Verb

What is a verb?

jump

VerbsA verb is one of the most important parts of the sentence.

It tells the subjects actions, events, or state of being.

It is always found in the predicate of a sentence.

A verb is a word used to express an action, a

condition, or a state of being.

•The director squished his nose.

•His noise is big.

•The director is squishing his nose.

Types of Verbs

Verbs

Action Linking Helping

Action VerbsA verb that shows action is called an action

verb.The action verb tells what its subject does.The action can either by physical or mental.

Physical Action: The farmer feeds the chickens.

Mental Action: He likes the red rooster best.

Linking Verbs

A linking verb links its subject to a word in the predicate.

Linking verbs express a condition or a state of being.

The cow is blue.

Linking Verbs

There are nine common linking verbs:

am

are

be

being

become

is seem was

were

To remember these linking verbs, use this saying:

All boys in school work.am be is seem was

are being were

become

Helping VerbsA helping verb helps a main verb express

action or precise shades of meaning.The combination of one or more helping verbs

is called a verb phrase.

Elmer was was usingusing the computer.

23 Helping Verbsmaymightmust 

bebeingbeenamareiswaswere

(main)

dodoesdid

(main)

shouldcouldwould

havehadhas

(main)

willcanshall

Helping VerbsOther things to keep in mind: •Not every sentence will have a helping verb with the main verb. •When you see an "ing" verb such as "running", be on the lookout for a helping verb also.

Helping Verbs•Sometimes there is another word which separates the helping verb from the main verb. One common example is "not.”

The boy could not find his socks.

The helping verb is could and the main verb is find.

Helping Verbs•A sentence may contain up to three helping verbs to the main verb.

•An example would be:

The dog must have been chasing the cat.

The helping verbs are: must, have, and been; the main verb is chasing.

Types of verbs according to form

As to form verbs only have four forms. We can say that the verb has three inflectional suffixes (-d, -s, -ing).

Vbase or V, which is the base form of the verb, the dictionary form which is used to indicate:

•The imperative Live now, pay later.

•The simple present tense of the indicative (except the 3rd person singular)

They live in London.•The infinitive because it is accompanying a modal verb

They must live happily now.

Vs form, which is used to represent the third person singular.

He lives in a small apartment.

Ved form which indicates:

•The regular or irregular simple past tense of all the verbs

He lived here last year.•The regular or irregular past participle of all verbs

He has lived here for a while.

Ving form which represents:

•The present participle He is living here with us.

•The gerundLiving here is good for the health.

Another classification of verb according to form is the division of:

Single word verbsCall, sleep, eat, dream

Phrasal verbsCall on, eat up, make up

The phrasal verbs are classified by most grammarians as separable and non separable. Another subclassification of the phrasal verbs is that of the prepositional verbs, which are those composed of the verb and a preposition.

Prepositional verbs: Sleep in, look at

Regular and irregular verbs

The regular verbs are those that form their past participle (Ved) by adding the morpheme d.

Jump – jumpedLook - lookedHave – had

The irregular verbs are those that do not form their past or past participle with the d morpheme.

Sing- sangBe –was/wereWrite - wrote

Dynamic and stative verbs

Dynamic verbs are those that readily accept, because of their meaning, the use of Ving.

•These verbs denote an actual action or expression or process done by the subject. They mean an action which can be seen or physically felt.

Be, drink, smoke, jump

Stative verbs are those that cannot be normally used in the continuous form. They are called non-continuous verbs.

•These verbs refer to the state of the subject or the situation of the subject. They tell us about the state of mind of the subject, or the relation between the subject and the object.

Love, look like, remember, seem

Mixed verbs. These verbs have more than one meaning. Some meanings behave like non-continuous verbs (stative verbs), while other meanings behave like continuous verbs (dynamic verbs).

To have, to appear, to see, to feel, to look…

Examples:

I have a dollar now. (I possess a dollar.) non-continuous verbI am having fun now. (I am experiencing fun now.) continuous verb

Dynamic and stative verbs (cont.)

Subject – Verb Agreement

The subject and verb in a clause should always agree in number.

Joey walks. (singular subject/singular verb)Joey and Maggie walk. (plural subject/plural

verb)She runs. (singular subject/singular verb)They run. (plural subject/plural verb)