Use of Is, Am, Are – Rules, Examples and Sentences. Meaning and Use of Auxiliary Verbs To Be – Is, Am and Are in the Sentences. How to use is, am, are in English Grammar.
We use the is, am, are as helping verbs and main verbs in the sentences. The forms of verb to be are ‘is, am and are’. The verb to be has other verb forms like be, been and being.
In this post, you will learn about the use of is, am and are with rules examples and exercises. You can read the sentences of the auxiliary verbs is, am and are.
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Use of Is, Am and Are
The auxiliary verbs ‘is, am and are’ are used as main verbs in the simple present tense and as helping verbs in the present continuous tense with nouns and pronouns. These verbs are the forms of verb to be. For example;
- John is my friend. He is a banker.
- These flowers are very beautiful.
- Jack and Peter are best friends.
- I am exhausted now.
- He is unable to complete the task.
- My sister is a singer.
- We are not football players.
- I am doing my work now.
- He is working in this company.
- You are fixing your clock.
Note: in the above sentences the all the verbs is am and are used as the men were and helping verb. You should remember that is, am and are work as main verbs when these are put without main verbs and these work as helping verbs when we put them with main verbs. Study the table given below;
| Is, Am, Are as Helping Verbs | Is, Am, Are as Main Verbs |
| He is a manager. | I am singing. |
| You are wise. | He is dancing. |
| She is very happy. | They are playing. |
| I am busy now. | She is working. |
| You are a bus driver. | He is driving. |
| Mr David is a bank manager. | The boy is opening the door. |
| I am your friend. | I am talking. |
| I am a physician. | They are coming. |
Note: In the above examples, the forms of ‘verb to be’ has been used as main verbs and helping verb.
Rules of Is, Am and Are
Rule (1) – We use the auxiliary verb ‘is‘ with singular nouns or third person singular pronouns.
Examples:
- He is a great.
- She is fine.
- It is hot.
- John is an author
- The girl is a poetess.
- The boy is not angry.
- The man is blind.
- The doctor is brilliant.
- The teacher is very rich.
- The black cat is there.
- The brave king is very kind.
Rule (2) – We use the auxiliary verb ‘are‘ with the plural nouns or the first, second person and third person pronouns.
Examples:
- We are players.
- They are very sad.
- You are brave.
- The boys are busy.
- The girls are bold.
- The men are timid.
- The women are kind.
- She and I are very excited to see it.
- The black elephants are strong.
Rule (3) – The auxiliary verb ‘am‘ is used with the first person singular pronoun ‘I‘.
Examples:
- I am fine.
- I am an artist.
- I am very happy with it.
- I am six years old.
Rule (4) – The auxiliary verb ‘is and are’ are used with demonstrative pronouns to indicate the nouns.
Examples:
- This is a red balloon.
- This is a white horse.
- That is a green tree.
- That is a yellow dress.
- Those are red flowers.
- These are my pens.
- Those are new clocks.
- These these are crazy people.
Note: Remember when we use this, that, these and those as demonstrative pronouns as demonstrative adjectives, we put ‘is‘ and ‘are‘ after them.
Examples:
- This boy is crazy.
- That girl is sad.
- That carpenter is very busy.
- These children are popular.
- Those dogs are dangerous.
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Use of Is, Am and Are with Examples
The forms of verb to be ‘is, am and are’ are used in the simple present tense and present continuous tense to describe things or persons, to tell someone’s profession, condition, age and location. Is, am and are can be used to tell facts and universal truth.
To tell someone’s condition
We use is, am and are to tell or describe someone’s condition in the present. We use is, am and are to tell how the persons or things are. The adjectives or adjective phrases are put to describe things or persons with is, am and are.
Use of Is;
- This woman is very angry.
- The king is not ill.
- My father is not busy today.
- The monk is great.
- My nephew is intelligent.
- Your husband is handsome.
- The teacher is not kind.
