What is a Verb?
Definition 1: A VERB is a word which tells us about an action or an occurrence or a state of someone or something. The verb is the most important word in a sentence.
Definition 2: A VERB is a word that tells or asserts something about a person or thing. Verb comes from the LATIN verbum, a word.
I. ‘Be’ verbs: A verb which says something about a subject is called telling or saying verb.
These verbs do not show action; they are verbs of being. They tell us about a state of being of existence. They do not give any meaning bout they are used to describe a subject. The be verbs are followed by a noun or an adjective or an adverb.
- David is a crazy boy.
- He was rich when he was in his childhood.
- I am a teacher.
- The shop is clean.
II. Helping verbs: We can add not or n’t directly to the verb. If the verb is one of the follwing.
These verbs are called ‘ helping verbs ’
- I do not come.
- He does not know how to swim.
- They are not walking.
- You did not try very hard.
III. Action verbs or Doing verbs: The verbs which tell us about action are called action or doing verbs.
The action verbs are divided into two classes:
1. TRANSITIVE VERB: A Transitive Verb is a Verb that denotes an action which passes over from the doer or Subject to an object
- His mother gave him (Indirect) a rupee (Direct)
- He gave me (Indirect) a secret (Direct)
2. INTRANSITIVE VERB: An Intransitive Verb is a Verb that denotes an action which does not pass over to an object, or it expresses a state or being; as
- I ran a long distance. (Action)
- Dogs bark. (State)
- There is a flaw in this diamond. (Being)
Most verbs can be used both as Transitive and Intransitive verbs. It is therefore better to say that a verb is used Transitively or Intransitively rather than that it is Transitive or Intransitive.
|I feel a severe pain in my head.||How do you feel?|
|The ants fought the wasps.||Some ants fight very fiercely.|
|The shot sank the ship.||The ship sank rapidly.|
|The driver stopped the train.||The train stopped suddenly.|
|Birds fly.||The boys fly their kites.|
|Sit there.||Set the lamp on the table.|
|He broke the glass.||The glass broke.|
IV. Strong and Weak Verbs: The principal parts of a verb in English are -> The Present Tense, the Past Tense, and the Past Participle.
They are so called because from them we can form all the other parts of verb.
The verbs form their Past Tense by adding -ed, or -d, or -t to the Present. Such Verbs are called Weak Verbs.
If a Verb required -ed, -d, or -t to be added to the Present Tense to form the Past, with or without any change of the inside vowel, it is a Weak Verbs.
|Present Tense||Past Tense|
|I abandon||I abandoned|
|I spend||I spent|
|I preside||I presided|
The Verbs form their Past Tense by merely changing the inside vowel of the Present Tense, without having -ed, or -d, or -t, added to the Present. Such Verbs are called Strong Verbs, because they are able to make their Past Tense without having anything added.
|Present Tense||Past Tense|
|I arise||I arose|
|I do||I did|
|I tell||I told|
V. Regular and Irregular Verbs: Verbs can be regular or irregular. Based on the spelling we classify the verbs into regular or irregular verbs.
A regular verb forms its past tense and past participle by adding -d or -ed to its base form. This ending may be pronounced /d/ (accused, activated, viewed), /ed/ (accepted, hacked, listed), or /t/ (mixed, searched, slipped). It is also like Weak Verb.
An irregular verb forms its past tense or past participle, or both, in an unpredictable way: by adding no ending at all, by changing the vowel of the base form, by adding a different ending, or by using a combination of these methods (let ~ let ~ let, meet ~ met ~ met, swim ~ swam ~ swum, blow ~ blew ~ blown). It is also like Strong Verb.
Download What is a Verb?