Verbs in English Grammar for all group | PDF Worksheet:Verbs are a necessary component of communication in any language, including English, since they allow us to express what the subject is saying or doing. It encompasses all behaviors, including those that are motivated by sentiments and emotions. Verbs can function differently in order to convey the whole meaning of a sentence, which is why they exist in a variety of sorts and forms. Let’s examine the definitions of “verb” from a variety of dictionaries before moving on to verb forms and kinds.
Definition of a Verb
A “verb” is “a word or group of words that express an action (like eat), an event (like happen), or a state (like exist),” according to the Oxford Learners’ Dictionary. A “verb” is defined as “a word or phrase that describes an action, condition, or experience” in the Cambridge Dictionary. The definition of a verb is somewhat more detailed in the Collins Dictionary. “Words like sing, feel, or die are examples of verbs that are used with a subject to describe what someone or something does, what happens to them, or to provide information about them,” they say.
Verbs Are Generally Classified by What They Signify
Let’s first examine how verbs can be broadly categorized based on the type of action they indicate before moving on to a more detailed classification.
Verbs Associated with Actions
Verbs that need the movement of the body in any direction are called action verbs. Here are a few instances of verbs that describe actions:
Walk | Run | Talk |
Sit | Read | Write |
Jog | Cough | Sleep |
Jump | Sing | Drink |
Teach | Present | Build |
Break | Tow | Toss |
Verbs Referring to Experiences or Feelings
These verbs don’t always imply some form of movement; instead, they speak of things that you can sense or experience. The following are some instances of verbs that describe emotions and experiences:
Love | Hate | Envy |
Believe | Trust | Feel |
Entrust | Experience | Care |
Cherish | Sense | Know |
Recognise | Understand | Comprehend |
Like | Need | Adore |
Verbs Referring to a State or Condition
These verbs are ones that describe circumstances or a condition. This group includes all verbs that have the suffix “to be.” The following are some instances of verbs that describe a state or condition:
Am | Is | Are |
Was | Were | Have |
Has | Will be | Appear |
Seem | Become | Been |
The Various Types of Verbs with Examples
Depending on how they fit into a sentence or context, verbs can be categorized into a wide range of kinds. Let’s examine the different verb forms and some instances of each kind of verb.
Helping verbs and auxiliary verbs
As the name implies, an auxiliary verb is a verb that is used to support another verb in sounding logical and significant. It is employed to alter the voice, mood, or tense of the other verb. Therefore, there is always one additional verb that serves as the primary verb in a phrase when an auxiliary verb is utilized.
Examples of auxiliary verbs are as follows:
Am | Is | Are |
Was | Were | Have |
Has | Do | Will |
Can |
When using auxiliary verbs, one thing to keep in mind is that the verb should be conjugated correctly based on the sentence’s tense form. The ability to function as a main verb is another unique quality of auxiliary verbs. Modal verbs are another type of verb that can be employed as a supporting verb.
Modal Verbs
Verbs that indicate the likelihood, capability, necessity, or potential of something happening are known as modal verbs. Unlike other auxiliary verbs, modal verbs are not permitted to function as the primary verb in a phrase.
Examples of modal verbs are as follows:
Can | Could | Will |
Would | May | Might |
Should | Must | Ought to |
Phrasal Verbs
Phrasal verbs are words which have the same purpose as verbs in sentences and are created by joining two or more speech components. A phrasal verb is typically the product of combining a verb with a preposition.
Some examples of phrasal verbs are as follows:
Go by | Lay off | Log in |
Get off | Run out | Go all out |
Think through | Fed up | Taken aback |
Act on | Back away | Back up |
Look up | Mix up | Opt out |
Pop in |
Linking Verbs
As the name implies, a linking verb is a kind of verb that connects the subjects of a phrase to the other elements of the sentence to make the sentence make sense. It links an adjective, a prepositional phrase, and the subject to the object. Verbs with the prefix “to be,” including “seem” and “become,” can all serve as connecting verbs.
Examine the subsequent instances to comprehend the function of linking verbs in sentences.
Example 1: Connecting Nouns to Other Nouns in a Sentence
David is my brother.
The subject David is connected to the speaker as his “brother” in the example above by the use of the verb “is.” The terms “David” and “brother” relate to the same individual in this phrase.
Example 2: Connecting a Noun to a Prepositional Phrase in a Sentence
The children were in the park.
In Example 2, The prepositional phrase “in the park” and the subject “the children” are connected by the verb “were.”
Example 3: Connecting a Noun/Subject to an Adjective
Your presentation of the life cycle of the silkworm was excellent.
In the above example, The topic “Your presentation of the life cycle of a silkworm” and the adjective “excellent” are connected by the verb “was.”
Example 4: Connecting the Subject/Noun to the Predicate using Seem/Become
This book on a treasure hunt seems interesting.
In this sentence, The linking word “seem” connects the subject “This book on a treasure hunt” to the adjective “interesting.”
Different Categories of Verbs
Verbs fall into various groups based on how they behave in various contexts. Let’s examine the categories that are described below.
Types of Verbs: Regular and Irregular
Regular Verbs: As you can see, verbs signify actions and can take on various forms to show what the subject of a sentence is doing at any one time. When a regular verb is conjugated, it might indicate whether the activity is ongoing or occurred in the past.
Irregular Verbs: the past tense is typically produced by appending a “ed” to the verb root. However, there are several verbs that do not adhere to this criterion. We refer to them as irregular verbs. These verbs have particular forms of their own. You can find out how to learn these irregular verbs by reading the irregular verbs article.
