“To be” and the Other Verbs in the Present Simple

In my teaching way, I corrected the students’ “She is like coffee” or “They aren´t watch TV every day” more than once. That’s why, I would like to dedicate my today article to the verb to be “to be” and the other verbs in Present Simple.

Let’s begin with the function of the verb “to be”. In English, there should be an object in every sentence. If it suddenly happens that there isn’t any other verb in the sentence (for example, drink, learn, live, run), we can certainly use the verb “to be”. This way, we can make the sentence: 

• We always eat eggs for breakfast. (any other verb)
• We are very happy. (the verb to be)

So, let’s remember all the forms of the verb to be and the other verb in the PRESENT SIMPLE.

OTHER VERBS IN PRESENT SIMPLE

Pay attention that the verb “to be” is completely separate, that’s why, we form the negative sentences and the questions only with the help of the insignificant changes – adding “not” in the negation, and putting “to be” in the first position in the questions. In the cases of the other verbs, the auxiliary verbs “do” / “does” already appear in the corresponding forms and positions.

Let’s look at the examples:

We see that in the question “Why am I so lazy?” we don’t have any “do” / ”does”, because the question is built with the verb “to be”. At the same time, in the negative sentence “I don´t want to go to school” the auxiliary verb “don´t” appears. Since the object in this sentence is the verb “want”, which isn’t separate, it can’t form either the negative sentences or the questions without the help of the auxiliary verb.

So, when you build the sentence in English, you should, primarily, think – would this sentence have the stative verb or any other verb as the object.

For example:

And now, I ask you to find the mistakes in the following sentences:

1. I not like winter.
2. We sad, because it Monday today.
3. When you have birthday?
4. When your birthday?
5. She isn´t read books.

You will find more explanations and exercises to remember the material under those links:

• www.perfect-english-grammar.com/present-simple.html
• www.perfect-english-grammar.com/support-files/present_simple_mixed_exercise_1_be_and_other_verbs.pdf