The conjugation of the verb to be is a large table. The presence of the verb to be is required

In the last article we looked at the use of the verb to be in the present tense. So, if you haven’t read it, we recommend starting with it. And in this article we will look at this verb in the past tense.

• How is to be translated in the past tense and when is it used?

How is to be translated in the past tense and when is it used?

We use the verb be in the past tense when we want to say:

• someone/something was someone/something;
• someone/something was somehow;
• someone/something was somewhere.

This verb can be translated into Russian as: was, was, was, were. Past tense verb to be has two forms: was And were. Which form and when to use? As in the present tense, the form depends on Who produces an action.

I was - I was;
you were - you/you were/were;
he was - he was;
she was - she was;
it wa s- he/she/it was, was, was;
we were - we were;
they were - they were.

As you can see, was we use when it comes to about one thing person were- If about several. When using the word you(you/you) we always use the form were. That is, it doesn’t matter here we're talking about about one person or several.

Singular

I was a small boy.
I was small boy.

He was strong.
He was strong.

She was at work yesterday.
She was yesterday on work.

The book was interesting.
The book was interesting.

You were at home at 5 PM
You was Houses V 5 evenings.

Plural:

We were happy that time.
We were happy at that time.

They were students last year.
They were students last year.

You were at home at 7 PM
You were Houses V 7 evenings.

Negative form of the verb to be in the past tense

Negative sentences in the past tense are formed in the same way as in the present. To do this we add a particle not after the verb be in the past tense (was/were).

I was not- I wasn’t;
he was not- he wasn’t;
she was not- she wasn’t;
it was not- he/she/it was not/was/was;
you were not- you/you weren’t/were not;
we were not- we weren’t;
they were not- they weren't.

Let's look at examples.

I was not late for a lesson.
I wasn't late for class.

He was not rich.
He wasn't rich.

My cat was not grey.
My cat was not gray.

They were not friends.
They weren't friends.

Interrogative form of the verb to be in the past tense

To ask a question in the past tense, you need to move the verb be to the past tense (was/were) to the beginning of the sentence, in first place. The rest of the word order remains the same.

Statement

The film was interesting.
The film was interesting.

They were at home yesterday.
They were at home yesterday.

Question

Was the film interesting?
Was the film interesting?

Were are they at home yesterday?
Were they at home yesterday?

Answer will contain the same be, in the same form.

Yes, it was.
Yes, I was.

Yes, they were.
Yes, they were.

If we want answer negatively to the question, then all to the same form, add not.

No, it was not.
No, I wasn't.

No, they were not.
No, they weren't.

Examples

Was he late for the date? Yes, he was.
Was he on a date later? Yes, I was.

Was he late for the date? No, he was not.
Was he on a date later? No, I wasn't.

Were are they engaged? Yes, they were.
Were they engaged? Yes, they were.

Were are they engaged? No, they were not.
Were they engaged? No, they weren't.

How to ask a question with question words?

When we ask a question with words what, why, how long and others, we put these words in first place, and then the order of words follows, as in a regular question.

For example

Short forms of the verb to be in the past tense

Unlike the present tense of the verb be, in the past we do not shorten the affirmative form. After all, if we abbreviate, for example, she was or you were, then we get she’s and you’re. As we remember, such contractions already exist in the present tense, and it will be unclear what time we mean. We use abbreviations only for negation, abbreviating the particle not.

Brief summary

So let's summarize.

1. The verb be in the past tense has the form was, were. The form changes depending on who is doing the action and in what quantity.

2. The verb be is translated into the past tense - was, was, was, were.

3. When we say that something did not happen, we use was not, were not.

4. When asked, we say was/were first place.

5. We can use contractions only in negation, abbreviating the particle not.

What to do now?

If everything is clear to you, then write examples of the use of the verb to be in the comments, and I will check.

Useful articles on the topic:

If something remains unclear to you or is not fully understood, write in the comments what exactly it is. I will definitely answer and explain.

Verb to be- the most important verb in English. This is where English grammar begins. Ordinary English verbs are not inflected for persons, but the verb to be is an exception to the general rule.

The most important table in English is table of forms of the verb to be. The table contains all forms of the verb TO BE in the present simple and past simple. To quickly remember the forms of the verb to be, use the techniques described.

Highlighted in blue in the table different shapes verb to be. The remaining words are English pronouns. If you don’t know how they are translated, take a look - this is also very important material.

Some grammatical constructions also use the third form (past participle) of the verb to be - been.

Pronunciation of the basic forms of to be.

Techniques for quickly memorizing tables.

