Now-dialectal use ofbeen as an infinitive ofbe is either fromMiddle Englishbeen(“to be”) or an extension of the past participle.
Now-obsolete use ofbeen as a plural present tense (meaning "are") is fromMiddle Englishbeen,be (present plural ofbeen(“to be”), with the-n leveled in from the past and subjunctive; compare competing formsaren/are).
1995,C. K. Ogden,Psyche: An Annual General and Linguistic Psychology 1920-1952, C. K. Ogden,→ISBN,page13:
Study courses of Esperanto and Ido havebeen broadcast.
Used with present participles of verbs to form thecontinuous aspect.
The womanis walking.
I shallbe writing to you soon.
We liked to chat while wewere eating.
1995, C. K. Ogden,Psyche: An Annual General and Linguistic Psychology 1920-1952, C. K. Ogden,→ISBN,page13:
In the possibility of radio uses of a constructed language — and such experimentsare proving successful—vast sums of money and untold social forces may be involved.
(formal)Used withto-infinitives of verbs to express intent, obligation, appropriateness, or relative future occurrence.
Iam to leave tomorrow.
Theyare to stay here until I return.
The season openerwas to have been on Monday.
Howwere they to know the whole exercise was a ruse?
Theywere to have been married overseas but COVID forced a change of plans.
I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, theBhagavad-Gita: Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, he takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now Iam become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
His originsare become remote as is his destiny and not again in all the world’s turning will there be terrains so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man’s will or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay.
Some men thereare loue not a gaping Pigge: / Some that are mad, if they behold a Cat: / And others, when the bag-pipe sings i’th nose, / Cannot containe their Vrine for affection.
1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter IX, inPersuasion; published inNorthanger Abbey: And Persuasion.[…], volume IV, London:John Murray,[…], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818),→OCLC,page170:
"Thereis a sort of domestic enjoyment to be known even in a crowd, and this you had."
2011 July 6, Mark Sweney,The Guardian:
"There hasbeen lots of commentary on who is staying and who is staying out and this weekend will be the real test," said one senior media buying agency executive who has pulled the advertising for one major client.
Used to declare the subject and object identical or equivalent.
Hi, I’m Jim.
3 times 5is fifteen.
These fourare the ones going to the quarter-finals.
François Mitterrandwas president of France from 1981 to 1995.
(withsince)Used to indicate passage oftime since the occurrence of anevent.
It hasbeen three years since my grandmother died. (similar to "My grandmother died three years ago", but emphasizes the intervening period)
It hadbeen six days since his departure, when I received a letter from him.
(rare and regional, chiefly in the past tense)Used to link two noun clauses: a day of the week, recurring date, month, or other specific time (on which the event of themain clause took place) and a period of time indicating how long ago that day was.[from 15th c.]
I saw her Mondaywas a week: I saw her a week ago last Monday (a week before last Monday).
On the morning of Sundaywas fortnight before Christmas: on the morning of the Sunday that was two weeks before the Sunday prior to Christmas.
Miss Lardner (whom you have seen at her cousin Biddulph's) saw you at St James's church on Sundaywas fortnight.
1770,Historical Memoirs of the Irish Rebellion, in the year 1641[…] In a letter to Walter Harris, Esq;[By John Curry.] The fourth edition, with corrections throughout the whole, and large additions, by the author, Ireland, page186:
And so, without as much as to return home to furnish myself for such a journey, volens, nolens, they prevailed, or rather forced me to come to Dublin to confer with those colonels, and that was the last Augustwas twelvemonth.
1803, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons,Journals of the House of Commons, page249:
That they were present at the Election in Augustwas Twelvemonth, at which there was the strictest Scrutiny that ever they saw in their Lives, by all the Four Candidates.
I killed my poor father, Tuesdaywas a week, for doing the like of that.
