Verbs book

A verb is one of the Parts of Speech in English Grammar. Verbs are basically describing the action words like sleeping, eating, laughing, writing, etc.Whatever actions we do are stated as verbs. These actions can be expressed in three forms.

  • Firstly, the actions we do physically like swimming, reading, walking, etc.
  • Secondly, the actions we do mentally like to imagine, to think, etc.    
  • Thirdly, the actions related to the state of being like is, are ,was, were, etc.

Examples:

  1. Om went to music class. Here the verb “went” is describing the action “go”.
  2. Meera guessed correctly.Here, the verb “guessed“ is describing the action “to guess”.
  3. He was too arrogant .Here, the verb “ was” is describing the state of being.

Types of Verbs

1. Transitive

Whenever the direct object is linked with the action or doing words, such verbs are known as transitive verbs. They always need a direct object to express the action.

Examples:

  1. Amit wrote a letter. In this example, “letter” is a direct object and the action is “writing”. Hence, “wrote” is a transitive verb.
  2. My mother washed the vessels. Here, object is “vessels” and the transitive verb is “washed”.

2. Intransitive

These are just opposite of transitive verbs. That means, any direct object is not at all required to justify the action.

Examples:

  1. It is thundering. Here, there is no direct object. Action is “thunder”. Hence, verb is “thundering”.
  2. The thief ran. Here, action is “to run”. Hence, verb is “ran”.

3. Dynamic

Literal meaning of dynamic is movement. Dynamic verbs also contain the same meaning. It is the verb that is mainly used to symbolize any sort of action or a movement.

Examples:

  1. Annie is playing Badminton. Here, the verb “playing” is showing a kind of movement. Hence it is a dynamic verb.
  2. Maria is going to school. Here, the verb “going” is a movement. Hence it is a dynamic verb.

4. Stative

Stative is just opposite of dynamic. Hence, a stative verb is a verb that defines the state or a situation rather than the action or movement.

Examples:

  1. This book belongs to my  father. Here “ belongs” is a stative verb.
  2. He appears delighted. Here, “appears” is a stative verb.

5. Linking

As we all know, a sentence is comprised of two parts  i.e., the subject and the predicate. These verbs are basically linking the two parts of a sentence.

Examples:

  1. Anil is excited about his results. Here, “excited” is the linking verb.
  2. The eggs smell rotten. Here, “smell” is the linking verb.

6. Auxiliary

These are also known as helping verbs because they are a kind of helper to the main verb as most of the tenses are formed by them

Examples:

  1. Jyoti is writing a letter to her friend. Here, the Main verb is “writing” and auxiliary verb is “is”.
  2. Why are you laughing?  Here, the Main verb is “laughing” and auxiliary verb is “are”.

3 Forms of Verb and Their Importance

There are three forms of verbs depending upon its usage in sentence according to the tense.

  • Base Form  : The Base form of verb is the simplest and first form of the verb , without any special endings .it is also known as the root form of the verbs.  It does not have any sort of prefixes or suffixes.( such as –s, -ing, -en)
  • Past Simple:  The Past simple is the second form of verb that is usually formed by adding d, ed or ied to the base form of the verb.  Sentences that depict actions which were started in the past as well as ended in the past carry such form of verbs.
  • Past Participle: The Past participle is the third form of verb and  is created by adding  at-ed, -d, -t to the base form of  a regular verb. The past participle is also used with the auxiliary verbs  like has, have, or had  to express the perfect aspect.

Examples:

I form II Form III Form
Laugh Laughed Laughed
Break Broke Broken
Find Found Found
Have Had Had
Build Built Built
Shake Shook Shaken
Write Wrote Written
Drink Drank Drunk
See Saw Seen
Burst Burst Burst
Know knew Known

You can use our free English learning app which helps you to come across a lot of important English topics that in turn will help you to improve your English basics.