You must definitely learn the entire table of forms of the verb to be. Without this, you will not be able to learn English. A mnemonic phrase will help you:

I am Balu wanted to say - “ You are they broke it." But I was afraid that he is cripples me.

There are three key phrases in this phrase: “ I am ball», « You are ku" And " He is cripples" In these phrases, the first word is a pronoun, and the beginning of the second word is consonant with the corresponding form of to be. And from them you can extract all forms of the present tense of the verb to be:

Similarly, the phrase " I am you I, and you are a thief. » Will allow you to remember the forms of the past tense. I think you will agree that it is much easier to remember this way.

How is the verb to be translated?

To be is translated as “to be, to appear, to be.” And it is the most commonly used verb in the English language. The fact is that an English sentence must have both a subject and a predicate. And the role of a formal predicate is very often performed by the verb to be. In Russian we can say:

I am a student.

She's a doctor.

There is no predicate in these sentences. So the English will say the same thing, in other words. They will literally say the following:

I am a student. – I am a student.

She is a doctor. – She is a doctor.

Short form of the verb to be

Phrases like “I am” and “We are” are very often used in English speech. And in the process of language evolution, their abbreviated (reduced) form appeared. The list of such abbreviations is given in the table:

It is with this verb that you need to start learning English grammar. Verbs in English do not change for persons, but the verb to be is an exception. With the help of this verb we will learn to compose simple sentences, which in Russian do not contain a verb, for example, “I am a student”, “he is at home”, “this is interesting”, etc. In English it is unacceptable to form without a verb that performs the action, and to be serves as a linking verb. For example, to say “I am a student,” we must insert the desired form of the linking verb to be and, as a result, the sentence will take on the meaning “I am a student” - “I (am) a student.”

Forms of the verb to be in the present tense

In the present tense, the verb to be has three forms: AM, IS, ARE:

• Remember: to be and AM, IS, ARE are not 4 different ones, but forms the same verb:

(We hope our dragon will help you remember this)

Let's look at how the verb to be changes in the present tense

Affirmative form

• We are friends - we are friends
• They are busy - they are busy
• The book is thick - the book is thick
• It is a cat
• She is clever - she is smart

Negative form

To form a negative conjugation form of a given verb, you need to put the negative particle “not” after one of the required forms of the verb (am, is or are). Here are some examples of negative sentences:

• I am not hungry – I am not hungry
• He is not busy
• The room is not big – the room is not big

Question form

To form an interrogative form, you need to put the appropriate form of the verb (am, is or are) at the beginning of the sentence:

• Are you Peter? -Are you Pete?
• Is this a room? – Is this a room?
• Are you hungry? -Are you hungry?
• Is he busy? – Is he busy?

• To understand how verbs live in the English language, let’s first remember at least one Russian verb in its initial form, for example, the verb “to live”. As you know, Russian verbs in their initial form end in “-т”, and later, when conjugated, the ending changes. As for the English language, the verb in its initial form is used together with the particle to, for example, we say to be – would t, find t Xia, i.e. if the particle to precedes the verb, this means that the verb is in the initial form, and when further using the verb with persons, this particle is omitted. Let's give an example: “To be or not to be” - there are two verbs in the sentence - and both are in the initial form, and they must be used together with the particle to, and, accordingly, we will translate into English as “to be or not to be”. If we have before us the sentence “I (am) a student,” i.e. we have changed the verb to suit the person of the subject, then the particle to is omitted and the proper form of the verb is used, in this case am.
• Unlike the verb to be, other verbs in English are not conjugated, for example, the verbs “live, sit, love” in the initial form are translated into English “to live, to sit, to love”, i.e. with a particle to, and when conjugated - without to, for example, “I live, sit, love” will be translated into English as “I live, sit, love,” i.e. initial form of a verb in English without a particletonot used, but when conjugatedtofalls. The initial form in English is called the Infinitive - Infinitive.

More about the particle to watch our video tutorial:

Verb conjugation tobe in the present tense

Now let's learn how the verb to be changes (conjugates) in the present tense. As mentioned above, in Russian, sentences like “I am a student, she is a doctor, we are workers” are formed without a predicate verb. But to translate these sentences into English, you need to put the appropriate form to be after the subject - “I am a pupil, she is a doctor, we are workers.”

Please note the translation of the following sentences in affirmative, negative and interrogative forms into English:

Verb conjugation tobe in past and future tense

In the past tense, the verb to be has two forms - was and were (was, was, were)

In the future tense, the verb to be is conjugated as follows

Note: In modern English the form shall is rarely used to form the future tense of verbs (although its use is not a grammatical error), the form is used for all persons will. Therefore, sometimes there are discrepancies in different textbooks.

