Lesson 1: Hello! Who are you?

Welcome to English made easy. We start with the first words you say to a person: hello, and who you are.

Saying hello and goodbye

Say “Hello” or “Hi” to anyone. “Hi” is a little more friendly.

Use “Good morning” before noon. Use “Good afternoon” after noon. Use “Good evening” when the day is ending.

To leave, say “Goodbye” or “Bye”. Say “Good night” at the very end of the day, when you go to bed.

A common question is “How are you?” A simple answer is “I’m fine, thank you. And you?”

The verb “be”

A verb is a word for an action or a state. “Be” is a verb that tells who or what someone is.

Think of “be” as an equals sign. “I am Sam” means I = Sam.

“Be” changes with the person. A pronoun is a small word that takes the place of a name. These are pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, they.

Here is “be” in the present:

• I am
• you are
• he, she, it is
• we are
• they are

In speech we make it shorter: “I’m”, “you’re”, “she’s”, “we’re”, “they’re”.

To say no, add “not”: “I am not tired.” “He is not here.” The short forms are “isn’t” and “aren’t”.

Tell people about yourself

Try this: “Hello, my name is Sam. I am from France. I am a student.”

In English, we use “be” for age. Say “I am 30”, not “I have 30”. We also use “be” for feelings, like hungry, cold or happy: “I am hungry.”

Try it

Fill in “am”, “is” or “are”:

1. She ___ my friend.
2. We ___ from Spain.
3. I ___ 25 years old.

The answers are: is, are, am.

Next time, we will talk about things and people: a, an, the.