To Be

 

To be is one of the most common verbs in the English language. Not only is it used to describe how or what or where people or things are, it is used in combination with other verbs to build new verb forms.

It's important to know how the verb to be is formed and used, especially since it is an irregular verb (i.e., it doesn't follow normal rules for how verbs are formed):

 

Today

I am

We are

You are

You (all) are

He/she/it is

They are

 

Yesterday

I was

We were

You were

You (all) were

He/she/it was

They were

 

Tomorrow
(The future is a subject we will discuss in a later section.)