Majority methodological developments and modern educational courses offer you to start your acquaintance with English grammar with a verb to be... In fact, this is justified not only by an important psychological subtext. After all, to be is translated as “to be”, “to exist”, “to be” somewhere. This verb is fundamentally important for the analytic types of the language, since it often represents a bundle that we do not meet in Russian. It can be artificially modeled, but it will sound tongue-tied and “foreign”. Here's what we're talking about:

I'm Alice. I'm in Wonderland.(usual sentence structure)
I AM I am Alice. I AM I am in Wonderland.(analytical / English sentence structure).

Verb presence to be can be a little confusing and confusing at first. The question arises: when to use and when not to use constructions of this type. Hint: if there is a specific verb in a Russian sentence, then we translate it into English. If the verb is absent in the Russian sentence, then in English language some form is used to be:

My cat sleeping on the couch. - My cat sleeps on the sofa.
My cat is on the couch. - My cat is on the sofa.

Exceptions are constructions in which to be performs not a semantic or lexical, but a purely grammatical function, for example, such as Continuous or passive voice:

My cat is sleeping now on the couch. - My cat is sleeping on the sofa at the moment.
The house was built by my grandfather. (House was built my grandfather). - The house was built by my grandfather.

Verb to be can create special combinations with different parts of speech, act as a full-fledged verb or be part of a nominal or verbal predicate, perform the function of forming a passive voice and extended time (Continuous). We invite you to take a closer look at the main functions and grammatical features. to be.

Forms of the verb to be

Unlike most English verbs to be changes in persons and numbers not only in the present, but also in the past and future tense.

Present
is - singular / He is my boss.
are - plural / We are happy.
am - a form that is used only with a pronoun I/ I am not at home.

Past
was - singular / She was in London last week.
were - plural / You were happy with me.

Future
shall be (shall not = shan "t be) - first person (pronouns I / we)
will be (will not = won "t be) - second and third person / Currently, in English, the form will gradually replaces the first person shall).

Perfect
has been - singular
have been - plural and first person (pronoun I)
had been - the perfect form of the past, the same for all

To be is a representative of a group of strong verbs, so it can form interrogative and negative sentences without the participation of auxiliary verbs.

Grammar functions to be

Independent verb
As in Russian, the verb to be can act as the main independent verb and has the meaning “ be”Anywhere:

He is at home.- He (is) at home.
I am in London.- I (am) in London.

A linking verb included in a nominal predicate.
A predicate consists of a verb and any other part of speech (noun / pronoun / numeral / adjective). This is one of the most common use cases to be(in Russian, the verb is almost always omitted and has the meaning “ to be / to be”):

My brother is 7. - My brother is 7 years old. (He is seven years old.)
She will be my new boss.- She will be my new boss.
The flowers are pretty.- Beautiful flowers. (The flowers are beautiful).

Part of the verb predicate
In this category, the verb to be performs an auxiliary function. The most popular use cases are Continuous and Passive Voice. In today's article, we will briefly talk about these grammatical phenomena, since each of them requires a separate discussion.

Continuous (Present, Past, Future, Perfect)
Each of these tenses uses a specific form of the verb. to be in combination with a semantic verb (it will sound exactly when translated into Russian).
Schematically verb construction looks like to be + Ving or have + been + Ving / had + been + Ving in perfect times:

My friend was reading a book, when I called him.- My friend was reading a book when I called him.
I am listening to you.- I'm listening to you.

He has been living in LA for three years.- She has been living in Los Angeles for three years.

Passive Voice
This grammatical structure is used when an action is performed on an object.
The verb construction is as follows - to be + V3(verb in the third form).
Sentences of this type can also be translated into Russian in active voice. The essence of the passive voice is as follows: the direct object becomes the subject, for example:

I washed the windows. (Active voice) - I washed the windows.
The windows (addition) were washed by me. (Passive Voive) - The windows were washed by me.

We wish you interesting practice and success!

Victoria Tetkina

The rule am, is, are for children becomes one of the first difficulties in learning English grammar... In fact, there is nothing difficult about this rule. The main thing is to learn the theory and practice in practice.

English verb to be

Of course, in English the verb to be(to be, to be) is the most basic and important. It is used much more often than other verbs. There are 3 forms of the verb in total to be: am, is, are.

I	am
He	is
She	is
It	is
We	are
They	are
You	are

Remembering the rule is not difficult. To fully master the rule am, is, are, there is a special algorithm for children. First you need to learn all the pronouns ( I- I am, he- he, she- she, it- it, we- we, they- they, you- you, you). Then you need to learn all forms of the verb to be, as well as lexical meanings... Only then will it be easy for the child to remember which form refers to which pronoun.

Verb to be is necessary in English in order to communicate your name, where you are from, your profession, etc.

