence has to have a verb. If there isn’t a “regular verb” in a sentence in Present Simple, we use am/are/is to connect between the subject and the rest of the sentence:

• I am a teacher.

• You are not handsome.

• She is in the car.

• Is it cold outside?

2. Sentences with a “regular verb”

Here things get a little complicated, because there are significant differences in sentence formation depending on the subject pronoun used (I, you, he, she…) and the kind of sentence (positive, negative, question…):

a. Positive sentences: use the base form of the verb, but add s to the verb for he, she and it:

i. I live in Tel-Aviv.

ii. She lives in Holon.

iii. We want more ice-cream.

iv. He wants more ice-cream.

b. Negative sentences: use don’t + base form of the verb for I, you, we and they and doesn’t + base form for he, she and it:

i. I don’t have time.

ii. He doesn’t have time.

iii. We own this apartment.

iv. She doesn’t own the apartment.

c. Yes/no questions: use do and does + base form of the verb:

i. Do you know the answer?