To summarize, consider the following table:

Here are some commonly used verb expressions: to be which you should learn and conjugate yourself using the conjugation table:

• To be happy/unhappy – to be happy/unhappy
• To be glad - to be joyful
• To be hungry/to be full up– to be hungry/full
• To be fond of - to love, be carried away by something
• To be busy - to be busy
• To be late (for) - to be late (for)
• To be in time for – to be on time
• To be present at – to be present at (for example, in a lesson)
• To be absent (from) – to be absent
• To be married – to be married
• To be single - to be single / not married
• To be lucky - to be lucky
• To be ready (for) - to be ready (for, for example, a lesson)
• To be afraid (of) – to be afraid
• To be interested (in) - to be interested in something
• To be ill / well - to be sick / to feel good
• To be angry (with) - to be angry, angry (at someone)

Let's conjugate together the expression to be married in the affirmative, interrogative and negative sentences. What did you get?

To be or not to be? That is not the question... The sea deity Proteus of the ancient Greeks could (like the sea) take on any form. What are we talking about?

Moreover, the verb “to be” is known in the world not only as the most vital and always relevant, but also as the most changeable (protean) in the English language, constantly changing and taking on different forms, sometimes not so noticeable to us.

Considering that it is used so often in English speech, it is rather sad that "to be" should be the most fickle and slippery verb in the language. Let's get to know him better. C"mon!

What is the verb to be and why is it needed?

The verb To Be (am, is, are) is the basis of English grammar. If you misunderstood or understudied this material, then your entire study of English will most likely be unsuccessful. Therefore, if you feel that there is a gap somewhere in this material, then it is better to stay longer on this article.

It is this verb that underlies the construction of approximately 30 percent of all English grammatical constructions and is where you should start studying English grammar.

For example, to say “I am a student,” we must insert the desired form of the linking verb “to be” and the sentence will take on the meaning “I am a student." - “I (am) a student.”

We must carefully choose the correct verb form for the object, depending on whether it is singular or plural. This is usually easy. We wouldn’t write: “The troops were moving to the border.” Well, where is this good?

However, some proposals require closer attention. For example, how would you write:

The majority of Facebook users are (or is?) upset about the increase in spam.
Most Facebook users are upset about the increase in spam.

In fact, in this sentence everything depends on your accent - if it is focused on users— put “ are"if on group people— « is».

Plural or singular depends on your choice. If you find it difficult what exactly to focus on, then choose what sounds best to you. It is unlikely that your chosen form of “to be” will upset anyone.

By the way, “majority” is used only with countable nouns: “he ate the majority of cookies", but not "he ate the majority of the pie". instead we will say: “he ate most of the pie."

Translation into Russian of the verb To Be

“To be” is translated as “to be”, “to be”, “to exist”, “to appear” or not translated at all, and can be in Present (am, is, are), Past (was, were) and Future (will ( be)/shall (be)) tenses. The form of the verb depends on who is doing the action.

Unlike the Russian language, in English the linking verb is never omitted, due to the strictly fixed word order:

Rule To Be: subject ( subject) + predicate ( verb) + addition ( object).

• As independent verb(to be, to be, to exist or not translated):

I am at home.
I (am) at home.
She was at the Institute yesterday.
She was at the institute yesterday.
Not is in New York.
He (be) in New York.

• IN interrogative form of the verb “to be” is placed before subject to and does not require an auxiliary verb to form the interrogative or negative form. The same thing happens in the continuative (durative) form of the verb (Continuous).

Is he in New York?
He (be) in New York?
Was she at the Institute yesterday?
Was she at the institute yesterday?

• Negative the form is formed using the negation " not", which is put after verb "to be".

She was not (wasn't) at the Institute yesterday.
She wasn't at the institute yesterday.
Not is not (isn't) in New York.
He is not (located) in New York.

IN colloquial speech"not" usually merges with "to be" to form abbreviations:

is not = isn't
are not = aren't

The verb "to be" is also shortened with personal pronoun:

I am = I"m
We are = we"re
He is = he's

• As auxiliary verb.

Used to form continuous verb forms ( Continuous) and continuous perfect tenses ( Perfect Continuous).

They are reading a book.
They are reading a book.
He is sleeping now.
He's sleeping now.
We have been working here for 10 years.
We have been working here (for) 10 years.

Auxiliary verbs, By the way , can also be combined with the basic form of "to be" to form simple answers:

Is Jack in class this morning?
Well, he might be.
Is anyone helping Jack with his homework?
I'm not sure. Jane could be.

