Verbs in English

What are verbs? How can they be defined or categorized? This page anwers 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.

Defining a verb

Different types of verb

Tense, aspect, voice

 

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:

Different types of verb

CLEAR, CONCISE and COMPREHENSIVE
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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.

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.  
Examples

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.  

Rare forms:
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

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 indicative is the normal mood, and is illustrated in all the examples above
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

• the verb to be
• and the verb to have

Other verb pages :   ▲The infinitive   ▲   Split infinitives   ▲ Present perfect or Compound past?

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