Grammar

Am, is, are: stop forgetting the verb “to be”

Updated: October 3, 2026

The verb to be (am, is, are) is the most common verb in English, and forgetting it is one of the most common beginner mistakes: “She very happy”, “My brother doctor”, “The shops closed now”. Each of these sentences is missing is or are. This post explains why it happens, especially for Arabic speakers, and gives you the forms, questions, negatives, contractions and the there is / there are pattern, with plenty of examples.

Why learners drop is and are

In English, almost every sentence needs a verb. When there is no action, be does the job: it links the subject to a description, a place, a job or an age. My mother is a teacher. The soup is hot. The keys are on the table.

Some languages don't need a verb in these present-tense sentences. Arabic is a clear example. A sentence like «الجو جميل» is complete without any verb: word by word it is “the weather beautiful”. Arabic grammar calls this a nominal sentence (a subject plus a description). In the past tense, Arabic does use a verb (كان), which is why Arabic speakers forget is and are much more often than was and were.

Research confirms this. A 2012 study at Colorado State University tested 100 Saudi learners of English at two levels and found that they regularly left out the English copula (the verb be), and that intermediate students did this more than advanced ones. The study links the error to the difference between Arabic and English sentence structure. So if you do it, you are not careless: your first language is simply doing its work. The fix is practice until the English pattern feels automatic.

The forms: am, is, are

In the present, be has three forms. Learn them as a set with their short forms, because in speech the short forms are normal.

With nouns, use is for one and are for more than one: The book is new. The books are new. My friends are here. The children are at school. The past forms are was (I, he, she, it) and were (you, we, they).

What comes after be

• My sister is a nurse.

  A noun (job). Note the article a, too.

• I'm tired. Are you hungry?

  Adjectives for feelings and states.

• The bank is next to the pharmacy.

  A place.

• I'm 25. How old is she?

  Age uses be in English, not have.

• It's cold today. It's ten o'clock.

  Weather and time use it + be.

• They're from Morocco.

  Origin and nationality.

Questions, negatives and short answers

To make a question, move am/is/are before the subject. To make a negative, add not after it. You don't need do with be.

• Is she at home? Yes, she is. / No, she isn't.

  Question: is before she. Short answer repeats the verb.

• Are you ready? Yes, I am.

  Don't use the short form at the end: not “Yes, I'm.”

• Where are your keys?

  Question word + be + subject.

• I'm not sure. It isn't expensive.

  Negatives. There is no standard short form “amn't”, so use I'm not.

A common mix-up goes in the opposite direction: using be with another main verb in the present simple. Say Do you live here? not Are you live here?, and I agree or I work, not I am agree or I am work. Use be with a verb only in the continuous form: I'm working.

Contractions: why you don't hear is and are

In natural speech, is, are and am usually shrink to a single sound: she's, they're, I'm, the food's ready. So learners hear “she very happy” in fast speech and copy it. The verb is there, but it is tiny. Train your ear to catch the 's, 're and 'm, and you will start to produce them too. Our post on weak forms and the schwa explains this in more detail.

Spelling note: it's means it is (It's late). Its without an apostrophe means “belonging to it” (The cat hurt its leg).

There is and there are

When you say that something exists or is somewhere, especially the first time you mention it, English uses there is with a singular noun and there are with a plural noun.

• There's a pharmacy near the station.

  Singular. Not “It's a pharmacy near the station” and not “Have a pharmacy”.

• There are two new students in my class.

  Plural noun, so are.

• Is there a bus to the airport? Are there any seats left?

  Questions: is/are before there.

• There isn't any milk. There aren't many people here.

  Negatives.

In casual speech you will hear there's with plural nouns (“there's three people waiting”). This is common in conversation but can be marked as wrong in formal writing or an exam, so write there are.

A five-minute practice routine

1. Write five sentences about yourself without any action verb: your job, your age, where you are, how you feel, where you're from.
2. Underline the subject and check the verb: am, is or are?
3. Turn two of them into questions and two into negatives.
4. Describe your room with there is and there are: three sentences each.
5. Listen to short sentences and write them down. Check every 's, 're and 'm.

Next step: the same habit causes a related mistake with articles (“She is doctor”). Read a, an or the, then the guide to present and past tenses.

Practise it

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