— VOA Learning English — Everyday Grammar Source: Voice of America Learning English (https://learningenglish.voanews.com/) Licence: Public domain (work of the U.S. federal government, 17 U.S.C. §105) Audio is served by the publisher; Budi does not host or modify it.
0:00Today on Everyday Grammar, we will learn to describe our birthdays. When people ask us the question, When is your birthday? We can answer a few different ways. We can use the season, spring, summer, autumn-fall or winter, the month or the day. My birthday is in the summer. Her father's birthday is March. Last Sunday was her birthday. His birthday is the 4th of May. Remember that the word birthday is different from birth date. Birth date is the exact date, like December 7, 1997. The word birthday can be the date or you can answer more generally. For example, My niece's birthday is in August. Her birth date is August 3rd. When we want to say how old we are, we can use the present or future verb tenses depending on
1:24when our birthdays are. We can use past tense with the verb turn. If we are talking about On a future birthday, say next year or in a few months, we can answer the question of How old will you be? with I will be plus age or I'll be plus number years old. In 2023, I will 36 years old On your birthday, you can use the present tense Debra is 55 today For the past tense, we can use the structure of the verb be plus age, years old, but we generally use it to talk about past ages in reference to something else. We can also use the verb turn to talk how old we are. In this way, turn means to reach or pass a certain age. Therefore, we can use the past tense with TURN for talking about birthdays. For example, I turned 35 this year.
2:51This means that my birthday was in the past. I am still considered to be 35 years old after my birthday. In the present tense, we use TURRN to say that a birthday is today as in Bread turns And to express a future birthday, we can use the same form, the present tense.
3:24This means that sometime this year, the near future, Kristen will be 41 years old. We can use modal verb of WILL with TURN to express a future birthday. I will turn 36 next year. When talking about making plans for a birthday, someone may ask you, what do you want to do for your birthday? You can answer with ideas of plans that you would like to do. You can use the expressions I want to or I would like to be more polite. You can even use the expression, I plus be going to, if you have already made the plans yourself. She wants to go to a French restaurant for her birthday. I'm going to celebrate with my friends later. If your birthday has already passed, someone may ask you, How was your birthday?
4:32You can answer by describing your birthday with an adjective. My birthday party was wonderful. Then they may ask you, What did you do for your birthday? You can answer in the past tense. For my birthday this year, we went to an amusement park. If someone wants to get you a gift for your birthday, they may also ask you What do you want for your birthday? What do you want on your birthday. If you want something for your birthday, that means a gift generally. If you want something on your birthday, that could be a party or to make some type of plans to celebrate on the actual date. On my birthday next year I would like to go to the countryside. Please don't buy me anything for my birthday. After your birthday people may ask you what you received as a gift for your birthday.
5:39What did you get for your Birthday? What did you get on your birthday? You could say that you got or received something. I got a cat for my birthday. Or you could say what you got and who gave it to you. My mom sent me a lovely birthday card in the mail. Here's how you might tell someone about another's birthday. Her husband gave her jewelry for her birthday. Let's end this report with a homework assignment. In 5-8 sentences, write about your birthday this year. Try to use ideas that you have learned about in today's report. You can use the question headings as your guide. Remember to use the correct verb tense depending on when your birthday is. Send your writing to our email address, learningenglish at voanews dot com.
6:46We will select one piece of writing and provide feedback and suggestions in a future report. I'm Faith Perlow. And I'm Jill Robbins.
This transcript was generated automatically from the recording, so it will contain mistakes — especially around names and places.