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BE
WordNet
noun
(1) A light strong brittle grey toxic bivalent metallic element
verb
(2) Spend or use time
"I may be an hour"
(3) Work in a specific place, with a specific subject, or in a specific function
"He is a herpetologist"
"She is our resident philosopher"
(4) Have an existence, be extant
"Is there a God?"
(5) Have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)
"John is rich"
"This is not a good answer"
(6) Have life, be alive
"Our great leader is no more"
"My grandfather lived until the end of war"
(7) Be identical to; be someone or something
"The president of the company is John Smith"
"This is my house"
(8) Form or compose
"This money is my only income"
"The stone wall was the backdrop for the performance"
"These constitute my entire belonging"
"The children made up the chorus"
"This sum represents my entire income for a year"
"These few men comprise his entire army"
(9) Occupy a certain position or area; be somewhere
"Where is my umbrella?" "The toolshed is in the back"
"What is behind this behavior?"
(10) Be identical or equivalent to
"One dollar equals 1,000 rubles these days!"
(11) Represent, as of a character on stage
"Derek Jacobi was Hamlet"
(12) Be priced at
"These shoes cost $100"
(13) Happen, occur, take place
"I lost my wallet; this was during the visit to my parents' house"
"There were two hundred people at his funeral"
"There was a lot of noise in the kitchen"
WiktionaryText
be
- The ISO 3166-2 country code for Belgium.
- .
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Etymology
Originated before 900 from , from , from . Irregular forms inherited from the compound verb .
Verb
- To occupy a place.
- The cup is on the table.
- To occur, to take place.
- When will the meeting be?
- To exist.
- The meaning of life, or how we have come to be.
- elliptical form of for "be here", "go to and return from" or similar.
- The postman has been today, but my tickets have still not yet come.
- I have been to Spain many times.
- Used to indicate that the subject and object are the same.
- Ignorance is bliss.
- Used to indicate that the values on either side of an equation are the same.
- 3 times 5 is fifteen.
- Used to indicate that the subject plays the role of the predicate nominal.
- François Mitterrand was president of France from 1981 to 1995.
- Used to connect a noun to an adjective that describes it.
- The sky is blue.
- Used to indicate that the subject has the qualities described by a noun or noun phrase.
- The sky is a deep blue today.
- Used to form the passive voice.
- The dog was drowned by the boy.
- Used to form the continuous forms of various tenses.
- The woman is walking.
- I shall be writing to you soon.
- We liked to chat while we were eating.
- Used to form the perfect aspect with certain intransitive verbs. Often still used for to go
- They are not yet come back. (Macbeth by William Shakespeare) (instead of They have not yet come back.)
- 1850, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Blessed Damozel, lines 67-68
- ‘I wish that he were come to me,
- For he will come,’ she said.
- 1922, A. E. Housman, Last Poems XXV, line 13
- The King with half the East at heel is marched from lands of morning;
- He is gone.
- Used to form future tenses, especially the future subjunctive.
- I am to leave tomorrow.
- I would drive you, were I to obtain a car.
- Used to indicate age.
- This building is three hundred years old.
- He looks twelve, but is actually thirteen, and will turn fourteen next week.
- Used to indicate height.
- He was five-eight.
- Used to indicate time of day, day of the week, or date.
- It is almost eight.
- Today is the second, so I guess next Tuesday must be the tenth.
- With since, used to indicate passage of time since the occurrence of an event.
- It has been three years since my grandmother died. (similar to My grandmother died three years ago, but emphasizes the intervening period)
- It had been six days since his departure, when I received a letter from him.
- Used to indicate weather, air quality, or the like.
- It’s hot in Arizona, but it’s not usually humid.
- Why is it so dark in here?
- Used to indicate temperature.
- It’s in the eighties outside, and next week it’s expected to be in the nineties! (Fahrenheit degrees)
Inflection
Infinitive | to be |
---|---|
Imperative | be |
Present participle | being |
Past participle | been |
Present indicative | Past indicative | Present subjunctive | Past subjunctive | |
---|---|---|---|---|
First-person singular | am | was | be | were |
Second-person singular | are, art (archaic) | were, wast (archaic) | be, beest (obsolete) | were, wert (archaic) |
Third-person singular | is | was | be | were |
First-person plural | are | were | be | were |
Second-person plural | are | were | be | were |
Third-person plural | are | were | be | were |