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A verb is a word that conveys an action (bring, read, walk, run, learn), an occurrence (happen, become), or a state of being (be, exist, stand).
- I washed the car yesterday.
- The robot is self-aware.
- John studies English and French.
- Lucy enjoys listening to music.
Verb Types
There are three basic types of verbs: action verbs, linking verbs, and helping verbs. Generally speaking, an action verb expresses the activity of a subject, while a linking verb connects information back to a subject. Helping verbs are words that are added to other verbs to specify tense (in other words, they help show when a sentence happens) or to otherwise alter their meaning in some way.
Action verbs are the simplest type of verb: they simply express some sort of action: e.g., contain, roars, runs, sleeps. Action verbs can be broken up into two categories: intransitive verbs and transitive verbs.(15)
Click on each category for more information.
A linking verb is a verb that links a subject to the rest of the sentence. There isn’t any “real” action happening in this kind of sentence. Sentences with linking verbs are similar to math equations because the verb acts as an equals sign connecting the items it links. For example:
- Heidi is an excellent teacher. (Heidi=an excellent teacher.)
- Darryl was a hair stylist. (Darryl=a hair stylist.)
- I am tired and cold. (I=tired and cold.)
While to be verbs are the most common linking verbs (is, was, were, etc.), there are other linking verbs that sometimes look like action verbs. For example, consider these two sentences:
- John feels sick.
- John feels the table.
In the first example, the writer is saying that John=sick, so the verb feels in that sentence is a linking verb. In the second example, the writer is NOT saying John=the table; instead, in this sentence, John is performing the action of feeling the table, so the verb feels is an action verb.
Here are some illustrations of other common linking verbs:
- Since the oil spill, the beach has smelled bad.
- Similarly, one could also read this as “Since the oil spill, the beach=smelled bad.” If you can replace the verb with an equals sign and the logic of the sentence makes sense, you know you are dealing with a linking verb.
- That word processing program seems adequate for our needs.
- Here, the linking verb seems is slightly more nuanced, though the sentence construction overall is similar. (This is why we write in words, rather than math symbols, after all.) Still, it basically makes sense that what is meant here is that the program=adequate.(17)
Helping verbs (sometimes called auxiliary verbs) are, as the name suggests, verbs that help other verbs. They provide support and add additional meaning. Here are some examples of helping verbs in sentences:
- Mariah is looking for her keys still.
- Kai has checked the weather three times already.
As these examples indicate, helping verbs include words like is and has. Let’s look at some more examples to examine exactly what these verbs do. Take a look at the sentence “I have finished my dinner.” Here, the main verb is finished, and the helping verb have helps to express tense. While the writer could have written “I finished dinner,” the meaning of the sentence shifts slightly when have is added; “I have finished my dinner” subtly indicates that the writer is about to move on to another action or hasn’t finished acting yet.
Let’s look at two more examples:
- By 1967, about 500 U.S. citizens had received heart transplants.
- While received could function on its own as a complete thought, the helping verb had emphasizes the distance in time of the date in the opening phrase.
- Do you want tea?
- Do is a helping verb accompanying the main verb want, used here to form a question.(18)
Tenses
There are three standard tenses in English: past, present, and future. All three of these tenses have simple and complex forms. For now, we’ll just focus on the simple present (things happening now), the simple past (things that happened before), and the simple future (things that will happen later).
- Simple Present: work(s)
- Simple Past: worked
- Simple Future: will work(19)
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One of the most common mistakes in writing is a lack of tense consistency. Writers often start a sentence in one tense but ended up in another. In fact, if you look back at the sentence you just read, you will notice an error in verb tense consistency:
Writers often start a sentence in one tense but ended up in another.
The first verb, start, is in the present tense, but ended is in the past tense. The second verb needs to match up in tense with the first one. The correct version of the sentence would be:
Writers often start a sentence in one tense but end up in another.
These mistakes often occur when writers change their minds halfway through writing a sentence or when they come back and make changes but only end up changing half the sentence. It is very important to maintain a consistent tense, not just in a sentence, but across paragraphs and pages. Decide if something happened (past tense), is happening (present tense), or will happen (future tense) and then stick with that choice.
