How to Use BE, BEING and BEEN - Learn English Grammar

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Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha.
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Today, I'm going to be talking about the verb, “to be.”
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So, in this lesson I'm going to talk about the use of the word, “to be,” and I'm
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going to introduce a few example sentences, as well as, give some explanations about some
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questions that you guys have had about the different uses of the verb, “to be,” specifically
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different conjugations of the verb, “to be.”
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So, let's get started.
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Okay.
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The first point I want to mention about the verb, “to be,” is that “be” expresses
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a state or a condition.
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This is some point about the way a person is or a characteristic, a feature of a person,
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an object, a situation.
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So, we use “be” to talk about existence.
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Existence is like the base level of the verb, the base meaning of the verb.
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Maybe you've heard the very famous Shakespeare expression, the expression from the Shakespeare
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play “Hamlet,” “To be or not to be.”
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This is a very famous expression which uses the verb, “to be.”
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But here, this famous speech comes from the characters kind of internal monologue or the
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character's thoughts about whether “to be,” “to be alive,” “to exist,” or, “not
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to be,” “to not exist,” “to be dead.”
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In this case, yes, we are using the verb or the verb is used to mean existence, to mean
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alive or not alive.
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However, in modern English today, we use the verb, “to be,” in many, many cases.
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Not referring to being alive or not alive but we use it as a linking verb.
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So, “to be,” and the negative form is used to connect the subject to its other information.
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This is the purpose of a linking verb.
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We have a subject and some other information about the subject.
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We use the verb, “to be,” to link those two things together.
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I've prepared a lot of examples and some conjugation review points that I hope can help show some
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of these--the ways we can use the verb, “to be,” as in modern American English.
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Let's take a look.
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First, at the present tense.
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So, please remember that depending on the subject of the sentence, the conjugation of
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the verb, “to be,” is going to change.
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So, if the subject of the present sentence is “I,” we’ll use “am.”
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If the subject is “he,” “she,” or “it,” we’ll use “is.”
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If the subject is “you,” “we,” or “they,” we use “are.”
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So, please keep these in mind.
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Of course, the negative form, we add “not,” after this.
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So, “I am not,” “he is not,” “you are not,” for example.
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Let's look at a few simple examples here.
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The subject, “he,” for, “he,” I apply “is,” the conjugation “is.”
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“He is my brother.”
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So, here is my subject, “He,” extra information, “my brother,” and, “is,” this is my
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linking verb.
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It connects the information together.
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Another example, “The neighbors are noisy.”
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Please be careful.
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I've noticed that many people forget that they're actually using a plural when they
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talk about “neighbors” or “parents,” for example.
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This little “S” here, the “neighbors,” the people who live next to me, this is a
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plural subject.
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So, we should apply the same rule we use for “they.”
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“They are,” in this case.
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“The neighbors are noisy.”
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Here is another example, “the computers,” not people here but multiple objects, “the
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computers,” that “S” sound, it marks the plural form.
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So, we have to use the same conjugation rules, “the computers,” “they are.”
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Essentially, “They are all broken,” here.
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One more, “You are not my friend.”
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So, here, we have the subject, “You,” and the negative, “not my friend.”
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“You are not my friend.”
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So, in each of these, we are connecting the subject with some other information using
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a conjugated form of the verb, “be.”
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Okay.
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I also want to mention the infinitive form, this “to” plus “be.”
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I talked about, “to be,” a little bit here.
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“To be,” meaning existence.
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We can use “to be” in modern English, as well, meaning there's no change to the
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verb.
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But, we use it in a few situations referring to existence, referring to a situation.
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So, let's take a look at a few examples.
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So, here, I have, “I want her to be my boss.”
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“I want her to be my boss,” meaning she is not my boss now but in the future, I want
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her to be.
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I want her to be in the state of being my boss.
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I want her to become my boss.
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However, we don't say “become,” “I want her to be my boss.”
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So, this is maybe a desire I want for a future situation where a person, “her,” in this
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case, is desired “to be,” to exist in a condition as this person's boss.
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Okay, let's try another example.
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This is a very, very common example.
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“Please tell him to be on time.”
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“To be” is used here before the expression, “on time.”
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So, “on time” means the correct time.
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For example, if the meeting begins at 1 o'clock, he needs “to be” in the meeting room at
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1 o'clock.
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So, “to be,” in this case, means be in a condition, be in the state of on time, at
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the correct time.
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This is a very common one.
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“Tell him to be on time.”
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“Please be on time,” meaning you, in your condition, your status in the day, should
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be on time.
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So, this is a great one to remember.
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Here's one more example, again, about time.
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It's very commonly used for time, for schedules.
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“Didn't they tell you to be here at 8 o'clock?”
