02 The Tenses & Transform

THE VERB TO BE
& THE TENSES

Verb to be is a verb that is used to modify
(qualify) other verb, an adjective, or an adverb.
The tenses is any of the inflected forms of a
verb that indicate the time and continuance or
completion of the action or state.
There are three basic forms of tenses: present, past
and future. There are several verb to be that are
used for different subjects and different tenses as
indicated in Table 1.
Table 1. The verb to be used for different
subjects and tenses
Subject Present Past Future Present Past
Perfect Perfect
I am Was will be have been had been
We are Were will be have been had been
You are Were will be have been had been
They are Were will be have been had been
He is Was will be has been had been
She is Was will be has been has been
It is Was will be has been had been
Examples:
1. Budi, Yanto, Mahmud and Ali are the members of a youth
organization in our village.
2. The price of computer is expensive.
3. I am a first year student of Industrial Engineering Faculty,
University of Pembangunan Nasional Yogyakarta.
4. She was a student of Chemistry Department in 1999.
5. We were in Tangerang last month to study the food processing
at a famous factory.
6. Pak Ahmad will be happy because the government will provide
him with a small business loan next month.
7. We have been in this village since last week to carry out Student
Community Services.
8. Danang had been a teaching staff since he graduated from UPN
in 1980.
Using verb to be with the expletive expression
THERE
There are five mangoes, three oranges and ten

bunches of celery in the basket.
There is a computer in every classroom in our
department.
There were some traditional markets in our city
before 1997.
There was a disease attack in Suka Jaya Village last
year.
Sentence transformation
To transform the affirmative sentence into a negative form, we

simply add a negation word NOT after the verb to be. Whereas to
transform the sentence into an interrogative , we simply put the
verb to be at the beginning of the sentence before the subject.
Examples:
1. Tomato is a fruit.
Tomato is not a fruit.
Is tomato a fruit?
2. There are many birds in our rice field.
There are not many birds in our rice field.
Are there many birds in our rice field?
3. She was in the meeting last night.
She was not in the meeting last night.
Was she in the meeting last night?
Students activity
Make an affirmative sentence. Ask your friend to

change it into negative and interrogative forms.
The simple present tense
There are two basic use of the simple present tense, i.e. to
express the habitual actions, and to state general truths or facts.
The formula of simple present tense: Subject + verb I.
(Note: the verb used should be with s when the subject is
singular third person /thing, otherwise it is without s).
Examples:
The rust disease attacks corn crops in Suka Maju Village.
The hand made souvenirs are very expensive.
There are two cars in his garage.
Farmers in irrigation area grow the rice crops three times a
year.
Ali studies English in this semester.
The simple past tense
The basic use of simple past tense is used to express the actions or to
state the truths or facts that happen in the past. The time markers that
are used to indicate the past (completed) action are: yesterday, ago,
last, etc. or simply by the use the verb in the past tense form.
The formula of simple past tense: Subject + verb (type II).
(Note: there is no difference in the verb used for either singular or
plural subjects).
Examples:
The rust disease attacked corn crops in Suka Maju Village last year.
The souvenirs were very expensive during the last two decade.
There were two cars in his garage yesterday.
Farmers in irrigation area grew the rice crops three times a year.
Ali studied English in last semester.
The simple future tense
The simple future tense describes actions, activities, or conditions in the

future. Time markers generally used are phrases employing the words such
as: tomorrow, next, in, within, later, etc, or simply by the use the verb
in the sentence.
There are two formulae of simple future tense:
Subject + shall/will + verb (type I) and
Subject + verb to be + going to + verb (type I).
Examples:
The new rice variety will be available in the market in next planting
season.
I am going to harvest the vegetables next week.
The government will increase the price of fertilizers next year.
We shall go to the meeting as soon as possible.
I will make decision later.
Sentence transformation
To transform the simple present, past and future tenses into a negative
form is done by simply put the words do/does/did/will/shall + not
before the verb or the word not after verb to be;
To transform the sentences into an interrogative form is done by placing
the word do/does/did/will/shall, or verb to be at the beginning of the
sentences. This can also be done by adding the question words (where,
when, what, how, who, whom, or whose).
Examples:
Farmers in Suka Maju Village grow rice three times a year.
- Farmers in Suka Maju Village do not grow rice three times a year.
- Do farmers in Suka Maju Village grow rice three times a year?
- Who do grow rice three times a year?
- What do farmers in Suka Maju Village grow three times a year?

02 The Tenses & Transform

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

02 The Tenses & Transform

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

02 The Tenses & Transform

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

THE VERB TO BE

& THE TENSES

There are five mangoes, three oranges and ten

To transform the affirmative sentence into a negative form, we

Make an affirmative sentence. Ask your friend to

The simple future tense describes actions, activities, or conditions in the

You might also like