Verbs

Main & Helping Verbs

• Main Verbs- Express action or being in a sentence.

• Helping Verbs- Work with the main verb but do not show action.

• Verb Phrase- A verb that is made up of more than one word.

   Example: The large door has been locked for several days.

Note: Sometimes the helping verb in on sentence is the main verb in another.

Direct Objects

• Direct Objects are words that tell who or what receives the action.

      - found after the main action verb.

          Ex: The museum guide described the pyramids.

        - In some sentences the direct object is compound.

          Ex: Jason enjoyed the soup and bread at dinner.

Note: To find the direct object, find the main verb and ask who or what receives the action.  The direct object will be directly after the verb - either it's a noun/pronoun or an article (the, a, an).  Prepositional phrases are NOT direct objects.  They usually answer the question where.

• Preposition - the word that shows the relationship between a noun and a pronoun and some other words in a sentence.  

Transitive & Intransitive Verbs

• Transitive verb - has a direct object, or a receiver of the action.

        Ex: Carter opened the coffin.

            The mummy amazed him.

• Intransitive verb - has no direct object.

        Ex: The other men watched silently.

               The coffin sparkled in the light.

       Being Verbs & Linking Verbs

• Being Verb - shows a state of being / does not show action, instead it shows what the subject is about or is like.

• Linking Verb - a word that links the subject to the predicate to tell more about it.

       Ex:  Mr. Waters feels happy. (The word feels is the being verb.  It does not show action, but explains how Mr. Waters is at the time.)

      Ex:  He had been a teacher for over twenty years.  (The verb phrase is had been.  It does not show action, but links the subject, 'He',  to the predicate, 'teacher'.)

• Predicate Noun - renames or identifies the subject

      Ex:  Mrs. Horvath is our teacher. (Mrs. Horvath = teacher)

                                                                subject            noun

• Predicate Adjective - describes the subject.

       Ex:  Mrs. Horvath was happy today. (Mrs. Horvath = happy)

                                                                      subject          adjective

• Linking Verbs can include helping verbs.

       Ex:  will become, has appeared

• Being Verbs can be used as helping verbs.

       Ex:  was moved, were studying

• Some verbs can be either linking verbs or action verbs.

       Ex:  Action - Mrs. Horvath looked at the student mural.

             Linking - The design looked colorful and creative.

Simple Verb Tenses

• Tense- tells when the action or the state of being takes place

• Present Tense- happening now

• Past Tense- already happened
  - Usually formed by adding -ed

• Future Tense- going to happen
  -Usually formed with the helping verb will or shall

• Principal Parts of a verb are not verb tenses themselves, but simply the basic parts that we use to form all different tenses.

Perfect Tenses

 

• Present Perfect Tense – action that took place at an indefinite time in the past, the action may still be going on

Ex: The band has played two songs.

• Past Perfect Tense – action in the past that was completed before another action took place

Ex: The band had played two songs before you arrived.

• Future Perfect Tense – action that will be completed before another action in the future

             Ex: The band will have played many more songs before the 

                   concert ends.           

A verb and its subject must agree in number.

The horse eats oats. (Subject? Singular/Plural? Verb?)

• Singular subject = singular verb

Ex: The dog plays.

• Plural subject = plural verb

Ex: The dogs play.

• Compound subjects joined by ‘and’ = plural verb

Ex: The dog and cat play.

• Singular verbs in present tense = end in –s or –es

Ex: The girls dance.

• Unless the singular subject is ‘I’ or ‘you‘ = does not end in –s or –es

Ex: I dance.

Neither French fries nor a salad sounds good. (Subject?)

Either a dollar or quarters work in the pinball machine.

• If a compound subject is joined by:

or

either…or

neither…nor

• make the verb agree with the subject that is closer to it.

Ex: Books or magazines were always on the table.

• Use a singular verb if both parts of a compound subject are singular. If one part is singular and one part is plural, make the verb agree with the subject that is closer to it.

Ex: One boy and two girls jump in the pool.

Neither Angelica nor her friends like swim.

Either the dogs or the cat belongs to her.

• Sentences that begin with ‘here’ or ‘there’ = find the subject and make the verb agree with it.

Ex: Here is the index. (What is here?)

There are the missing birthday cards. (What is

there?)

• Contraction = formed by combining two words and shortening one of them. An apostrophe (‘) will take the place of the letter or letters left out.

• An apostrophe and s (‘s) can stand for is or has.

• Only the part of the contraction that is a verb is part of a verb phrase. The word not and the contracted form n’t are never part of a verb phrase.

Ex: He’ll mix the soup carefully. (verb phrase = will

mix)