Verbs

Whenever we refer to something that moves, changes, or even just exists, we use a verb. Verbs are dynamic and energetic, but require care when using.

Introduction

While nouns are the "things" we talk about, verbs tell us what these things do. 

There are many different types of verbs, and we must take particular care when using them within a sentence. 

Types of Verbs

There are four broad categories into which verbs can be placed: action verbs, stative verbs, auxiliary verbs and modal verbs.

Action verbs

Action verbs are doing words. They refer to an action that is being undertaken by the subject of a sentence. 

Action verbs can refer to both physical and mental actions.

Action verbs are also considered main verbs because they refer directly to the subject of the sentence. 

Stative verbs

A stative verb refers to a state of being. To exist, it turns out, is to be doing something.

Consider the following examples.

Stative verbs are also considered main verbs because they refer directly to the subject of a sentence.

Auxiliary verbs

Sometimes, a main verb (whether action or stative) requires one or more auxiliary verbs in order to work correctly.

Consider the following sentences:

Hmmm.

These sentences are not right.

We will get to exactly why these sentences are not right later in this entry, but for now it is enough to know that each of these sentences needs additional 'helper' verbs to be grammatically complete.

Let's add these auxiliary verbs (written in bold). 

That's better. Each of these sentences now 'sounds' right because the auxiliary verbs ensure that they are grammatically complete. 

There is a wide range of auxiliary verbs in English, and we will learn about these when we come to verb tense, aspect and agreement. 

Modal verbs

Modal verbs are used to reflect different shades of meaning in hypothetical situations. They allow us to do things like express probability, give recommendations and make requests. 

Modal verbs are a type of auxiliary verb because they relate to the main verb of the sentence, rather than the subject. 

Note how the bolded modal verbs change the meaning of the following sentences.

The situations in which modal verbs can be used are listed below, along with the most commonly used verbs for each situation.

Verb Tense

Verbs change depending on the time period the speaker is referring to. 

Note how the following verbs change when referring to the present, past and future. 

It was relatively easy to change these verbs to the past tense because we could simply add -ed to the present form. 

These verbs are known as regular verbs, but it gets a little more complicated with irregular verbs.

Here are some examples of irregular verbs. 

Why are some verbs irregular and others not?

It's complicated and has to do with history, but if you'd like to go down a rabbit hole then there is an interesting ThoughtCo article on the subject.

Verb Aspect

Beyond tense, verbs also change to reflect whether something is finished or not. This concept is known as verb aspect.

There are four of these aspects: simple, progressive, perfect and perfect progressive. 

Don't worry, we'll go through them one by one, starting with the simple aspect. 

We can think of verbs in the simple aspect as expressing a fact. The following examples are the same ones we used earlier, although we can now refer to them as being in the simple past, simple present or simple future tense. 

Okay, now for verbs in the progressive aspect.

What are you doing right now? You're reading, aren't you. Or at least, you should be. 

Because this entry isn't finished, you are still reading it. Therefore, we can say this action is progressing, and thus should be expressed in the progressive aspect. 

Verbs in the progressive aspect end with-ing. 

Now for the perfect aspect, which refers to an action that has been completed. 

The last one has a lot of p's: the perfect progressive aspect. This aspect refers to ongoing actions that have started but are not finished. 

All of the extra words that we keep adding to these verbs (eg. will have been) are auxiliary verbs. 

Without these auxiliary verbs, the main verb in a sentence cannot 'match' the words around it to reflect the time period of the sentence, or whether or not the action is completed.

This "matching" is known as verb agreement, a process which also requires us to alter verbs to match the subject they are referring to. 

Subject-Verb Agreement

Just as verbs must change to match their tense and aspect, so too must verbs change to match their subject.

Consider the following sentences.

Hmmm. 

One of these sentences is not right. 

Even though both examples are referring to the same condition (being Australian), only the verb in the first example agrees with the subject (I am).

The first person singular verb form (I) is one of the six subject forms that a verb must agree with.

Let's examine the full range. 

Subject-verb agreement becomes more difficult as sentences become longer and more complex.

(A good reason to keep our sentences short and simple.)

Consider the following sentence.

At first glance this sentence appears to be correct. The verb plays is in the third person singular form because it follows the words his friend. And yet, something isn't right. 

Can you fix the sentence?

Dramatic music.

The problem is that the verb needs to agree with two people, not just one. In this situation, my brother and his friend (they) play Xbox together. Thus, we need to use the third person plural form (play). 

That's better, now the verb agrees with the correct subject form and everything is in order. 

While grammar checkers do a pretty good job of catching such errors, they are not perfect. And, under assessment conditions, we may have to use handwriting and cannot rely on digital tools to help us.

Therefore, we must always take care to ensure that our verbs agree with their subjects. As always, the best way to do this is to read our work out loud (even if we must do this quietly under our breath during assessment conditions). 

Phrasal verbs 

Sometimes, two or more words work together to form a completely new verb. The meaning of this new phrasal verb does not need to have anything to do with the meanings of the original words. 

Consider the following examples:

With regards to making phrasal verbs agree with their tense, aspect and subject, fortunately we only need to make sure the verb itself agrees (not the other elements). 

Verb Phrases

Wait, verb phrases? But, didn't we just do something called phrasal verbs? 

Yes, we did. But now we're doing verb phrases. They're like noun phrases.

Consider the following sentences.

Such sentences, in which a verb is only one single word, are rare. Usually, a verb is accompanied by other parts of speech.

Grammatically, the bolded words in each of the examples above (including the earlier ones in which the verb was only one word) are treated as a single entity: a verb phrase. 

As with noun phrases, a verb phrase can include many words. However, a verb phrase will always include a head verb to which all other words in that phrase relate.

Note the underlined head verbs in the following examples.

A verb phrase can be one word or it can be many; grammatically, however, it is always treated as a single entity within a sentence.

NEXT:
Adjectives