“Open” as a verb and “open” as an adjective
The word “open” is sometimes confusing to ESL students because it is sometimes used as a verb and sometimes used as an adjective. Some ESL students don’t see the difference between “When are you open?” and “When do you open?” When you are asked “When are you open?”, your answer should be “We are open from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.” If the question is “When do you open?”, the answer is “We open at 9:00 a.m.” When a student doesn’t see the difference, his or her answer can be wrong. We need to make this clear to our students. When “open” is used as an adjective, it means “a period of time”. Therefore, we usually say: “Are you open on the weekends?” We use “open” as an adjective here because we mean a period of time. But you often hear a student say “Do you open on the weekends?” When we ask about a specific point in time, we use “open” as a verb. We say: “Do you open at 9 o’clock?”, but normally we don’t say “Are you open at 9 o’clock?” -Ron Lee