Verbs

It is important to know that the verbs are not always

referring to an action

We can look at verbs from three angles:

Morphology: how it looks (its form)
Syntax: what work it does in a sentence (its
function)
Semantics: its meaning
Classification
SINTACTICALLY: MORPHOLOGICALLY:
Finite verbs Regular verbs
Transitive verbs Irregular verbs
Intransitive verbs Compounds (phrasal
Linking verbs and prepositional
Non finite verbs verbs)
Gerunds
Infinitives
Participles SEMANTICALLY:
(present, past and
perfect) Action verbs
Linking verbs Verbs of having
Primary auxiliaries Have
Modal verbs
 Sintactically
Finite verbs (tensed verbs)
The word finite means limited
This form of the verb has subject and shows tense.
This kind of verbs are the sentence root thats why they
can be used as the only verb in the sentence.
They dont require an additional helping verb and
usually follow their subject.

Examples:
We rob banks.
Do you know her name?
Yesterday they played together.
Transitive verbs
This kind of verbs express and action.
Theyre followed by a direct object (thing or person that
receives the action).

Examples:

Alex sent a postcard from Argentina

(postcard=direct object)

Annie gives to her mom a cute present

(her mom=direct object)
What is an object?
The aim, purpose, destination or target of a verb's action.
They answer the questions what or who?

Examples:
He met her yesterday (Who did he meet?)
She wrote a story last year (What did she write?)
Rust destroys iron (What does rust destroy?)

Intransitive verbs
They do not take a direct object.
Theres no a word in the sentence that tells who or what
receive the action.

Examples:

It rains across the state.

We walk to the railway station.
Some exceptions

Transitive Verbs Used Intransitively:

You will often find transitive verbs used intransitively

without an object.
They are eating.
I understand.

Intransitive Verbs Used Transitively

At rare times intransitive verbs are used transitively.

How did you cover all that distance? We
walked it (Walked has the object it in this
sentences.
Linking verbs
They show a relationship between the subject and
some extra information.
They are followed by a noun or and adjective.

Most common are: Be Become Appear Seem Get

Smell Feel Look Remain Sound Go Grow Taste

Examples:

She seemed an intelligent woman.

He got hungry in the evening.

He looks like a good player.

Non finite verbs

This type of verbs dont

show a distinction in tense
and normally they cannot Gerunds
stand alone as the main
verb in a sentence.
Except for modal
auxiliaries, all verbs have a
Infinitives
non finite form.
Also they dont show
person, number and Participles
gender.
Gerunds:
It is made from a verb by adding ing.
You cans use it as a subject, object or
complement of the sentence.
It could be a participle or a gerund,
but theyre not the same.
They can be negative by adding not.

Examples:

Reading helps you learn English (subject).

I enjoy reading (object).
Her favorite hobby is reading (complement).
The best thing for your health is not smoking.
Infinitives:
To form of the verb
They act as a noun and as a verb.
Occasionally, it acts as an adjective or adverb, despite
being a verb in meaning.
They dont convey a tense.
They also can be negative by adding not.

Examples:

The most important thing is to learn.

To learn values is important for you.
I decided not to go to the party.
As Noun and Verb
I like to finish the work quickly.

In this sentence, the phrase 'to finish' does:

It is the object of the finite verb 'like' -

therefore 'to finish' is similar to a
noun (because being an object is a noun's job)
The phrase 'to finish' has its own object,
'work' so 'to finish' is a verb (since verbs have
objects)
As Adjective or Adverb
That was a game to watch!

In this sentence, 'to watch tells us something more

about the quality of the game (a noun). Describing a
noun is the work of an adjective.

Her voice is pleasant to hear.

To hear tells us something more about the quality of

being pleasant.
The word pleasant is an adjective because it tells us
more about an adjective.
Helping verbs
They help the main verb in a sentence.
They have no meaning in their own.
But they are necessary for the grammatical structure.

We have:
Primary auxiliaries
Modal verbs
How do they help?
Syntactically: They perform some grammatical function, as:
In forming the passive
In expressing the continuity (progressive) aspect
In expressing the perfect (completed) aspect

These are called Primary Auxiliaries

Semantically:

They add meaning to the meaning of the main verb. What

they add are meanings like: ability, possibility, permission,
command, habitual action, etc.

These are called Modal Auxiliaries

 To be: Continuous tenses or
Primary passive voice
To have: Perfect tenses
auxiliaries To do: Negative sentences, to ask
questions or show emphasis

They modify the meaning of the

main verb
They convey: probability, abilities,
Modal necessities, offers, to make
verbs requests or ask for permission
Can, could, may, might, will,
would, shall, should, must, ought
to.
Examples:

To be:
He is watching TV (continuous tense)
To have:
I have finished my homework (perfect tense)
To do:
I do not like you (negative)
Do you want some coffee? (ask a question)
I do want you to pass the exam (show
emphasize)

Modal verbs:
I can not speak Chinese, She could do it for you,
Would you like a cup of coffee?, You should go to
the doctor
Morphologically
Regular verbs
In English grammar, a regular verb is a verb that forms
its past tense and past participle by adding at the end -d or -
ed to the base form.
The majority of English verbs are regular.
 PAST
BASE FORM PAST
PARTICIPLE

Walk Walked Walked

Wash Washed Washed

Dance Danced Danced

 Spelling of the simple past
Consonant
Consonant Other
Silent - e Vowel + y after a
+y forms
stressed
vowel
visit =
visited
close = play = marry =
miss =
closed played married
missed Stop=
watch = stopped
die = died destroy = carry =
watched
destroyed carried
finish = Plan=
phone =
finished planned
phoned show = study =
fix = fixed
showed studied
buzz =
buzzed
Different sounds of the -ed
ending
Special cases of the -ed forms

If there is a consonant after a stressed vowel at the end of the

word, double the consonant

stop stopped
ban - banned
swap swapped

If the vowel is not stressed, we do not double it:

open - opened (Here the stress is on'o', not the 'e'.)
offer - offered ( Here the stress is on 'o', not the 'e')
Irregular verbs
There is no formula to predict how an irregular verb will form
its past tense and past participle forms.

