Level: beginner
The verb be has the following forms:
| The verb be | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive form | be | ||
| Present simple: | + | I am, I'm You are, You're He/She/It is, He/She/It's |
We are, we're You are, you're They are, they're |
| ? | Am I? Are you? Is he/she it? |
Are we? Are you? Are they? |
|
| - | I am not, I’m not You are not, You aren’t, You're not He/She/It is not, He/She/It isn’t, He's not |
We are not, We aren’t, We're not You are not, You aren’t, You're not They are not, They aren't, They're not |
|
| Past simple | + | I was You were He/She/It was |
We were You were They were |
| ? | Was I? Were you? Was he/she/it? |
Were we? Were you? Were they? |
|
| - | I was not, I wasn't You were not, You weren't He/She/It was not, He/She/It wasn't |
We were not, We weren't You were not, You weren't They were not, They weren't |
|
| Past participle | been | ||
| Present perfect | has/have been | ||
| Past perfect | had been | ||
| Present participle | being | ||
| Present continuous | am/is/are being | ||
| Past continuous | was/were being | ||
We use the infinitive form be with modal verbs:
It will be dark soon.
They might be tired.
The verb be is a link verb. It is used:
- with a noun phrase:
My mother is a teacher.
Bill Clinton was the president of the US.
- with an adjective:
This soup is very tasty.
The children were good.
- with a prepositional phrase:
John and his wife are from Manchester.
The flowers are on the table.
- am, is, are 1
- ex. am, is, are 1
- am, is, are 2
- ex. am, is, are 2
- am, is, are, was, were 1
- ex. am, is, are, was, were 1
- am, is, are, was, were 2
- ex. am, is, are, was, were 2
Level: intermediate
- with the -ing form to make the continuous aspect:
We were walking down the street. Everything was wet.
It had been raining for hours.
- with the past participle to make the passive voice:
The house was built in 1890.
The street is called Montague Street.
This car was made in Japan.
- be in continuous and passive forms 1
- ex. be in continuous and passive forms 1
- be in continuous and passive forms 2
- ex. be in continuous and passive forms 2
Level: advanced
We use some nouns with the verb be followed by a that clause:
The problem was that I had no money.
The obvious explanation is that he simply forgot.
The danger is that the whole thing might catch fire.
It's a pity that the children aren't here.
The lucky thing is that nobody was hurt.
Nouns commonly used in this way are:
|
answer |
hope |
We use some nouns with the verb be followed by a to-infinitive:
The only way is to start all over again.
His answer is to work a bit harder.
Her only hope was to find a new job as soon as possible.
The easiest thing would be to ask your father.
Nouns commonly used in this way are:
| answer decision hope idea intention |
promise thing way wish |
To comment on statements, we use some adjectives with it and the verb be and a that clause or wh-clause:
It's lucky that we met.
It's not clear what happened.
It was amazing how he managed to escape.
Adjectives commonly used in this way are:
| awful bad clear extraordinary funny good interesting |
lucky obvious possible probable sad true unlikely |
- be with nouns and adjectives 1
- ex. be with nouns and adjectives 1
- be with nouns and adjectives 2
- ex. be with nouns and adjectives 2
Comments
Hello sir,
Could you explain these
sentences.
We know that some verbs are
followed by infinitives.
1. You seem to be nervous.
2. People tend to be happier if
they are in a long-term
relationship.
3. For example, John’s
book was thought to be a
contraction of John, his book.
4.it was thought to be he.
Sir, my problem is that I was confused with the meaning of " be". What does the " to be" mean in above sentences. Does " to be" mean existence of something or " to be" = to live or the "to be" mean something going to happen in the future or "to be" is like an empty subject "it". Or something else.....
I was totally confused with the meaning of "be" in the above sentences.
Hello Luke warm,
Be is called a copula verb in linguistics. It links the subject to a subject complement. The subject complement provides information about the subject: giving it a name or a quality, identifying it or describing it in some way.
Your sentences are examples of these various functions.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello sir,
Could you explain clearly about following two sentences. Especially, the second one. Because the meaning says ' it is used to show that something will happen in future' but why there is "was" if it mean future.
Be
[+ to infinitive] FORMAL used to show that something will happen in the future:
1. We are to (= we are going to) visit Australia in the spring.
2.She was never to see (= she never saw) her brother again.
Hello Luke warm
The verb 'be' plus 'to' infinitive speaks about something that will happen in the future from the perspective of the time being spoken about.
In 1, the time spoken of is now, and so the visit to Australia is after now.
In 2, the time spoken of is a time in the past, and so her not seeing her brother again happened after that (i.e. in the future from the perspective of that past time), but which is in the past from our perspective now.
Does that help you make sense of it?
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
I think we also use some adjectives with It and the verb to be and to-infinitive too E.g It’s good to meet you. I’m glad to hear from you
Hello sir,
Be kind
Be confident
Be honest
Sir my doubt is what does the word " be"
Mean in the above sentence
Does it mean ' behave honest' or
' become honest ' ?
Thank you sir.
Hello Luke warm,
Be is the imperative form of the verb to be. We use imperatives to give orders or instructions. You can think of it as a stronger and more direct way to say you should be.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Dear Sir,
Kindly see the following sentences.
1) The Crime Branch sleuths had identified John to be deceased in the first week of December 2019. (Here I would like to know whether we can use "being" in the place of "to be" and rewrite the sentence as "The Crime Branch sleuths had identified John being deceased in the first week of December 2019.")
2) The police on reaching his area found the house to be locked. (Here also I would like to know whether this sentence can rewrite as " The police on reaching his area found the house being locked.")
Thank you.
Thanks a lot sir.
Hello Aniyanmon,
You cannot use 'being' in either sentence without changing other aspects.
When a participle phrase is used, it always refers to the subject of the main clause. Thus, if you use 'being' in the first sentence it would mean that the Crime Brnach sleuths were deceased, not John.
You cannot use 'being' in the second sentence either. 'Locked' here has a passive meaning, so a past participle is needed, not a present participle, which would have an active meaning.
You can read more about participles and their uses on this page.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
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