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Irregular Verb
Irregular Verb
too. The to be verbs are am, are, is, was, and were, along with the bare infinitive be, the present participle being, and
In this guide, we explain all you need to know about grammar for the verb to be. We’ll share all the forms and when to
The verb to be means to exist (I am here), to occur (The meeting is Tuesday), or to have the characteristics of
something (She was a quiet child). It is the most common verb in English, partly because of its additional uses
in grammar: to be verbs can be auxiliary verbs that help create other tenses or linking verbs that help describe the
subject of a sentence.
As an irregular verb, to be has its own unique forms. When conjugated for different subjects or tenses, the verb to
be can become am, are, is, was, or were. It’s also written differently in certain verb tenses: The present participle of to
be is being. The past participle is been, and the bare infinitive form is be.
Forms of to be verbs
The verb to be is most commonly used in the simple present and simple past tenses. These tenses each use their
own special words for to be, depending on the person and number of the subject.
continuous and past continuous tenses, which show an ongoing or continuous action.
As with other tenses, in the continuous tenses, to be verbs are still conjugated to match the subject. The main verb of
the sentence comes after to be and is always in its present participle form (the –ing form), regardless of the subject.
The present continuous uses the simple present tense of to be verbs (am, are, and is):
The past continuous uses the simple past (was and were):
The future tenses do not conjugate to be like the past and present do. The simple future tense uses the modal
verb will, and all modal verbs use the bare infinitive form of the main verb, regardless of the subject. The bare
infinitive of to be is just be, without to. The simple future tense of to be looks like this:
The future continuous tense includes a main verb that comes after will be.
We use the bare infinitive be with all modal verbs, such as can, should, might, or must. Simply add be after the
Present participle
What if you want to use to be as the main verb in a continuous tense? In this case, you would use to be twice: first as
This works for the present and past continuous tenses, but we generally avoid using to be as the main verb in the
The perfect tenses use a conjugated form of the auxiliary verb have with the past participle of the main verb
afterward.
The past participle of to be is been, used if to be is the main verb in a perfect tense. The present perfect
tense uses have or has, while the past perfect uses had:
To be grammar rules
1 Subject-verb agreement
All verbs must agree with their subjects, something called subject-verb agreement. This means that the verb’s
person and number must match the subject’s. So if the subject is first person and singular (I), the verb must be
Most regular verbs change only for third-person singular subjects in the present tense, but to be is more complicated
One particularly difficult area of subject-verb agreement concerns when to use there is vs. there are which we cover
in detail here. To summarize, when it follows there, the verb to be matches the number of the noun after it and not
2 Negatives
While writing negative verbs can be confusing, it’s fairly simple with the to be verbs. In the present and past tenses,
Don’t forget that you can use contractions with to be verbs. These are especially common in speech.
3 Questions
The verb to be also follows its own rules for questions (interrogative sentences). While other verbs use the auxiliary
verb to do for yes-no questions, to be does not. However, like other verbs, to be still comes before the subject in yes-
Is that allowed?
She had been a waitress for years before they promoted her to manager.
I might be wrong.
Imperative to be verbs
Don’t be a stranger!
The verb to be means to exist, occur, or show the characteristics of something. An irregular verb, it is the most
common verb in English and can function as a main verb, an auxiliary verb, or a linking verb.
Subject-verb agreement says that a verb must match the number and person of the subject, so if the subject is third-
person plural (for example, they), the verb must also be third-person plural (like are or were). There are three forms
of to be verbs in the present (am, are, and is) and two forms in the past (was and were).
The past and present tenses are the most common for to be verbs. Additionally, as an auxiliary verb, to be is