THE VERB “TO BE” To Be Contraction Examples

We are not We are not stupid.

You are not You are not teachers.

To Be - Present Tense I'm from New
I am I'm They are not They are not single.
English Grammar Rules Zealand.

You are You're You're Chilean.

1-To Be - Affirmative To Be - Negative
He is He's He's twenty years old.
Contractions
Subject To Be Examples She is She's She's a nurse.
There are two ways of forming contractions of To
It is It's It's a big dog. Be in negative sentences. One is with a
I am I am from New Zealand. contraction of the subject and the verb (e.g. I am
We are We're We're intelligent. = I'm) OR a contraction of the verb and not (e.g.
You are You are Chilean. are not = aren't)
You are You're You're students.
He is He is twenty years old. I'm not from Spain. --- --------------*
They
She is She is a nurse. They're They're married. You're You
are OR
not Australian. aren't Australian.
It is It is a big dog.
He's not thirty He isn't thirty years
2-To Be - Negative Sentences OR
We are We are intelligent. years old. old.

You are You are students. The negative of To Be can be made by She's not a She isn't a
adding not after the verb. OR
secretary. secretary.
They are They are married.
Subject To Be Examples It's not a small cat. OR It isn't a small cat.

We're not stupid. OR We aren't stupid.

I am not I am not from Spain.
You're
To Be - Contractions You are not You are not Australian. not teachers.
OR You aren't teachers.
Contractions of To Be are very frequent when we
are speaking. He is not He is not thirty years old. They're not single. OR They aren't single.

She is not She is not a secretary. * Notice that the only possible contraction for I am
not is I'm not.
It is not It is not a small cat.
3-To Be - Questions To Be - Short Answers Summary Chart
To create questions with To Be, you put In spoken English, we usually give short answers
the Verb before the Subject. in response to questions.
Are you a student? - Yes, I am (a student). The
Affirmative You are happy. last part (a student) is not necessary. We use
shorts answers to avoid repetition, when the
meaning is clear.
Subject Verb

Short Short
Question
Answers** Answers
Question Are you happy?

Am I No, you
Verb Subject Yes, you are.
intelligent? aren't.

Are you a
Yes, I am. No, I am not.
student?
Affirmative Question
Is he a pilot? Yes, he is. No, he isn't.

I am intelligent. Am I intelligent? Is she from

Yes, she is. No, she isn't.
Spain?
You are a student. Are you a student?
Is it a big
He is a pilot. Is he a pilot? Yes, it is. No, it isn't.
house?

She is from Spain. Is she from Spain? No, we

Are we ready? Yes, we are.
aren't.
It is a big house. Is it a big house?
Are you No, we
We are ready. Are we ready? Yes, we are.
doctors? aren't.

You are doctors. Are you doctors? No, they

Are they rich? Yes, they are.
aren't.
They are rich. Are they rich?
** With To Be, We don't use contractions
in affirmative short answers unless there is
additional information after it (in which case they
are no longer considered short answers).
Noun + To Be + Noun AN is used before a word that begins with
a vowel.
English Grammar Rules
Nouns are words that name things. Some Vowels: A, E, I, O, U.
Consonants: B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P,
common nouns include those used for animals,
Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z.
countries, food, languages, cities and countries.
For example:
When we are explaining things, we use Noun +
To Be + Noun:
 Chile is a country. (A before consonant)
 Santiago is a city. (A before consonant)
 English is a language. (Noun + To Be +
 An apple is a fruit (A before consonant)
Noun)
 A dog is an animal. (AN before vowel)
 A chicken is a bird. (Noun + To Be +
 A mosquito is an insect. (AN before
Noun)
vowel)
 Qantas is an airline. (AN before vowel)

Singular Noun + IS + Plural Noun + Are + Plural

Singular Noun Noun
We use IS between the two singular nouns. Singular Noun + IS + Singular Noun
Plural Noun + ARE + Plural Noun
 Champagne is a drink.
 Paris is a city. Note that we do not use an article (A / AN) with a
 France is a country. plural noun.
 French is a language.
 Europe is a continent. For example:

Note that we normally use an article (A / AN)  A dog is an animal. (singular)

before a singular noun.
Articles + Nouns
'A' or 'AN' are articles. In English we normally
use articles before singular nouns.
A is used before a word that begins with
a consonant.
 Dogs are animals. (plural)
 Spanish is a language. (singular)
 Spanish and Italian are languages.
(plural)
 Cities are places. (plural)
 Countries are states. (plural)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p-_NhWuuZQ
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFJvNYdKGrA&t=2s
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BbUfWQiSO0