Basic English Grammar - BE verb

Hey, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this beginner lesson on the

verb "to be." This is one of the most important, most basic, essential English verbs. And today,

we are going to look at the conjugation of the verb in the present, past, and future.

And we will also look at how we can use this verb and what can follow this verb that's

later in the lesson. So if you are an intermediate student, stay until later, and I think you

can still find something useful for yourself. Okay, so in the present, we have, obviously,

the English subjects, "I," "you," "he," "she," "it," "we," and "they." When we conjugate

the "be" verb in the present, this is affirmative. We say, "I am," "you are," "he," "she," "it,"

"is," "we," and "they are." Okay? Now, to make it negative, all we have to do is add

"not." Okay? "Not" after the "be" verb conjugation. So you can say, "I am not," "you are not,"

"he," "she," "it is not," and "we," and "they are not." It is possible to contract the negatives

in two ways in the present as well. So instead of saying, "I am," you can say, "I'm." Instead

of saying, "you are," you can say, "you're." Same for the rest. "He's," "she's," "it's,"

"we're," "they're." So for negative, you can say, "I'm not," "you're not," "he's not,"

and on and on. You can also contract the "be" verb with the "not." So you can say, "You

aren't," for negative. "He," "she," "it isn't," for negative. Or, "We" or "they aren't," for

negative. The only one you can't do that with is "am." You cannot say, "I amn't." No. Only

"I'm not." In the past, we have, "I was," "you were," "he/she/it was," and "we" and

"they were." And it's the same rule here for negatives. Just add "not." So you can say,

"I wasn't," "you weren't," "he/she/it wasn't," "we" or "they weren't." And that's the only

contraction you can do in the past. And the future, simply, "will be." "I will be," "you

will be," "he will be," "she will be," "everybody will be." For negatives, "will not be" or

"won't be." Now, guys, if you know this already, we're going to look at the ways we can use

the "be" verb and what can follow the "be" verb.

Okay, so how can we use the "be" verb? Here, we have, "I am" for the present, "I was" for

the past, "I will be" for the future. What can follow the "be" verb? So think of any

examples. "I am," let's say, "happy," for example, right? How you feel. So you can say,

"I am happy." What is "happy"? "Happy" is an adjective. So you can follow the "be" verb

with an adjective. This is one possibility plus adjective, okay? What else can you say?

You can say, "I am," where are you? You can say, "I am in school," or "at home." Let's

say, "at home." Now, this is a location. Also, there is a preposition, so it can be location

or followed by a preposition. Okay, what is your job? You can say, "I am a student," or

"I am an architect," or "I am a marine biologist," whatever it is, right? So let's say, "I am

an architect." Okay, what is an architect? It's a noun, right? You can follow it with

a noun. Okay, and finally, well, maybe finally, I'll let you know in a moment, we can also

use this in a continuous form, right? So you can say, "I am," or "I was," or "I will be,"

let's say, "running," for example. So this is an -ing verb. Okay, let me fix that there

a little bit. Okay, and I'm going to ask you guys a question. Can I say, "I am" plus verb?

Can I say, "I am see," "I am make," "I am go," "I am watch"? Is this okay? No. Okay,

so in English, never follow the -be verb with a base verb, okay? I hear this often, so right

now, you have seen it. You know you can only follow the -be verb with an adjective, a location,

or preposition, a noun, or an -ing verb. Never, never, never, never, never follow the -be

verb with another base verb, okay? All right, guys, to test your understanding of this,

please check out the quiz on www.engvid.com. Take care.