Being verbs for kids

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Verb "to be"

How to use the “to be” verb

Forms of “to be”

Base form: Be

Present

➕ Affirmative:

➖ Negative:

Past: Was / Were

Past Participle: been

Continuous: being

Passive form

Questions in English with the “to be” verb

Examples of the “to be” verb:

Printable Worksheets about the Verb “To Be” in English ️

Playlearn with Lingokids!

In English, verbs have a very important place in communication, they are the ones responsible for expressing actions. Words like jump, run, speak… all are common and clear examples of verbs that describe an action that a subject does. However, there is one verb that’s the most used in the English language: the verb to be.

For children, learning the verbs -and especially this one- might be a difficult task. Verbs are concepts that some kids might find hard to grasp, but through constant repetition using different activities and exercises, learning about it can be easy, and even fun!

It’s essential for the little ones to learn the uses of the “to be” verb, after all, it’s used frequently and for a lot of different purposes.

How to use the “to be” verb

The “to be” is a verb used to describe something or someone.

In English, it can be used to say different things according to the context. However, the most common use of the to be verb is to talk about names, ages, feeling, nationalities, and professions, especially when talking in the present tense.

The most tricky thing about this verb, however, is that It’s also one of the most irregular verbs in the English language. This means, that unlike regular verbs, which barely change when used when different subjects -or even in different tenses-, and when they do, they follow a pattern, the “to be” verb changes almost completely in most of its forms.

Forms of “to be”

Since the to be verb is highly irregular, it’s written in different ways according to the tense of the verb (whether if it’s present, past, future, or even in mixed tenses), and it also varies according to the subject. Let’s see the forms this verb can take when used next to the subjects.

Base form: Be

This is the most basic form of the verb, and it’s how we can find it in the dictionary. It’s mostly used when using imperatives, and also as the infinitive. Some examples are:

Be nice to your sister! (imperative)
I like to be at my house. (infinitive)

Present

This form of the verb is mainly used in the simple present, and its meaning can change depending on the use in the context. Also, when writing, the present form of the to be verb can be shortened.

Here is the to be for all the subjects in both long and short forms for affirmative sentences, and also for negative sentences with to be.

➕ Affirmative:

I am – I’m

you are – you’re

he/she/it is – he’s/she’s/it’s

we/you/they are – we’re/you’re/they’re

➖ Negative:

I am not – I’m not

you are not – You aren’t

he/she/it isn’t

we/you/they aren’t

Let’s see some examples of this for sentences with the “to be” verb.

For names:
She is Sheila

For ages:
He is 6 years old.

For feelings:
Lauren and Sandra are happy.

For nationalities:
We are from Thailand.

For professions:
You aren’t a painter, you are a singer.

Past: Was / Were

When talking about the past, the to be verb changes its form again. This is how it looks with the different subject pronouns.

I was – I wasn’t

you were – You weren’t

he/she/it was – he wasn’t/she wasn’t/it wasn’t

we/they/you were – we weren’t/they weren’t/you weren’t

Some examples of the past form of the to be are:

I was at the school yesterday

You were 10 years old last year.

Billy and Elliot were students, now they are doctors.

It was raining a while ago.

Past Participle: been

This is the form of the “to be” verb used with the perfect and passive tenses, and it is the same for all the subjects.

It’s also used as an adjective in English sometimes.

She has been busy all day.
Lisa and Billy have been running for an hour.
He has been a teacher for a year now.

Continuous: being

The continuous form of the to be verb is used to make up the continuous tenses. Just as the past participle, it’s the same for all the subjects.

Elliot is being helpful.

Passive form

The “to be” verb, both in its present and past forms, can be used to make passive sentences.

The house was built in the mountains.
The program is being recorded right now.

Questions in English with the “to be” verb

“To be” verb can be used to make questions in English in two different ways. The first one is to use it normally with Wh- questions, like in the following sentences:

What‘s her name?
How old is Baby Bot?
How are they feeling?
Where are you from?
Do you know what my profession is?
What are you doing?

The second option, and also the most important, is to use the “to be” verb to make “yes” or “no” questions in English. This type of questions are very simple, and they can be answered with a yes or no.

Are you reading?
Yes, I am.

