In this lesson, you'll learn some
special uses of the verb "to be". Now, this lesson is for you, whether you're
a beginner, intermediate, or advanced level student because everyone
makes these kind of mistakes. Okay? So what we'll do is first we'll do a little
quiz to see where you are today, then I'll explain three simple ways in which you can
always know what's right, and then we'll do a little review. Okay? So let's get started. All right. So, what you need to do is just tell
me whether we should say "is" or "are". Okay? So, the first one,
"Everyone _____ here." What should it be? "Everyone is" or "Everyone are"? Ready? Okay? Okay? So, here, it should
be "Everyone is here." Now, if you got it
wrong, don't worry, I'm going to explain
everything after this section. Okay? Number two, "Some of the
equipment _____ heavy." Some of the equipment is or
some of the equipment are? What's the right answer? Do you know? It should be "is". Okay? Again, I will explain
why afterwards. Next. "These flowers _____ lovely." Or, "These flowers are lovely." What's right? "These flowers are lovely." Very good. Number four, "_____
anybody home?" "Is anybody home?" Or do we say, "Are
anybody home?" What's the right answer? "Is anybody home?" Okay. Number five, "All the
phone lines _____ busy." Or, "All the phone
lines are busy." What's the right answer? Should be? Okay. And number six, "None of this
information is correct or are correct." Think about it. Okay? So, "None of this
information is correct." Okay? Now, if you didn't
understand why it's like that, or if you got even
one of these wrong, please make sure to watch the next section
because when we're talking about the verb "to be", right? With "is" or "are", these
are very basic words, and if you get it
wrong, it's kind of a bad mistake to make. All right? And you don't want to make it. But after you watch the next part,
you'll understand exactly what to do. Okay. So, now let's look at the three areas
where you might have made a mistake. Okay? And I'm going to
explain it to you so that you understand exactly
what the right answer is and why. All right? Okay. So, the first is in
these kind of words, like "everyone", "everybody",
"someone", "somebody", "no one", "nobody". Now, these are sometimes confusing because
especially here, "everyone" sounds like a lot of people, right? But the way you have to think about it is
that in English, "everyone" is still "one" and therefore singular, and "everyone" as
a group is still "one group", and therefore it's still singular. So, therefore, with
all of these kind of words, we need to use
the singular verb "is". "Everyone is",
"someone is", "no one is". Okay? And then whatever
you want to say. Okay? "Everyone is happy", "everyone is
here", "everyone is studying", whatever. Okay? But the main thing is that with all of
these words, use the singular verb "is". Okay? All right. Now, let's go to a second category
where sometimes students make mistakes. "This", "that",
"these", and "those". Now, "this" and "that",
first of all, are singular. Okay? So, they take the verb "is". "This is lovely",
"that is lovely". "These" and "those" are plural,
so they take the plural verb "are". "These are lovely",
"those are lovely". Okay? Let's say we're
talking about flowers. All right? Now, when we're... When you're trying to
understand "this" and "that", and "these"
and "those", in case you haven't mastered it
already, I do have a separate lesson exactly on
that subject, which you can watch, because
really, when we're talking about "this" and "that",
you're thinking about two things, which is why it's
sometimes a little bit confusing. First, you have to think
about whether you're talking about something
singular or plural. Right? So, as I said, "this"
and "that" is singular. We're talking about one thing. Right? "This book" or "that book". Now, why am I pointing
in two directions? Because the other thing
that you have to keep in mind when you're
choosing the word "this" or "that" is whether the
thing is near or a little bit far. So, if it's near, we say "this",
or if it's plural, we say "these". If it's far, we say "that". If it's one thing that's
far away, like "that book", but if it's far
and it's more than one, we say "those". So, it's like this. "This book", "that book",
"these books", "those books". Okay? Got it? All right. So, that's why those
words can sometimes be a little bit confusing,
but just keep in mind, most of all, is it one thing you're
talking about or is it more than one thing? And if it's one
thing, then say "is". If it's more than
one thing, say "are". All right? Next. This is probably the
most confusing area, and that's because it has
to do with something called countable or non-countable
or uncountable nouns. What does all that mean? Okay, so let's look. So, you could say "all" or "most"
or "some" or "none", doesn't matter. What matters is what's
going to follow that. Okay? So, if we say, for example, "all of the
information", we should say "is true". Why? Because "information" is what we call
an uncountable noun; we cannot count it. But here, if we look at this
one, "all of the reports are". So, "reports" is a plural noun; it's a
countable noun, something we can count. So, the countable
nouns are plural or singular; depends what
we are talking about. And the singular... The uncountable noun, like
"information", is always singular. Okay? Now, how do you know if a
word is countable or uncountable? Well, you can learn that. Okay? One of the ways you can learn it is you can
also download a resource that I've written on engVid, and we have
a list categorized-okay?-to explain to you exactly
which nouns you can count and which nouns you cannot count in
English, and that's important because that issue can cause lots of problems whenever
you speak English, even with basic verbs, like "is" and "are",