1920 (published), St. George Kieran Hyland,A Century of Persecution Under Tudor and Stuart Sovereigns from Contemporary Records, London, Paul, page 402, quoting an earlier document,Loosley volume 5, no. 28, "List of Prisoners: In Sir W. More's handwriting":
Theobald Green gent dead in the Marshalsea in Augustwas twelvemonth
John Grey gent delivered out of the Marshalsea about August last by Mr. Secretary and remains in St. Mary Overies.
John Jacob gent delivered out of the Marsh. the XVII of Maywas twelvemonth and sent to Bridewell by order of the Council.
1844, Robert Chambers,Cyclopedia of English Literature: A History, page289:
and when he compares both sides, he willbe some time at a loss to fix any determination.
1907, C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne,McTodd, page232:
The bag was crisp with ice, and with my fingerless gloves Iwas a bit of time unholing the buttons. But I got the flap turned back at last, and there was Ryan grey-faced and stark.
(dynamic / lexicalbe, especially in progressive tenses, conjugated non-suppletively in the present tense, see usage notes) To exist or behave in a certain way.
2006 October 9, Kristin Newman (writer), Barney Stinson (character),How I Met Your Mother, season 2, episode 1:
"When I get sad, I stop being sad andbe awesome instead."
Tobe, or not tobe: that is the question: / Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them?
There is surely a peece of Divinity in us, something thatwas before the Elements, and owes no homage unto the Sun.
1893, Andrew Martin Fairbairn,Christ in the Centuries, and Other Sermons, 2nd edition, volume12, E.P. Dutton & Company,page116:
And after this death there is to be no resurrection. The old man of sin has ceased tobe; once crucified, he lives no more. The death is utter; the end complete.
This parrot is no more! It has ceased tobe! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late parrot! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed it to the perch it would be pushing up the daisies!
2004 December 13, Richard Schickel, “Not Just an African Story”, inTime:
The genial hotel manager of the pastis no more. Now owner of a trucking concern and living in Belgium, Rusesabagina says the horrors he witnessed in Rwanda "made me a different man."
To remain undisturbed in a certain state or situation.
Whenbe is used copulatively with a pronoun, traditional grammar puts the pronoun in thesubjective case (I,he,she,we,they) rather than theobjective case (me,him,her,us,them), regardless of which side of the copula it is placed. For example, “I was the masked man” and “The masked man was I” would both be considered correct, while “The masked man was me” and “Me was the masked man” would both be incorrect. However, most colloquial speech treats the verbbe as transitive, in which case the pronoun is used in the objective case if it occurs after the copula: “I was the masked man” but “The masked man was me”. This paradigm applies even if the copula is linking two pronouns; thus “I am her” and “She is me", and “Am I me?” (versus the traditional “I am she”, “She is I”, “Am I I?”). However, the use ofwhom with a copula is generally considered incorrect and ahypercorrection, though in some cases (especially in sentences involving ato-infinitive or a perfect tense), such as “Whom do you want to be?”, it can come naturally to some speakers; in short, straightforward sentences, such as “Whom are you?”, this is much rarer and likelier to be considered incorrect.
The verbbe is the most irregular non-defective verb in Standard English. Unlike other verbs, which distinguish at most five forms (as indo–does–doing–did–done),be distinguishes eight:
Be itself is the plain form, used as the infinitive, as the imperative, and as the present subjunctive (though many speakers do not distinguish the present indicative and present subjunctive, using the indicative forms for both).
I want tobe a father someday. (infinitive)
If thatbe true... (present subjunctive;is is common in this position)
Allow the truth tobe heard! (infinitive)
Pleasebe here by eight o’clock. (imperative)
The librarian asked that the rare books notbe touched. (present subjunctive; speakers that do not distinguish the subjunctive and indicative would use anauxiliary verb construction here)
Be is also used as the present tense indicative form in the alternative, dynamic / lexical conjugation ofbe:
What do we do? Webe ourselves. (first-person plural present indicative, lexicalbe)
but:Whoare we? Weare human beings. (first-person plural present indicative, copulabe)
It is also an archaic alternative form of the indicative, especially in the plural:[1]
Thepowers thatbe, are ordained of God. (Romans 13:1, Tyndale Bible, 1526)[2]
We are true men; we are no spies: Webe twelve brethren... (Genesis 42:31–2, King James Version, 1611)[3]
I think itbe thine indeed, for thou liest in it. (Hamlet, Act V, Scene 1, circa 1600 – though this may be viewed as the subjunctive instead)[4]
Am,are, andis are the forms of the present indicative.Am is the first-person singular (used withI);is is the third-person singular (used withhe,she,it and other subjects that would be used withdoes rather thando); andare is both the second-person singular and the plural (used withwe,you,they, and any other plural subjects).
