Verbs are a class of words used to show the performance of an action (do, throw, run), existence (be), possession (have), or state (know, love) of a subject. To put it simply a verb shows what something or someone does.
Most statements in speech and writing have a main verb. These verbs are expressed in tenses which place everything in a point in time.
Verbs have moods, which indicate the viewpoint of the verb, whether it is a fact, a command or hypothetical.
Verbs have a voice too. The voice shows whether the subject of a sentence is carrying out an action, or is having an action carried out on it.
Verbs are conjugated (inflected) to reflect how they are used. There are two general areas in which conjugation occurs; for person and for tense .
Conjugation for tense is carried out on all verbs. All conjugations start with the infinitive form of the verb. The infinitive is simply the to form of the verb For example, to begin. The present participle form (the -ing form), is formed by adding ing to the bare infinitive. For example, the present participle of the verb to begin is beginning. There are two other forms that the verb can take, depending on the tense type and time, the simple past form (began) and the past participle (begun). See here for a list of irregular verbs.
Conjugation for person occurs when the verb changes form, depending on whether it is governed by a first, second, or third person subject. This gives three conjugations for any verb depending on who is acting as the subject of the verb. For example, we have: to begin, you begin , and he begins. Note that only the third conjunction really shows a difference.
While most English verbs simply do not show extensive conjugation forms for person, an exception is the verb to be.
Regular Verbs
Regular verbs are conjugated to easy to learn rules.
They all have a base form. e.g. to look
A gerund (ing) form where ing is added to the end of the verb. e.g. looking
An -s form where s is added to the end of the verb. e.g. looks
A past tense form where ed is added to the end of the verb. e.g. looked
A past participle form where ed is added to the end of the verb. e.g. looked
Irregular Verbs
They all have a base form. e.g. to run
A gerund (ing) form where ing is added to the end of the verb. e.g. running
An -s form where s is added to the end of the verb. e.g. runs
A past tense form which must be learnt. e.g. ran
A past participle form which must be learnt. e.g. run
Auxiliary Verbs
Auxiliary verbs are used together with a main verb to give grammatical information and therefore add extra meaning to a sentence. Information that is not given by the main verb.
They are used to form the passive voice.
They are used to form the continuous tense.
They are used to form the perfect tense.
Be, Do and Have are auxiliary verbs, they are irregular verbs and can be used as main verbs. The verbs 'to be' and 'to have' are the most commonly used auxiliary verbs and work alongside the main verbs in any statement.
Modal verbs are also auxiliary verbs, but will be treated separately, these are can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would, they differ from the others in that they can never function as a main verb.
Verbs - Finite / Non Finite
Finite Verbs
A finite verb (sometimes called main verbs) is a verb that has a subject, this means that it can be the main verb in a sentence. It shows tense (past / present etc) or number (singular / plural).
For example:
I live in Germay. (I is the subject - live describes what the subject does - live is a finite verb).
Non-Finite Verbs
A non-finite verb has no subject, tense or number. The only non-finite verb forms are the infinitive (indicated by to), the gerund or the participle.
For example:
I travelled to Germany to improve my German. (To improve is in the infinitive form).
Stative verbs are verbs that show a state and not an action.
You can group verbs that show a state in the following ways:-
Verbs that show thought - know, believe, undertand etc.
Verbs that show possession - have, own, want, contain etc.
Verbs that show senses - hear, see, smell etc.
Verbs that show emotion - love, hate, want, need etc.
Verbs that show possession - have, own, want, contain etc.
Verbs that show senses - hear, see, smell etc.
Verbs that show emotion - love, hate, want, need etc.
