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PlainSpell

be

/ˈbiː/verb, preposition, noun

be is spelled B-E: 2 letters and one syllable. It appears 6,166 times per million words in written English, the 18th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, be means “Used with past participles of verbs to form the passive voice” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in be?

Letters2: B-E
Syllables1
In writing6,166 times per million words; the 18th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is be?

Be appears 6,166 times per million words in written English, the 18th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce be?

  • /ˈbiː/
  • [ˈbɪi̯]
  • /ˈbɪ/

As a preposition (“Alternative form of by. Also found in compounds, especially…”): /bi/, /bə/, /bɪ/.

As a noun (“The name of the Cyrillic script letter Б / б”): /beɪ/.

Be has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-to_be.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-be.wav, En-us-be.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with be

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

be vs bee0 B

Sounds like: bee (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: bee, by, were.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of be

  • am present, singular
  • 'm present, singular
  • was past, singular, he/she/it
  • are present, singular, plural
  • 're present, singular, plural
  • art present, singular
  • 'rt present, singular
  • were past, singular, plural
  • is present, singular, he/she/it
  • 's present, singular, he/she/it
  • being participle, present
  • been participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does be mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    Used with past participles of verbs to form the passive voice.

    The dog was saved by the boy.

  2. 2

    Used with present participles of verbs to form the continuous aspect.

    The woman is walking.

  3. 3

    Used with to-infinitives of verbs to express intent, obligation, appropriateness, or relative future occurrence.

    I am to leave tomorrow.

  4. 4

    Used with past participles of certain intransitive verbs to form the perfect aspect.

    He is finished.

  5. 5

    IrelandTo tend to do, often do; marks the habitual aspect.

  6. 6

    To exist.

    There is just one woman in town who can help us.

  7. 7

    Used to declare the subject and object identical or equivalent.

    Hi, I’m Jim.

  8. 8

    Used to indicate that a predicate nominal applies to the subject.

    Rex is a dog.

noun

  1. 1

    The name of the Cyrillic script letter Б / б

noun

as BE
  1. 1

    Initialism of Bachelor of Engineering.

  2. 2

    Initialism of breast expansion.

adjective

as BE
  1. 1

    Initialism of board-eligible.

preposition

  1. 1

    datedAlternative form of by. Also found in compounds, especially oaths, e.g. begorra begad and bejesus.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate be?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of be: b.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Be in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchêtre (auxiliary: used to form the passive voice), avoir (auxiliary (archaic in English): used to form…), faire (used to indicate that the values on either side…)
Germanwerden (auxiliary: used to form the passive voice), sein (auxiliary: used to form the continuous aspect…)
Portugueseser (auxiliary: used to form the passive voice), ter (auxiliary (archaic in English): used to form…), dar (used to indicate that the values on either side…)
Spanishser, seer (auxiliary: used to form the passive voice), estar (auxiliary: used to form the continuous aspect…), andar, vivir, parar (auxiliary, dialectal: used to mark habitual…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does be come from?

From Middle English been (“to be”). See below for more. Further etymology of be and its conjugated forms The various forms have three separate origins, which were mixed together at various times in the history of English.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after be