be – English verb conjugation

Nominal Forms

Infinitive: to be worthy of
Participle: been worthy of
Gerund: being worthy of

Cognates

See the 5 cognates of be

Indicative

Present

I	am worthy of
you	are worthy of
he;she;it	is worthy of
we	are worthy of
you	are worthy of
they	are worthy of

Perfect

I	have been worthy of
you	have been worthy of
he;she;it	has been worthy of
we	have been worthy of
you	have been worthy of
they	have been worthy of

Past

I	was worthy of
you	were worthy of
he;she;it	was worthy of
we	were worthy of
you	were worthy of
they	were worthy of

Pluperfect

I	had been worthy of
you	had been worthy of
he;she;it	had been worthy of
we	had been worthy of
you	had been worthy of
they	had been worthy of

Future

I	will be worthy of
you	will be worthy of
he;she;it	will be worthy of
we	will be worthy of
you	will be worthy of
they	will be worthy of

Future Perfect

I	will have been worthy of
you	will have been worthy of
he;she;it	will have been worthy of
we	will have been worthy of
you	will have been worthy of
they	will have been worthy of

Subjunctive

Present

I	be worthy of
you	be worthy of
he;she;it	be worthy of
we	be worthy of
you	be worthy of
they	be worthy of

Perfect

I	have been worthy of
you	have been worthy of
he;she;it	have been worthy of
we	have been worthy of
you	have been worthy of
they	have been worthy of

Imperfect

I	were worthy of
you	were worthy of
he;she;it	were worthy of
we	were worthy of
you	were worthy of
they	were worthy of

Pluperfect

I	had been worthy of
you	had been worthy of
he;she;it	had been worthy of
we	had been worthy of
you	had been worthy of
they	had been worthy of

Conditional

Present

I	would be worthy of
you	would be worthy of
he;she;it	would be worthy of
we	would be worthy of
you	would be worthy of
they	would be worthy of

Perfect

I	would have been worthy of
you	would have been worthy of
he;she;it	would have been worthy of
we	would have been worthy of
you	would have been worthy of
they	would have been worthy of

Imperative

you	be worthy of
we	Let's be worthy of
you	be worthy of

Indicative

Present

I	am being worthy of
you	are being worthy of
he;she;it	is being worthy of
we	are being worthy of
you	are being worthy of
they	are being worthy of

Perfect

I	have been being worthy of
you	have been being worthy of
he;she;it	has been being worthy of
we	have been being worthy of
you	have been being worthy of
they	have been being worthy of

Past

I	was being worthy of
you	were being worthy of
he;she;it	was being worthy of
we	were being worthy of
you	were being worthy of
they	were being worthy of

Pluperfect

I	had been being worthy of
you	had been being worthy of
he;she;it	had been being worthy of
we	had been being worthy of
you	had been being worthy of
they	had been being worthy of

Future

I	will be being worthy of
you	will be being worthy of
he;she;it	will be being worthy of
we	will be being worthy of
you	will be being worthy of
they	will be being worthy of

Future Perfect

I	will have been being worthy of
you	will have been being worthy of
he;she;it	will have been being worthy of
we	will have been being worthy of
you	will have been being worthy of
they	will have been being worthy of

Conditional

Present

I	would be being worthy of
you	would be being worthy of
he;she;it	would be being worthy of
we	would be being worthy of
you	would be being worthy of
they	would be being worthy of

Perfect

I	would have been being worthy of
you	would have been being worthy of
he;she;it	would have been being worthy of
we	would have been being worthy of
you	would have been being worthy of
they	would have been being worthy of

Verbs conjugated like 'be'

be,

Verbs similar to 'be'

bed, beg, bet, 69, 86, ab, abet, able, ace, age,

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms

to have being or reality: be a thing, consist, exist
exist: breathe, live, dwell, inhere, subsist, endure

