Irregular verb · #1 by frequency

be — past tense and past participle

Basebebiː

Past simplewaswɒz

Past participlebeenbiːn

In a sentence

Base: You are always welcome at our house.

Past simple: She was late for the meeting yesterday.

Past participle: They have been friends since childhood.

Regional variants

Past simplewereplural / 2nd personwɜː

Translations

Españolser, estar

Françaisêtre

Русскийбыть

Українськабути

Deutschsein

Portuguêsser, estar

Italianoessere

Polskibyć

Türkçeolmak

Pattern

One of a kind

Verbs whose forms follow no reusable pattern: be, go, do, have. Pure memorization, and the highest-frequency verbs in the language — so they get drilled first regardless.

Same pattern

do go see come give become

Hear it in the app

have →