After the child has learned all the languages ​​and forms of the verb to be, you can start studying the short form of this verb, negative, as well as the short negative. To study this rule, you must study and memorize this table.

Long Form	Short Form	Negative Form	Short Negative Form
I am a doctor	I "m a doctor	I am not a doctor	I "m not a doctor
He is a doctor	He "s a doctor	He is not a doctor	He isn "t a doctor
It is a cat	It "s a cat	It is not a cat	It isn "t a cat
We are tourists	We "re tourists	We are not tourists	We aren "t tourists
You are a singer	You "re a singer	You are not a singer	You aren "t a singer
She is from Spain	She "s from Spain	She is not from Spain	She isn "t from Spain

It should be borne in mind that it is impossible to learn full, short and negative forms in one day. am, is, are... must be selected according to the level of study. If you have just begun to study and consolidate this rule, allow your child to do exercises using a notebook or textbook with a written rule. When you see that the child does not make mistakes in the exercises, close all the aids and let the child handle on their own.

You should not study all the subtleties of the verb forms on the first day. to be... The rule must be remembered for the rest of your life, which means that every moment must be given special attention.

Examples of using the verb to be

Verb to be used:

• when you need to introduce yourself to a stranger:

I am Ivan (my name is Ivan).

His name is John (his name is John).

• To report your location:

I am in London (I'm in London).

He is in Moscow (he is in Moscow).

We are in the park (we are in the park).

• To name someone's nationality:

I am Russian (I am Russian).

She is American (she is American).

• To name your profession or to tell you about a hobby

He is a doctor (he works as a doctor / he is a doctor).

I am a tourist.

We are teachers (we are teachers / We are teachers).

Verb to be is very widely used in English. Throughout the study of this foreign language verb to be will accompany your child all the time. That is why the rule am, is, are for children it is so important, it must be remembered once and for all.

Exercises to consolidate the study of the verb to be

Strengthening the study of the verb to be (am, is, are)- exercises for children. The English language must be constantly reinforced in practice. For this, both live communication and grammar exercises will help.

Exercise number 1.

Assignment: Insert the required verb form to be into the pass.

1. I _ a teacher.

2. He _ a tourist.

3. My name _ Roma.

4. Kate _ a doctor.

5. They _ actors.

Right answers: am, is, is, is, are.

Exercise number 2.

Assignment: Translate into English, use a short form of the verb to be.

1. He is from Spain.

2. She works as a singer.

3. We are not in France.

4. My name is Alina.

5. She is not a tourist.

6. My father works as a chauffeur.

7. They don't live in Australia.

8. My mom doesn't work as a doctor.

9. I am not a teacher.

10. We live in Russia.

1. He "s from Spain.

2. She "s a singer.

3. We aren "t in France.

4. I "m Alina / My name" s Alina.

5. She isn "t a tourist.

6. My father "s a driver.

7. They aren "t live in Australia.

8. My mother isn "t a doctor.

9. I "m not a teacher.

10. We "re live in Russia.

Exercise number 3.

Task: Select am, is or are.

1. I _ very friendly.

2. My mother is very busy.

3. My friends are very funny.

4. My teachers _ very kind.

5. I _ American.

6. He _ from Italy.

7. I _ not very good pupil.

Answers: am, is, are, are, am, is, am.

It is necessary to constantly train to remember the use of the forms. am, is, are... Exercises for children help to understand all the intricacies of using these forms.

Verb to be Is the most important verb in English. It is with him that English grammar begins. Conventional english verbs do not change by person, 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 TO BE in present simple and past simple. To quickly memorize the forms of the verb to be, use the techniques described.

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

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

Pronunciation of the basic forms to be.

Receptions quick memorization tables.

You should definitely learn the entire table of forms of the verb to be. Without this, you cannot learn English. The mnemonic phrase will help you:

I am I wanted to say to the ball - “ You ar they broke ku. " But I was afraid that they With cripples me.

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

Similarly, the phrase “ I'll i, uh you are a thief. »Will allow you to remember the forms of the past tense. I think you will agree that this is much easier to memorize.

How is the verb to be translated?

To be is translated as “to be, to be, to be”. And this is the most common verb in the English language. The point is that in English sentence there must be both subject and predicate. And the verb to be very often plays the role of a formal predicate. In Russian we can say:

I am a student.

She is a doctor.

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

I am a student. - I am a student.

She is a doctor. - She is a doctor.

Abbreviated notation 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. A list of such abbreviations is given in the table:

Collocation	Reduced form	Pronunciation
I am	I'm	aim
You are	You "re	yor
She is	She's	schiz
He is	He's	hiz
It is	It’s	its
We are	We’re	vie
They are	They’re	tfee

We present to you the first article in the series "English Grammar for Beginners". In this series of materials, we decided to outline all the rules briefly and in simple words so that beginners "from scratch" or those who do not remember the basics of English well, could independently understand grammar, understand it and apply it in practice.