“to be” is also used to form the passive voice ( Passive Voice):

Active: Didn't buy a new magazine.
He bought a new magazine.
Passive: A new magazine was bought.
New magazine bought.

• As verb-ligaments(to be, to appear).

I am a doctor.
I am a doctor.
Not is a doctor.
He's a doctor.
Her new hat is red. Her new hat is red.

• In the design " there is/there are"(to be, to be).

There is a table in the room.
There (is) a table in the room.

In this sentence " there" is a formal subject. The active subject is the noun that follows the verb "be" (is), i.e. "table".

If this subject is in plural, then the verb “to be” must also be plural.

There are tables in the room.
There (are) tables in the room.

At time change the form of the verb changes to be»:

There was a table in the room.
There was a table in the room.
There were tables in the room.
There were tables in the room.

Translation of sentences with the construction “there is/there are” begins with translation circumstances places.

Negative form:

There is no table in the room. (There isn't a table...).
In the room there is (no) table.
There is no water in the bottle. (There isn't any water in the bottle.)
In a bottle no water.

Question form:

Is there a man in the house?
In the house is there a man?
Are there(any) apples in the greengrocers?
In vegetable Are there any apples in the store?

• “To be” often works in conjunction with others verbs:

He is playing the piano
She will be arriving this afternoon.

• And sometimes “to be” will stand myself By to myself. Especially in simple answers to equally simple questions:

Who's going to the movies with me tonight?
I am.
Who's responsible for this mess?
She is.

Present:
I am to (not to) / We are to (not to) / You are to (not to);
He/she/it is to (not to) / They are to (not to).

Past:
I was to (not to) / We were to (not to) / You were to (not to) You were to (not to);
He/she/it was to (not to) / They were to (not to).

• To be ( Present) is used only With Indefinite Infinitive(indefinite infinitive).

They are to be here.
They should be here.

• "To be" ( Past) used with Indefinite Infinitive(indefinite infinitive) and with Perfect Infinitive(perfect infinitive), which means that the action was not performed:

She was(supposed) to be in the cinema.
She should have been in the movies.

• The modal verb "to be" can be used to express responsibilities, which is based on previous agreements (plan, schedule etc.)

We are to go to the cinema.
We should go to the cinema.

• We also use this modal verb to express order or instructions:

You are to go to school.
You have to go to school.

• We use "to be" if something categorically forbidden V negative form.

Children are not allowed to drink alcohol.
Children are prohibited from drinking alcohol.

• "To be" is used for urgency council or wishes:

You are to drive straight.
Drive straight.

• “To be”, in the passive voice (constructed using the infinitive “to be”) and Past Participle— 3 form irregular verb or adding the ending “- ed" to the correct one), describes opportunity:

She was not to be heard.
It was impossible to hear her.

You were to be heard very good on the concert.
You could be heard very well at the concert.

Conclusion

We have covered all the main important nuances this tricky verb. For the last time, we draw your attention to the fact that when you say a phrase and doubt whether you should put the verb be there, you can always test yourself by asking questions to the sentence: am I who/what, is where, is what?

If in translation the words “is, is, is” give the sentence a logical meaning, then in English such a sentence will be correct.

We hope this article helped you understand the verb to be, which is simple only at first glance. Cheers!

Big and friendly EnglishDom family

Today we continue to study the tenses of the English language. I hope you have carefully studied the article and are already confidently composing sentences with the verb to be in the present tense. Now we will learn to talk about the past tense, using the forms of the verb to be - was and were.

The verb to be in the past tense, as a rule, does not cause difficulties for students, because it has a direct translation “was”, “were”. In the grammar tables below you will become familiar with the formation of the affirmative, interrogative and negative forms of the verb to be in the past tense. And to consolidate, as always, a little independent work.

Compare the affirmative and interrogative forms. In Russian they differ only in intonation. But in English, the verb to be in the past tense requires a change in word order when forming a question. Violation of this rule will

THE PAST INDEFINITE TENSE
(THE PAST SIMPLE)
TO BE

Affirmative form
Past Simple (verb to be)
+

Question form
Past Simple (verb to be)
(yes/no questions – general questions) ?

Question form
Past Simple (verb to be)
(WH - ? - special questions) ?

Negative form
Past Simple (verb to be)
—

So, today we looked at another table - verb to be in past tense. Such grammar tables really useful and easy to use. And you will return to them more than once to refresh your knowledge. If you have any questions on the topic or need additional explanations, write in the comments. I will answer all questions. Expect new articles in the section.

Exercises for Past Simple (verb to be):

Times in English.