Verbs in
English
What are they and how are
they used ?
What are verbs? How can they be defined or categorized? This page attempts to answer these essential questions as clearly and concisely as possible.
Verbs are among the essential building blocks of communication in any language. They are one of the two essential elements of a sentence or clause. The other is the subject.
| Index : | Defining a verb | Different types of verb | Tense,
aspect, voice |
Verbs: a definition
A verb exists in relation to a subject. It is the key and essential element of the predicate in a sentence. The verb expresses an action or process undertaken by the subject, or a situation defining the subject.► Actions:
to break, to start, to shout
Processes : to sleep, to eat, to think
Situations : to be, to seem, to live
Processes : to sleep, to eat, to think
Situations : to be, to seem, to live
Verbs in the sentence
Every sentence is made up of a subject and a predicate. The predicate must contain a verb, but can contain many other elements too (a complement, an object or more, adverbs, circumstantial expressions, etc.). Examples:The president sneezed
You have taken the wrong bag
The man and the woman both forgot.
He forgot to get off the train at York.
You have taken the wrong bag
The man and the woman both forgot.
He forgot to get off the train at York.
Different types of verb
Transitive or intransitive?
Verbs can either be transitive or intransitive. A transitive verb requires an object, an intransitive verb cannot have an object. Some verbs can be transitive or intransitive, depending on context.►
Transitive: to build,
to employ, to like, to drop
Intransitive : to sleep, to die, to fall
Verbs that can be either : to give, to burn, to smell
Intransitive : to sleep, to die, to fall
Verbs that can be either : to give, to burn, to smell
Stative or dynamic?
Verbs can be either stative or dynamic. Stative verbs describe a situation or state, dynamic verbs describe a process or change of state. The two categories are incompatible with each other.►
Stative
- describing a state : to know, to lie,
to be, to like,
Dynamic - expressing a change of state: to discover, to lie down, to become, to learn
ExamplesDynamic - expressing a change of state: to discover, to lie down, to become, to learn
1)
I know
a lot of people in London.
2) My father likes beer but not whisky.
3) The scientists discovered a new planet on the edge of the solar system.
4) I sat down and went to sleep.
2) My father likes beer but not whisky.
3) The scientists discovered a new planet on the edge of the solar system.
4) I sat down and went to sleep.
Tense, aspect, voice
According to conventional modern linguistics, there are only two tenses in English, the present and the past. Other "tenses" are verb forms created with the help of auxiliaries and modals. As well as being a rather artificial construct, this can be very confusing for students.Thus, for the purpose of clarity, it is more useful to use the historic classification of tenses in English, as defined by - among others - Samuel Johnson. Johnson listed six English tenses, each of them with a simple and a progressive or continuous aspect.
Here is a table of the main tenses in English, in simple and progressive aspect, and active and passive voices: sample verb - to make
| Aspect,
voice Tense (form) |
Simple, active | Progressive, active | Simple, passive | Progressive, passive |
| Present | I make | I am making | I am made | I am being made |
| Future | I will make | I will be making | I will be made | rare |
| Preterit | I made | I was making | I was made | I was being made |
| Present Perfect | I have made | I have been making | I have been made | rare |
| Past perfect | I had made | I had been making | I had been made | rare |
| Future perfect | I will have made | I will have been making | I will have been made | rare |
- Present tenses: for examples, explanations and further details, see the page on the present tense in English.
- The future: for examples, explanations and further details, see the page on expressing the future in English.
- Past tenses ; for examples, explanations and further details on the different past tenses in English, including the "present perfect", see past tenses in English.
Other "tenses" may exist in English for some verbs, in specific contexts; for example we could envisage "It will be being repaired " or "He's been being looked after", but forms like this are very rare. Here, nonetheless, is a plausible example of a future progressive passive, which is hard to avoid in this particular case:
While you're on holiday in Majorca, I'll be being interviewed for that job in Glasgow.
Other verb forms in English: modality
Other
forms or tenses, and notably conditionals, are formed
with the help of modal verbs:
can,
could, may, might, would, plus must
, should and
ought to. These forms
are structured in the same
way as the future or future perfect. These
are the only structures possible using modal auxiliaries !
Here is a table of modal verb forms, using the modal
auxiliary must
.| Modality Aspect |
Modality in the present or future | Modality in the past |
| Simple, active | I must take | I must have taken |
| Progressive, active | I must be taking | I must have been taking |
| Simple, passive | I must be taken | I must have been taken |
| Progressive, passive | rare | rare |
Moods
Verbs can be used in three different moods- The indicative
- The subjunctive
- The imperative
The subjunctive is very rare in English, and is normally found only in a few expressions, the most common of which is If I were you. See below.
The imperative is used to give orders, instructions, invitations, etc. See Imperatives
The subjunctive in English
Most English-speakers do not know that there is a subjunctive mood in English; but there is, and many use it quite regularly, without realising. However there is only one context in which the subjunctive is commonly used, and that is in the context of a hypothetical conditional statement. And of these, there is just one expression that is used - from time to time - by most people, and it is:If I were you as in If I were you, I'd drive more carefully.
Note that the expression is "If I were you" (a subjunctive), and not "If I was you" (an indicative), though the second form is also heard.
Verbs with multiple functions: be and have. See
Other verb pages : ▲The infinitive ▲ Split infinitives ▲ Present perfect or Compound past?
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