Parts of speech - Verbs

VERBS What are verbs? Verbs are "doing" words. Verbs can express: A physical action (e.g., "to swim," "to write," "to climb"). A mental action (e.g., "to think," "to guess," "to consider"). A state of being (e.g., "to be," "to exist," "to appear"). Verbs Expressing Physical Actions Here are some sentences with verbs that express physical actions. (In each example, the verb is highlighted.) She sells pegs and lucky heather. (In this example, the word "sells" is a verb. It expresses the physical activity "to sell.") The doctor wrote the prescription. (In this example, the word "wrote" is a verb. It expresses the physical activity "to write.") Alison bought a ticket. (The word "bought" is a verb. It expresses the physical activity "to buy.") Verbs Expressing Mental Actions While many verbs express physical actions (e.g., "to jump," "to dance," "to sing"), verbs can also express mental actions. For example: She considers the job done. (The word "considers" is a verb. It expresses the mental activity "to consider.") Peter guessed the right number. (The word "guessed" is a verb. It expresses the mental activity "to guess.") I thought the same thing. (The word "thought" is a verb. It expresses the mental activity "to think.") Verbs Expressing a State of Being A small but extremely important group of verbs do not express any activity at all. The most important verb in this group (arguably of all) is the verb "to be. Examples

I washed the car yesterday. The dog ate my homework. John studies English and French. Lucy enjoys listening to music. Todd Young became a Senator last year. (occurrence) Mike Trout is a center fielder. (state of being)

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word (part of speech) that in syntaxconveys an action (bring, read, walk, run, learn), an occurrence (happen, become), or a state of being (be, exist, stand). In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive. In many languages, verbs are inflected (modified in form) to encode tense, aspect, mood, and voice. A verb may also agree with the person, gender or number of some of its arguments, such as its subject, or object. Verbs have tenses: present, to indicate that an action is being carried out; past, to indicate that an action has been done; future, to indicate that an action will be done.

               Types

           Verbs vary by type, and each type is determined by the kinds of words that accompany it and the relationship those words have with the verb itself. Classified by the number of their valency arguments, usually three basic types are distinguished: intransitives, transitives, ditransitives and double transitive verbs. Some verbs have special grammatical uses and hence complements, such as copular verbs (i.e., be); the verb "do" used for do-support in questioning and negation, and tense or aspect auxiliaries, e.g., "be", "have" or "can". In addition, verbs can be nonfinite, namely, not inflected for tense, and have various special forms such as infinitives, participles or gerunds.^[1]

            1.Intransitive Verb

An intransitive verb is one that does not act on something (i.e., there is no direct object). For example:

• The rain fell.
• My throat hurts.
• The cat sneezed.

An intransitive verb is one that does not have a direct object. Intransitive verbs may be followed by an adverb (a word that addresses how, where, when, and how often) or end a sentence. For example: "The woman spokesoftly." "The athlete ran faster than the official." "The boy wept.

                2.Transitive Verb

           A transitive verb is one that acts on something (i.e., it has a direct object). For example:

• I saw the dog.
(Here, the direct object is "the dog.")
• Lee ate the pie.
(Here, the direct object is "the pie.")
• The postman will give Sarah the letter.
(Here, the direct object is "the letter.")

Note: The direct object of a transitive verb can be found by finding the verb and asking "what?" For example, "saw what?" (answer: the dog); "ate what?" (answer: the pie); "will give what?" (answer: the letter).

           A transitive verb is followed by a noun or noun phrase. These noun phrases are not called predicate nouns, but are instead called direct objects because they refer to the object that is being acted upon. For example: "My friend read the newspaper." "The teenager earned a speeding ticket."

A way to identify a transitive verb is to invert the sentence, making it passive. For example: "The newspaper was read by my friend." "A speeding ticket was earned by the teenager.

               3.Auxiliary Verb

An auxiliary verb (or helping verb) accompanies a main verb to help express tense, voice or mood. The most common auxiliary verbs are "be," "do," and "have" (in their various forms). Here are some examples of auxiliary verbs:

• Lee has eaten all the pies.
(Here, the auxiliary verb "has" helps to express tense.)
• The table has been prepared.
(Here, the auxiliary verbs "has been" help to express voice (in this case, the passive voice).)
• If he were to arrive in the next 10 minutes, we would be on schedule.
(Here, the auxiliary verbs "were" and "would" help to express mood (in this case, the subjunctive mood).)

4. Model verb

A modal verb is a type of auxiliary verb used to express ideas such as ability, possibility, permission, and obligation. The modal auxiliary verbs are "can," "could," "may," "might," "must," "ought to," "shall," "should," "will," and "would." For example:

• Lee can eat a lot of pies.
(Here, the modal verb "can" helps to express the idea of ability.)
• Lee might eat that pie before he gets home.
(Here, the modal verb "might" helps to express the idea of possibility.)
• Lee may eat as many pies as he likes.
(Here, the modal verb "may" helps to express the idea of permission.)
• Lee should give you some of that pie given you bought it.
(Here, the modal verb "should" helps to express the idea of obligation.)