To be or not to be meaning1/1/2024 ![]() The past participle of to be is been, used if to be is the main verb in a perfect tense. The perfect tenses use a conjugated form of the auxiliary verb have with the past participle of the main verb afterward. This works for the present and past continuous tenses, but we generally avoid using to be as the main verb in the future continuous-the simple future works fine in this situation. 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 an auxiliary verb and second as a present participle. Simply add be after the modal verb or after the negative word if the sentence is negative. We use the bare infinitive be with all modal verbs, such as can, should, might, or must. The future continuous tense includes a main verb that comes after will be. The simple future tense of to be looks like this: The bare infinitive of to be is just be, without to. 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 future tenses do not conjugate to be like the past and present do. The past continuous uses the simple past ( was and were ): The present continuous uses the simple present tense of to be verbs ( am, are, and is ): 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 simple present and simple past tenses of to be are also used as auxiliary verbs to create the present continuous and past continuous tenses, which show an ongoing or continuous action.Īs with other tenses, in the continuous tenses, to be verbs are still conjugated to match the subject. These tenses each use their own special words for to be, depending on the person and number of the subject. The verb to be is most commonly used in the simple present and simple past tenses. Forms of to be verbs Simple present and past tenses The past participle is been, and the bare infinitive form is be. It’s also written differently in certain verb tenses : The present participle of to be is being. When conjugated for different subjects or tenses, the verb to be can become am, are, is, was, or were. 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.Īs an irregular verb, to be has its own unique forms. 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 ). ![]() Here ’s a quick list of the to be verbs and their functions: To be verbs: Grammarly helps you communicate confidently Write with Grammarly What are the to be verbs? ![]()
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