Pre-class

There to be

We use there to be to talk about the EXISTENCE of something. Different from the
verb “have” that means POSSESSION, see the examples below:

• There is a car in my house. (EXISTS A CAR IN MY HOUSE)

• I have a car. (I POSSESS A CAR)

Affirmative There is a TV in my house.

There are cars on the street.
Negative There isn’t a book in my car.
There aren’t computers here.
Questions Is there a supermarket near here?
Are there parks in your neighborhood?

We can also use the words “how many” before “there to be” in questions to ask the
number, see the examples below:

1. How many people are there in your house?

2. There are three people in my house.

Answer the questions:

a. Is there a supermarket in your neighborhood? ______________________________

b. Are there parks in your city? _____________________________________________

c. Are there stores along your street? _______________________________________

d. Is there a motorcycle in your house? ______________________________________

e. Are there many people at your work? _____________________________________

f. Are there many people at the hospitals? ____________________________________

g. How many TVs are there in your house? ___________________________________

h. How many states are there in Brazil?______________________________________

Make three questions:

a. ____________________________________________________________________

b. ____________________________________________________________________

c. ____________________________________________________________________

Possessives

We can possessives to talk about POSSESSIONS too. When we talk about them, we
need to consider the two groups: possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns

We use Possessive Adjectives: Subject Pronoun Possessive Adjective

I My
a. Before things You You
b. Before people He His
She Her
My car is black. (car is a thing) It Its
Her sister is married. (sister is a person) We Our
His name is Peter. (name is a thing) You You
Our teacher isn’t here. (teacher is a person) They Their

Write four examples:

______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

We use Possessive Pronouns: Subject Pronoun Possessive Pronoun

I Mine
a. Before to be You Yours
b. At the end of a sentence He His
She Hers
This car is not yours. (end of a sentence) It X
Yours is black. (before verb to be) We Ours
Those papers are hers. (end of a sentence) You Yours
Mine are here. (Before verb to be) They Theirs

Write four examples:

______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
We use genitive case (‘s) with:

a. Names of people E.g.: Maria’s house

b. Names of Countries, States, Cities E.g.: Brazil’s population
c. Dates E.g.: Last week’s class
d. Commercial names E.g.: Carrefour’s sales

But it’s important to be attentive to some details:

1. Names ending in “s” we just put the apostrophe (‘):

Matheus’ car. (We don’t say “Matheus’s car.”)

2. Two names and one thing, we change only the second name:

Pedro and Julia’s house.

3. Two names and two things, we change the two names:

Pedro’s and Julia’s houses (We are talking about two houses)

4. No names, only objects, we don’t use genitive case:

The door of the car (We don’t say “the car’s door”)

The color of the pen (We don’t say “the pen’s color”)

Make the genitive case:

a. Christina/book ________________________________________________________

b. Paulo/cellphone _______________________________________________________

c. Sorocaba/mayor ______________________________________________________

d. Burger king/French fries ________________________________________________

e. NASA/scientists _______________________________________________________
Whose

We use “whose” to ask the possessor of something:

• Whose book is it?

• Whose girlfriend is she?
• Whose pens are they?

To answer the questions above, we can use possessive adjectives, possessive

pronouns or genitive case, see the possible answers below:

• Whose book is it? (Joana)

P.A.: It is her book.

P.P.: It is hers.

G.C.: It is Joana’s book.

• Whose girlfriend is she? (Peter)

P.A.: She is his girlfriend.

P.P.: She is his.

G.C.: She is Peter’s girlfriend.

• Whose pens are they? (John and Bea)

P.A.: They are their pens.

P.P.: They are theirs.

G.C.: They are John and Bea’s pens.

Answer the questions using the three possible forms:

a. Whose papers are they? (Rick)

P.A.: __________________________________________________________________

P.P.: __________________________________________________________________

G.C.: __________________________________________________________________

b. Whose father is he? (Maria)

P.A.: __________________________________________________________________

P.P.: __________________________________________________________________

G.C.: __________________________________________________________________
c. Whose dog is it? (Christopher)

P.A.: __________________________________________________________________

P.P.: __________________________________________________________________

G.C.: __________________________________________________________________

d. Whose house is it? (Pedro and Marta)

P.A.: __________________________________________________________________

P.P.: __________________________________________________________________

G.C.: __________________________________________________________________

e. Whose car is this? (Teacher Matt)

P.A.: __________________________________________________________________

P.P.: __________________________________________________________________

G.C.: __________________________________________________________________

Read the sentences and circle the correct words:

a. Is there / Are there churches in your neighborhood?

b. My / Mine car is old and her / hers is new

c. There is / There are a beautiful tree across the street.

d. Her / Hers name is Sabrina.

e. These shoes are your / yours

f. There isn’t / There aren’t stores along my street.

g. That CD is not my / mine. It’s Julia / Julia’s CD.