There are over 250 irregular verbs in English.

Although they do not follow a formula, there are some fairly

common irregular forms

Break-broke-broken
Cut-cut-cut
Irregular Run-ran-run
Meet-met-met
verbs Come-came-come
Swim-swam-swum
Be-was/were-been
Compound verbs
In English grammar, a
compound verb is made up of
two or more words that function
as a single verb.

The compound verb can

include:

A prepositional verb
A phrasal verb
Prepositional verbs
They are an idiomatic expression that combines a verb
and a preposition to make a new verb with a distinct
meaning.
The preposition in a prepositional verb is generally
followed by a noun or a pronoun, so they are transitive
verbs.

Examples:
She is listening to music.
She looked at the blackboard.
They were waiting for the teacher.
Do you agree with me?
Phrasal verbs
Phrasal verbs are usually two-word phrases consisting
of a verb + adverb or verb + preposition.
Classification Intransitive phrasal verbs:

Some phrasal verbs

Transitive phrasal verbs: are intransitive. (An
intransitive verb does
Some phrasal verbs not have an object)
are transitive. (A
transitive verb always Example:
has an object.) My car broke down.

Example:
I made up an
excuse. ('Excuse'
is the object of the
verb)
Classification Inseparable phrasal
verbs:
Separable phrasal verbs:
Some transitive
Some transitive phrasal verbs
phrasal verbs
are separable. (The object
are inseparable. (The
is between the verb and the
object is placed after
preposition.)
the preposition.)
Example:
Example:
I looked the word up in the
I will look into the
dictionary.
matter as soon as
possible.

However, if the object is a pronoun, it must be placed between

the verb and the preposition.
Example:
I picked it up.
 Semantically
Action verbs
They describe what the subject of a sentence is doing.
This type of verbs carry a great deal of information.
We have two types of action verbs.

Regular verbs: Irregular verbs:

She played videogames I made my homework

with me yesterday. last week.
Verb to have

Forms of To Have

PRESENT PAST CONTINUOUS

I / you / we / they have had having

he / she / it has had having

As a main verb: Possession

As a main verb to have implies the meaning of

possession.
For example:
I have a job. I have a car. "I don't have any time."

When it is used to indicate possession you can say "I

have..." or you might see/hear "I have got...".

For example:
I have a shower in my bathroom, I don't have a bath. =
I have got a shower in my bathroom. I haven't got a
bath.
As a main verb: Action
Actions

When you are talking about actions, you only use

"have".

Example:
I have a shower every day. - I'm having a shower
now.

Note: It does not take the continuous form "I having"

for that you have to use the auxiliary verb be.
Different forms: Singular
Question Positive Statement Negative Statement
(spoken) (spoken)
Do I have ...? I have I have not
Have I got ...? (I've) (I haven't/I've not)
Does he / she /
it have...?
He/she/it has He/she/it has not
(He/she/it 's) (He/she/it hasn't)
Has he/she/it
got ...?
Do you have ...?
You have You have not
Have you (You've) (You haven't/You've not)
got...?
Did I / he / she /
it have ...? I / He / She / It / You
had I / He / She / It / You had not
(I'd / He'd / She'd / (I / He / She / It / You hadn't)
Had I / he / she / You'd)
it / you got...?
Different forms: Plural
Do we / you / they We / You / They
have ...? have We / You / They have not
(We / You / They haven't //
We've nof / You've not
Have we / you / (We've / You've / They've not)
they got ...? They've)

Do you have ...? You have You have not

Have you got ...? (You've) (You haven't/You've not)

Do they have ...? They have They have not

Have they got ...? (They've) (They haven't/They've
not)

Did we / you / they We / You / They had

have ...? I / He / She / It / You had
not
(We'd / You'd / (I / He / She / It / You
Had we / you / they They'd) hadn't)
got ... ?
 Examples:

Do we have a car?
Have you got a car?

How many pets do you have?

Does she have a baby?
He has a big house.

As an Auxiliary verb
The verb to have is used as an auxiliary verb to help other
verbs create the perfect tense.
For example,:
I have read a lot of books,
I have never been to America
"I have already eaten"
Perfect tenses
PRESENT PERFECT

I have You have He /

been a She has It has We have They have
teacher for been a
student for been a been nice been student been stude
over 11 ... student for today. s for .... nts for ...
years. ...

PAST PERFECT

I had You had He / They had

been a been a She had It had We had
teacher for student for been a been nice been student been stude
several several student for for severals for several nts for
several
years. years. several hours. years. years.
years.
FUTURE PERFECT

I will have You will He / They will

been a have been a She will It will have We will have have
teacher for student for have been a been nice been student been stude
several several student for for severals for several nts for
years. years. several years. years. several
years. years.
Perfect tenses: Questions

Singular Positive statement Negative statement

You have not been ...

Have you You have been ...
You haven't been...
been ...? (You've been ...)
You've not been...

Plural Positive statement Negative statement

We / You / They We / You / They have not been ...
Have we /
have been ... (We / You / They haven't been ...
you / they
(We've / You've // We've / You've They've not
been ...?
They've been ...) been ...)
 Examples:

Have you washed your face today?

I have eaten this before.
We have not gone there.
Has she traveled abroad?

Verbs of having
Usually used in They can also be used
continuous forms to after certain words.
emphasize a temporary Example:
state or action. There are advantages
Example: to having a flat in the
Shes having a shower city.
right now.