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're not O You aren't

Australian. R Australian.
I am I'm I'm from New Zealand.
He's not thirty years O He isn't thirty years
You are You're You're Chilean.
old. R old.
He is He's He's twenty years old.
She's not a O She isn't a
She is She's She's a nurse.
secretary. R secretary.
It is It's It's a big dog.
O
It's not a small cat. It isn't a small cat.
We are We're We're intelligent. R

You are You're You're students. O

We're not stupid. We aren't stupid.
They are They're They're married. R

O
You're not teachers. You aren't teachers.
To Be - Negative Sentences R

The negative of To Be can be made by adding not O

They're not single. They aren't single.
after the verb. R
* Notice that the only possible contraction for I am In spoken English, we usually give short answers in

not is I'm not. response to questions.

Are you a student? - Yes, I am (a student). The last

To Be - Questions part (a student) is not necessary. We use shorts

answers to avoid repetition, when the meaning is

To create questions with To Be, you put the Verb
clear.
before the Subject.

Short Short
Affirmative You are happy. Question
Answers** Answers

Subject Verb
Am I No, you
Yes, you are.
intelligent? aren't.
Question Are you happy?
Are you a
Yes, I am. No, I am not.
Verb Subject student?

Is he a pilot? Yes, he is. No, he isn't.

Is she from
Affirmative Question Yes, she is. No, she isn't.
Spain?

I am intelligent. Am I intelligent? Is it a big

Yes, it is. No, it isn't.
house?
You are a student. Are you a student?
Are we ready? Yes, we are. No, we aren't.
He is a pilot. Is he a pilot?
Are you
She is from Spain. Is she from Spain? Yes, we are. No, we aren't.
doctors?
It is a big house. Is it a big house?
No, they
We are ready. Are we ready? Are they rich? Yes, they are.
aren't.
You are doctors. Are you doctors? ** With To Be, We don't use contractions in

They are rich. Are they rich? affirmative short answers unless there is additional

information after it (in which case they are no longer

To Be - Short Answers considered short answers).