💬 Grammar B1-17: Short responses

The whole material teaches one reflex: never echo the main verb — echo the helper. Owen says “I love storm weather”, and the reply that sounds human is three words long: So do I. The opening section shows that every English sentence runs on an auxiliary, visible (am, can, have, will, would) or hidden inside a present or past simple verb (love runs on do, won on did), and that the short response simply reuses exactly that word. An eleven-row table lays out every helper with its agreeing echo and its disagreeing flip, then a second table shows short answers as the same echo — the question hands you the helper in its first word. A four-step decision procedure follows: find the helper; agreeing or disagreeing (disagreeing skips So and Neither entirely: I don’t / I do); positive or negative original (never and hardly ever count as negatives, and Neither turns the helper positive again because it already carries the no); and the order check — after So or Neither the helper comes before I, because So I do is a different sentence. The compare-and-verdict weighs three sizes of the same yes: So do I, the full echo that fits every register and can change subject (So does my sister); I do too / I can’t either, the flat twin with no inversion; and Me too / Me neither, the pocket pair for friends. A fourteen-line film-club dialogue makes every reply tappable, with the reason each echo was built the way it was. Practice runs to thirty-one explained multiple-choice items in four sets, twelve statements to sort into So- and Neither-openers, six real learner replies to repair, and four traps — including I hate Mondays, which sounds negative and is grammatically positive. Teacher notes give a 45-minute sequence, the helper-circle board move, the helper-tennis rescue and Cambridge B1 Preliminary relevance.