Language

Like ကို English grammar မှာ Verb နဲ့ preposition ဆိုပြီး နှစ်မျိူးအသုံးပြုပါတယ်။ 

Verb အနေနဲ့ ကတော့ ကြိုက်နှစ်သက်တဲ့အရာကို ပြောဆိုတဲ့အခါမှာ အသုံးပြုပြီး Preposition မှာတော့ အကြောင်းအရာတစ်ခုကို မေးတဲ့အခါမှာတော့ အသုံးပြုလေ့ရှိပါတယ် ဥပမာ - မင်းအိမ်ကဘယ်လိုမျိုးလဲ (What's your house like?)

Sophien , Finn, Neil တို့ရဲ့ စကားပြောခန်းမှာ Like ကို ဘယ်လိုအသုံးပြုသွားလဲဆိုတာ ဖော်ပြပေးထားပါတယ်။ 

Sophie

Let's wait and see shall we? Now - the word like.

Finn

Like. It's an interesting word in English, because when it comes to grammar, we can use it as a verb and we can also use like as a preposition.

Sophie

So let's start with like as a verb. And here's Neil with our first example:

Neil

James likes playing football.

Finn

Thank you Neil. So we have the subject 'James', the verb likes, and the object playing football. Let's hear it again – this time, Neil, as a question.

Neil

Does James like playing football?

Sophie

This question is made with does plus the subject, plus the base form of the verb like.

Finn

And the verb like is asking about preference – things you enjoy.

Sophie

Yes exactly. For example, I can find out about Finn's sporting preferences by asking: Do you like playing football? Do you like playing football, Finn?

Finn

I love playing football! But sadly, I'm not very good. Now, the second way we can use like is when we ask for a description, like this:

Neil

What's your house like?

Sophie

So here, like is a preposition, not a verb, and it goes at the end of the question.

Finn

This time, we don't use do or does. The question is made of what plus the verb to be, plus the subject plus like. What's your house like, Sophie?

Sophie

My house Finn? It's very beautiful actually! Let's have another example:

Neil

What was your weekend like?

Finn

So – thank you Neil – it's what plus to be, plus a subject, plus like, to ask for a description. And as for the answer – remember to use adjectives in your descriptions. What was your weekend like, Sophie?

Sophie

It was lovely, thank you Finn. Very relaxing! I had coffee with friends, and then we went for a long walk! What was your weekend like? 

Finn

It was very very busy. I spent the whole weekend tidying my flat.

Sophie

You poor thing! Now, you can also use like to ask someone to describe a person. Finn, what's your dad like? 

Finn

My Dad, my Dad's great. He's very clever.

Sophie

Clever, eh?

Finn

Yep. And he's tall... and he's a little bit bald. And he likes writing, too!

Sophie

And in this programme we're finding out a bit about Finn...

Finn

And we're talking about using like in two different ways.

Sophie

We can use like as a verb to show preference, for example: 'My mother likes Italian food' or 'Does your father like reading?'

Finn

And we can use like as a preposition with the verb to be to ask for descriptions, starting with what and ending with like.

Sophie

Finn, what's your girlfriend like?

Finn

A good example but I think that's enough personal questions for one programme! It's time for a quiz. I'm going to ask three questions. For each question, first: can you decide whether I'm asking for preference or for a description. Then - answer the question! Here's the first one: Do you like Chinese food?

Sophie

Right, well the question starts with does, and like isn't at the end, so you're asking for preference. Actually, I really like Chinese food.

Finn

Me too! Now, the next one. What's the new shopping centre like?

Sophie

This question starts with what, ends in like, and there's no do, does or did, so you're asking for a description. The new shopping centre is usually very busy!

Finn

Is it indeed! Now, here's the last question. What movies do you like?

Sophie

This is an interesting one: the question starts with what, and ends with like, but it has do, so like is a verb, and you're asking for preference. What movies do I like? I like comedies.

Finn

Me too. Well done if you got those right.

Sophie

So, that's like as a verb to talk about preference, and like as a preposition to ask for a description. Remember to use do or does for preference and to be for a description.

Finn

Now, there's lots more about this on our website at bbclearningenglish.com. Do join us again for more 6 Minute Grammar.

All

Bye.

BBC English