- The politician is not serious.
Use of Am;
- I am happy now.
- I am ill.
- I am not sad.
- I am very intelligent.
- I am not happy.
- I am not interested.
- I am very kind.
Use of Are;
- They are brave.
- These girls are very beautiful.
- You are honest.
- You are pretty.
- We are fine.
- Those girls are angry.
- We are not coward.
- They are not clever.
To tell someone’s age
We tell someone’s age by using the auxiliary verb is, am and are. If you want to ask someone’s age, use is, am and are with the subjects;
Examples:
- Jack: How old are you?
- Janet: I am twenty years old.
Other Examples:
- She is ten years old.
- They are five years old.
- I am fifteen years old.
To tell someone’s profession or job
‘Is, am and are’ are used to someone’s profession or job. In this situation, we want to know what a person does or what his/her job is;
Examples:
- My sister is an accountant. She lives in a hotel.
- The man is a plumber. He comes here daily.
- She is an actress. She works in the serials.
- I am a student.
- She is a driver.
- They are players.
To tell someone’s location
If you want to tell someone’s location, you should use is, am and are to tell where a person or thing is. In this condition, we can know the exact location of someone or something.
Examples:
- A: Where are you?
- B: I am at the park.
- Where is my purse?
- Your purse is in the drawer.
- My car is in the garage.
- Where are they now?
- They at the airport.
- She is not here.
- The boys are there.
Use of ‘it is’
When we talk about the time, day, weather, rain, month and year, we use it with is.
Examples:
- It is five o’clock now.
- It is dark now.
- It is raining now.
- It is 5 January, 2020.
- It is Sunday today.
- It is holiday tomorrow.
- It is the month of July.
- It is very hot today.
- It is very cold today.
Use of ‘there is’ and ‘there are’
When we talk about there is something somewhere, we use ‘there’ with ‘is’ and ‘are’ as an introductory there.
Examples:
- There is a peacock in the garden.
- There is a red pearl on the floor.
- There are two security guards in the office.
- There are five members in my family.
- There is a black cat in the kitchen.
- There are seven days in a week.
To talk about ongoing actions
We use ‘is, am and are’ to talk about an action happening in front of our eyes in the present continuous tense. It means that something is happening and it has not completed yet. In this condition, we use ‘is am and are’ as helping verbs in the sentences.
Examples:
- He is writing a letter now.
- The man is going to take water.
- She is asking a lot of questions.
- The child is sleeping in the room.
- I am working on this project.
- An aeroplane is flying over our head.
- What are you doing right now?
- This boy is making a noise.
- She is not doing the right things.
- Am I talking to you rudely?
Passive Form of Is, Am and Are
When we use ‘is, am and are’ in the passive voice, we use it as helping verb with the third form of the verb. It is used in the simple present tense. When we use is/am/are in the passive sentences of Present Continuous Tense, we write is being, am being and are being with the third form of the verb. We change the active voice into the passive voice.
Structure: Passive Subject + is/am/are + verb III + by + Passive object
Examples:
Active: He reads a book.
Passive: A book is read by him.
Active: He is writing a letter.
Passive: A letter is being written by him.
- You are invited by me.
- She is being called by the manager.
- She is called by them.
- A match is being played in the field by the boys.
- This is done by Mr. James.
- I am being taught by Mr Jack.
- Football is played by the players.
- Those red flowers are plucked by me.
- That work is assigned by the manager.
- You are being scolded by your mother.
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Simple Sentences of Is, Am and Are
The simple sentences of is, am and are made according to the following steps and sentence structure.
Steps:
- First of all, put the subject.
- Put the auxiliary verbs is/am/are
- Write noun or adjective.
- Write other words if there are any.
| Person | Singular | Plural |
| First | I am | We are |
| Second | You are | You are |
| Third | He/She/it is | They are |
Structure: Subject + is/am/are + noun/adjective + other words
Examples:
- The boy is clever.