Is Lisa ready for bed?
No, she isn’t.

Examples of the “to be” verb:

I am Cowy, and I‘m from Ireland.

Elliot and Cowy are best friends.

Where are Billy and Elliot?
They are at the theater.

Bobby is helping Lisa with his homework.

The river is very pretty.

The flowers aren’t red, they are orange.

Are the dogs running in the field?
Yes, they are.

Printable Worksheets about the Verb “To Be” in English ️

Playlearn with Lingokids!

Want to try learning all of this grammar through games, songs, and interactive activities? Download the Lingokids app and discover the world of playlearning™ – a safe, game-based learning experience that takes kids beyond the classroom.

How to learn the verb to be for children of any age

If you have a child, start learning English with him now, childhood is a golden time for intuitive language acquisition! Where to begin? Of course, from the verb to be .

Children under the age of eight can easily learn a native language and speak without an accent. Later it is also possible, but with much more effort. You will have to delve into grammar, do exercises and master an unusual way to pronounce sounds. Today we will talk about how to learn English at different ages - starting with the smallest.

We will look at different teaching techniques for toddlers and exercises with the verb to be that you can do with mom or dad.

Someone will say: what exercises can be on to be if the child is five years old?

It is not necessary to tell your child that he conjugates the verb to be in Present Simple, exercises are not only what they write in a notebook, sitting without moving. In childhood, especially preschool, it is primarily a game. Children learn about the world through play. So let this world, as if by chance, include the English language!

But first of all, we ourselves need to remember what we want to teach in one way or another.

The verb to be is the word "to be". The difficulty is that in English it is inserted wherever possible, but in Russian it has long been forgotten about since the fifteenth century. Remember when in the film "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession", the tsar says:

Az I am king!

This is I am and there is our native verb to be . Now instead of kings there are presidents, and instead of there are - at best, a dash:

I am - President!

Let's move on to English. There, for the queen, and for ordinary people, and in general, for each person there is a form of the verb to be , and it SHOULD NOT be skipped.

Suppose you have to say the following phrase:

My dad - is the best.

One cannot take the obvious path and say:

My father - the best.

Something is missing, and it's a verb to be !

My father is the best.

The problem is that if you don't know in advance, you will never understand that is Words are outwardly dissimilar. This is how the verb to be looks like in different faces:

Short words I, you, she, it and so on are pronouns . They are called so because they occupy the place of nouns. That is, in order not to name a noun that is already known each time, you can put a pronoun in its place.

• Words denoting objects in the singular, such as: table, apple, house, computer, can be replaced by it .

If there is more than one item or person, replace them with they :

3 apples, 10 houses, a sister and a brother = they

Animals: beloved pet and almost family member, we call he or she .

If the animal is not domestic or its gender is unknown, we use the neuter pronoun - it .

All this information is needed in order to correctly combine pronouns and to be , according to gender and number.

For example, you want to say "the book is boring."

the book - the book

Boring - boring

Just say :

The book boring

- will not work.

We need to ask ourselves a couple of questions. 1) Is the book in the singular? Yes, we are talking about the same book. 2) Is the book an object? - Yes.

In this case, instead of the word book , we substitute it - a pronoun for inanimate objects in the singular. And with the pronoun it is is .

It is interesting

The book is interesting

Or, say, a sentence in Russian sounds like

"Mom and dad are happy."

Mom and dad are two people, so the third person pronoun is needed in the plural - they . We look at the table: this pronoun corresponds to are .

They are happy.

Mother and father

Now that you are confident in your theoretical base (the tablet can be printed or rewritten to refer to it in case of uncertainty), you can start educating your children.

If adults can already gather themselves together and memorize the table when life forces, then children are completely useless.

Of course, you need to create strong associations in order to understand that am, are, is refer to one word - be , that they are all in the same bundle.

But in no case should a child be forced to sit and mumble the forms of the verb, while expecting them to be remembered. Dull repetition, even for adults, does not help much.

Need to link information to something beautiful, fun, exciting. What does your child like to do the most? Does he like to run, jump, or can he not be torn away from paints and pencils? Is he humming tunes he's heard recently? Depending on his preferences, we will choose the most suitable way for him to perceive information, activate the type of memory that works great from nature.

