Primary Auxiliary Verbs

BE-variants

Many do not know that ‘BE’ as primary auxiliary verb has eight grammatical variants. Let’s consider them one after another:

Am

Is

Was

Are

Were

Be

Being

Been

Can you see that? Good. Now, let’s see how they can be used, in terms of tenses, in the table below:

Present (singular)	Present (plural)	continuous	past	perfect
am/is	are/be	being	was/were	been

Let’s quickly consider a few examples of how they can respectively be used in sentences:

            I am going to the party tomorrow.

            She is coming home after her exams.

            We are not going to fail the examination of life

            I can’t be dancing without music

            Tolu was being cheated

            I was there when the party started

            It has been done

            They were defeated right from the first half of the game

Exercise

Make as many as you can sentences with the words in the table below

subjects	Be-variants	Main verbs	Objects/complements
I Samuel She They it we Joy The choir	Am Is Was Were are	Coming Working Dancing singing making	Home Late Well Silly sound melodiously

For example:

i). Joy was making silly sound.

ii). The choir are singing melodiously.