Page 15 - HIP@SESMA E-bulletin Vol 1

I have purposely put the regular present simple verbs towards the end because we only find this auxiliary
construction in the simple present and the simple past. All other constructions invert subject and verb/
first verb in compound verbs to form questions and we just add ‘not’ to the first verb to form a negative
sentence.

• Am I . . . ? Would you . . .? Have you seen . . . ? Have you got . . . ? Will you be . . . ? etc.
• I’m not You wouldn’t You haven’t seen You have got You will be

I have found that students who are taught regular simple verbs at an early stage, tend to think that the use
of ‘do/does/did’ as an auxiliary is the most common form of constructing questions and negative
sentences.

Teaching the present continuous at a very early stage reinforces the idea of ‘-ing’ = action , introduces
students to the verb ‘be’ at the same time and establishes the idea that the inversion of subject /verb is the
most common construction for questions.

Please, if I have left anything out, or made any mistakes (typos or otherwise) tell me on my recommend
page. If you have any suggestions to better any of my worksheets I would be very grateful.

Best wishes from Italy to all of you

lesleymisano