To be is a verb and it means to exist, or describes a state of existence. It is the most common verb in English. Conjugation: I am You are It is We are They are Past participle = been. I have been to France =/ I have travelled to France. I have been sad all day = My emotional state all day today is sad. Be is also used as an auxiliary verb. Auxiliary verbs are helper verbs, they don't have a meaning on their own, but they are used for the construction of certain verb tenses. I am going to Paris. I am (in this moment or in the future) going to Paris. I have been going to Paris often. Recently, or over the period of my life, I find myself in Paris often. He is going to Paris. He is (in this moment or in the future) going to Paris. Present perfect continuous: I have been waiting for 5 minutes. Been is the auxiliary in this case, it doesn't have a specific meaning. It exists to construct the present perfect continuous tense. This tense describes something that began in the past and continues up until now. The person started waiting 5 minutes ago, and they are still waiting. I hope this clarifies something for you.

"Be" (meaning "exist") does not behave the same way as other verbs, and it conjugates in a number of different ways. Why? Just history. :) You have: be - being - been; am - is -are; was - were. You'll see all these forms again and again, so you don't need to analyse them too much. Just accept them as versions of the same verb.

The word 'be' is the second most common word in English after 'the'. It can be used 100's of different ways. For a complete list I've added a link that could help. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/be Hope that helps, Andrew