- Verbs tell you what the subject of a sentence or clause is doing (or being).
- Verbs are conjugated according to person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, or voice.
Action Verbs
Action verbs can also be actions you can't see such as:
- Sue thought about pets.
- She wanted a puppy.
Action verbs are time-telling verbs. They also tell when something takes place. Examples:
- My dog runs faster than yours. (present tense)
- Yesterday he ran around the block. (past tense)
- Tomorrow he will run in a race. (future tense)
Actions verbs may be used alone as the main verb of a sentence; as in:
- My kitten fell into the pond.
Or the action verb may use a helping verb; as in:
- If you get too close to the edge, you will fall too.
Non-action Verbs
Non-action verbs can indicate a state of being, sense, emotion, desire, possession, or opinion. The most common non-action verb is to be.
Helping Verbs
Helping Verbs
Helping verbs have no meaning on their own. They are necessary for the grammatical structure of a sentence, but they do not tell us very much alone. We usually use helping verbs with main verbs. The "help" the main verb (which has real meaning).
Verb Phrases
Helping verbs and main verbs combine to form verb phrases. The main verb is always the last verb in the phrase.
Helping Verb + Main Verb = Verb Phrase
Not every sentence will have a helping verb with the main verb.
When you see an "ing" verb such as "running", be on the lookout for a helping verb also.
Sometimes there is another word which separates the helping verb from the main verb. One common example is "not", as in:
- The boy couldn't find his socks.
The helping verb is could and the main verb is find.
A sentence may contain up to three helping verbs to the main verb. An example would be:
- The dog must have been chasing the cat.
The helping verbs are: must, have and been; the main verb is chasing.
State-of-Being Verbs
State-of-being verbs can be the main verb of the sentence; as in:
- Sally is my best friend.
Or a state-of-being verb can be used as a helping verb; as in:
- She is going on a vacation.
Note that the verbs: be, being, and been always NEED a helping verb; as in:
- Pat has been sick all week.
State-of-being verbs can show time. The present tense state-of-being verbs are: am, are, is. Past tense state-of-being verbs are: was and were.
