be

/ˈbiː/

be verb: used with past participles of verbs to form the passive voice. Also the alternative form of by.

Verb

be (highly irregular—See conjugation table)

(auxiliary) Used with past participles of verbs to form the passive voice.
- The dog was saved by the boy.
- Study courses of Esperanto and Ido have been broadcast.1995, C. K. Ogden, Psyche: An Annual General and Linguistic Psychology 1920-1952, C. K. Ogden, →ISBN, page 13
Used with present participles of verbs to form the continuous aspect.
- The woman is walking.
- I shall be writing to you soon.
Used with to-infinitives of verbs to express intent, obligation, appropriateness, or relative future occurrence.
- I am to leave tomorrow.
- They are to stay here until I return.
Used with past participles of certain intransitive verbs to form the perfect aspect.
- He is finished.
- He is gone.
(Caribbean, Ireland, auxiliary, African-American Vernacular) To tend to do, often do; marks the habitual aspect.
- Women be shoppin’! You cannot stop a woman from shoppin’!1996, David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein, Tom Shadyac and Steve Oedekerk, screenplay of The Nutty Professor
- Niggas be tellin' these bitches 'bout business2020, Moneybagg Yo, Thug Cry
(with-dummy-subject) To exist.
- There is just one woman in town who can help us.
- (or, dialectally:) It is just one woman in town who can help us.
Used to declare the subject and object identical or equivalent.
- Hi, I’m Jim.
- 3 times 5 is fifteen.
Used to indicate that a predicate nominal applies to the subject.
- Rex is a dog.
- A dog is an animal.
Used to indicate that the subject has the qualities described by an adjective or prepositional phrase.
- The sky is blue.
- Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remooue this cup from me: neuerthelesse, not my will, but thine be done.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 22:42
Used to indicate that the subject has the qualities described by a noun or noun phrase.
- The sky is a deep blue today.
Used to link a subject to a measurement.
- This building is three hundred years old.
- I am 75 kilograms.
Used to state the age of a subject in years.
- I’m 20 (years old).

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Used to indicate the time of day.
- It is almost eight (o’clock).
- It’s 8:30 [read eight-thirty] in Tokyo.
Used to indicate passage of time since the occurrence of an event.
- It has been three years since my grandmother died. (similar to "My grandmother died three years ago", but emphasizes the intervening period)
- It had been six days since his departure, when I received a letter from him.
(past, rare, regional) Used to link two noun clauses: a day of the week, recurring date, month, or other specific time (on which the event of the main clause took place) and a period of time indicating how long ago that day was.
- I saw her Monday was a week: I saw her a week ago last Monday (a week before last Monday).
- On the morning of Sunday was fortnight before Christmas: on the morning of the Sunday that was two weeks before the Sunday prior to Christmas.
To pass or spend (time).
- and when he compares both sides, he will be some time at a loss to fix any determination.1844, Robert Chambers, Cyclopedia of English Literature: A History, page 289
- The bag was crisp with ice, and with my fingerless gloves I was a bit of time unholing the buttons. But I got the flap turned back at last, and there was Ryan grey-faced and stark.1907, C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne, McTodd, page 232
To take a period of time.
- Dinner will be ten minutes.
- It was an hour before he returned.
(impersonal, often) Used to indicate ambient conditions such as weather, light, noise or air quality.
- It is hot in Arizona, but it is not usually humid.
- Why is it so dark in here?
(especially, irregular, dynamic / lexical be) To exist or behave in a certain way.
- When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead.2006 October 9, Kristin Newman (writer), Barney Stinson (character), How I Met Your Mother, season 2, episode 1
- "What do we do?" "We be ourselves."
(literary, usually) To exist; to have real existence, to be alive.
- The Universe has no explanation: it just is.
- That was the week that was.
To remain undisturbed in a certain state or situation.
- Let them be for a few hours.
- Leave us be until the guests arrive.
To occupy a place.
- The cup is on the table.
To occur, to take place.
- When will the meeting be?
Elliptical form of “be here”, “go to and return from” or similar, also extending to certain other senses of “go”.
- The postman has been today, but my tickets have still not yet come.
- I have been to Spain many times.

Noun (1)

IPA/beɪ/

be (plural bes)

The name of the Cyrillic script letter Б / б

Noun (2) capitalized: BE

BE (countable and uncountable, plural BEs)

(abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Bachelor of Engineering.
(abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of breast expansion.