Am I in the right place? (first-person singular present indicative)
Youare even taller than your brother! (second-person singular present indicative)
Whereis the library? (third-person singular present indicative)
Theseare the biggest shoes we have. (plural present indicative)
Was andwere are the forms of the past indicative and past subjunctive (likedid). In the past indicative,was is the first- and third-person singular (used withI, as well as withhe,she,it and other subjects that would be used withdoes rather thando), andwere is both the second-person singular and the plural (used withwe,you,they, and any other plural subjects). In the traditional past subjunctive,were is used with all subjects, though many speakers do not actually distinguish the past subjunctive from the past indicative, and therefore usewas with first- and third-person singular subjects even in cases where other speakers would usewere.
Iwas out of town. (first-person singular past indicative)
Youwere the first person here. (second-person singular past indicative)
The roomwas dirty. (third-person singular past indicative)
Wewere angry at each other. (plural past indicative)
I wish Iwere more sure. (first-person singular past subjunctive;was is also common, though considered less correct by some)
If shewere here, she would know what to do. (third-person singular past subjunctive;was is also common, though considered less correct by some)
Being is the gerund and present participle, used in progressive aspectual forms, after variouscatenative verbs, and in other constructions that function like nouns, adjectivally or adverbially. (It’s also used as a deverbal noun and as a conjunction; see those senses in the entry forbeing itself.)
Being in London andbeing in Tokyo have similar rewards but in different languages. (gerund in grammatical subject)
All of a sudden, he’sbeing nice to everyone. (present participle in progressive aspect)
His moodbeing good increased his productivity noticeably. (present participle in adjectival phrase)
It won’t stopbeing a problem until someone does something about it. (gerund after catenative verb)
Been is the past participle, used in the perfect aspect. In Middle English, it was also the infinitive.
It’sbeen that way for a week and a half.
In archaic or obsolete forms of English, with the pronounthou, the verbbe has a few additional forms:
When the pronounthou was in regular use, the formsart,wast, andwert were the corresponding present indicative, past indicative, and past subjunctive, respectively.
Asthou became less common and more highly marked, a special present-subjunctive formbeest developed (replacing the regular present subjunctive formbe, still used with all other subjects). Additionally, the formwert, previously a past subjunctive form, came to be used as a past indicative as well.
The formsam,is, andare can contract with preceding subjects:I’m(“I am”),’s(“is”),’re(“are”). The formare most commonly contracts with personal pronouns (we’re(“we are”),you’re(“you are”),they’re(“they are”)), but contractions with other subjects are possible; the formis contracts quite freely with a variety of subjects. These contracted forms, however, are possible only when there is an explicit, non-preposed complement, and they cannot be stressed; therefore, the contractions cannot appear at the end of a sentence. Instead one must use the full forms, such as:
Who’s here? —Iam.
I wonder what itis.
Several of the finite forms ofbe have special negative forms, containing the suffix-n’t, that can be used instead of adding the adverbnot. Specifically, the formsis,are,was, andwere have the negative formsisn’t,aren’t,wasn’t, andweren’t. The formbe itself does not, even in finite uses, with “not be” being used in the present subjunctive and “do not be” or “don’t be” (or, in dated use, “be not”) being used in the imperative. The formam has the negative formsaren’t,amn’t, andain’t, but all of these are in restricted use; see their entries for details.
