The Be Verb “is”

Objective: Construct sentences using the verb “is”. The second “be” verb we are looking at in English grammar is the verb “is”. This perhaps is one verb that is used in very many English sentences. We saw in the previous lesson that the verb “am” is used by an individual to tell us what he/she does. The verb “is” also serves the same purpose. However, we use it to report what somebody else does. Therefore, it is the subject that is different. For the verb “am” the subject is always “I”. For the verb “is” the subject can be several pronouns: he, she, and it; further, the subject can be the name of a place or somebody. We can begin by borrowing sentences from the “am” lesson. 1) I am a teacher. 2) I am a pilot. 3) I am a doctor. 4) I am a musician. 5) I am an actor. 6) I am an athlete. 7) I am a footballer. 8) I am a farmer. 9) I am a journalist. 10) I am a mechanic. 11) I am a pupil. For the subject “I” we will use he/she. For the verb “am” we will use the verb “is”. Your sentences should look like these: He is a teacher. She is a pilot. Complete writing the remaining sentences. We can still write the same sentences but this time instead of using a pronoun, we use somebody’s name. Thus, John is a teacher. Joan is a pilot. Rewrite the remaining sentences using the names of your friends. The verb “is” can also be used to tell us how somebody feels or what condition somebody is in e.g. ill, happy, sad, angry, clean, dirty, hungry, satisfied, thirsty tired etc. Once more you can use somebody’s name or a pronoun. Thus, John is ill. He is ill. Make your own sentences using the remaining words from the list above. Be sure to use both a noun and a pronoun for each word. Further, you can use the name of a place as your subject e.g. Nairobi is cold. Kibuye is noisy. Now make your own sentences. Make sure that the word that comes after “is” describes a condition. The verb “is” is also used as a helping verb. In other words it is used alongside another verb. In this way we are able to construct the present continuous aspect. We will make a list of verbs in the –ing form: sitting, walking, writing, running, jumping, eating, reading, playing, sleeping, resting etc. Our sentences will follow this pattern: James is sitting. He is sitting. Now make your sentences using the complete list of verbs above. I hope you enjoyed this English grammar class. In the next post we shall look at question tags with the verb “is”