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college essay- what do i replace to be verbs

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RonBee

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I have no idea what that means.

:?
 

Tdol

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It depends- be can be replaced by many verbs, but most change the meaning. You can often replace 'be' with 'get' in the passive. ;-)
 

RonBee

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How did you get a question out of that?

:?
 
J

jwschang

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Casiopea said:
RonBee said:
How did you get a question out of that?

:?

To be or not to be is a question :wink:

Student2's question is in the subject box of the posting.

Student2, here's some help for you:

1. "To be" is the root form of the verb.
2. In the Present Form, it becomes AM (for I), IS (for he, her, it), ARE (for you, they)
3. In the Past form, it becomes WAS (for I, he, she, it) and WERE (for you, they).
4. Continuous or Progressive Participle: BEING
5. Perfect Participle: BEEN.

6. You replace the "to be" with the above forms depending on the Verb Tense that the sentence requires. E.g.,
(a) I (to be) happy = I AM happy.
(b) You (to be) walking when he saw you = You WERE walking when he saw you.
(c) etc, etc.

Is that what you were asked to do by your teacher? :wink:
 

RonBee

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Is the question "What do I replace to be verbs with?"

:?
 

Tdol

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RonBee said:
How did you get a question out of that?

:?

I got it from the title of the thread. ;-)
 

Tdol

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Casiopea said:
RonBee said:
How did you get a question out of that?

:?

To be or not to be is a question :wink:

But maybe one better not answered. ;-)
 

RonBee

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tdol said:
RonBee said:
How did you get a question out of that?

:?

I got it from the title of the thread. ;-)

But the title of the thread is "college essay- what do i replace to be verbs", and that is not a sentence. :(

I wonder what college it is where they ask questions in such a manner.

:?:
 
J

jwschang

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RonBee said:
But the title of the thread is "college essay- what do i replace to be verbs", and that is not a sentence. :(

I wonder what college it is where they ask questions in such a manner.

:?:

I think the question was phrased by Student2. It should read "What do I replace "to be" verbs with?" :wink:
 
J

jwschang

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student2 said:
what do i do she said to replace them but with what

Hello Student2, welcome to the forum!.

It makes it difficult to guess what you are saying if you don't punctuate your sentences. But, if you write:

What do I do? She said to replace them, but with what?

Then everybody understands.
 

gothamx3

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I cannot believe that I, a high school student, had to come and explain this to you guys. "to be verbs" are not the actually words, "to be." To be verbs consist of, am, are, is, was, were, be, being, and there are more. When your teacher told you to replace these, she means that you need to come up with some more interesting, college level, verbs for your paper. Oh and here's a little life lesson for you, next time you do not wanna get owned by a high school student, how bout you try google?
 

Ann1977

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what do i do she said to replace them but with what


Gotham is undoubtedly correct.

Replacing all forms of the verb "to be" with other verbs has a number of interesting consequences. For one thing, it pretty much wipes out the passive voice.

Here's a Wiki discussion on this practice, referred to as "E-prime."
E-Prime - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sometimes the struggle to word your way around forms of "to be" is entertaining. Perhaps if the Asker posted interesting examples in small batches, he would get responses.
 
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