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Beom from South Korea: 'I think grammar is easier than pronunciation!' Beom studies at Bloomsbury International

Disgreements with auxiliaries
Last week, we looked at using auxiliaries to make short agreements during a conversation. Now it's time to find out how to disagree using them. To do this, William plays Beom's dad... will he succeed in embarassing Beom in front of all his friends, or will Beom be able to disagree correctly with William? Find out by listening to the programme!

Listen to the programme!

Disagreements with auxiliaries

Using auxiliaries to disagree:

Signal disagreement.
Repeat the subject of the original statement as a pronoun.
Use an auxiliary verb relative to the verb in the original sentence (negative – positive; positive – negative).

Statement	Signal disagreement	Pronoun	Auxiliary
We both went to a graduation party.	No	we	didn't.
I was at the party with all my friends.	No	you	weren't.
Joyce couldn’t find anybody to dance with.	Yes	she	could.
We haven't got much time...	Yes	we	have.

Download Catherine's grammar explanation and table (pdf - 51 K)

Download this programme (mp3 - 1.8 MB)
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Now it's your turn to practise disagreeing with auxiliaries. Go to our quiz page on this subject here.

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