Hi, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and
welcome to this beginner lesson on questions with "do" and "be". This is a very common
problem, a very common question that students, who are learning English for the first time,
ask. "When do I use 'be' and when do I use 'do'? Especially when
I'm asking questions." So, first, what I'm going to do is actually
just to go through these with you, and see what your natural instinct tells you, and
afterwards, I'm going to explain the rules which are behind me,
and we'll explain why, you know, these answers are
the answers that we gave. For example, number one:
"Where _______ you from?" Do we say: "Where are you
from?" or "Where do you from?" - "Where are you from". That's one of the most common questions,
so you probably knew that one. "What _______ you do?" "What are
you do?", "What do you do?" - "What do you do".
Not: "What are you do". "_______ you want to go?" "Do you
want to go?", "Are you want to go?" Okay? "Do you". "How old _______ he?" "How old
does he?", "How old is he?" - "How old is he". Okay? "_______ she a student?" "Does she
a student?", "Is she a student?" - "Is she a student". Okay? "_______ you happy?" "Do you
happy?" or "Are you happy?" - "Are you happy". "Where _______ you going?" "Where do
you going?" or "Where are you going?" - "Where are you going". And finally: "_______ he here?"
"Is he here?" or "Does he here?" - "Is he here". "Is he here?" Okay, so do you notice anything common about
some of these questions when we use "do" and when we use "be"? The ones with "be" are a
little more complicated, so let's look at the two examples we have with "do", and you
can tell me what is the same; what is common to these two questions. "What do you do?", "Do you want to go?" Number
one: one is an open question; one is a yes or no question. But they still have something
in common. Specifically, they both use a verb: "do" and "want". So, here, you see: "What
do you do?" Base verb. "Do" is a base verb. "Do you want to go?", "want" is a base verb.
So, this is the basic, basic rule when you're using questions with "do" or "did" if you're
speaking in the past. If you want to ask a question that uses an action, a base action,
always use "do" or "did", if you're speaking in the past. "Where did you go?", "What
do you do?", "Who did you see?", "What do you want?" These
types of questions where you have an action, a base
verb, always use "do" or "did". Now, "be" can be used in many more situations
than "do". It's much more versatile in that way. So, let's look at the rules. Like I said,
for "do", you can ask the question word, "do" or "did" plus the subject, plus the base verb.
And we can say "do" is only for actions. Only use it with actions,
only with base verbs. Now, "be", you have your question, you have
the verb "to be", which can be "am", "is", "are", "was", "were", "will be" even. You
have your subject: "I", "you", "he", "she", "it", "we", "they", and then you have a number
of different parts of speech and functions that you can use. So, you can ask a question
about age with the verb "to be": How old are you? "I am", whatever your age is. You can
use actions with the questions with the verb "be", but they can only be continuous actions.
So: "Where are you going?" Right? "What are you doing?" So you can add
verb+ing, present continuous. You can ask questions with adjectives: "Are
you happy?" You can ask questions with nouns or jobs, for example: "Is he a student?",
"Are you a teacher?" I am... You don't say "I do", but you would say: "I
am an engineer", for example. And finally, you can use "be" with prepositions and
adverbs. And when I say adverbs and prepositions, sometimes they relate to locations, adverbs
specifically. So: "Is he here?" And again, "here" is an adverb, and it refers to a space,
a location. So you don't say: "Do you here?" or "Does he here?" but: "Is he here?", "Are
you here?" And same with prepositions. So, in the first question: "Where are you from?",
"from" is, again, a preposition, so you would use the verb "to be"
in this situation. So let's look at these. We have "from", which
is a preposition. "How old is he?" Here, we're asking about age. "Is she a student?", "student"
is a noun. "Are you happy?", "happy" is an adjective. "Where are you going?"
This is verb+ing, "going". And: "Is he here?",
"here" is an adverb. So, I hope this makes it a little more simple
for you. Just remember: If it's an action, a basic action, only use the verb "do" or
"did" for actions. If it's almost anything else, you're going to be using the verb "be".
Okay? If you'd like to test your understanding of how to make questions with the verb "do",
"did", or the verb "be", you can always do the quiz on www.engvid.com. And don't
forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel. Thanks, guys, and
see you next time.
