YOU (PLURAL) SHE

SUBJECT PRONOUN
“Okay guys, today we’re going to cover subject pronouns”

“Look (point to eyes) at the board (point to board)” before clearly writing the title ‘subject pronouns’.

If we take the sentence “Mary is American”, we can replace the noun (Mary) with ‘she’, a subject pronoun.
The subject pronouns in English are:

 I – 1st person singular

 you – 2nd person singular
 he/she/it – 3rd person singular
 we – 1st person plural
 you – 2nd person plural
 they – 3rd person plural
Rather than simply writing this list on the board and getting your students to copy it, you first need to
demonstrate. Look at the example below of how to present a lesson on subject pronouns…

 “I (point to yourself) am a teacher”. Write the word ‘I’ on the board, then repeat the sentence, again
pointing at yourself as you emphasis the word ‘I’.
 “you (point to an individual student) have a red bag (e.g.)”. Write ‘you’ on the board underneath ‘I’
and repeat.
 Say both sentences together, always demonstrating as you speak, “I am a teacher. You have a red bag”
 “he (point to a male student) is tall (indicate height with your hand)”.
 Continue with this pattern until you have demonstrated all the subject pronouns.
 Get the students to repeat after you and drill pronunciation.
 At this point there are a variety of activities you could do from matching activities to sentence
completion but remember not to ignore the visual aspect: any handout should include clear pictures
that the students can relate the pronouns to.

ELEMENTARY LEVEL
Your students should hopefully be familiar with the subject pronouns and the verb ‘be’ in positive sentences
(I am, you are, he/she/it is…) but it’s always useful to do a quick recap. At this stage you can also introduce
whatever vocabulary theme you are linking the lesson to e.g. nationalities (I am English, you are Italian…) or
feelings perhaps (she is happy, they are tired…).

 Write "+" on the board and a variety of sentences with the verb 'be' using all the subject pronouns.
 Next to this list write " - " symbol and try to elicit from the class the negative equivalent of each
sentence, e.g:
+
I am English -
You are Italian I am not English
He is Scottish You are not Italian
She is French
 At this stage you can show the negative contractions, highlighting the fact that with every subject
pronoun except ‘I’ there are two possibilities (I’m not… compared to you’re not/you aren’t… etc.).
Get the class to practice writing a variety of sentences about themselves and other students to then
read aloud. Drill pronunciation.
 You can then introduce the question statements using a listening task where the students must
complete the gaps with the correct form of the verb be for example:

Teacher gives this instruction: "Listen and complete the dialogue"

Man: ____ you Scottish?

Woman: No, I’m Irish! Where ___ you from?
Man: I’m from the USA.
Woman: ___ he from the USA too?
Man: Yes, we ___ both from California.

 Elicit correct answers on the board then write:

 + You are Scottish
  ? Are you Scottish?
 Ask, ‘What’s the difference?’ Highlight the inversion of subject and verb using arrow symbols
 Again once the grammar point has been presented there are any number of different task-based
activities you can give to the class to ensure they have understood and to practice.

PRE-INTERMEDIATE
At pre-intermediate level we often introduce modal verbs of permission and obligation.

Modal verbs are verbs such as can, must, may etc. which are always followed by another verb but they tell us
the function of that main verb.

For example, ‘you can run’ is very different in meaning from ‘you must run’. Many pre-intermediate students
will have heard a lot of these verbs before but may not be completely sure of their meaning.

Especially because some of the modals of permission/obligation (must, may, can, should, have to) have
negatives (must not, may not, don’t have to etc.) which aren’t exactly opposite in meaning.

There are numerous resources online and in EFL books which cover this topic but an idea of how to present
the lesson is shown below.

 Write the title ‘School Rules’ on the board and try to elicit as many as possible from the students e.g.
‘you must switch off mobile phones in class’, ‘you have to wear a school uniform’ etc.
 Go back through the rules and highlight all the modals of permission/obligation. If there are any
missing you can try to elicit them by writing the first letter of each in hangman-style (e.g. m_ _ ) until
all are on the board.
 Write a list of definitions on the board or have a handout prepared and ask students to match the
modals (positive and negative versions) up with each definition.

Lets look at some modal verbs. Please note, as will all these question types, you need to drag all the answers
into the correct zones.

Drag and drop the modal verbs.

It is obligatory have to, must

It is possible MAY , CAN

It is advisable should

It is forbidden may not, cannot, must not

It isn't necessary don't have to

It is inadvisable
shouldn't
 It’s then important to highlight that whilst certain modals have the exact opposite meaning in the
negative form (should/shouldn’t) others change meaning in the negative (have to=obligation/don’t
have to=possible but not necessary NOT forbidden).
 After this you can ask students to imagine their ideal school and write their own set of rules using a
variety of the modals covered, bringing together ideas from each individual/group to make a full set
which have a general consensus.