Verb phrases

Level: beginner
Verbs in English have four basic parts:

Base - Past Past

form ing form tense participle
work working worked worked
play playing played played
listen listening listened listened

Most verbs are regular: they have a past tense and past participle with –
ed (worked, played, listened). But many of the most frequent verbs are irregular.

Level: beginner

Basic parts

Verbs in English have four basic parts:

Base - Past Past

form ing form tense participle
work working worked worked
play playing played played
listen listening listened listened

Most verbs are regular: they have a past tense and past participle with –
ed (worked, played, listened). But many of the most frequent verbs are irregular.

Verb phrases

Verb phrases in English have the following forms:

1. a main verb:

main verb
We are here.
I like it.
Everybody saw the accident.
We laughed.
The verb can be in the present tense (are, like) or the past tense (saw, laughed).

2. the auxiliary verb be and a main verb in the –ing form:

auxiliary be -ing form

Everybody is watching.
We were laughing.

A verb phrase with be and –ing expresses continuous aspect. A verb

with am/is/are expresses present continuous and a verb with was/were expresses past
continuous.

3. the auxiliary verb have and a main verb in the past participle form:

past
auxiliary have
participle
They have enjoyed themselves.
Everybody has worked hard.
He had finished work.

A verb phrase with have and the past participle expresses perfect aspect. A verb
with have/has expresses present perfect and a verb with had expresses past perfect.

4. a modal verb (can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would) and
a main verb:

modal verb main verb

They will come.
He might come.

The verb phrase 1

The verb phrase 2

Level: intermediate

5. the auxiliary verbs have and been and a main verb in the –ing form:

auxiliary have been -ing form

Everybody has been working hard.
He had been singing.
A verb phrase with have been and the -ing form expresses both perfect
aspect and continuous aspect. A verb with have/has expresses present perfect
continuous and a verb with had expresses past perfect continuous.

6. a modal verb and the auxiliaries be, have and have been:

modal auxiliary verb

They will be listening.
He might have arrived.
She must have been listening.

7. the auxiliary verb be and a main verb in the past participle form:

past
auxiliary be
participle
all over the
English is spoken
world.
The
have been cleaned.
windows
Lunch was being served.
The work will be finished soon.
might have
They invited to the party.
been

A verb phrase with be and the past participle expresses passive voice.

The verb phrase 3

The verb phrase 4

Level: advanced

We can use the auxiliaries do and did with the infinitive for emphasis:

It was a wonderful party. I did enjoy it.

I do agree with you. I think you are absolutely right.

We can also use do for polite invitations:

Do come and see us some time.

There will be lots of people there. Do bring your friends.