Conjugating the Verb "To Be"

Now let’s take the verb to be through a complete conjugation. But first, consider its uniqueness.

To Be, Unique Among All Verbs

In the entire English language, one verb stands out: the verb to be. It serves more roles than most verbs, for it can serve as a main verb and a primary auxiliary verb. As an auxiliary, it serves the vital roles of forming the passive voice (The ball was hit by John) and the progressive tense (John was hitting the ball over the fence).

Miss Hamrick could never make up a chant about the irregular forms of the verb to be because it doesn’t have just one past-tense form like the other irregular verbs do. It does have the standard one-word present participle, being, and the standard one-word past participle, been.

But there’s not a chant like drink-drank-drunk available for the verb to be. Instead of using the infinitive form for the present tense and one word for each of the standard four forms (infinitive, past tense, past participle, present participle), the verb to be uses three words to express present tense and two words to express past tense.

Thus, the verb to be uses eight words to express the standard forms:

To Be, Eight Words Showing Its Various Forms

You need eight words when conjugating the verb to be:

 

Irregular Verbs, Five Words Showing Various Forms

In contrast, only five words are needed to show the forms of the irregular verb see:

It’s vital, of course, that you learn to conjugate the verb to be throughout all tenses, for you’ll need all these forms when you create the progressive tenses and the passive voice. Study, please, a conjugation of the verb to be:

 
Present Tense, To Be

Here’s the present tense of the verb to be:

 

Past Tense, To Be

Here’s the past tense of the verb to be:

 

Future Tense, To Be

Here’s the future tense of the verb to be:

 

Present-Perfect Tense, To Be

Here’s the present-perfect tense of the verb to be:

 

Past-Perfect Tense, To Be

Here’s the past-perfect tense of the verb to be:

 

Future-Perfect Tense, To Be

Here’s the future-perfect tense of the verb to be:

 

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