verb

Grammar

The key word in most sentencesthe word that reveals what is happeningis the verb. It can declare something ( You ran )ask a question ( Did you run? )convey a command ( Run faster! )or express a wish ( May this good weather last! ) or a possibility ( If you had run wellyou might have won; if you run better tomorrowyou may win ). You cannot have a complete English sentence without at least one verb. Understandablythis multitalented part of speech can be analyzed and categorized in any of several ways. For examplethis dictionary distinguishes between a transitive verblabeled “(used with object),” as in The country fought two wars at the same time, and an intransitive verblabeled “(used without object),” as in He fought in both of them. As we can see with fight, some verbs can be either transitive or intransitive. Another analysis is offered by the grammarians QuirkGreenbaumLeechand Svartvik in their renowned A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. They divide verbs into three categories: (1) modal auxiliary verbsa short list comprising canmaywillshallcouldmightwouldshould, and must, all of which are “helping” verbsas in Congress will vote tomorrow, and (2) primary verbsthe smallest group— bedo, and have —all three of which can be either auxiliaries ( I am leaving for school now; I did finish my homework; I have studied enough ) or main verbs ( I am happy; I did my best; I have a good teacher )and (3) full verbsthe largest group by farcontaining all the rest. A third approach differentiates an action verb from one that is stative. An action verb expresses something you can do ( runstudysitwant ) or something that can happen ( leakendappearcollapse ). In contrasta stative verb expresses an ongoing state or condition ( I know all the answers; we own our house; they fear failure ). Some verbslike be, are in both camps: In she is careless, the verb is is stativedescribing a permanent trait. In she was being careless in losing those documents, the verb was is an action verbdescribing a specific act of carelessness. The same mutability is seen in verbs of the senses ( smelltastefeel ): Mmmsmell that coffee [action]; the coffee smells wonderful [stative]. We can also distinguish the linking verb (more formally known as a copula ) from verbs that can take an object or be modified by an adverb. Linking verbs identify or describe a subject by connecting it with a nounan adjectiveor a prepositional phrase in a following complement ( she is a doctor; they were delighted; we will be at the party ). Other linking verbslike feelappearsmelltastelookbecome, and stay perform the same concatenating function. A number of them happen to be stativebut not all; get and act, for exampleare both linking and action verbs ( the weather got warmer yesterday; she acted surprised ). As we can seea single verb can be categorized in more than one waydepending on which type of analysis we subject it to. And finallywe can look at English verbs in terms of a number of grammatical features that are expressed by changes in their form or changes in the way sentences are constructed. These features are tense ² (such as present and past)voice (active or passive)person (firstsecondor third)number (singular or plural)and mood ² (such as indicative and subjunctive)—each defined at its own Dictionary.com entry.

Usage

What is a verb? A verb is a word that expresses actionstate of beingor a relation between two things in a sentence. It acts as the main part of the predicate of a sentence.A verb says what is happening in a sentenceas in I ran across the street. Every complete English sentence contains a verb.We categorize verbs in several different wayssuch as whether they are used with objects. Transitive verbs are used with objectsas in The man bought eggs. Bought is the verband eggs is the object. Intransitive verbs are not followed by objectsas in The children slept.We can also categorize verbs based on what they express. Action verbs express things you can do or things that can happenas in The player kicked the ball. Kicking is a thing you can do. Stative verbs express ongoing statesas in The tree is old. Old is a state you can be in.We also categorize verbs by how they change their form or construction to adjust to a sentence. Verbs have features known as tensevoicepersonnumberand mood. Here are some examples of the different features of verbs:

• Past tense: I walked home yesterday.
• Passive voice: The clown was hit by a pie.
• Second person: You are a wonderful musician.
• Plural number: The musicians play many songs.