Outside the Box

The Verb TO BE

John meets Joanna at a dinner party.

Good evening, Im John. Whats your name?

Good evening to you too. My name is Joanna.
Great to meet you Joanna. And where are you from?
I am from Germany originally, but I live in Brighton
now. And you?
Im from a little city called Wells in the south of
England. Do you know it?
I dont, but there are many cities in England that I
dont know.

You can see the verb to be in its conjugated form in the

dialogue above. It appears in both its contracted and full
forms. Have a look at the table below to see both the full
and contracted forms of to be.
Subject

Verb TO BE

Contracted Form

Am

Im

You

Are

Youre

He / she / It

Is

Hes / shes / its

We

Are

Were

They

Are

Theyre

The verb to be is used in many situations. Here are a

few basic examples.

Now you know the verb to be in positive, lets look at the

negative. To make the verb to be negative, we add the
negation NOT. Have a look at the table.

Subject

Verb TO BE +
NOT

Contracted
Form

Am not

Im not

You

Are not

You arent

He / she / It

Is not

He isnt / she
isnt / it isnt

We

Are not

We arent

You

Are not

You arent

Finally, lets look at the question form. For a question,

you need to invert the subject and the verb to be.
Subject

Verb TO BE

Subject

Contracted
Form

Am

Im not

Are

You

You arent

Where

Is

he / she / it?

He isnt / she
isnt / it isnt

How many

Are

We

We arent

Where

Are

they

You arent