Below are the examples given below.
Dileep opened his cabinet and felt about for his white shirt, but he could not find it. (root verb: search) Were you able to locate the book you were trying to find?
In the aforementioned instances, the word “looking” denotes the continuous form of the regular verb “look” by appending a “ing” to the end of the root verb, while the verb “searched” is the past form of the regular verb “search” by adding a “ed.”
Selena finished reading the book about how life on Earth evolved.
The keys that vanished yesterday were located by Vineeth.
The past tense and past participle of the verb “read” in the aforementioned cases are identical. The past tense of the basic verb “find” is “found.”
Transitive Verbs and Intransitive Verbs
The difference between a verb’s direct and indirect object actions is indicated by its transitive and intransitive forms. Let’s examine a few instances.
Vincent offered his brother a box of chocolates. (His brother is the indirect object; the chocolate box is the direct object.) Garry handed the water bottle to Kevin, who was seated in the front row. (The water bottle is the direct object; Kevin is the indirect object.)
For two hours, the young girl sprinted through the park.
Every day, Francey walked to school.
Today, my mother cleaned the house. (The house is the direct object.) Seena thought the movie was bad. (The movie is the direct object.)
In the above examples, In contrast to the verbs “ran” and “walked,” which take no object at all, the verbs “gave” and “passed” in the first two phrases are observed to take both a direct and an indirect object. The verbs “cleaned” and “did not like” in the final two lines only accept direct objects; they do not accept indirect objects.
Verb Forms
There are various ways to employ a verb to express the moment the subject is acting. The same is accomplished with a variety of verb forms. Let’s examine the many verb tenses that are described here.
Root Verb
The term “root verb” refers to a verb’s unaltered or original form, as it appeared in the English language before any conjugations or inflexions.
Some examples of root verbs are as follows:
Eat | Sit | Stir |
Type | Read | Fry |
Tick | Shift | Trick |
Sing |
Simple Present – Third Person Singular
The verb in the present tense is mostly in the singular form when it is in the third person singular. The verb is singular (usually only by adding a “s” to the root verb) so that it corresponds with the subject in the phrase when utilizing third-person singular pronouns like he, she, and it, as well as nouns that can be substituted by them.
As an example:
Mangos are Kenny’s favorite after-meal snack. The pronoun “he,” in the third person singular, can be used in place of the noun “Kenny.”
Every rat that the cat spots is pursued. The pronoun “it,” in the third person singular, can be used in place of the noun “the cat.”
She hates going to work on Saturdays and Mondays.
Present Participle
When referring to an action that is ongoing or in process at that specific moment, at some point in the past, or at some point in the future, the present participle is employed in the continuous form of tenses. All that is needed to construct these words is to add a “ing” to the root verb. Most of the time, when a verb ends in a “e,” the present participle is created by taking the “e” out and adding “ing” to the remaining part of the verb.
For example:
Ranju is watching a movie along with her cousin. (Present Continuous Tense)
My sister is baking cakes (Present Continuous Tense)
All my brothers were playing dodgeball in the evening. (Past Continuous Tense)
Simple Past
When the simple past tense form of the verb is indicated, the spelling of the root verb is altered. The simple past tense has no set convention when writing verbs; some verbs, like “give” and “bring,” require a different spelling in the past tense, while other verbs, like “cut” and “put,” stay the same. Nevertheless, by appending a “ed” to the end of the underlying word, most verbs can be transformed into the past tense.
For example:
The doctor asked me to take tablets for six days. (The rook verb here is ‘ask’)
Nasra bought the car he checked out last week. (The root verbs here are ‘buy’ and ‘check’)
The baby drank the milk completely. (The root verb here is ‘drink’)
Past participle
In a phrase, the verb’s past participle form is employed to indicate the perfect tense forms. Certain verbs have different spellings when used as simple past tense verbs and past participles, although in other circumstances, the past tense and the past participle stay the same.
For example:
I have searched the entire loft for that box, but I did not find it. (The root verb here is ‘search’, ‘have searched’ is the verb in the sentence that indicates the perfect tense and ‘searched’ is the past participle)
David had read the book already.
In the above example, the root verb here is ‘read’, ‘have read’ is the verb in the sentence that indicates the perfect tense and ‘read’ is the past participle. In this case, all forms of the verb take the same spelling but have a different pronunciation.
Gerunds
The suffix “ing” can be added to any verb to make it a gerund. When gerunds are used alone, they can function as nouns. When combined with an auxiliary verb, a gerund can be used as a verb to denote an action that is ongoing at a certain moment in time.
For example:
He is eating an orange.
Narayan will be coming home next week.
Walking every day is good exercise.
Drinking and driving is dangerous.
Infinitives
Infinitives, similar to gerunds, verbs can be made into nouns by prefixing them with “to” before the original verb.
For example:
Would you like to have something?
I like to dance in my free time.
I am going to talk to my friend.
Active Voice and Passive Voice
The voice of a verb can be inferred from the placement of the subject and object in a sentence. The passive voice refers to a statement in which the direct or indirect object is switched to become the subject. whereas the active voice refers to a sentence in which the subject performs the action.
For example:
Active Voice – The doctor checked the patient.
Passive Voice – The patient was checked by the doctor.
Conjugating Verbs in the English Language – Tense Forms
You can indicate the required tense for verbs by conjugating them. The simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous tenses are the four different types of tenses. The present, past, and future are represented by these tense forms, which add up to a total of twelve primary tense forms.
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