Proper noun capitalized: BE

(abbreviation) Abbreviation of Berlin: a state of Germany.
(abbreviation) Abbreviation of Bengkulu: a province of Indonesia.
(abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Black English.
(abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Buddhist Era.
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:BE.

Adjective capitalized: BE

BE (not comparable)

(abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of board-eligible.

Also used as

be is also the alternative form of by.

be meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

be in Hindi

used to indicate that the values on either side of an equation are the same: होना honā
used to indicate that the subject plays the role of the predicate nominal: होना honā
used to indicate that the subject has the qualities described by an adjective: होना honā
used to declare the subject and object identical or equivalent: होना honā

be in Tamil

auxiliary: used to form the passive voice: படு paṭu, பெறு peṟu
used to declare the subject and object identical or equivalent: இரு iru, ஆகு āku, ஆ ā
used to state the age of a subject in years: இரு iru
intransitive, non-copulative (usually literary in English): to exist; to have real existence: இரு iru, உள் uḷ

be in Urdu

used to indicate that the values on either side of an equation are the same: ہونا honā
used to indicate that the subject plays the role of the predicate nominal: ہونا honā
used to indicate that the subject has the qualities described by an adjective: ہونا honā
used to declare the subject and object identical or equivalent: ہونا honā

be in Bengali

intransitive, non-copulative (usually literary in English): to exist; to have real existence: হওয়া hoōẇa

More languagesFewer languages

be in Telugu: ఉండు uṇḍu, అగు agu
be in Malayalam: ആകുന്നു ākunnu
be in Odia: ହେବା hebā
be in Sanskrit: अस्ति asti, भवति bhavati
be in Tagalog: maging
be in Arabic: كَانَ kāna, كَانَ هُوَ kāna, هِيَ hiya
be in Malay: ialah, adalah, ada, berada
be in Indonesian: ada, berada
be in Thai: ถูก tùuk, โดน doon, เป็น bpen, อยู่ yùu
be in Vietnamese: được, bị, là, thì
be in Myanmar: ရှိ hri., ဖြစ် hprac, နေ ne, ဟုတ် hut
Kashmiri: آسُن āsun

Examples of be in a sentence

I can't always be catering to your whimsies.
I was being deadly serious when I made that suggestion.
I'd been to've been ambassador, but fell seriously ill.
They were to have been married overseas but COVID forced a change of plans.
Why is he being nice to me?
Dad is taking a nap, so we're all being quiet.

All 40 example sentences with be

Synonyms of be

Forms of be

first-person singular present	am
first-person singular present	'm
first-person singular past	was
second-person singular present	are
second-person singular present	're
second-person singular present	art
second-person singular present	'rt
second-person singular past	were
third-person singular present	is
third-person singular present	's
third-person singular past	was
plural present	are
plural present	're
plural past	were
past subjunctive	were
present participle	being
past participle	been
alternative form	bee
first-person singular present (archaic)	be
first-person singular past (dialectal)	's

Past tense of be: was or were

Origin of be

From Middle English been (“to be”). See below for more. Further etymology of be and its conjugated forms The various forms have three separate origins, which were mixed together at various times in the history of English. * The forms beginning with b- come from Old English bēon (“to be, become”), from Proto-Germanic *beuną (“to be, exist, come to be, become”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH-yé-ti (“to grow, become, come into being, appear”), from the root *bʰuH-. In particular: ** Now-dialectal use of been as an infinitive of be is either from Middle English been (“to be”) or an extension of the past participle. ** Now-obsolete use of been as a plural present tense (meaning "are") is from Middle English been, be (present plural of been (“to be”), with the -n leveled in from the past and subjunctive; compare competing forms aren/are). ** Use of been as a past participle is from Middle English been, ybeen, from Old English ġebēon. * The forms beginning with w- come from the aforementioned Old English bēon, which shared its past tense with the verb wesan, from Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- (“to reside”). * The remaining...

A variant of by which goes back to Middle English be (variant of Middle English bi).

Borrowed from Russian бэ (bɛ).

Words formed from be

Phrases with be

176 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with be

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about be

What does be mean?: Be means used with past participles of verbs to form the passive voice.
What is be in Hindi?: Be in Hindi is होना (honā). See Be meaning in Hindi.
How do you use be in a sentence?: I can't always be catering to your whimsies.
What part of speech is be?: Be can be a verb, a noun, a proper noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce be?: Be is pronounced /ˈbiː/.
What is the past tense of be?: The past tense of be is was.

Words near be in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: be (page history and authors); BE (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-to be.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-be.wav.

Cite this entry: “be.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/be. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.