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So, again, “to be,” meaning exists here, to bring yourself here.
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“You need to exist here at 8 o'clock.
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Didn't they tell you that?”
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So, again, “to be,” refers to your body, your person here, existing.
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So, “I need to be here to make these videos,” or “I need to be in the studio to do a live
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stream every week,” “I need to be somewhere.”
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So, we use “be,” to talk about our body's position or our body's location where we exist.
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We can use “to be,” with that.
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Okay, so I've already started talking about a few different prepositions, actually.
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I mentioned, “I need to be at the studio,” or “I need to be in the office,” for example.
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There are a few common prepositions that we can use with the verb, “to be.”
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Because “to be,” refers to our existence, refers to our location, for example.
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We can use it with a few prepositions like, “in” or “at.”
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So, I can say, “I need to be in the office,” “I need to be at the office.”
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Both are okay to use with the verb, “to be,” because they talk about or they help
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us express our existence, our condition, where we are located.
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We can also use “with,” to talk about people.
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Like, “I want to be with my family this weekend,” or “I want to be with my husband
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or my wife later,” or “I want to be with my friends every day,” for example.
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So, we can use “with,” along with the verb, “to be.”
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So, these are a couple of common prepositions you'll see with the verb, “to be,” and
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its various forms.
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Okay, so, let's continue on to a couple different grammar points.
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Let's talk now about the past tense.
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We can use “to be,” in past tense.
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Just remember, again, the verb does conjugate here.
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It's, “I was,” if the subject of the sentence is, “I.”
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“He,” “she,” and “it,” “was.”
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“He was,” “she was,” “it was.”
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And, with “you,” “we,” and “they,” we use “were.”
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“You were, “they were,” “We were.”
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Here, I've used “it,” as an, “I was late to work,” past tense.
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“The neighbors were noisy.”
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So, again, as I talked about with the present tense example, “neighbors” is plural,
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so the rule for “they” applies here.
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“They were noisy.”
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Same thing here, I used the same sentence, just in past tense.
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“The computers were all broken.”
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One more, “She wasn't very friendly.”
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So, a negative form.
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And, please, remember, that you can use the contracted form instead of “was not,”
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we can use “wasn't.”
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It sounds a lot more natural.
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“She wasn't very friendly.”
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So, please, keep in mind the past tense forms as well, the past tense form and the negative
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forms too.
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Alright.
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Let's continue on to a couple different points.
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I want to talk about the continuous or the progressive form.
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A couple patterns some of you have sent in questions about the use of the word, “being,”
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in sentences like these.
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Like, what's the difference between including “being” and know “being” in an example
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sentence.
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So, let's take a look in a couple of examples.
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We use “being,” in this progressive form to express a temporary state.
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So, if you've watched any videos about the continuous form or the progressive form, you
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know we you use it, sometimes, to talk about a temporary state, something that's not always
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true, but for now, it is true.
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The same rule applies to “being.”
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So, if we can imagine the blue line here is a present tense statement.
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Present tense, remember, is something that's always true, it's a general fact.
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The red line here is a temporary situation.
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So, here, I have past, present, now and the future.
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So, let's look at these two example sentences.
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“My brother is annoying.”
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My brother is not really annoying.
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“My brother is annoying,” is a present tense sentence.
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So, this is a general fact, for an example.
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A general fact, always true.
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“My brother is annoying,” I have an adjective here, “My brother is annoying.”
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However, in this sentence, “My brother is being annoying right now.”
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“My brother is being annoying,” means, in this point in time only, for this short
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period of time only, right now, my brother is “being,” he's in the condition, his
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status, his existence is annoying right now.
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If I said, “My brother is annoying right now.”
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It's okay.
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But, “being annoying,” it sounds a bit more natural to a native speaker.
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“My brother is being annoying right now.”
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Let's look at one more example, “My computer is not cooperative.”
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I've used the negative, “not cooperative.”
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So, this is a little bit of a funny sentence.
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It suggests, maybe my computer can think for itself.
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So, “cooperative,” meaning my computer is not working very well, in other words.
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But, here, I've used the adjective.
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“My computer is not cooperative.”
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So, maybe, I have an old computer.
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So, “every day,” in this sentence, in a present tense sentence, “My computer is
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not cooperative,” it doesn't work very well.
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However, if I want to use “being” here, I can say, “My computer wasn't,” in past
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tense maybe, “My computer wasn't being cooperative today.”
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So, in this sentence, we see today only.
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“My computer was not being,” my computer was not functioning, my computer was not existing
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in a cooperative state, its condition was not cooperative for me in that day.
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So, here, I've used “being.”
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“My computer wasn't cooperative today,” is okay, as well.
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But, we can use “being,” it sounds--it kind of emphasizes the existence, it emphasizes
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that temporary condition here.
