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Basic Tenses With BE

This document discusses the tenses and forms of the irregular verb 'be' including the simple present and past, present and past participle, present continuous and other tenses like perfect and continuous perfect. Examples of conjugations of 'be' in the affirmative across 12 tenses are also provided.

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23 views5 pages

Basic Tenses With BE

This document discusses the tenses and forms of the irregular verb 'be' including the simple present and past, present and past participle, present continuous and other tenses like perfect and continuous perfect. Examples of conjugations of 'be' in the affirmative across 12 tenses are also provided.

Uploaded by

Farah
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Basic Tenses with be

These pages show the basic tenses with the irregular verb be, including the following structures:
 affirmative or positive (+)
 negative (-)
 interrogative or question (?)

The basic structures are:

+ positive subject + auxiliary + main verb be

- negative subject + auxiliary + not + main verb be

? question auxiliary + subject + main verb be

But for simple past and simple present tenses, the structures are not the same. In fact, they are even easier.
There is no auxiliary verb. Here are the structures:

+ positive subject + main verb be

- negative subject + main verb be


+ not

? question main verb be + subject

Here are the forms of the main verb be that we use to construct the tenses:

base past simple past participle present participle -ing present simple
be was, were been being am, are, is

And here is the result:

12 tenses (be) past present future

SIMPLE + I was I am I will be


present simple or past
simple
except future
will + be - I was not I am not I will not be

? Was I? Am I? Will I be?

CONTINUOUS + I was being I am being I will be being


be + being

- I was not being I am not being I will not be being

? Was I being? Am I being? Will I be being?

PERFECT + I had been I have been I will have been


have + been

- I had not been I have not been I will not have been

? Had I been? Have I been? Will I have been?


CONTINUOUS PERFECT + I had been being I have been being I will have been being
have been + being

- I had not been I have not been I will not have been
being being being

? Had I been being? Have I been being? Will I have been being?

In the following table, we see be conjugated in all persons in the affirmative for 12 basic tenses:

SIMPLE past present future

singular I was am will be

you were are will be

he/she/it was is will be

plural we were are will be

you were are will be

they were are will be

PERFECT past present future


singular I had been have been will have been

you had been have been will have been

he/she/it had been has been will have been

plural we had been have been will have been

you had been have been will have been

they had been have been will have been

CONTINUOUS past present future

singular I was being am being will be being

you were being are being will be being

he/she/it was being is being will be being

plural we were being are being will be being

you were being are being will be being

they were being are being will be being


CONTINUOUS PERFECT past present future

singular I had been have been being will have been being
being

you had been have been being will have been being
being

he/she/it had been has been being will have been being
being

plural we had been have been being will have been being
being

you had been have been being will have been being
being

they had been have been being will have been being
being

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