Plural in English

In English, as in Russian, all words are divided into countable and uncountable. This is important to understand when forming the plural of a word. Countable nouns denote items that can be counted, for example: table (table), book (book), apple (apple). Uncountable nouns- these are abstract concepts, liquids, products, etc., that is, something that cannot be counted. For example: knowledge, water, meat, flour. These words have no plural or singular.

Countable nouns can be used in singular and plural... The singular noun denotes one thing, this is the form of the word that is indicated in the dictionary: apple - apple. The plural noun denotes several things: apples - apples.

How the plural forms of nouns:

Usually, the plural of nouns is formed by adding the ending -s: book - books to the word. However, there are several peculiarities of spelling:

• If the word ends with -o, -s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -x, then add the ending -es: hero - heroes (hero - heroes), bus - buses (bus - buses).

  Exceptions: photo - photos (photography - photos), video - videos (video recording - video recordings), radio - radios (radio - several radios), rhino - rhinos (rhino - rhinos), piano - pianos (piano - several pianos), hippo - hippos (hippopotamus - hippos).

• If the word ends with -f, -fe, then we change the ending to -ves: knife - knives (knife - knives), leaf - leaves (leaf - leaves), wife - wives (wife - wives).

  Exceptions: roof - roofs (roof - roofs), giraffe - giraffes (giraffe - giraffes), cliff - cliffs (cliff - cliffs).

• If the word ends with -y, preceded by a consonant, then -y we change to -ies: body - bodies.
• If the word ends in -y, preceded by a vowel, then add the ending -s: boy - boys.

In English there is also exclusion words, which form a plural not according to the rules. You just need to memorize such words, fortunately, there are not very many of them.

Singular	Plural
man - man	men - men
woman - woman	women - women
child - child	children - children
person - person	people - people
foot - foot	feet - feet
mouse - mouse	mice - mice
tooth - tooth	teeth - teeth
sheep - sheep	sheep - sheep

Try our test to see how well you have mastered the material.

English Plural Test

Articles in English

There are two types of articles in English: definite and indefinite. They are not translated into Russian. In the overwhelming majority of cases, one of these articles should be placed before a noun in the singular.

Not definite article a / an is only used with countable singular nouns: a girl (girl), a pen (pen). If the word begins with a consonant, we write the article a (a girl), and if the word begins with a vowel, we write the article an (an apple).

The indefinite article a / an is used in the following cases:

• We call any, some kind of indefinite object, and we have one, so we use the article a, which comes from the word one (one):

  It is a book. - This is a book.

• We first mention the subject in a speech:

  I see a shop. - I see (some, one of many) shop.

• We are talking about a person's profession or indicate that he belongs to a group:

  He is a teacher. - He is a teacher.
  She is a student. - She's a student.

Definite article the we pose when it comes to a specific familiar to us subject. This article can appear before a singular or plural noun.

The definite article the is used in the following cases:

• We already mentioned the subject earlier in our speech:

  I see a shop. The shop is big. - I see a shop. (This) store is big.

  It is believed that the definite article comes from the word that (that), therefore it is intended to indicate a certain, familiar subject to the interlocutors.

• We are talking about an object that in this context is one of a kind, it cannot be confused with something else:

  Honey, I'm washing the car. - Honey, I'm washing the car. (there is one car in the family, so we are talking about a specific subject)
  Look at the girl in the red dress. - Look at the girl in the red dress. (we point to a specific girl in a specific dress)

• We are talking about a one-of-a-kind subject, there is no other such thing: the sun, the moon, the world, the President of France, etc.:

  The earth is our home. - Earth is our home.

Verb to be

There is always a verb in an English sentence. And if in Russian we can say "I am a doctor", "Mary is beautiful", "We are in the hospital", then in English this is unacceptable: in all these cases, after the subject there must be the verb to be. Therefore, you can remember a simple rule: if there are no ordinary verbs in a sentence, then you need a verb to be.

The verb to be has three forms:

• We add Am to the pronoun I when we talk about ourselves:

  I am beautiful. - I'm beautiful.

• Is we put after the pronouns he, she, it:

  She is beautiful. - She's beautiful.

• Are we use after you, we, they:

  You are beautiful. - You are handsome.

The verb to be in English is most often used in the following cases:

• We inform you by whom is a person (name, profession, etc.):

  I am a doctor. - I'm a doctor.

• We inform you what quality is possessed by a person or an object:

  Mary is beautiful. - Mary is beautiful.

• We inform you where there is a person or object:

  We are at the hospital. - We're in the hospital.

