Basic Tenses with be

This page shows the basic tenses with the irregular verb be, including the following structures:

• affirmative or positive (+)
• negative (-)
• interrogative or question (?)

The basic structures are:

But for simple past and simple present tenses, the structures are not the same. In fact, they are even easier. There is no auxiliary verb. Here are the structures:

Here are the forms of the main verb be that we use to construct the tenses:

 And here is the result:

In the following table, we see be conjugated in all persons in the affirmative for 12 basic tenses:

Mini Quiz

1. In the present simple tense, what are the forms of the main verb "be"?

be, been, being
am, are, is
is, isn't, aren't

a) be, been, being b) am, are, is c) is, isn't, aren't

2. "Why _______ my students being naughty today?" Which makes this a correct present continuous question?

were
are
are being

a) were b) are c) are being

3. "My cat was _______ very lazy yesterday."

be
been
being

a) be b) been c) being

Your score is:

Correct answers: