Revision as of 11:20, 23 December 2019

Avertissement: cette page est destiné à un analyse grammatical du mot "be" :P

Forms

• dictionary form (bare infinitive): be
• present tense: am (1s), is (3s), are (1p, 2s/p, 3p)
• past tense: was (1s, 3s), were (1p, 2s/p, 3p)

• present participle: being
• past participle: been

Major Uses

Most fundamentally be is a copula.

Subject is NP: She is the boss. Subject is AdjP: The cat's paws are muddy. Subject is PP: Your keys are on the table. Subject is P: The sun is up. The network is down. The story is out.

introduces partiples and participials

continuous / progressive (be + -ing)

Much has been said about this active voice tense. Present tense participles following the copula are common. The participle can be interpreted as a verb, a noun (usually called a gerund), or an adjective.

• He was writing. (V)
• This is (his) writing. (N)
• It is interesting. (Adj)

Only the first is considered verbal.

The terms "continuous" and "progressive" are both inappropriate in some ways. The use of be + ing usually implies that the speaker is putting the listener in the middle of the action "in medias res": the speaker or writer is like a filmmaker recording an action. Alternately, it can indicate a series of occurrences.

The term is however historically justified because be + -ing derives etymologically from be + on + -ing

passive voice marker (be + -en)

• Lincoln and Kennedy were both assassinated.
• Everything was frozen.
• It was golden. (ADJ, (predicate adjective))