the verb be
The verb be has the following forms:
| Present simple: | Affirmative | I am You are He/She/It is |
We are You are They are |
| Question form: | Am I? Are you? Is he/she it? |
Are we? Are you? Are they? |
|
| Negative: | I am not/ I’m not You are not/ aren’t He/She/It is not/ isn’t |
We are not/aren’t You are not/aren’t They are not/aren't |
|
| Past simple | I was You were He/She/It was |
We were You were They were |
|
| The past participle: | been. | ||
| Present perfect: | has/have been | ||
| Past perfect: | had been |
The verb be is used in the following patterns:
1. with a noun:
My mother is a teacher.
Bill Clinton was the president of the US.
2. with an adjective:
This soup is very tasty.
The children were good.
2.1 with the -ing form to make the continuous aspect
We were walking down the street.
Everything was wet. It had been raining for hours.
2.2 with the -ed form to make the passive voice
The house was built in 1890.
The street is called Montagu Street.
This car was made in Japan.
3. with a prepositional phrase:
John and his wife are from Manchester.
The flowers are on the table.
English Grammar
- Pronouns
- Determiners and quantifiers
- Possessives
- Adjectives
- Adverbials
- Nouns
- Verbs
- irregular verbs
- question forms
- verb phrases
- present tense
- past tense
- perfective aspect
- continuous aspect
- active and passive voice
- to + infinitive
- -ing forms
- talking about the present
- talking about the past
- talking about the future
- verbs in time clauses and if clauses
- wishes and hypotheses
- the verb be
- link verbs
- delexical verbs like have, take, make and give
- Modal verbs
- double object verbs
- phrasal verbs
- reflexive and ergative verbs
- verbs followed by to + infinitive
- verbs followed by -ing clauses
- verbs followed by that clause
- Clause, phrase and sentence
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Comments
Dear Sir/Madam,
Could you please explain the different between 'being' and 'been'?
Regards.
team
Hello ChandimaD,
Both of these are forms of the verb ‘be’. ‘Being’ is the -ing form or present participle and ‘been’ is the third form or past participle. Like any other -ing form or third form, they are usually used as part of different verb forms - the third form is used in perfect forms and passive forms, while the -ing form is used in continuous verb forms.
For more information on -ing forms, take a look here.
I hope that’s useful for you.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
When using several singular nouns in a sentence (for example a canteen, a shrine room and a library )what is the be verb we should use after the word "There" ?
Is it 'There is a canteen, a shrine room and a library.' or
'There are a canteen, a shrine room and a library'?
team
Hello nish7685,
The most common usage when the first noun is singular is 'there is...'. This is a slightly grey area, however, and some dialects might follow different usage.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Dear Nish,
We don't use 'are' with singular nouns. Use 'a' with singular nouns.
Ex:
There is a canteen in front of the staff room.
There is a pen on the table.
Regards.
Chandima
How different is the TO BE VERB from the BE VERB.
Thanks.
team
Hello Ebenezer!
It is not a different verb - just a different form of the verb, called the infinitive (or sometimes the to + infinitive). You can read about it here.
Regards
Jeremy Bee
The LearnEnglish Team
It is brief and useful . Thanks .
it helps me alot
Hi to everyone,
When does an intensifier becomes pleonasm? How does one make sure that using intensifiers do not lead into redundancy?
Kind Regards,
Jay