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Select am, is or are.
Why _________________________ soda so addictive?

Here the verb be is used as link verb in present tense. It has the following forms:

  • am is used with first person subject,
  • is is used with third person singular subjects,
  • are is used with plural subjects.

The correct answer is is.

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Present tense

  • I work here. — simple present (habit/permanent)
  • I am working now. — present progressive (happening right now)
  • I have lived here for 10 years. — present perfect (started past, still true)
  • I have been waiting for an hour. — present perfect progressive (duration up to now)

Four present tense forms: simple (habits/facts), progressive (now/temporary), perfect (past → present relevance), perfect progressive (ongoing duration). Each encodes a different relationship between the action and the present moment.

Trap: "I am living here for 10 years" ❌ — started in the past + still true = present PERFECT (have lived/have been living), not progressive.

Verb

  • walk → walk / walks / walked / walked / walking (5 forms, regular)
  • go → go / goes / went / gone / going (5 forms, irregular)
  • be → am/is/are/was/were/be/being/been (8 forms)
  • can → can / could (modal: only 2 forms, no -s, no -ing)

A verb is the one word class every English sentence requires. Carries tense (when), aspect (duration), mood (attitude), and voice (active/passive). Regular verbs add -ed; ~200 irregular verbs have unpredictable past forms.

Key insight: fix your verbs and most grammar problems disappear. Wrong tense, wrong agreement, wrong form — verb errors account for the majority of grammatical mistakes.

Be

  • I am tired. / She is tired. / They are tired. — present
  • I was tired. / They were tired. — past
  • She is running. — auxiliary for progressive
  • It was broken. — auxiliary for passive

Be has 8 forms (am/is/are/was/were/be/being/been) — the most irregular verb in English. Two jobs: copula linking subject to complement (She is a doctor) and auxiliary for progressive and passive.

Trap: be changes for person AND number in both present and past. No other English verb does this. Learn the grid: I am / you are / he is / we are + I was / you were / he was / we were.

A1 | Elementary | Beginners

  • My name is Anna. — present simple of be
  • Where is the station? — basic *wh-*question
  • I have two brothers. — possession with have
  • She likes coffee. — third-person -s

These are A1 sentences — the starting level of the CEFR framework. At A1 you can introduce yourself, ask and answer simple personal questions, and handle basic everyday transactions using present tense, be/have/do, and core vocabulary.

If you can say these but freeze at normal speaking speed, you're solidly A1 — and that's exactly where to start.

Easy

  • She is a teacher. — one verb form, one rule
  • I have two cats. — basic possession, short sentence
  • He doesn't like coffee. — simple negation with do-support
  • Only one answer is clearly correct; distractors are obviously wrong.

Easy marks beginner-level challenges: A1–early A2, one rule at a time, everyday vocabulary, no trick questions.

Use "Easy" when you want to build confidence on a specific rule without interference from other grammar or tricky contexts.