Thanksgiving verb phrases

By:
Christian M. Santiago

Verb phrases

Aunt Ivy is trying to destroy dinner.

The Pilgrims and Indians have

brought food.

Can someone pass the corn?

What are verb phrases?

A verb phrase consists of a
main verb alone, or a main Could the pilgrims wait any longer?
verb plus any modal and/or
auxiliary verbs. The main
verb always comes last in
Helping verb
Main verb
the verb phrase.
The pilgrims have waited enough.

Helping verb

Main verb

A verb phrase can have more

than one helping verb, but
only one main verb.
They have been keeping acres of
corn.
Helping verb

Main verb

Verb phrases can be divided

when making questions.

Could the pilgrims wait any longer?

Helping verb

Main verb

Have they been cooking the turkey?

When are they cooking the turkey?
Did he cook the turkey?

They can also be divided by adverbs

Since a verb phrase might use up to four helping verbs, a short
adverb such as also, never, or not might try to sneak in
between the parts. Remember: when you find an adverb in a
verb phrase, it still is an adverb, not a verb nor part of the verb
phrase.
The feast was successfully planned.

Helping verb

Main verb

They have been cautiously hunting animals.

Helping verbs

Main verb

Helping verbs to consider:

be, been, am, is, are, was,
were, will, have, had, can,
could, may, might, must,
shall, should, will, would.

Helping verbs
Helping verbs are always used in
conjunction with a main verb.
Since the main verb expresses
a condition of its own, helping
verbs shape the tense or mode
of the verb phrase.
Some helping verbs can also have
shortened forms, called
contractions. They have
positive and negative forms.

Im arriving early. (I + am)

Hes cooking the turkey. (He + is)
Theyve been fishing. (They + have)

Im not arriving early. (I + am not)

He isnt cooking the turkey
is + not= isnt

Some helping verbs change

form to indicate tense.
Modal verbs cant change
form to indicate tense, but
do have contractions.

Remember
Forms of have, do, and be:
have, has, had
do, does, did
be, am, is, are, was, were, being, been

Modal verbs: can, could, may, might,

must, shall, should, will, would
Contractions to consider:
cannot - can't
could have - could've
could not - couldn't
should have -should've
should not - shouldn't
would have - would've
would not - wouldn't

What does a main

verb do?
The main verb expresses the main
idea in the verb phrase. The
other verbs in the verb phrase
are used to help the main verb.
There can only be one main verb
in a verb phrase.
Main verbs can be:
-Simple verbs (including irregular
verbs) in present tense, past
tense, or future tense.
-Present participle or past
participle verbs.

Examples
I could watch the turkey.
Modal verb + simple present verb

They are cooking food.

Auxiliary (be) + present participle verb

The Pilgrims have arrived.

Auxiliary verb + past participle verb

They had finished the hunting.

Auxiliary verb + past participle verb

Everyone has been enjoying the feast.

Have + been + present participle verb

The Indians had been keeping corn.

Had + been + present participle verb

The turkey might have escaped.

Modal verb + auxiliary verb + past participle

Creating verb phrases

Modal + base form
After the modals can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would, use
the base form of the verb.
Example: I can walk.

Do, does, or did + base form

After helping verbs that are a form of do, use the base form of the verb.
The helping verbs do, does, and did are used in three ways:
(1) to express a negative meaning with the adverb not or never,
(2) to ask a question, and
(3) to emphasize a main verb used in a positive sense.
Example:
I do want to cook the turkey. / I dont want to cook the turkey.
Mary does want to cook the turkey. / Mary doesnt want to cook the turkey.
(He)
(She)
Didnt you cook the turkey? Yes, I did.

Creating verb phrases

Have, has, or had + past participle (perfect tenses)
After the helping verb have, has, or had, use the past participle to form one of the
perfect tenses. Past participles usually end in -ed, -d, -en, -n, or -t.
Example: I have cooked the turkey. / They have cooked the turkey.

Form of be + present participle (progressive forms)

After the helping verb be, am, is, are, was, were, or been, use the present participle
to express a continuing action.
Example: They are cleaning their house.

Form of be + past participle (passive voice)

To form the passive voice, use be, am, is, are, was, were, being, or been followed by
a past participle (usually ending in -ed, -d, -en, -n, or -t).
Example: The house was cleaned by them.
The turkey was cooked by my father.
The letter is composed by Winslow.

Name of
tense/aspect

Example:

(simple) past tense

The turkey escaped.

future tense

We will try.

present progressive or
present continuous

Edward is writing a letter.

Verb
phrase
forms
(simple) present tense Garfield runs.

past progressive / past Edward was writing a letter.

continuous
future progressive /
future continuous

Edward will be writing a letter.

present perfect

The Indians have arrived / The Indian has arrived.

past perfect

We had walked. / I had walked.

future perfect

We will have eaten too much turkey.

present perfect progressive

The Pilgrims have been hunting. / He has been hunting.

past perfect progressive

The Pilgrims had been hunting/ He had been hunting.

future perfect progressive

The Pilgrims will have been hunting.

Identify the verb phrases in the

following sentences
1- Throughout the United States and Canada, Thanksgiving Day is celebrated
annually.
2- Thanksgiving was created as a harvest festivity.
3- The American holiday did commemorate a harvest celebration held by the Pilgrims
of Plymouth colony in 1621.
4- The Pilgrims had supposedly come ashore from the Mayflower on December 21,
1620.
5- The winter had been heartbreaking.
6- Only about half the original group had survived.
7- When Governor William Bradford was sending four men to hunt for fowl, he had
obtained 20 acres of Indian corn, barley and plenty of meat.
8- They would successfully find enough waterfowl and wild turkeys to last a week.
9- Fishermen were bringing cod and bass, and Indian hunters contributed five deer.
10- Chief Massasoit and ninety Indians had feasted with the colonists for three days.
11- The date of the feast is not known.

Identify the verb phrases in the

following sentences
12- It is known that the harvest was gathered after the Pilgrims returned.
13- However, the feast must have occurred before December 11, 1621, as it was
described in a letter written on that date by Edward Winslow.
14- There is also no record that the feast was called a thanksgiving.
15- But, the first record of such a day was in 1623, when the Pilgrims had set apart
a day of thanksgiving for rain that ended a terrible drought.
16- Sarah Josepha Hale believed that Thanksgiving should be considered a national
patriotic holiday.
17- On October 3, 1863, Thanksgiving day was proclaimed as a national day by
President Abraham Lincoln.
18- In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was attempting to change the
celebration for the third Thursday of November.
19- A joint resolution of congress was held on December 1941.
20- It specified that Thanksgiving will still be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of
November.