Outside of Standard English, there is some variation in usage of some forms; some dialects, for example, useis or’s throughout the present indicative (supplanting, in whole or in part,am andare), and/orwas throughout the past indicative and past subjunctive (supplantingwere).
^Schumacher, Stefan, Matzinger, Joachim (2013)Die Verben des Altalbanischen: Belegwörterbuch, Vorgeschichte und Etymologie (Albanische Forschungen;33) (in German), Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz,→ISBN, page236
In some dialects of Catalan, the sounds associated with the letterb and the letterv are the same:[b ~ β]. In order to differentiatebe andve in those dialects, the letters are often calledbe alta(“high B”) andve baixa(“low V”).
2020 June 11, Hendrik Heidler,Hendrik Heidler's 400 Seiten: Echtes Erzgebirgisch: Wuu de Hasen Hoosn haaßn un de Hosen Huusn do sei mir drhamm: Das Original Wörterbuch: Ratgeber und Fundgrube der erzgebirgischen Mund- und Lebensart: Erzgebirgisch – Deutsch / Deutsch – Erzgebirgisch[1], 3. geänderte Auflage edition, Norderstedt: BoD – Books on Demand,→ISBN,→OCLC, page21:
This term may also be part of the split form of a verb prefixed withbe-, occurring when the main verb does not follow the prefix directly. It can be interpreted only with the related verb form, irrespective of its position in the sentence, e.g.meg tudták volnanézni(“they could haveseen it”,frommegnéz). For verbs with this prefix, seebe-; for an overview,Appendix:Hungarian verbal prefixes.
(adverb: “in”):be inBárczi, Géza andLászló Országh.A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.:ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992:→ISBN
(interjection-like adverb: “how…!”; a dated, poetic synonym ofde):be inBárczi, Géza andLászló Országh.A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.:ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992:→ISBN
be in Nóra Ittzés, editor,A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031(work in progress; publisheda–ez as of 2024).
Bill Palmer,The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area (→ISBN, 2017), page 531, table 95,Comparative basic vocabulary in Lakes Plain Languages
Arthur E. Gordon,The Letter Names of the Latin Alphabet (University of California Press, 1973; volume 9 ofUniversity of California Publications: Classical Studies), part III: “Summary of the Ancient Evidence”, page 32: "Clearly there is no question or doubt about the names of the vowels A, E, I, O, U. They are simply long A, long E, etc. (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū). Nor is there any uncertainty with respect to the six mutes B, C, D, G, P, T. Their names are bē, cē, dē, gē, pē, tē (each with a long E). Or about H, K, and Q: they are hā, kā, kū—each, again, with a long vowel sound."
Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the criticaltonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
Old Englishbēoþ (with the-þ replaced with an-n levelled in from the past and subjunctive, then lost), present plural ofbēon(“to be”), fromProto-Germanic*biunþi, third-person present plural of*beuną(“to be, become”).
The usual plural form ofbeen isaren in the North,been in the Midlands, andbeth in the South;sind also existed, especially early on, but was not the predominant form in any area.
Eall swa þa unriht-wisan deman þe heora domas awendað, æfrebe þam sceattum nabe soðfæstnysse and habbað æfre to cepe heora soðfæstnysse, and swa hi sylfe syllað wið sceattum...
So likewise those unrighteous judges who pervert their judgments, alwaysfor gain, and notfor justice, and always offer their justice for sale, and thus sell themselves for the sake of money,...
Henrik Liljegren, Naseem Haider (2011) “be”, inPalula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[2], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives,→ISBN
Turner, Ralph Lilley (1969–1985) “be”, inA Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages, London: Oxford University Press
Lương Bèn (2011)Từ điển Tày-Việt [Tay-Vietnamese dictionary][4][5] (in Vietnamese), Thái Nguyên: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên
Lục Văn Pảo, Hoàng Tuấn Nam (2003) Hoàng Triều Ân, editor,Từ điển chữ Nôm Tày [A Dictionary of (chữ) Nôm Tày][6] (in Vietnamese), Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Khoa học Xã hội
Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor,A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published1867
