Reference · module 6
People and descriptions
Everything this module explains, on one page.
Family
Name the people in your family.
- mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, wife, husband. And the everyday pair: mum and dad in Britain, mom and dad in America.
- English shows belonging with an apostrophe and an s: my sister's car, Anna's brother. The owner comes first, unlike in most languages.
- my, your, his, her, our, their. These never change for what follows: my car, my cars, my house — one form covers everything.
The mistake you are about to make
the car of my sister
my sister's car
Most languages put the owner second and join the two with a word like "of". For people English puts the owner first and adds an apostrophe s.
Describing people
Describe somebody in two or three sentences.
- tall, short, young, old, kind, funny, quiet, busy. English adjectives never change: a tall man, tall men, a tall woman.
- They go before the noun: a tall man, never a man tall. That order is fixed and is one of the first things a listener notices.
- very makes an adjective stronger and quite makes it weaker: very tall, quite tall. In Britain quite can also mean rather a lot, and the tone decides.
The mistake you are about to make
talls men
tall men
If adjectives agree in your language, an ending will try to grow here. English adjectives never change: one form for every gender and number.
have and have got
Say what you have, in both of the ways English offers.
- I have a car and I've got a car mean exactly the same thing. The second is more British and more spoken; the first works everywhere.
- The questions differ. With have: Do you have a car? With have got: Have you got a car? Mixing them gives Do you have got, which is neither.
- If in doubt, use plain have. It is understood everywhere, needs the helper you already know, and never sounds wrong.
The mistake you are about to make
Do you have got a car?
Do you have a car?
Two patterns collide and leave an extra got behind. It is either Do you have a car or Have you got a car, never both at once.
Jobs
Say what you do for a living and ask somebody else.
- teacher, doctor, nurse, driver, engineer, student, waiter. Most job words end in -er or -or, from the verb they come from.
- English needs the article: I am a teacher, never I am teacher. This is the opposite of German and of most other languages.
- The question is What do you do? — not What are you? which would be a strange thing to ask. And I work as a teacher is the longer answer.
The mistake you are about to make
What are you?
What do you do?
What are you? asks what kind of creature you are. The question about work is What do you do?, and the answer needs an article: I am a teacher.