- My old house is in New Delhi.
- She is very kind to the children.
- They are very good players of hockey.
- Those white flowers are beautiful.
- This is my book.
- It’s me.
- His father is a lawyer.
- I am afraid. Please stay here.
- The animals are very dangerous don’t go there.
- My friends are very rich.
- Her hair is black.
- He is in good condition.
- The boys are about to leave.
- She is very upset today.
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Negative Sentences of Is, Am and Are
The negative sentences of ‘is, am and are’ are made by putting ‘not’ after auxiliary verbs (helping verbs). We can use the contraction forms of is not, am not and are not. Read the sentence structure and rules given below;
- First of all, write your subject.
- Put auxiliary verb ‘is/am/are‘ according to the subject.
- Write ‘not‘ after is/am/are
- Write the noun or adjective as complement.
- Write the other words.
| Person | Singular | Plural |
| First | I am not | We are not |
| Second | You are not | You are not |
| Third | He/She/it is not | They are not |
Structure: Subject + is/am/are + not + noun/adjective + other words
Examples:
- She is not in the office today.
- The boy is not naughty.
- He is not good at mathematics.
- That girl is not in the class.
- They not clever girls.
- This is not a big house.
- That is not a red rose.
- We are not language partners.
- Those boys are not players.
- He is not ill today.
- It isn’t useful for us.
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Interrogative Sentences of Is, Am and Are
To make Interrogative Sentences of ‘Is, Am and Are’, follow the sentence structure and rules.
Yes-No Type Questions
Yes-No Type Questions of Is, Am and Are are made by using it at the beginning of the sentence.
- Write is/am/are at beginning of the sentence.
- Write the subject.
- Write the noun or adjective.
- Write the other words if there are any.
- Put the question mark (?) at the last of the sentence.
Structure: Is/am/are + subject + noun/adjective + ?
Examples:
- Are you you fine today?
- Is he a hunter?
- Am I able to run?
- Is she a good singer?
- Are we brave to catch the thieves?
- Is she an american citizen?
- Are they free now?
- Is he a manager of this company?
- Is this a black elephant?
- Are those red clothes?
- Am I eligible for this post?
- Are you ready to start?
- Is that an elephant?
- Is this your bag?
- Are you able to book now?
- Is he a dishonest person?
Wh-word Type Questions
To make wh-word type questions of is, am and are, put the question at the beginning of the sentence and follow the structure given below;
Structure: Question word + is/am/are + noun/adjective +
Examples:
- Who is your maths teacher?
- What is your name?
- Which is your favourite movie?
- What are those boys?
- Where are you now?
- Who is your favourite actor?
- Why are you sad today?
- Where is your notebook?
- Whose son is a doctor?
- How are you today?
- Who is there?
- What is that in the box?
- How many ways are there in a class?
- How much water is there in the glass?
- What is the meaning of this word?
Interrogative Negative Sentences
To make interrogative negative sentences, we put ‘not’ after the subject in the yes-no type and wh-word type questions. Let’s see the examples below:
Examples:
- Are you not Mr Smith?
- Is he not a player?
- Am I not a lawyer
- Are you not still there?
- Is he not a driver?
- Who is not there?
- Why are you not happy today?
- Who is not present today?
- What is not in the purse?
Use of Is, Am and Are Exercises
Fill in the blanks with is/am/are;
- He ________ a good driver.
- Those dogs _________ not dangerous.
- The boy __________ not clever.
- I ______ not wise.
- You _____ a very important person.
Conclusion
In this post, you have learnt about the use of is, am and are in the sentences. These are the present tense forms of auxiliary verb ‘to be’. We don’t use the auxiliary verb ‘to be’ in the sentences directly would be used its forms is, am and are in the sentences. You should remember its forms and proper use in the sentences. If you have read something from this post, you may share this post to your friends and family and students.
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