Sambhram instituti

Forms of to be verbs

Simple present and past tenses

The verb to be is most commonly used in the simple present and simple past tenses. These tenses each use their own special words for to be, depending on the person and number of the subject. 


S imple present tense

Simple past tense

The simple present and simple past tenses of to be are also used as auxiliary verbs to create the present continuous and past continuous tenses, which show an ongoing or continuous action. 

As with other tenses, in the continuous tenses, to be verbs are still conjugated to match the subject. The main verb of the sentence comes after to be and is always in its present participle form (the –ing form), regardless of the subject. 
[conjugated to be] + [present participle]
The present continuous uses the simple present tense of to be verbs (am, are, and is):
We are driving home right now. 
The past continuous uses the simple past (was and were): 
We were driving for hours yesterday. 

Simple future and modal forms

The future tenses do not conjugate to be like the past and present do. The simple future tense uses the modal verb will, and all modal verbs use the bare infinitive form of the main verb, regardless of the subject. The bare infinitive of to be is just be, without to. The simple future tense of to be looks like this:
I will be in Medellin tomorrow. 
The future continuous tense includes a main verb that comes after will be. 
I will be flying to Medellin tomorrow. 
We use the bare infinitive be with all modal verbs, such as can, should, might, or must. Simply add be after the modal verb or after the negative word if the sentence is negative.
You can be anything if you try. 
He must be exhausted after that. 
They should not be here.