How to use the verb to be in English

In the twenty-first century, English is one of the most commonly used languages in the world, as well as a generally accepted international medium of communication. According to various estimates, it owns about one and a half billion people on the planet. Therefore, if you often go abroad, work or plan to get a job in the office of an international company, and also conduct business with foreign colleagues or have a need to read the literature in the original - learning English is mandatory for you. Today, there are many methods and textbooks, the main purpose of which is to teach the language in the shortest possible time, especially since English is simple enough in mastering, it is enough to work on your vocabulary regularly and learn a simple grammar that is not complicated at all. Let's look at one of the basic topics, namely, what is the verb to be in English, its use in writing and in everyday speech. By learning the information in this grammar section, you can easily compose simple sentences necessary for communication. The main thing, read carefully the topic and fix it on the examples.

The verb to be in English

To begin with, remember that to be can be both semantic (usually in this context it is used most often), and a modal or auxiliary verb. Despite all the apparent complexity, it is very easy to learn simple rules for its use. Let's consider the cases in which the verb to be in the English language stands in the quality of the semantic. First, in this context, its Russian-language counterparts will "be", "have a place", "be somewhere". Since to be refers to irregular verbs, its conjugation will differ depending on the time and subject, with which you use this part of speech. See the table below for how the to be conjugated in the English language. Despite a fairly large amount of information, this topic should be properly learned, because it is a very important grammatical component of the language.

How to conjugate the verb to be

Examples :

He is at grandmother's house. - He (is) in the house of my grandmother.

There is no information about it. - On this account there is no information.

To be, acting as a verb-bundle

English grammar is inherent in the use of the verb in any sentence, and it must always be found after the noun. In this case, to be is the link between the subject and the nominal member of the predicate. See the table above, where its conjugation is given in detail, because here again the form to be will depend on the number and face of the noun.

Examples :

This apple is very tasty. - This apple is very tasty.

She is her elder sister. "She's her big sister."

Today is a rainy day. "It's a rainy day."

Negation with the verb to be and its forms is formed with the help of the not particle, which goes after the predicate. For example:

We are not there anymore anymore. - We are no longer there (not in the same place as before).

Mary and Jack are not classmates with each other. - Mary and Jack are not classmates.

Also in some, but very rare cases, to be used as a modal verb or as an auxiliary for the formation of long forms. For example:

She is to pass her first exam. - She is going to pass her first exam (the modality to be in this case is the intention to do something).

She is reading a novel. - She reads a novel (in this case, to be helps to form a simple long time).

Table of English verbs

In any language, this is one of the most important parts of speech. We absolutely can not convey any action without using the verb in the sentence. In English, they can be divided into correct and incorrect (that is, those whose past time is formed not according to the rules). Their table can be found in any textbook or language course. Now let's just consider the most used verbs in English. They are recommended to learn by heart. This knowledge will greatly facilitate your communication and reading of articles or fiction.

By memorizing this list of verbs, you can easily maintain a simple conversation or read simple art texts. Now you are one step closer to easily speak English.