21st Century Grammar Handbook

Present tense First person
I am
we are
Second person you are
you are
Third person he/she/it is
they are
Past tense
First person Ii wasiwe were
Second person you were
you were
Third person he/she/it was they were
The future tense is regular (I will be …”); the present participle and gerund are
“being” and the past participle is “been.”
Errors in the use of forms of be are quite common. Some contend that many such
“errors” are in fact dialectical usages that should not be seen as incorrect (see
dialect). However, any statement in standard English or that is likely to be judged by your audience by the standards of formal English should not contain either errors or dialectical forms. Thus I be here might be admissible in some speci c circumstances that accept dialect or nonstandard speech or writing, but such constructions should never appear in everyday business, school, or other common communications. Also see black English, grammar, rules, and style.
As a linking verb, be and its forms suggest some sort of general equality or equivalency between the subject of a sentence and its complement rather than some action the subject does to an object. The dog is a puppy rather than The dog bites a cat The words a puppy in this example area predicate noun in the nominative
case. These grammatical de nitions are important only when you are dealing with
pronouns in the predicates of sentences with linking verbs like be Pronouns change forms from nominative to objective case, and you should, according to the rules of grammar, follow a linking verb with a nominative It is I The group that will do the project is we The problem with this rule is that usage has changed so much that strictly correct constructions like It is I have come to sound pretentious in many circumstances.
Depending on the audience you are addressing, you need to choose how closely you will follow the rule of putting nominative pronouns after linking verbs. Ina college paper, follow the rule strictly. In other communications, you might well follow usage that is less stringent. Better, revise the sentence to avoid facing the problem and perhaps causing your audience to wonder about what you have said or

written It is Jane We are the group that will do the project.”
Beat, beat, beaten. An irregular verb in its main, past tense, and past

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