Additional Information

Phrasal Verbs

Etymology

1. O.E. beon, beom, bion "be, exist, come to be, become," from P.Gmc. *beo-, *beu-. Roger Lass ("Old English") describes the verb as "a collection of semantically related paradigm fragments," while Weekley calls it "an accidental conglomeration from the different Old English dial[ect]s." It is the most irregular verb in Mod.E. and the most common. Collective in all Gmc. languages, it has eight different forms in Mod.E.: BE (infinitive, subjunctive, imperative), AM (present 1st person singular), ARE (present 2nd person singular and all plural), IS (present 3rd person singular), WAS (past 1st and 3rd persons singular), WERE (past 2nd person singular, all plural; subjunctive), BEING (progressive & present participle; gerund), BEEN (perfect participle). The modern verb represents the merger of two once-distinct verbs, the "b-root" represented by be and the am/was verb, which was itself a conglomerate. The "b-root" is from PIE base *bheu-, *bhu- "grow, come into being, become," and in addition to Eng. it yielded Ger. present first and second person sing. (bin, bist, from O.H.G. bim "I am," bist "thou art"), L. perf. tenses of esse (fui "I was," etc.), O.C.S. byti "be," Gk. phu- "become," O.Ir. bi'u "I am," Lith. bu'ti "to be," Rus. byt' "to be," etc. It is also behind Skt. bhavah "becoming," bhavati "becomes, happens," bhumih "earth, world." The paradigm in O.E. was:

	SING.	PL.
1st pres.	ic eom ic beo	we sind(on) we beoð
2nd pres.	þu eart þu bist	ge sind(on) ge beoð
3rd pres.	he is he bið	hie sind(on) hie beoð
1st pret.	ic wæs	we wæron
2nd pret.	þu wære	ge waeron
3rd pret.	heo wæs	hie wæron
1st pret. subj.	ic wære	we wæren
2nd pret. subj.	þu wære	ge wæren
3rd pret. subj.	Egcferð wære	hie wæren

The "b-root" had no past tense in O.E., but often served as future tense of am/was. In 13c. it took the place of the infinitive, participle and imperative forms of am/was. Later its plural forms (we beth, ye ben, they be) became standard in M.E. and it made inroads into the singular (I be, thou beest, he beth), but forms of are claimed this turf in the 1500s and replaced be in the plural. For the origin and evolution of the am/was branches of this tangle, see am and was. The phrase be-all and end all is from Shakespeare ("Macbeth" I.vii.5).
2. From Middle English been (“to be”). See below for more.
3. Further etymology of be and its conjugated forms
4. The various forms have three separate origins, which were mixed together at various times in the history of English.
5. * The forms beginning with b- come from Old English bēon (“to be, become”), from Proto-Germanic *beuną (“to be, exist, come to be, become”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH-yé-ti (“to grow, become, come into being, appear”), from the root *bʰuH-. In particular:
6. ** Now-dialectal use of been as an infinitive of be is either from Middle English been (“to be”) or an extension of the past participle.
7. ** Now-obsolete use of been as a plural present tense (meaning "are") is from Middle English been, be (present plural of been (“to be”), with the -n leveled in from the past and subjunctive; compare competing forms aren/are).
8. ** Use of been as a past participle is from Middle English been, ybeen, from Old English ġebēon.
9. * The forms beginning with w- come from the aforementioned Old English bēon, which shared its past tense with the verb wesan, from Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- (“to reside”).
10. * The remaining forms (am, are, is) are also from Old English wesan (“to be”), Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, the present tense of which comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₁és-ti, from the root *h₁es-. See: Middle English 'been', Proto-Germanic '*beuną', Proto-Indo-European '*bʰuHyéti', Middle English 'been', Middle English 'been', Middle English 'been', Proto-Germanic '*wesaną', Old English 'wesan', Proto-Germanic '*wesaną', Proto-Indo-European '*h₁ésti'.

Verbs referencing "be"

Scots be, Russian быть, Old Church Slavonic бꙑти, Lithuanian būti, Sanskrit भवति, Greek, Ancient φύω, Plautdietsch sennen.

