To Be - Present Tense
Subject To Be Examples
English Grammar Rules
To Be - Affirmative I am not I am not from Spain.
You are not You are not Australian.
Subject To Be Examples
He is not He is not thirty years old.
She is not She is not a secretary.
I am I am from New Zealand.
It is not It is not a small cat.
You are You are Chilean.
We are not We are not stupid.
He is He is twenty years old.
You are not You are not teachers.
She is She is a nurse.
They are not They are not single.
It is It is a big dog.
We are We are intelligent.
To Be - Negative Contractions
You are You are students.
There are two ways of forming contractions of To
They are They are married.
Be in negative sentences. One is with a contraction
To Be - Contractions of the subject and the verb (e.g. I am = I'm) OR a
Contractions of To Be are very frequent when we contraction of the verb and not (e.g. are not =
are speaking. aren't)
I'm not from Spain. --- --------------*
To Be Contraction Examples
You aren't
You're not Australian. OR
Australian.
I am I'm I'm from New Zealand.
He's not thirty years He isn't thirty years
You are You're You're Chilean. OR
old. old.
He is He's He's twenty years old.
She's not a secretary. OR She isn't a secretary.
She is She's She's a nurse.
It's not a small cat. OR It isn't a small cat.
It is It's It's a big dog.
We're not stupid. OR We aren't stupid.
We are We're We're intelligent.
You're not teachers. OR You aren't teachers.
You are You're You're students.
They're not single. OR They aren't single.
They are They're They're married.
* Notice that the only possible contraction for I am
not is I'm not.
To Be - Negative Sentences
The negative of To Be can be made by adding not
To Be - Questions
after the verb.
To create questions with To Be, you put the Verb Are you a
Yes, I am. No, I am not.
before the Subject. student?
Is he a pilot? Yes, he is. No, he isn't.
Affirmative You are happy.
Is she from
Yes, she is. No, she isn't.
Spain?
Subject Verb
Is it a big
Yes, it is. No, it isn't.
house?
Question Are you happy?
Are we ready? Yes, we are. No, we aren't.
Verb Subject
Are you
Yes, we are. No, we aren't.
doctors?
Are they rich? Yes, they are. No, they aren't.
Affirmative Question
** With To Be, We don't use contractions in
affirmative short answers unless there is additional
I am intelligent. Am I intelligent?
information after it (in which case they are no longer
You are a student. Are you a student?
considered short answers).
He is a pilot. Is he a pilot?
She is from Spain. Is she from Spain?
It is a big house. Is it a big house?
We are ready. Are we ready?
You are doctors. Are you doctors?
They are rich. Are they rich?
To Be - Short Answers
In spoken English, we usually give short answers in
response to questions.
Are you a student? - Yes, I am (a student). The last
part (a student) is not necessary. We use shorts
answers to avoid repetition, when the meaning is
clear.
Short Short
Question
Answers** Answers
Am I intelligent? Yes, you are. No, you aren't.
