Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
English verbs have five basic forms: the base form, the - S form, the - ing form, the past form,
and the past participle form:
1. The base (or simple) form: For all verbs except BE, the base form is the verb with "no
special ending" (no - s, - ing, - ed, etc.).
2. The - S (or third-person singular, present tense) form: For BE, this form is is and for have,
it's has. For other verbs, the - S form is the verb + - s or- es.
Note: For some verbs ending in y, y --> - i + es.
3. The - ing (or present participle) form: For many verbs, this form is the verb + - ing.
For some verbs, the last consonant must be doubled in order to form the -ing form correctly.
For verbs which end in a consonant + -e, the -e is dropped.
4. The past form: For many verbs (regular verbs), this form is the verb + - d or - ed; for some
verbs ending in y, y --> i + ed.
For many other verbs (irregular verbs), the past form may resemble the base form with
"internal changes" (for example, do / did; took / take; see / saw) or be the same as the base
form (for example, cut / cut; cost / cost; put / put). In a few cases, the past form may look quite
different from the base form (for example, go / went and buy / bought).
5. The past participle form: For regular verbs, this form is the same as the
past form. For irregular verbs, this form often has "internal changes" (for example, do / did /
done; go / went / gone; see / saw / seen), but the past participle may be the same as the base
form and / or the past form (for example, cost / cost / cost; set / set / set; pay / paid / paid;
sell / sold / sold).
Verb Forms and Verb Tenses 2
The Base Form: The base form is the verb "with no special endings"--no - s, - ing, past-tense
ending, and so on. Here are the most common uses of the base form:
1. If the verb tense is simple present and if the verb is not BE, the base form is used with I,
you, we, and they.
Examples:
I / you / we / they have a problem.
I / you / we / they speak English.
I / you / we / they like sports.
2. If the verb tense is simple present or past and if the verb is not BE, the base form is used
after auxiliary verbs in questions and negatives.
Examples:
Do I / you / we / they have a problem?
Does he / she / it have a problem?
No, I / you / we / they don't have a problem.
No, he / she / it doesn't have a problem.
Did I / you / he / she / it / we / they do what you wanted?
No, I / you / he / she / it / we / they didn't do what you wanted.
Do I / you / we / they need anything?
Does he / she / it need anything?
No, I / you / we / they don't need anything.
No, he / she / it doesn't need anything.
Did I / you / he / she / it / we / they need anything?
No, I / you / he / she / it / we / they didn't need anything.
3. Use the S form in present perfect tense (affirmative and negative statements and
questions) when the subject of the verb is (or means) he, she, or it:
Has he eaten?
Yes, he has already eaten.
No, he hasn't eaten yet.
Has she lived here for a long time?
No, she hasn't lived here very long.
Yes, she's lived here for about 15 years.
Has the weather been nice lately?
No, it hasn't been very pleasant. It's been too hot.
Yes, it's been quite comfortable.
Important: Do not forget to add - S in the situations described above! Native speakers always
notice when an - s is missing!
Special Notes:
1. Don't confuse verb + - S with is + verb. These are completely different:
wrong: *That man is need some help.
right: That man needs some help.
wrong: *Bob's mother is have red hair.
right: Bob's mother has red hair.
wrong: *My car is need gas.
right: My car needs gas.
2. When the auxiliary does is used, the verb after it is the base form, not the - S form:
wrong: *Does that man needs some help? *That man doesn't needs any help.
right: Does that man need some help? That man doesn't need any help.
wrong: *Does Bob's mother has black hair? *Bob's mother doesn't has black hair.
right: Does Bob's mother have black hair? Bob's mother doesn't have black hair.
wrong: *Does your car needs gas? *My car doesn't needs gas.
right: Does your car need gas? My car doesn't need gas.
3. The contractions means both is and has. To know which is intended, look at the words
after 's:
He's here. ('s = is)
He's been here. ('s = has)
Se's sad. ('s = is)
She's feeling sad. ('s = is)
She's seemed sad today. ('s = has)
It's rainy. ('s = is)
It's been raining. ('s = has)
It's raining. ('s = is)
It's rained a lot this week. ('s = has)
Verb Forms and Verb Tenses 4
The - S form is very commonly used for main verbs and auxiliary verbs in the simple present
tense when the subject is or means he, she, or it. The - S form is also very commonly used as
a full (has) or contracted ('s) auxiliary verb in the present perfect tense when the subject is or
means he, she, or it. For be, the - S form is is. For have, it is has. For other verbs, there are
three different spellings: - s, - es, and - ies:
1. Add - s to the base form. This is the most common spelling for the -S form and
is the spelling used for most verbs.
Notice, especially, that - s is added when the base form ends in one or more consonants + e:
aches, bakes, breathes, cares, caches, dives, edges, fiddles, files, glares, hates, hopes,
jokes, lives, makes, notes, pastes, races, spares, surprises, tastes, types, writes
Notice that - s is also added when the base form ends in one or more consonants (but without
e):
adds, bets, beats, calls, claps, cheats, cleans, digs, drops, eats, fills, finds, fits, gets, grabs,
hops, kills, knits, links, lists, means, needs, opens, puts, quits, robs, rings, rips, sends, stops,
tells, trusts, voids, wants, works, zips
In addition, notice this spelling is used with the small number of verbs ending in two vowels
(including - ie):
agrees, argues, boos, coos, flees, glues, moos, sees, shoos, shoes, tees, woos, dies, lies,
ties, vies
2. Add - es to the base form. This happens in two situations:
a. when the base form ends in the vowel o: does, goes, soloes
b. when the base form ends in ss, sh, (t)ch, zz, and x:
assesses, blesses, caresses, fusses, kisses, misses, passes, tosses; blushes, dashes,
flashes, gnashes, hushes, lashes, mashes, pushes, rushes, splashes, stashes, washes,
wishes;
catches, ditches, etches, flinches, hitches, itches, marches, mooches, patches, reaches,
searches, scratches, teaches, touches, watches;
buzzes, fizzes; boxes, coaxes, faxes, fixes, relaxes, vexes, waxes.
3. Change y to i and add - es. This happens when a verb ends in a consonant + y:
apply / applies; bury / buries; carry / carries; copy / copies; cry / cries; dry / dries; fly / flies;
fry / fries; hurry / hurries; marry / marries; pity / pities; ply / plies; pry / pries; tidy / tidies; try /
tries; worry / worries.
Verbs that end in a vowel + y do not change the y to i and then add - es, however:
buy / buys; employs / employs; enjoy / enjoys; flay / flays; lay / lays; pay / pays; play / plays;
say / says; slay / slays; spray / sprays; stay / stays; sway / sways;
Important:
Compare flay / flays, play / plays, and pray / prays with fly / flies, ply / plies, and pry / pries to
see how these spelling rules work for verbs ending in s.