Right now we’re going to cover the most important things you need to know about the most common, versatile and complex verb in the English language: The verb to be.

Whether you’re just beginning to learn English, or working on progressing to an intermediate or advanced level, having a firm understanding and full command of this verb is crucial.  So we’re going to talk about all 8 of its forms, how they’re pronounced, and how you can bring your grasp of this crucial verb to the next level. 

This lesson will be perfect if you’re starting to take your English conversation knowledge seriously and really want to understand how to properly use the verb to be in your conversations, emails, resumes, social media and writing.

Thank you for letting us be a part of your goal to become fluent in English. 

The verb to be is the most widely used, versatile and complex verb in the English language. It has the honour of being the most irregular verb, which means it takes the highest number of forms compared to other English verbs.

It’s normally a main or an auxiliary verb. 

A main verb is the most important verb in the sentence, the one that expresses the action or state of being of the subject. A simple example of this is: I am a person. 

An auxiliary verb, also known as a helping verb is one that changes or helps another verb. It often tells you when the action is being done. This makes the tense you are using very important with the verb to be. An example is I am speaking. 

A main verb tells you what an action is, and an auxiliary verb indicates the time of the action. You’ll notice that in the first example here, am is the only verb, whereas am in the second example is followed by another verb, speaking, which indicates that I am doing the speaking now.

To put it simply, to be is the verb used to describe what a noun is, what a noun is doing, or when a noun is doing it. 

Let’s get straight into some examples: 

I am speaking English

You are a person

She is kind

They were listening

It was sunny

We are being polite

They had been speaking

It will be great 

These examples include the 8 forms the verb takes: Am, are, is, were, was, being, been, be.

To cover these 8 forms, we’ll divide this lesson into two parts: The first will look at am, are, is, were and was. The second will focus on be, been and being.

Am, Are, Is, Was and Were

The irregular nature of the verb to be means that it can take different forms depending on the subject of the sentence. In this first part, let’s take a moment to look at five of these of varying forms.

I am

You are

We are

They are

She is

He is

It is

You’ll notice in this present simple tense there are only three different forms of to be: Am, are and is. 

The contracted forms are: 

I’m

You’re

We’re

They’re

She’s

He’s

It’s

The apostrophe takes the place of the first letter or two of each to be verb form.  

To make the verb negative you simply add not after the verb. 

I am not

You are not

We are not

They are not

She is not

He is not

It is not 

The negative contractions are: 

I’m not

You aren’t

We aren’t 

They aren’t

She isn’t

He isn’t

It isn’t 

You’ll notice with the negative contraction the verb forms are and is are put together with not, and an apostrophe takes the place of the o in not. The exception to this is when you’re talking about yourself. This can only be contracted to I’m not, there is no I amn’t. 

The past simple form of the verb only has two-forms: Was and were. They are: 

I was

You were

We were

They were

She was

He was

It was 

These can be contracted to: 

I was

You’re

We’re

They’re

She’s

He’s

It’s

Again you’ll notice that the to be form for when you’re talking about yourself remains the same, I was.

Let’s go through some examples of the present simple and past simple tense. The present simple tense is talking about something that is happening right now. The past simple tense is talking about something that occurred previously but has now stopped. 

I am speaking. I was speaking. 

You are speaking. You were speaking. 

We are speaking. We were speaking. 

They are speaking. They were speaking. 

She is speaking. She was speaking. 

He is speaking. He was speaking. 

It is speaking. It was speaking.

Be, Been and Being 

Let’s now move on to the second part of this lesson.  If you remember from before there are 8 forms of to be. We’ve now covered 5 of them: Am, are, is, was and were. That leaves us three more forms of the verb to be.

These other 3 forms are be, been, and being. The use of these three-forms is specific and follows some simple rules. Generally, be is the base form of the verb to be. Been is the past participle of the verb. Being is the present participle of the verb. 

You may be wondering what a base form and participle are, so let’s take a closer look at what these terms mean, their differences along with some examples.

Be is the base form of to be.  This means that it’s the most simple form of the verb, without any special endings like ing. The form be is usually used in three cases. 

The first two are as an infinitive verb. As an infinitive verb, it is the basic form of the verb presenting it as more of a concept or idea rather than an action. In this sense, be can act more as an adverb or adjective, and not as an action of a subject.  

In a lot of these cases, the word be follows the word to, like in the examples: 

I want to be polite
She wants to be a doctor

This is the form you hear in Shakespeare’s profound question: To be, or not to be? 

In its other infinitive verb use, the word be can come after a modal verb like would, could, can, or should.  Some examples are: 

He should be careful

They may be right

I can be there

You’ll notice in all of these infinitive examples be is not really an action, but more of an idea of being something, or a statement about the what a subject was, is, or might be in the future. 

The third common case you’ll see the word be used is in commands. Like be careful or be right back. This is often seen in signs or instructions.

Been is the past participle of be, and is used in the perfect tense. A past participle is used to talk about a completed action. The perfect tense is used to talk about a continuous action that has been done in the past. 

Been also comes after a form of the verb to have. For example: 

I have been to the store

They had been together for years 

It has been raining all day

While been is always used after the verb to have, it’s not always directly after the words have, has or had, but will come shortly after one of these words. For example: They had always been together puts the word always between had and been, but been still follows a form of the verb to have.

Being, on the other hand is never used after the verb to have. This form is the present participle of to be used in a continuous tense. This means that it is used to talk about an action that was, is, or will be happening over a period time. A present participle is a verb that ends with the letters ing used in a continuous tense that expresses an action that was, is, or will be happening continuously during a certain time. 

Remember the forms of to be that we reviewed earlier: Am, is are, was and were? The word being usually comes after one of these For example: They are being funny, I was being polite, or he is being shy. 

The word being does not always come after one of these forms of to be. For example: Thank you for being with me, or I like being amongst friends. 

The word being can also be used as a gerund, which is a verb that also acts as a noun. Some examples of this are: Being laughed at isn’t fun, or being on vacation is relaxing. Here the word being is not an action but more of a subject. 

Being can also be used as a noun like in human being or I love this with all my being. 

Being and been are often confused even amongst more fluent English speakers, but cannot be used interchangeably. You must use one or the other. Let’s recap the differences: 

Been is the past participle of to be and is used in the perfect tense. Being is the present participle of to be used in a continuous tense. 

Been comes after a form of the verb to have. Being usually comes after a form of to be, and can be used as a gerund.

If you’ve made it this far into this lesson, congratulations! This is not easy English! This verb is one of the most difficult ones to get right. But don’t stop now, we recommend rewatching this lesson to get a good idea of how to use the verb to be. 

The good news is that this verb is used so often that you can’t avoid hearing how it’s used or pronounced in songs, movies, social media or in everyday work conversations. Going forward pay close attention to this verb in the discussions you hear, and try hard to use it correctly. You will get better with practice and repetition. 

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Until next time, keep learning and we’ll talk soon.