Sentences with the verb to be in the present tense are constructed as follows:

Affirmative sentences	Negative sentences	Interrogative sentences
Principle of education
I + am	I + am not (’m not)	Am + I
He / She / It + is	He / She / It + is not (isn’t)	Is + he / she / it
We / You / They + are	We / You / They + are not (aren’t)	Are + we / you / they
Examples of
I am a manager. - I am a manager.	I am not a manager. - I'm not a manager.	Am I a manager? - I am a manager?
He is awesome. - He's great.	He is not awesome. - He's not great.	Is he awesome? - He's great?
She is a doctor. - She is a doctor.	She isn’t a doctor. “She’s not a doctor.	Is she a doctor? - She is a doctor?
It (ball) is red. - He (the ball) is red.	It (ball) isn’t red. - He (the ball) is not red.	Is it (ball) red? - Is it (the ball) red?
We are the champions. - We are champions.	We aren’t the champions. - We are not champions.	Are we the champions? - We are champions?
You are ill. - You are sick.	You are not ill. - You are not sick.	Are you ill? - You are sick?
They are at home. - They are at home.	They aren’t at home. - They are not at home.	Are they at home? - They are at home?

We think you are now ready to take the test and test your knowledge.

Test for the use of the verb to be

Present Continuous Tense - present for a long time

Present continuous Tense most often shows that the action is taking place at the moment.

Any English sentence has a subject and a predicate. In Present Continuous, the predicate consists of the auxiliary verb to be in the desired form (am, is, are) and the main verb without the particle to, to which we add the ending -ing (playing, reading).

She is playing tennis now. - She is now plays tennis.
I am reading a novel at the moment. - I am at the moment read novel.

The verb to be in this tense is an auxiliary verb, that is, this word that stands before the main verb (playing, reading) and helps to form tense. You will meet auxiliary verbs and in other tenses, this kind of verb includes to be (am, is, are), do / does, have / has, will.

Pay attention to the following Present Continuous tense words: now, at the moment, today, tonight, tonight, these days, nowadays, at present, still (still).

Affirmative sentences in Present Continuous time are formed as follows:

Usually in this tense, you just need to add the ending -ing to the main verb: walk - walking, look - looking. But some verbs change this way:

• If the verb ends in -e, we remove the -e and add -ing: write - writing, dance - dancing.

  An exception: see - seeing.

• If the verb ends in -ie, we change -ie to -y and add -ing: lie - lying, die - dying.
• If a verb ends with a stressed syllable with a short vowel between two consonants, the final consonant is doubled by adding -ing: begin - beginning, swim - swimming.

In negative sentences in Present Continuous, you just need to insert the particle not between to be and the main verb.

She isn’t cooking at the moment. - At the moment she does not cook.
You are not listening to me now. - You don't listen me now.

In interrogative sentences in Present Continuous, you need to put the verb to be in the first place, and after it, put the subject and main verb.

Is she cooking at the moment? - She trains Currently?
Are you listening to me now? - You me now listen?

And now we propose to pass the Present Continuous time use test.

Test for using Present Continuous

We've brought you the first 5 basic English topics. Now your task is to understand them thoroughly and work out as productively as possible with the help of exercises. In order not to burden you with a large amount of grammar at once, we will release the next article from this series in a few weeks. Subscribe to our newsletter, then you will definitely not miss important information. We wish you success in learning English!

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

Present tense forms of the verb to be

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, but forms of the same verb:

(We hope our dragon will help you remember this)

Consider 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 negative form to conjugate a given verb, you need to put a negative particle "not" after one of the required forms of the verb (am, is or are). Here are some examples of a negative sentence:

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

Interrogative 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?
• This room? - Is this a room?
• You are hungry? - Are you hungry?
• He is busy? - Is he busy?

• To understand how verbs live in English, let's first recall at least one verb of the Russian language in its initial form, for example, the verb "to live". As you know, the verbs of the Russian language in the initial form end in "-т", and later, when conjugated, the ending changes. As far as English is concerned, the verb in its initial form is used together with the to particle, for example, we say to be - would be, find be Xia, i.e. if the particle to precedes the verb, this means that the verb is in the initial form, and when the verb is used 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 to particle, 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 match the subject, then the to is dropped and the proper form of the verb is used, in this case am.
• Unlike the verb to be, the rest of the verbs in English are not conjugated, for example, the verbs “to live, sit, love” in the initial form in English are translated “to live, to sit, to love”, i.e. with particle to, and when conjugated - without to, for example, “I live, sit, love” into English will be translated as “I live, sit, love”, i.e. initial form of a verb in English without particletonot used, but when conjugatingtogoes down. The initial form in English is called Infinitive - Infinitive.

More about the particle to see in our video tutorial:

Verb conjugations tobe in present time

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”.

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

Verb conjugations tobe in the past and future tense

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

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

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

To summarize, consider the following table:

Here are some commonly used verb expressions to be which you should learn and conjugate on your own 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, to be carried away by something
• To be busy - be busy
• To be late (for) - 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 ill / to feel good
• To be angry (with) - angry, angry (at someone)

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