Non-finite verbs are words that look similar to verbs we’ve already been talking about but that act quite different from those other verbs.
By definition, a non-finite verb cannot serve as the main verb in an independent clause. In practical terms, this means that they don’t serve as the action of a sentence. They also don’t have a tense. While the sentence around them may be past, present, or future tense, the non-finite verbs themselves are neutral. There are three types of non-finite verbs: gerunds, participles, and infinitives.(22)
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One of the biggest controversies among grammarians and style writers has been the appropriateness of separating the two words of the to -infinitive, as in “to boldly go.” Despite what a lot of people have declared over the years, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this construction. It is 100 percent grammatically sound.
Part of the reason so many authorities have been against this construction is likely the fact that in languages such as Latin, the infinitive is a single word and cannot be split. However, in English the infinitive (or at least the to -infinitive) is two words, and a split infinitive is a perfectly natural construction.(25)
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Now that we’ve learned about the most common parts of speech—nouns, pronouns, and verbs—we’re ready to move on to the other parts of speech.
Next, we have adjectives and adverbs, which are different types of modifiers (i.e., they modify other words). For example, compare the phrase “the bear” to “the harmless bear” or the phrase “run” to “run slowly.” In both of these cases, the adjective (harmless) or adverb (slowly) changes how we understand the phrase.(26)
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An adjective modifies a noun; that is, it provides more detail about a noun. Adjectives can provide information about anything from color to size to temperature to personality. Adjectives usually occur just before the nouns they modify, but they can also follow a linking verb (in these instances, adjectives can modify pronouns as well). In the following sentences, the words being described are in italics and the adjectives are in bold.
- The generator is used to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy.
- The kids’ schoolhouse was red. (here the linking verb “was” links “red” to the schoolhouse)(26)
Many students find adverbs trickier to spot and use than adjectives. Adverbs can perform a wide range of functions: they can modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They can come either before or after the word they modify. An adverb may provide information about the manner, place, time, frequency, certainty, or other circumstances of the activity indicated by the verb. In the following sentences, the adverbs are in bold, while the words they modify are in italics.
- Suzanne sang loudly. (loudly modifies the verb sang, indicating the manner of singing)
- We left it here. (here modifies the verb phrase left it, indicating place)
- I worked yesterday. (yesterday modifies the verb worked, indicating time)
- You often make mistakes. (often modifies the verb phrase make mistakes, indicating frequency)
- He undoubtedly did it. (undoubtedly modifies the verb phrase did it, indicating certainty)
Adverbs can also modify noun phrases, prepositional phrases, or whole clauses and sentences, as in the following examples. Once again, the adverbs are in bold, while the words they modify are in italics.
- I bought only the fruit. (only modifies the noun phrase the fruit)
- Roberto drove us almost to the station. (almost modifies the prepositional phrase to the station)
- Certainly we need to act. (certainly modifies the sentence as a whole)
Adverbs also are used to show comparison, taking comparative and superlative forms. The comparative form is used to show that something has more of a quality or trait than something else. The superlative form is used to show that something exceeds all other things in a group. This is usually done by adding more (comparative form) and most (superlative form) before the adverb (more slowly, most slowly). However, there are a few adverbs that take non-standard forms, such as well, for which better and best are used (i.e., “He did well, she did better, and I did best.”). Note that you never should combine more or most with such a non-standard form; for example, never use “more better” or “most best” in a sentence.
(15) Verbs. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution- ShareAlike
(16) Intransitive Verb. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution- ShareAlike
(17) Transitive Verb. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution- ShareAlike
(18) Revision and Adaptation of Wikipedia Content. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution- ShareAlike
(19) Verb Tenses. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution
(20) Agreement (linguistics). Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution- ShareAlike
(22) Non-Finite Verbs. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution- ShareAlike
(23) Gerund. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution- ShareAlike
(24) Participle. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution- ShareAlike
(25) Infinitive. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution- ShareAlike
(26) Comparing Adjectives and Adverbs. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution- ShareAlike
