The verb to be as a ‘Main Verb’ and as a ‘Helping verb’

Sadiq Abdul Jalil

The Verb (to be)

• The verb to be (is, are and am) can be used as a main verb and as a helping verb.

• As a main verb, i.e. alone without any other verbs, it expresses status, unlike verbs like go, sleep, eat, play and so on, which express actions. It can be used with:

Adjectives

• He is tall.• The students are clever.• I am happy.

Nouns

• He is a student.• There are two screwdrivers.• This is a cat.

Prepositions

• The marker is on the table.• I am in the class.• The shops are behind that building

• The past simple of (is) is (was)• The past simple of (are) is (were)• The past simple of (am) is (was)

• Note, however, that there are cases in which you will need to use the infinitive form of the verb. The infinitive form the verb to be is (be). Study the following sentences.

• I want to be a teacher.• I study hard to be excellent.• The questions should be easy.

Draw Conclusions

We use the infinitive form of the verb to be with:•_____________________________________•_____________________________________•_____________________________________

The following diagram summarizes the whole lesson

Verb to be

Issingular

ArePlural

AmPersonal pronoun ‘I’

Adjectives.Nouns.Prepositions.

Activity

• Fill in the blanks with a suitable verb (to be.)

A: Where _______ Ahmed and Nasser?B: I think Ahmed __________ in the library. But Nassershould _________ at home.A: Yesterday, we went to the cinema and we really __________ happy about the film.B: What _________ the name of the film?A: It ___________ "The last Samurai". B: Who ________ the star of the film?A: It __________ Tom Cruise.B: Wow!! He ________ my favorite film star.A: Yeah, me too. I ________ really interested in all his films.

As a helping verb, the verb to be can be used with:

• The present continuous:I am reading now.He is reading now.They are reading now.• The past continuous:I was reading.She was reading.We were reading.• The passive voice:I was taken to the hospitalHe was taken to the hospitalYou were taken to the hospital.

The Present Continuous

• The present continuous is formed with the verb to be + a verb + ing. The present continuous expresses an action that happens at the moment of speaking. It is usually accompanied by phrases like, at the moment, now, at present and the like

Activity

• Write present continuous sentences describing the following pictures

_________ ___________ __________

_________ ___________ ___________

While and When

• While and When are used frequently with the past continuous. Study the following sentences.

While I was having a shower, the bell rang.When I was having a shower, the bell rang.• This means that the action in the past

continuous was stopped by the past simple action. Past simple action

Past continuous action

• However, note that While can only be used with the past continuous. Whereas When can be used with both.

Activity

• Join the following phrases using While and When and make any necessary changes.

I drive my car / have accident. (when)__________________________________________ My father comes / I eat breakfast. (while)__________________________________________ I play football / break my leg. (while)__________________________________________ The lights go out / watch TV. (when)__________________________________________ It rains / I decide to go home. (when)__________________________________________

I hear a knock on the door / listen to music. (while)

________________________________________I walk home / see some people fighting.

(when)________________________________________He writes a letter / his mother cooks. (when)________________________________________My children do homework / I watch TV.

(while)________________________________________

Passive Voice

• The passive voice means that the doer of the action is synonymous, unknown or unimportant. It is formed by the verb to be + the past participle of the verb. Study the following sentence.

Ahmed writes a letter every day.

• To change this active sentence into passive, try to look for the object in the sentence. It usually comes after the verb. The above sentence consists of the following:

Ahmed writes a letter every day.

subject verb object

• In a passive-voiced sentence, start with the object first. In our case the object is ( a letter). Then use the correct form of the verb to be that conforms to the object. In our case the correct form is (is). Finally, put the verb in the active sentence in the past participle. In our case, the past participle of the verb (write) is (written). Hence, we have the following passive sentence:

A letter is written every day (by Ahmed).

• (by Ahmed) is optional. You can add it or remove it without big difference in meaning. Note, however, that only transitive verbs (i.e. verbs that have one or two objects) can be made into passive voice. The intransitive ones (i.e. verbs that do not have objects) cannot. For example: sleep, go, have, etc…

• The above passive voice sentence is in the present simple tense. To change it into the past simple tense, just change the verb to be in the past. Study the following sentence:

Ahmed wrote a letter yesterday.

• To change this past simple sentence into passive, do the same things except that the verb to be changes into past simple. Hence, we have the following sentence:

A letter was written yesterday.

Activity

• Change the following active sentences into passive. I eat two apples every day.________________________________________________________ The Israeli troops killed five Palestinians yesterday.________________________________________________________ The Israeli troops kill a lot of Palestinians everyday.________________________________________________________ My father built our house in 1910.________________________________________________________ My father should build a new house next year.________________________________________________________ Ahmed is writing a letter now.________________________________________________________ Ahmed was writing a letter yesterday.________________________________________________________ I will send someone to clean the room.________________________________________________________ I sent you four letters last week regarding your performance.________________________________________________________ Parents always hit their children when they do something bad.________________________________________________________

Complete the rules

• Add _________ when you want to use the present continuous or past continuous.

• • Use __________ when you need the

infinitive, like the case with will and should.