The Verb To Be: Am, Is, Are

To be is the first verb worth learning properly. It is the most common verb in English, it behaves unlike every other verb, and almost any sentence you build in your first week will need it.

Three forms

Pronoun	Form	Example
I	am	I am a student.
he / she / it	is	She is my sister.
you / we / they	are	They are at home.

That is the whole present tense. A noun behaves like he/she/it, or like they: My brother is ten. / My parents are teachers.

It can never be left out

Many languages join a subject to a noun or an adjective with nothing in between. English does not — the verb has to be there:

Wrong	Right
He teacher.	He is a teacher.
I hungry.	I am hungry.
We at home.	We are at home.
She smart.	She is smart.

A quick test: does the sentence have a verb at all? If the subject is followed by a noun, an adjective or a place, there is no verb yet — and one has to go in.

Short forms

In speech the short forms are used almost every time:

• I am → I'm — I'm from Leeds.
• he is → he's, she is → she's, it is → it's
• you are → you're, we are → we're, they are → they're

The apostrophe stands for the missing letter, and the result is one syllable: I'm [aɪm], he's [hiːz].

Watch the pair it's and its: the first is it is, the second is possessive. It's cold against the dog wagged its tail.

Negatives: not goes after the verb

No do is involved. Not simply follows:

• I am not ready. → I'm not ready.
• He is not at school. → He isn't at school.
• They are not hungry. → They aren't hungry.

The first person has only one contraction, I'm not. There is no amn't.

Questions: swap the first two words

To ask a question, put the verb before the subject:

Statement	Question
You are a student.	Are you a student?
She is here.	Is she here?
I am late.	Am I late?

With what, where, who, how, the question word goes first: Where are you from? How old is your brother?

Short answers

English does not answer these with a bare yes. The verb comes back:

• Are you tired? — Yes, I am. / No, I'm not.
• Is this your bag? — Yes, it is. / No, it isn't.
• Are they at home? — Yes, they are. / No, they aren't.

Positive short answers never contract: Yes, I am, not Yes, I'm.

What to be is for

Use	Example
Name	My name is Anna.
Age	I am twelve.
Job	He is a doctor.
Place	We are in the park.
Feeling	She is tired.
Description	The box is big and red.
Weather	It is cold today.

Age is worth singling out, because many languages express it as something you have. In English it is something you are: I am twelve, never I have twelve.

This is the only English verb that really conjugates. Every other present-tense verb has two forms — work and works — while to be has three, and none of them looks like the infinitive. That seems unfair until you notice the other side of it: because this is the most frequent verb in the language, the three forms get drilled in your first week of using English at all, and almost everything after it is simpler.

Test yourself

The quiz below covers choosing between am, is and are, negatives, questions and short answers.