In the twenty-first century, English is one of the most commonly used languages in the world, as well as an accepted international means of communication. According to various estimates, it is owned by about one and a half billion people on the planet. Therefore, if you often travel abroad, work or plan to get a job in the office of an international company, and also do business with foreign colleagues, or have a need to read literature in the original, learning English is a must for you. Today, there are many methods and textbooks, the main purpose of which is to learn the language in the shortest possible time, especially since English is quite easy to learn, you just need to regularly work on your vocabulary and learn simple grammar, which is not difficult at all. Let's look at one of the basic topics, namely, what is the verb to be in English, its use in writing and ineveryday speech. Once you've mastered the information in this grammar section, you'll be able to easily form the simple sentences you need to communicate. Most importantly, read the topic carefully and reinforce it with examples.
The verb to be in English
For starters, remember that to be can be either a semantic (usually used most often in this context), or a modal or auxiliary verb. Despite all the apparent complexity, it is very easy to learn the simple rules for its use. Let's look at cases in which the verb to be in English acts as a semantic one. Firstly, in this context, its Russian-language counterparts will be “to be”, “to take place”, “to be somewhere”. Since to be is an irregular verb, its conjugation will differ depending on the tense and the subject with which you use this part of speech. See the table below for how the verb to be is conjugated in English. Despite the rather large amount of information, this topic needs to be memorized properly, since it is a very important grammatical component of the language.
How to conjugate the verb to be
| Number (unit or plural) | Face (1st, 2nd or 3rd) | Present Simple | Past Simple |
| Unit. number | 1st | I am | I was |
| Unit. number | 2nd | You are | You were |
| Unit. number | 3rd | He/She/It is | He/She/It was |
| Plural | 1st | We are | We were |
| Plural | 2nd | You are | You were |
| Plural | 3rd | They are | They were |
Examples:
He is at grandmother's house. – He (is) at his grandmother's house.
There is no any information about it. – There is no information on this.
To be, acting as a linking verb
English grammar is inherent in the use of the verb in any sentence, and it must always be after the noun. In this case, to be is a link between the subject and the nominal member of the predicate. See the table above for details of its conjugation, because here, too, the form to be will depend on the number and person of the noun.
Examples:
This apple is very tasty. – This apple is delicious.
She is her elder sister. – She is her older sister.
Today is a rainy day. – Today is a rainy day.
Negation with the verb to be and its forms is formed using the particle not, which comes after the predicate. For example:
We are not there anymore. – We are no longer there (not in the same place where we were before).
Mary and Jack are not classmates with each other. – Mary and Jack are not classmates.
Also, in some, but very rare cases, to be is used as a modal verb or as an auxiliary in the formation of long forms. For example:
She is to pass her first exam. – She is about to take her first exam (the modality to be in this case is the intention to do something).
She is reading a novel. – She is reading a novel (in this case, to be helps the education of simple long time).
English Verb Chart
This is one of the most important parts of speech in any language. We absolutely cannot convey any action without using a verb in a sentence. In English, they can be divided into correct and incorrect (that is, those whose past tense is not formed according to the rules). Their table can be found in any textbook or language course. For now, let's just look at the most common verbs in English. It is recommended to learn them by heart. This knowledge will greatly facilitate your communication and reading articles or fiction.
| Verb | Russian translation |
| be | to be, to be |
| can | be able to, be able to |
| have | have (in stock) |
| do | do, create |
| use | use, use |
| say | talk |
| make | make, produce |
| like | like |
| write | write |
| look | look at something |
| see | see something |
| call | call or call someone |
| come | come |
| go | go (verb of motion) |
| know | know, learn |
| live | live, live life anywhere |
| take | take |
| work | work, including on something or anywhere |
| find | find |
| get | receive |
| write | write something |
| speak | talk, talk |
| give | give, give back |
| help | help someone |
| read | read |
| buy | buy, shop |
| meet | meet or meet |
| understand | understand |
| tell | to say (something to someone) |
| arrive | arrive at some destination |
By memorizing this list of verbs, you can easily supportsimple conversation or read simple literary texts. You are now one step closer to being able to speak English with ease.
