Examples
- I am a student at this school.
- You are a student at this school.
- He / she / it is a student at this school.
- We are students at this school.
- You are students at this school.
- They are students at this school.
Conjugating BE
*: BE doesn’t usually take Continuous time forms -the meaning changes.
→ The Present forms of BE are often contracted, especially after a pronoun: I’m, you’re, she’s…
BE Is Self-Sufficient
In Simple tenses, you don’t need DO to make questions or negations:
The most common negative contracted forms are:
BE as a Primary Verb
BE is what they call a “Primary Verb”: it can be both ‘normal’ (or lexical) verb and ‘auxiliary’ verb.
BE is the auxiliary for:
- Continuous time forms:
- She was having a shower when I called.
- The Passive voice:
- Pigs are fattened for their meat.
Exercises for BE can be found here.
