Using the Verb Be 5 Levels of English Grammar
Hi, I’m Oli.
Welcome to Oxford Online English!
In this lesson, you can learn about using
the verb ‘be’, and test your English grammar
skills!
Are you a beginner?
Or, are you a high-level English learner who’s
been studying for years?
This lesson will have something for you whatever
your English level is.
You’ll see many ways to use the verb ‘be’,
from the most basic uses to complex structures.
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Here’s how this lesson works.
There are five levels.
Each level is more difficult than the previous
one.
Level one is beginner.
Levels two to four are intermediate.
Level five is high intermediate to advanced.
If you’re not a beginner, start at level
two!
At each level, you can see what you need to
focus on if you have difficulties.
Ready?
Let’s start!
Here are five sentences.
Complete the sentences with one word.
Pause the video and think about your answers.
If you want extra practice, say your answers
aloud!
Ready?
Here are the answers.
Did you get all five right?
You should probably fast forward to level
2!
Did you make a mistake?
Here’s what you need.
One: you need to know the positive forms of
‘be’, including the past forms: ‘was’
and ‘were’.
Here they are.
Pause the video to look if you need more time.
You also need to know the negative forms of
‘be’.
Here they are.
Again, pause if you need time to look.
You can see that most negatives have a contraction,
or sometimes two.
You should use the contraction most of the
time when you’re speaking.
It doesn’t matter which contracted form
you use.
Ready?
Let’s go to level two!
Here are your five sentences.
Complete each sentence with one word.
Contractions – like ‘isn’t’ – count
as one word.
Again, pause the video to think about your
answers if you need time.
Ready?
Here are the answers.
What’s the point here?
You can use ‘be’ to make continuous forms.
Continuous forms have many uses; for example,
you use continuous forms to talk about something
happening at one moment in time.
For all continuous forms, you need to remember
one rule: ‘be’ plus -ing verb.
All continuous forms need both things: ‘be’
and a verb with -ing.
There are other continuous forms – you’ll
see some of them later!
Let’s see all the forms for the present
continuous, past continuous, and future continuous.
You’ll see forms with the verb ‘go’
as an example.
Each list will appear for three seconds; pause
the video if you need more time to look.
Also, don’t forget that you can see all
this information on the free lesson page on
our website.
If you’re watching on YouTube, you can find
a link in the video description.
What about sentence number five?
Did you get it right?
Do you find it strange?
You can use ‘be’ in the continuous, normally
to talk about people.
You use it when someone is behaving in a way
which isn’t normal for them.
For example, if you say ‘She’s being so
impatient at the moment’, you mean that
she’s generally a patient person, but she’s
behaving impatiently now.
Maybe she’s under a lot of stress, and it’s
having an influence on her.
When you use ‘be’ in the continuous, you
have the verb ‘be’ twice, like ‘she’s
being’.
This might look strange, but ‘be’ follows
the same rules as every other verb.
You make a continuous form by using the verb
‘be’ plus an -ing verb.
That’s the end of level two.
Remember that you can always review a section
if you need to.
Here are five more sentences.
This time, you need to complete each sentence
with two words.
One word should be a form of ‘be’.
Remember that contractions – like ‘isn’t’
– count as one word.
Ready?
Here are the answers.
So, what’s the idea here?
You can use ‘be’ in different times and
tenses, like any other verb.
‘Be’ has perfect forms, like ‘have been’,
‘has been’ and ‘had been’.
‘Be’ doesn’t behave differently to other
verbs here.
Sometimes we hear questions like “How do
you use ‘have been’ and ‘has been’?”
What’s the difference between ‘have been’
and ‘had been’?
These aren’t questions about using ‘be’.
If you’re asking these questions, you need
to learn more about perfect tenses.
‘Be’ can also be used in the future, with
verbs like ‘will’ or ‘going to’.
Like you saw in level two, you can have the
verb ‘be’ twice in one sentence if you
use a verb like ‘be going to’, which contains
‘be’.
In number three, the first ‘be’ – ‘isn’t’
– is part of the verb ‘be going to’,
which you use to talk about the future.
