Many times I get as an answer: clear,’ve said you that it is fat. And I: but I just want to tell you that it increases a little of weight and she looks a little more plump. Sometimes students, very intuitive, discover my trick or my mistake in the sentence. In the case that no one catches the error, I explain it. I explain that when I say: Mary you are fat, the quality awarded to Mary, is a quality that mark the nature of his person and not a current state, an exceptional situation.
Let’s do a little order (and at this point it is important to order also with students). Making memory, use the verb to be for: identification, profession, description, possession, numerical ability, definition, time (time, date, day) and events. We use verb be: location (location), States of mind, State (status) of people and things. Each verb with its use, but nevertheless, I come and I complicated them, I can say: Maria is fat and Maria is fat, John is drunk and Juan is drunk, Beatriz is cute or is linda. for What?! Ask the students, why? I ask them to them, and they come in philosophical explanations. Many times, the majority, with the help of my guide, come alone to a close response. And what I must make clear is: only when I refer to descriptions of the be and uses States of MOODS or States of things and persons from being, occurs this alternation between the two verbs. In the rest of the uses, if we have determined that it is a use of the verb to be, so be it. I will never say I am lawyer, because jobs are with the verb be and point.