TO BE (LINKING & HELP VERB) | A2-B1 English Course | Lesson # 2 /12

Hello and welcome everyone to today's  presentation, which is about the little verb  

'to be'. Let me share my screen and see what I've  got to tell you about this verb. Okay so, first  

of all before we look at 'to be' itself, we need to  review the difference between action and state  

verbs, and then also define what are linking verbs,  because verb 'be' is the most common linking verb in  

English. So, let's have a look at the difference  between action and state verbs. So, action or  

dynamic verbs describe an action, like: do, sleep,  discuss, whereas state or state verbs describe an  

emotional, physical, or mental state. So for example:  I am doing a course; that's an action, whereas: I  

like the course; it's an emotional state. He is  sleeping is an action, whereas: He has a headache  

is a physical state. We discussed the issue; that's  an action, completed action in the past, whereas  

We agreed on a solution; it's a mental state. So,  that's a very important difference to be aware of  

between action and state verbs. Now one little  important note here for you is that we must  

avoid using a Continuous tense with a state verb.  So, with an action verb like sleep, we can say: He  

is sleeping; Present Continuous, but we cannot use  this tense, for example Present Continuous, with a  

state verb like 'have'. So, we can't say: He is having  a headache; it has to be the simple tense: He has a  

headache. That's just a little note, but we can now  go back to state verbs which have subcategories,  

and one of them is linking verbs. So, what is a  linking verb? A linking verb describes or gives  

more information about the subject of the sentence.  It hasn't got anything to do with an object but  

mainly information about the subject. For example:  The course is - the verb be - interesting. Steve feels  

ill. The solution sounds right. There is  more information in the words 'interesting,  

ill, and right' about the subjects: the course,  Steve, and the solution. That's the definition  

of a linking verb. So, what is the most common  linking verb in English? It's the verb 'be'. Now why is  

'be' the most common linking verb? It's because it can  give many different types of information about the  

subject. It can tell us about the subject's  profession, for example: Steve is a manager.  

It can tell us about the subject's age: I am 28  years old. (If you believe that, you believe anything -:)  

It can tell us about someone's nationality: They  are Australian. Someone's emotional state: Jane  

was excited. Someone's, or something's in this case,  general attribute: The cakes were delicious. It can  

even tell us about someone's location: We were in  the garden. That's why the verb 'to be' is so common  

and so used in English. Because if we look at  other linking verbs, they can replace 'be' but only  

when 'be' is followed by an adjective describing a  state or an attribute, so a very narrow use of the  

verb 'be'. For example: Steve seems efficient. Jane  feels excited. These are the other linking verbs:  

seems, feels. Sound: You sound tired. Smell: The  soup smells good. The vegetables looked fresh. The  

cakes tasted delicious. And there are two other  linking verbs that are important, which are 'get'  

and 'become': I got angry. I became angry. But if  you look at the next word after these verbs,  

it's always just an adjective, a description. These  verbs cannot also give information about age or  

profession or location, etc. Right so, one little  exception - as there always is in English - is that  

the linking verb 'become' can also be followed by  a noun, usually someone's profession. For example:  

He became a politician. So, that's all for the  verb 'be' 'as a linking verb. But the verb 'to  

be' is also a help verb. When we want to  create a Continuous tense or the Passive Voice,  

we also need to use the verb 'be'. We already had  examples of the Continuous tense: I am doing a  

course, where you can see the verb 'be'. And: He is  sleeping. 'is' again is one of the conjugations  

of 'be'. Also in the Passive Voice, for example: The  vegetables are steamed. And: A solution was found.  

Now, we're not going to go into any detail on  Continuous tenses or the Passive Voice,  

but just so that you can see how often this verb  comes up in the English language. Therefore, it's  

really important that we conjugate it correctly.  And as you have probably noticed, its conjugation  

is more complicated than any other verb in English.  For example, if we compare another important verb  

in English 'have' with 'be', you can see that 'have' - if  you look down the list - only has really three forms:  

have, has, and had in the Past, whereas the verb 'be'  has six different forms here: be, am, is, are, was, and  

were in the Past. In the Future, things are easy. On  top of that, the verb 'be' has specific contractions,  

like: I'm, he's, we're, etc. They'll be; again it's  Future. The contraction is on the 'will' not on  

the 'be'. So, without going into too much detail - because you can use the slides later to review  

the conjugations. I'm just trying to make you aware  of the complication of the conjugation of this  

very important verb, and insist that you do need  to revise it and really have it active in order  

to sound more fluent and accurate. So again, even in  the negative, we have the full forms: I'm not, is not,  

but also specific contracted forms: isn't, aren't,  wasn't, weren't, and then won't be. Now, as you can  

see, for example 'I'm not' doesn't have a contraction.  So, there are little points you have to be careful  

of. As well in the question form it takes direct  questions, so: Am I? Is he? etc. Or negative questions: 

Am I not? Isn't he? Again, a little point here to  notice that as 'am not' doesn't have a contracted form,  

you may also hear the negative question: Aren't  I? which is very strange. Suddenly the verb for  

'I' has become 'are'; so, 'Aren't I?' is a strange thing  to hear, but it exists. So, that's all for the verb  

'to be' and the things you need to know and work  on. But I thought I'd finish with two little fun  

facts also about the verb 'be'. The first one is about non-standard English. In some non-standard  

varieties of English, you may hear the word 'ain't'.  You have probably heard it in these varieties. This  

word 'ain't' replaces: I'm not, isn't, aren't, and even  haven't, and hasn't. So, you may hear something like:  

This ain't right. It's very informal, very colloquial,  and only appropriate in some varieties of English.  

Therefore, you will definitely hear this word in  movies and songs, but like any other non-standard  

word or phrase, please don't use it yourself. Avoid  using it, especially in formal settings; it will be  

completely inappropriate for you to use this  word. And the final fun fact I'd like to share  

here is about old English. As you have noticed, as  you know, in modern English, 'you' is both a singular  

pronoun referring to one person and a plural  pronoun referring to two or more people, and  

as you have seen, in both cases, we use the plural  verbs 'are' and 'were'. So we can be addressing only  

one person, like Jackie, and we say: Jackie, are  or were you ready? Or we can be addressing two,  

three, ten people. In this case: Jackie and Sarah, are - again same thing: are you ready or were you  

ready? So, we don't differentiate between singular  'you' and 'plural' you in modern English. But in old  

English, 'you' did have a singular version, which was  'thou' and it would conjugate in the Present 'thou  

art' and in the past: thou wert'. So, if you listen to  a Shakespeare play, watch a Shakespeare play,  

you will hear these words. So, you will only see  them in classical literature. And of course, you're  

not going to need them at all yourself, unless you  want to sound like Shakespeare. So that's all for  

the verb 'to be'. I hope it's been helpful. Again I  stress the fact that you need to really know how  

to conjugate the verb 'to be' in different tenses  so that you don't confuse people. I hope you've  

enjoyed this lesson. for more on this topic, click  here. Remember to also check out my complete online  

course, and don't forget to like and subscribe.  Thank you for watching and happy studies.