The second ‘be’ is the main verb.
It goes with the word ‘late’.
If you’ve got everything right so far, you
know a lot about English verb forms and how
to use ‘be’.
Ready for level four?
This time, let’s do something different.
Here are five sentences, like before.
This time, there is a mistake in each sentence.
Can you correct the mistakes?
Pause the video, and think about the corrections.
Write your answers down, if you want.
Ready?
Here are the answers.
Can you see what connects these five sentences?
They all involve the passive voice.
To make the passive voice, you need two things:
‘be’ plus a past participle.
Often, English learners make mistakes like
these.
Sometimes, they forget to use ‘be’ in
a passive sentence, like in sentence number
one.
Sometimes, they add ‘be’ where it isn’t
needed, like in sentences two and five.
Be careful, because remember that ‘be’
is also used to make continuous forms.
And, there are passive continuous forms.
Do you mix these up?
It’s not always easy, but there are simple
rules which work.
Continuous forms use ‘be’ plus an -ing
verb.
This rule has no exceptions.
Passive forms use ‘be’ plus a past participle.
This rule also has no exceptions!
So, in sentence four, you have a continuous
form: ‘was being’, and a passive form:
‘being cleaned’.
They overlap,
but they follow the rules.
‘Be’ plus -ing verb, and then ‘be’
plus past participle.
If you have difficulties here, then study
continuous forms and the passive voice.
Pay attention to passive continuous forms,
so that you can avoid mistakes with ‘be’
like you saw in our examples.
OK, let’s move on to our last level!
Here are your sentences.
You need to complete the missing words.
This time, you can use one or two words.
At least one word in each gap must be a form
of ‘be’.
How did you do?
Here are the full sentences.
So, what’s this about?
Like every verb, ‘be’ has infinitive and
gerund forms.
You can see this in sentence number one.
The sentence is passive, so you need – remember?
– ‘be’ plus a past participle.
But, you’re using the verb ‘like’, which
needs a gerund.
So, ‘talk’ is passive, but also a gerund:
‘being talked’.
Usually, we talk about infinitives and gerunds
like they’re single things.
But, there are different infinitives.
There’s an infinitive with ‘to’, and
an infinitive without ‘to’.
There are also continuous infinitives – ‘be
being’ – and perfect infinitives – ‘have
been’.
The gerund – being – also has a perfect
form – having been.
You often need the different infinitives with
modal verbs.
Modal verbs don’t have past forms, so if
you want to express a past meaning, you need
to use a perfect infinitive after the verb.
For example, look at sentence number two.
Think about the difference between these two
sentences.
‘Would’ is a modal verb, so it doesn’t
have a past form.
‘I would like to be there’ could mean
now, or in the future.
To talk about the past, you need a perfect
infinitive: ‘I would like to have been there.’
You can see a continuous infinitive in sentence
three.
The room is in the process of being redecorated
now, so you use a continuous form.
It’s also passive, so you need the verb
‘be’ twice – once for the continuous
form, and once for the passive form.
Sentence four uses a perfect gerund, and is
also passive.
Perfect forms need a past participle, and
passive forms also need a past participle.
This means you have two past participles in
a row: ‘been involved’.
Confused?
It might take time to get comfortable with.
However, if you could understand the previous
parts of this lesson, then you have the tools
you need to understand and form sentences
like this.
These sentences don’t require new rules
or ideas; they require you to combine rules,
because they combine multiple verbs.
However, each step follows a simple, predictable
rule.
What about sentence five?
This looks like a gerund, although technically
it’s a participle.
Participle clauses like this are a way to
add extra information to a noun.
In this case, the subject of the sentence
is ‘he’, and the participle clause gives
us extra information about him.
You use a perfect participle because you’re
talking about the past as well as the present.
If you want more practice on this topic, check
out the full version of this lesson on our
website: Oxford Online English dot com.
If you’re watching on YouTube, there’s
a link in the video description.
You’ll find a quiz to help you practise
the use of ‘be’, including basic and more
advanced uses!
Thanks for watching!
See you next time!