Verbs

Introduction

Verbs represent the action that is taking place in the sentence. Verbs are the center of a sentence because they are the only part that is required to form a sentence.

The different kinds of verbs are:

• Transitive and intransitive verbs

• Action verbs

• Being verbs

• Linking verbs

Transitive vs intransitive verbs

Transitive verbs are verbs that have a direct objectA direct object is a word or phrase that receives the action of a verb. For example: “I fed the cat.” In this sentence “the cat” is the direct object receives the action of “fed.” but do not have an indirect object. Intransitive verbs use neither a direct object nor an indirect objectAn indirect object is a word or phrase the receives the direct object. For example: “I made my friends dinner.” The indirect object is “my friends” because they are receiving the direct object “dinner.”. They are action verbs that are complete on their own.

Examples:

• Transitive verb: “I already cleaned the kitchen.”

• Intransitive: “I went for a run.”

Action verbs

Action verbs, also called dynamic verbs, are one of the most common verbs because they describe a physical action or activity that is taking place. These verbs are normally something external that is happening, but it can also include mental or internal actions. Let’s take a look at some examples:

Some examples include: walk, run, swim, jump, play, laugh, dance, hug.

• “I am dancing in the recital.”

• “I swam at the beach today.”

• “I considered the possibility of moving.”

Being verbs

Being verbs or “state of being” verbs are the opposite of action verbs in that they describe how the state of the subject or how the subject is feeling.

Some examples include: love, hate, like, dislike, prefer, believe, want.

• “Alex hates seafood.”

• “I want to travel the world!”

• “I prefer to live in the city rather than the suburbs.”

Linking verbs

A linking verb can be any type of verb that links the subject to the rest of the sentence.

Here are some examples:

• “Muhammad is in the dining room.”

• “The player was excited when they scored.”

Note that in each of these examples, the verb connects the subject to the rest of the sentence.

Irregular verbs

The trickiest part about learning a new language are irregular verbs. Irregular verbs are verbs that do not follow a regular pattern, but instead have unique rules.

While most regular verbs just add -d or -ed to the end of the word for past tense, irregular verbs have unusual past tense and past participles. Let’s take a look at the chart below to review some common irregular verbs.

Verbals

Verbals can be another confusing concept to grasp in English.

Verbals initially appear to be verbs, but they actually imitate something else in the sentence. There are three kinds of verbals.

• Gerunds imitate nouns

• Participles imitate adjectives

• Infinitives imitate nouns, adjectives, and adverbs

That may sound overwhelming, but don’t worry we will go over examples for all of these!

Gerunds

A simple trick to identifying a gerund is if you add the suffix -ing to the end of a verb that acts like a noun, then it is a gerund.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

• “Dancing can be very time consuming to learn.”

In this example, “Dancing” is the gerund because “dance” is a verb, but we have added “-ing” to the end of it and it acts as the noun or subject of this sentence.

• “Eating dinner at 7pm sounds great!”

In this example, “eating” is the gerund as it is a verb that is acting as the noun.

Participles

Present participle

There are two kinds of participles: present and past. In this lesson, we will briefly go over both.

Present participles are verbs that have -ing at the end of the word. They are formed by combing the root of the verb plus -ing

root of verb + -ing

If a verb ends in -ie, the -ie is chagned to -y before adding -ing. Look below for an example.

Here are some examples:

• “The falling leaves are gorgeous this time of year.”

• “Singing lessons can be difficult to find.”

• They were lying about the exam tomorrow, it was cancelled.

• Someone is calling you.

Past participle

The past participle is formed by adding -ed to the end of a verb.

If the verb already ends in e, only -d is added.

• The train has stopped.

• I was confused during class today.

Infinitives

Infinitives are used when we combine the word “to” with the unconjugated form of a verb.

Examples include: to go, to sing, to dance, to run, and to leave.

Let’s see how these work in a sentence:

• “I need to go to the store.”

In this example, “to go” is the infinitive.

• “She wants to buy a house.”

Here, “to buy” is the infinitive.

Exception to the rule

Remember how we said a verb is required to form a sentence? Technically there are some sentences that exist that do not have verbs. Sounds crazy? Let’s take a look at these scenarios.

Verbless sentences are expressions that do not have a verb. They are generally informal and used verbally, although they can include some greetings. For example:

• Good job!

• Happy birthday!

• Greetings such as:

  • Goodbye

  • Good morning

  • Hello

These are common phrases that are accepted as sentences, yet they do not have a verb.

Casual rhetoric has many instances of sentences without verbs. They are often exclamations and quick expressions.