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So, this sounds really nice, “My computer wasn't being cooperative today.”
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Try to use this if you like.
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So, again, we use this for a temporary situation, keep that in mind, “being blah, blah, blah,”
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“being” before your adjective, in this case.
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So, that's one point I wanted to mention.
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Let's move on to a couple more may be difficult or advanced points I wanted to share and I
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want to introduce a few examples here, too.
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First, present perfect tense.
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We've talked about the present perfect tense in some other videos before but let's review.
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When your subject is “I,” we use “have been.”
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When the subject is “he,” “she,” or “it.”
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It’s “has been.”
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“He has been,” “she has been,” “it has been.”
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When we use “you,” “we,” and “they,” it’s “have been.”
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“You have been,” “they have been,” “we have been.”
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So, we can use this as we've looked at in the past, “I have been studying,” here's
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our present perfect form, the past participle form, “been.”
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“I have been,” “she has been working,” “they have been living.”
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And then, some questions, “Have we been sleeping?” or “Where have you been living?”
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for example.
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Here, you'll see, we use “been,” the past participle form of the verb here in present
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perfect tense.
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So, maybe many of you are familiar, maybe this kind of pattern is okay for you.
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But, let's kind of look at a few examples that are a bit more difficult or a bit more
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advanced.
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Like, the past perfect tense.
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So, here, in past perfect tense, we need to change from “have,” as we've done with
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present perfect, to “had,” the past tense.
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So, here, all of these are going to be the same verb.
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“I had been,” “he had been,” “you had been.”
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We keep the verb, “be,” with “been here.”
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But, we can actually change all of these sentences I just talked about in past perfect, or sorry,
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present perfect to the past perfect tense just by changing the verb, “have,” here.
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So, for example, “I had been studying,” “She had been working,” “They had been
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living,” for example.
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We can make past perfect sentences just by changing the verb here.
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So, please keep this in mind, the verb, “to be,” does not change in this case.
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But, we can make some more complex sentences in this case, a past perfect sentence, quite
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easily, actually, with no change to the “be,” verb.
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Alright.
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There's one more situation or one more kind of sentence I want to mention today.
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And, that sentences that use “if” clauses.
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so, if something, then something else is.
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“If-then,” type statements.
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So, here's one example.
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“If more people had come, it would have been a better party.”
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“It would have been,” so, here, we see, there's an “if” statement that introduces
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a point.
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So, here's my “if” clause, “If more people had come, it would have been a better
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party.”
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So, here, I'm talking about a past situation.
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So, at the party, maybe not a lot of people came to the party.
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But, if more people had come, in the past, it would have been a better party.
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So, I want to introduce this because a lot of people have no problem with the “if”
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clause.
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Like, “if more people had come,” or “if more people had been at the party.”
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However, many people forget to conjugate the verb in the main clause, “it would have
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been.”
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So, please, don't forget this part, “it would have been.”
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Don't forget your “would,” either here.
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Let's look at one more.
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“If you had been here earlier,” so, here, we see the verb, “to be,” is in our “if”
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clause.
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“If you had been here earlier, you would have heard my good news,” in this case.
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So, here, the “to be” verb is in the “if” clause, in that “if” clause at the beginning
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of the sentence.
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“If you had been here,” if your body had existed in this place earlier, you would have
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heard my good news.
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So, here, we can see it in the “if” clause of the sentence.
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This is a very useful one.
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“If you had been here earlier,” you can use this in a surprising number of situations,
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I think.
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Let's look at one more.
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“If we hadn't been at the beach today,” so, here, I have a negative in the “if”
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clause.
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So, “hadn't been,” “If we hadn't been at the beach today, we wouldn't have seen
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whales,” for example.
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So, here, I've made a kind of complex sentence with a negative.
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“If we hadn't been at the beach,” if our bodies had not been at the beach, if we had
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not existed at the beach today, “we would not have seen whales,” it would not have
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been possible to see whales.
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So, you can use this in the positive and the negative to make some very complex sentences
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just about existence, about where you or where an object is, where your body is.
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I know that “to be” can be a difficult verb to use.
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But, think about the various ways we've talked about in this lesson to use the verb, “to
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be,” and try to make some interesting sentences.
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So, there are a lot of different ways to use this verb.
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But, keep in mind, it's so useful as a linking verb.
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So, we're connecting a subject to some key information about the subject and we're talking
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about our existence with this verb.
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So, give it a try.
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If you have any questions or if you want to try just an example sentence, leave it in
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the comment and we can check it out.
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If you like this lesson, please make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the
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channel too.
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Thanks very much for watching.
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Check us out at EnglishClass101.com and we’ll see you again soon for more good stuff. Bye!
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