Forms of "be" and How To Use Them

[ddrmario123]

The five most commonly used forms of "be" are: "am," "is," "are," "was," and "were."

They are used with pronouns such as: I, he, she, we, they, them, us, our, and etc.

Some people might mix these up with the incorrect pronoun, and to those who are Native English speakers, you probably already know this because it'll sound funny to you if these forms were used incorrectly.

Incorrect Usage: "I is five." instead of "I am five."

Incorrect Usage: "He were fine." instead of "He was fine."

"Am" is used only with the word "I." "I" is a subjective personal pronoun.

Correct Usage: "I am the one." or "I am her friend."

"Is" is used with any of the third person subjective pronouns, which are "he," "she," and "it."

Correct Usage: "He is the one." or "She is very fun." or "It is very dark."

"Are" is used with the word "you" and plural subjective pronouns, which are "we" and "they."

Correct Usage: "You are the one." or "We are very fun." or "They are not very fun."

"Was" has the exact same usage as is, except it is in the past tense. So you still use "he," "she," and "it."

Correct Usage: "He was the one." or "She was very fun." or "It was very dark."

"Were" also has the exact same usage as are, except it is in the past tense. So you still use "you," "we," and "they."

Correct Usage: "You were the one." or "We were very fun." or "They were not very fun."

That was a long write up with so much formatting. I can't believe I did that  :amazed:.

[petesede]

Only thing you forgot is that  ´was ´ is also the verb form for ´I´ in past tense along with he/she/it

These should honestly be the first verbs you learn and memorize, and just like every language the conjugation of ´to be´ is very irregular.  Heck, in spanish it is so irregular that there are two different forms of ´to be´.. ( yo soy,  yo estoy etc)

[Dame6089]

I notice these mistakes a lot with kids and foreign speakers. The reality is that English is overcomplicated in a lot of senses. A lot of other languages use less words and people still know who and what is being referred to due to context clues.