Entry:be

English

be

Multi-letter group	A–E					F–J					K–O					P–T					U–Z
Alphabetical position	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z

Alphabetical group	A	B	C	D	E

Letters	2
Alphagram	B Ebe be
Rhymes	i, bi

▲

back
bad
bark
bar
bat
be
bear
bears
beat
beautiful
because

▼

be inf, present: 1st sg am, 1st pl/2nd/3rd pl are, 3rd sg is; past: 1st sg/3rd sg was, 1st pl/2nd/3rd pl were; pres ptcp being, pst ptcp been [/bi/; be (1 syll.)]

1 : bivar vivi (to exist)
2 : sujar vivi (to be identified as...; descriptive copula)
Tampa is a city in Florida. — Tampale sujat un'ourème ńad Flaurịda.
3 : -ar (with adpositions or adjectives; stative)
to be green — trouwar
4 : Transitive auxiliary (With a verb's past-participle form [e.g. "be done by something/someone"], used for passive-voice statements; in their Tovasala OVS equivalents, the object is marked as absolutive and the subject as ergative: Samo duerat Vîolẹtieba [Sam is loved by Violet].)
5 : -ant , -asant (to be doing [progressive aspect], to be still doing [continuative aspect])
6 : wobiāvar vivi (to be # years old; literally "to have existed for")
I am 18 years old. — Wobbiāvim deiśnoalte.
7 : (Mathematics: to equal) aibemar vivi

Conjugation of this verb is highly irregular in English and various other languages. Esperanto and Ido provide respective exceptions with esti and esar, as does Tovasala with the terms given above.

From the Corpus

[0004] Shakespeare (1600):65:

To be, or not to be—that is the question.

Bivar, hoder nalbivar: esane jaugurat.

[0006] Matthew 25:1-2:

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

Pued ausiklirat Kualduzemliebe Ziēli deya nëffrauli, prenddureaj mekeŕaunsiles nend virujjureaj aurd toalgé der fraulaijo. Kuinda selbtrusili fahaummurat; kuindla zecheri fahịmmurat.

[0016] Braddon (1863):318:

“I so much regret that you should have been out of doors at the time, my dear Mrs. Mellish,” she said; “and as I should imagine, from the direction which you took on leaving the house, actually near the place where the unfortunate person met his death. It will be so unpleasant for you to have to appear at the inquest.”

«Tasalasietim prin tugavaikit mauradu, yoarvi Senyaurta Mellish,» dezat luma; «nend nand majiemaikim, omil äuvvikorte ńïavvlurit maurad tüvvé ńobeni, voardu proxim l’abode jadu versuerttauwlo moarzaiddurat. Vermogellirat tia boulveyaudraunite ńad trengole.»

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Added on: 2021-07-25, 10:10 • View semantic data