Sample Sentences

For convenience sake, we have said, hitherto, two _gentlemen_. One of the parties, however, when critically examined, did not seem, strictly speaking, to come under the species. He was a short, thick-set man, with coarse, commonplace features, and that swaggering air of pretension which marks a low man who is trying to elbow his way upward in the world. He was much [...] (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
[...] did not seem, strictly speaking, to come under the species. He was a short, thick-set man, with coarse, commonplace features, and that swaggering air of pretension which marks a low man who is trying to elbow his way upward in the world. He was much over-dressed, in a gaudy vest of many colors, a blue neckerchief, bedropped gayly with yellow spots, and arranged with a flaunting [...] (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
[...] He was a short, thick-set man, with coarse, commonplace features, and that swaggering air of pretension which marks a low man who is trying to elbow his way upward in the world. He was much over-dressed, in a gaudy vest of many colors, a blue neckerchief, bedropped gayly with yellow spots, and arranged with a flaunting tie, quite in keeping with the general air of the man. His [...] (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
[...] a gaudy vest of many colors, a blue neckerchief, bedropped gayly with yellow spots, and arranged with a flaunting tie, quite in keeping with the general air of the man. His hands, large and coarse, were plentifully bedecked with rings; and he wore a heavy gold watch-chain, with a bundle of seals of portentous size, and a great variety of colors, attached to it,—which, in the ardor of conversation, [...] (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
[...] bedecked with rings; and he wore a heavy gold watch-chain, with a bundle of seals of portentous size, and a great variety of colors, attached to it,—which, in the ardor of conversation, he was in the habit of flourishing and jingling with evident satisfaction. His conversation was in free and easy defiance of Murray's Grammar,[1 ] and was garnished at convenient intervals [...] (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
[...] size, and a great variety of colors, attached to it,—which, in the ardor of conversation, he was in the habit of flourishing and jingling with evident satisfaction. His conversation was in free and easy defiance of Murray's Grammar,[1 ] and was garnished at convenient intervals with various profane expressions, which not even the desire to be graphic in our account [...] (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
[...] in the ardor of conversation, he was in the habit of flourishing and jingling with evident satisfaction. His conversation was in free and easy defiance of Murray's Grammar,[1 ] and was garnished at convenient intervals with various profane expressions, which not even the desire to be graphic in our account shall induce us to transcribe. (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
[...] His conversation was in free and easy defiance of Murray's Grammar,[1 ] and was garnished at convenient intervals with various profane expressions, which not even the desire to be graphic in our account shall induce us to transcribe. (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
That this state-room had been specially engaged for ‘Charles Dickens, Esquire, and Lady, ’ was rendered sufficiently clear even to my scared intellect by a very small manuscript, announcing the fact, which was [...] (American Notes for General Circulation)
That this state-room had been specially engaged for ‘Charles Dickens, Esquire, and Lady, ’ was rendered sufficiently clear even to my scared intellect by a very small manuscript, announcing the fact, which was pinned on a very flat quilt, covering a very thin mattress, spread like a [...] (American Notes for General Circulation)
Less than a day away by Pan America. For the explosion of America's six atom bombs. Kodak Signet 40 is the smartest color slide camera you can buy. (Reverse the Curse)
AD NARRATOR 2: Kodak Signet 40 is the smartest color slide camera you can buy. (Reverse the Curse)
Anything? Not yet, Shayera. But she's here somewhere. I 'm still registering no life signs, but ours. (Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Three)
♪ Oh yeah ♪ Ooh ♪ Oh yeah ♪ Dangerous ground, dangerous ground, dangerous ground ♪ We standing on some dangerous ground (Dangerous Feelings)
♪ Man they know how I 'm rockin ' ♪ (Rule of Thirds)

be – English verb conjugation

English verb forms of be

Nominal Forms

Cognates

Indicative

Present

Perfect

Past

Pluperfect

Future

Future Perfect

Subjunctive

Present

Perfect

Imperfect

Pluperfect

Conditional

Present

Perfect

Imperative

Progressive (Continuous) Forms

Indicative

Present

Perfect

Past

Pluperfect

Future

Future Perfect

Conditional

Present

Perfect

Other

Verbs conjugated like 'be'

Verbs similar to 'be'

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms

Additional Information

Phrasal Verbs

Etymology

Verbs referencing "be"

Sample Sentences