U engleskom jeziku, kao i u srpskom, glagol "biti" ima svoje oblike za sadašnje vreme i ponaša se drugačije od ostalih glagola. U srpskom jeziku nećete reći "Ja biti Petar.", već morate da upotrebite odgovarajući oblik za dato lice. Ako pogledate tabelu ispod, videćete da glagol "biti" u prezentu u engleskom jeziku ima samo tri oblika, a to su am, is i are. U narednoj tabeli možete da vidite kako se glagol "to be " menja kroz lica.

To Be - Potvrdni oblik

Subjekat	To Be	Primer
I	am	I am from Germany.
You	are</span >	You are Chinese.
He	is	He is twenty years old.
She	is	She is a nurse.
It	is	It is a black dog.
We	are	We are intelligent.
You	are	You are students.
They	are	They are married.

To Be - Skraćeni oblici

Skraćeni oblici glagola "to be" su vrlo učestali, posebno u govoru. Pogledaćemo to kroz primere:

To Be	Skraćenica	Primer
I am	I'm	I'm from Germany.
You are	You're	You're Chinese.
He is	He's	He's twenty years old.
She is	She's	She's a nurse.
It is	It's	It's a black dog.
We are	We're	We're intelligent.
You are	You're	You're students.
They are	They're	They're married.

To Be - Odrični oblik

Odrični oblik se gradi tako što se na "am, is, are" doda rečca "not", što se da videti u sledećim primerima:

Subjekat	To Be	Primer
I	am not	I am not from Spain.
You	are not	You are not Australian.
He	is not	He is not thirty years old.
She	is not	She is not a secretary.
It	is not	It is not a white cat.
We	are not	We are not stupid.
You	are not	You are not teachers.
They	are not	They are not single.

To Be - Odrične skraćenice

Postoje dva načina građenja skraćenica u odričnim rečenicama. Jedan način je da spojimo subjekat I glagol (npr. You are not = You're not), a drugi način je da spojimo glagol I rečcu "not" (npr. You are not = You aren't). Kao u primerima:

Subjekat + glagol	ili	Glagol + rečca
I'm not from Spain.	/	NEMA
You're not Australian.	/	You aren't Australian.
He's not thirty years old.	/	He isn't thirty years old.
She's not ta secretary.	/	She isn't a secretary.
It's not a white cat.	It's	It isn't a white cat.
We're not stupid.	/	We aren't stupid.
You're not teachers.	/	You aren't teachers.
They're not single.	/	They aren't single.

Vidimo da je jedini mogući skraćeni oblik za "I am not" upravo "I'm not" tj. da je oblik "I amn't" nemoguć, odnosno neispravan.

To Be - Upitni oblik

Upitni oblik se gradi inverzijom subjekta I predikata, odnosno njihovom zamenom mesta. Da bismo napravili pitanje sa glagolom "to be" moramo prvo upotrebiti glagol, pa tek onda subjekat. Potvrdni oblik - You are happy. U ovoj rečenici you je subjekat, a are je predikat. Zamenom njihovih mesta dobijamo: Upitni oblik - Are you happy? U narednoj tabeli možemo da vidimo glagol "to be" u upitnim oblicima.

Potvrdni oblik	Upitni oblik
I am intelligent.	Am I intelligent?
You are a student.	Are you a student?
He is a pilot.	Is he a pilot?
She is from Spain.	Is she from Spain?
It is a big house.	Is it a big house?
We are ready.	Are we ready?
You are doctors.	Are you doctors?
They are rich.	Are they rich?