Linking speech and movement, we activate motor memory. If you sit passively at the table, only the desire to sleep is activated, isn't it?

So, here are the first fun exercises on to be for preschool and primary school children:

1. Steps

Find any safe ladder. Write on the steps with chalk forms of the verb to be .

Jump from one step to another, shouting loudly:

I am!
You are!
He is!
She is!
It is!
We are!
They are!

2. Rope

Jump rope, on each jump do the same as in the previous exercise.

3. Ball

The parent or someone else throws the ball while saying the pronoun, the child catches and says the appropriate form to be .

In principle, the movement can be anything - you can clap your hands, squat, lightly jump up and stomp your feet. There is only one condition here - the action must be repetitive (otherwise it will be too difficult to coordinate movements and speech), not be too complicated and energy-consuming.

If a child likes to draw...

• Draw everything that lies badly with verbs to be for different persons. Gouache, ink, felt-tip pens, crayons, pencils, and fingers dipped in paint.
• Sculpt small (or even large) is, are, am from plasticine and clay, bake pancakes in the form of these words.

Why do this? So the child creates visual images of letters and words. If he is a visual, this will later help in memorizing new vocabulary, and generally improve memory.

If the letters are crooked, incomprehensible and "wrong" in any sense of the word... Rejoice! There is a process of knowledge. There is no need to evaluate the result and adjust the classes to some standards. The main condition is that they should bring joy.

• If a child likes to sing, you can come up with a simple melody, or use an existing one, and sing all forms of the verb in a row. Any melody will do - if the child is musical, “There was a birch in the field” and “The little Christmas tree is cold in winter” will do.
• If you don’t feel like inventing it yourself, you can always turn on Youtube and find there specially invented songs for such purposes on the request “verb to be for kids songs” or “verb to be for children”.

You can play this game from time to time: point to different objects and people and name the pronoun ( he, she, they , etc.) and the verb to be for this pronoun.

For example, if you see computer , you need to say: It is;

A man and a woman are walking down the street - They are;

Rain outside the window — It is;

Dad on the sofa - He is;

Mom and I in the window reflection — We are;

My reflection — I am.

Sometimes parents sound the alarm: it seems that they studied English from early childhood, but went to school and forgot everything. In fact, the knowledge remains, but the skill of transferring knowledge to another context is not yet available. And the form of classes is now completely different - you need to sit for a long time, write something down, listen to something incomprehensible ...

The priority of play activity gradually disappears with age, but this does not mean that classes should become dry and purely theoretical. It is still useful to include tactile sensations, to paint everything in different colors. Singing sounds in a certain rhythm also helps a lot. These ways of tapping into your inner resources will work well all your life.

Cutting out cards with words is quite an exciting activity, it perfectly trains memory and develops logical thinking.

• We make beautiful cards. We write verbs on three of them:

am
are
is

On the rest - pronouns:

she
he
it
I
we
they
you

Now you need to arrange them so that

I matched am ,

you, they, we matched are,

he, she, it were opposite is.

Then we choose the colors, and paint each pair in its own color. For example, cards I and am green, you and are red and so on. Subsequently, these colors will help to quickly distribute the verbs into pronouns, this will consolidate the newly formed neural connections.

After a while, you can add nouns instead of pronouns, and you will already have other pairs:

Mother is (mother is)
Masha is (Masha is)
Brother and sister are (brother and sister are)

And the third step is adding cards with adjectives: happy, beautiful, funny, lucky, tired , cool and so on.

You will get full-fledged offers:

Mother is happy
Masha is beautiful
Brother and sister are tired

In most cases, it is not the full form “pronoun + verb to be” that is written and spoken, but an abbreviated one. You need to shorten the verb. The first letter "bites off" from it:

I am

you are (remove a from are ) = you're, and so on:

She is = she’s
He is = he’s
It is = it’s
We are = we’re
They are = they’re

Rewrite the following phrases so that they are shortened:

• We are little girls

• It is a computer (This is - computer)

• You are beautiful

• I am so happy

The book is not boring
The book is not boring

I am not happy

1. You are a student — You aren’t a student 9
3. He is my father
4. She is happy
5. I am tired