with the verb "to be". Right? Okay? So... But to give you an
example, "luggage" is a non-count verb, but
"suitcases" is countable. So, we would say, "All
of the luggage is here." Or, "All of the
suitcases are here." Okay? So, you see what happened there? "All of them
are", "all of it is". Okay? So, the non-count
is always singular. Also, what else is singular? And what else is considered
a non-count verb... A non-count noun? It's "subjects". For example, even though "mathematics" has
an "s" and "economics" has an "s", it's not plural. Okay? So, we say "mathematics is easy", for
example, or "economics is interesting". Okay? Not "are". The same with subjects or
languages, like "French" or "English". "French is", "English is". Okay? And, again, also with
a lot of abstract nouns. What do we mean
by "abstract nouns"? They're not talking
about physical things. For example, "love" or
"advice" or "education". Right? It's not something we can
hold in our hands, but it's... So, it's called "abstract". And those are non-countable,
so those are singular. For example, "education is valuable", or we
could say "these lessons", "these English lessons are valuable". Okay? So that became plural. "This education is valuable",
"these lessons are valuable". Okay? So, you see that even
a simple verb, like the verb "to be", you still
have to understand clearly which one to use,
when, and how to use it. So, I hope you've
understood this. And if you want some
more explanation, more detailed explanation,
I'm going to link below this lesson to a separate lesson just
on this part, and on this one, and on this. Okay? So you can always go into further detail if
you find that you're still making mistakes or you want some
further clarification. Okay? But let's go back and
just see how well you've understood now what I
explained here by doing one last quiz. All right? So, here we go. Number one,
everything blank ready. So, you're going to
choose between "is" or "are". Okay? What's the right answer? Think about what we learned. It should be
"everything is ready". Okay? Remember we said "everyone",
"everybody", "everything", same principle. Okay? "Somebody", "something",
anything like that. Number two, "This
cake _____ delicious." What should it be? "This cake is delicious." Okay? Very good. Again, "this" means
one, so we're talking about singular, and
the singular form of the verb "to be" is "is". All right? Number three, "Someone
_____ in the car." What should it be? "Is" or "are"? It should be "Someone is". Okay? Remember, again,
"someone", "somebody", "everyone", "everybody",
"no one", "nobody". Okay? "Everything". All right? So, it's singular. "Someone is in the car." Think of it as one. Okay? Whenever you see that word
"one", remember that it's singular. Whether it's "everyone" or "someone"
or "no one", we're still talking about one. All right. Oops. Number four, "No
one _____ at home." What's that? What should it be? "Is" or "are"? I think I helped you
a little bit just now. So, "No one is at home." Okay? Very good. Now, you might notice that the
word "no one" is written as two words. Okay? That's very common
to write it as two words. Sometimes it's written with a little hyphen
in the middle, but it's not written as one word as you see with
all of the other examples. Okay? Like "someone", "everyone",
those are all written as one word. But "no one" should be written as
two words or as one hyphenated word. All right? So keep that in mind. Number five, "Most
of his advice is useful." or "Most of his
advice are useful." Think about that. We learned about it. It was the third category
of things that we learned. So, what should it be? "Most of his advice is useful." Why? Because "advice" is one
of those non-count nouns. Right? So, therefore, we
have to make it singular. All right? Now, if it said, for
example, "Most of his ideas" or "Most of his
suggestions" or "Most of his recommendations",
those are all plural. "Ideas", right? With an "s". "Recommendations" with an "s". "Suggestions" with an "s". It doesn't mean that because there's an "s"
it's always going to be plural, but in this case, yes, because that's
something we can count. So then it would be "Most
of his ideas are useful." "Most of his
suggestions are useful." Okay? But "advice" is singular because
it's something we cannot count. And number six, "Those
laptops _____ expensive." "Is expensive" or
"are expensive"? "Those laptops are expensive." Okay? Finally, we had
an "are" because... Why? Because the word "those" already tells us
we're talking about something plural, more than one. Okay? See here, "Those
laptops are expensive." Okay? So, I hope you got those right, but in any
case, you can always practice some more. Just go to our website
at www.engvid.com, and there you can do
a quiz on this and just really master the
subject once and for all. It's so important to say
"is" and "are" properly. But not only "is" and
"are", any form of that verb. "Is" and "are", of
course, is in what tense? The present tense. But if you're talking about the
past tense, the same rules apply. Everything that I
explained to you is exactly the same, except that
the words we're going to be using are
"was" and "were". So, "was" is the singular
past tense of "is", right? And "were" is the past tense of "are", the
past tense of the verb "to be", and that's plural. Okay? So, in any of these, we could
have said everything was ready. This cake was delicious. Someone was in the car. No one was at home. Most of his advice was useful,
or those laptops were expensive. Okay? So, whether it's "is" or "are", or "was" or
"were", the main thing is to understand the principles behind it,
which I hope you've done. Okay? And if you like this
lesson, please subscribe to my YouTube channel
so you can get lots of other useful lessons to help you
improve your English very quickly. Bye for now. Thanks for watching.
