LINKING VERBS

SENTENCE=
In the English language, every sentence must have a SUBJECT and
SUBJECT+VERB
a VERB.

There are two types of verbs:

ACTION VERBS: LINKING VERBS:

Examples: Examples:
Jump Is
Cry Was
Play Look
Scream Taste

“Action verbs show the subject doing “Linking verbs connect the subject of the
something.” (Anker p. 124, Real Skills) sentence to a word or words that describe
it.” (Anker p. 126, Real Skills)

Examples: Examples:
We forget how to do math. Ali was sick yesterday.
I run 4 miles every day. The food tastes good.
The child screams a lot. They look very nice!

For many people, linking verbs are very challenging to understand. For example, when looking
at the different forms of the verb “to be”, which form should I use? Should I say, “He were
happy”? No, but I should say, “He was happy”. We’ll take a closer look at linking verbs.

First we will look at the different forms of subjects:

SUBJECT FORMS
I We
You You (all)
He/She/It They

The subjects in the left column are SINGULAR (I am only 1 person. You are only 1 person.
He is only 1 person. It is only 1 object.) The subjects in the right column are PLURAL (We are
more than one person. You (all) are more than one person. They are more than one person.)

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 TO BE
Now we will use what we learned about subject forms to make sentences with forms of the
linking verb “to be”. This is a tricky linking verb because it has five different forms. The chart
below explains how to use the different forms.
Forms of BE
Am Present Tense—Use only with “I” I am happy.
Are Present Tense—Use with “You” “We” “They” You are happy. We are happy. They are happy.
Is Present Tense—Use with “He/She/It” He is happy. She is happy.
Was Past tense—use with “I” “He/She/It” I was happy. He was happy. She was happy.
Wer Past tense—use with “You” “We” “They” You were happy. We were happy. They were happy.
e

Examples:
I:
Present tense—I am ready to go now.
Past tense—I was almost late.
You:
Present tense—You are very smart!
Past tense—You were the winner.
He/She/It:
Present tense—He is in a bad mood.
She is a fast learner.
It is almost gone.
Ali is funny. (Ali could also be “She”)
Past tense—He was a good player.
She was a beautiful princess.
It was empty.
Ali was not serious.
We:
Present tense—We are in Xavion’s study group.
Shelly and I are in Xavion’s study group. (Shelly and I could also be “We”)
Past tense—We were excited to go to the Academic Support Center.
Shelly and I were ready to go home. (Shelly and I could also be “We”)
You (all):
Present tense—“You are good students,” the teacher said. (More than 1 student)
Past tense—“Where were you?” the mother shouted to her children. (More than 1 child)
They:
Present tense—They are the state champions.
Suzy and Jon are married. (Suzy and Jon could also be “They”)

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Past tense—They were excellent workers!
Suzy and Jon were teachers before they retired. (Suzy and Jon could also be
“They”)
STUDY SKILLS TIP:
How can we remember which form of “to be” we should use with each different subject?
Always look for patterns when you are trying to remember a lot of rules. Did you notice
any patterns with the “to be” verb forms? If you look again you will notice the following
patterns:
SUBJECT FORMS
I We
 All
Youof the subject forms
You (all) except “I” and “he/she/it” use the same “to be” forms: ARE for
He/She/It They present tense and WERE for past tense.

 Then notice that “I” and “he/she/it” both use WAS for past tense.

 “I” uses AM for present tense, and “he/she/it” uses IS for present tense.

Now instead of remembering tons of rules, you can memorize three patterns. That’s a whole lot
more manageable!

EXERCISES:
Fill in each sentence with the correct form of “to be”.
 They ______ ready to take the test. (past tense)
 I ______ so hungry. (present tense)
 You ______ in a hurry! (present tense)
 We ______ tired of winter. (past tense)
 Spring ______ wonderful! (present tense)
 “You ______ good workers," the boss said. (present tense)
 I ______ mad at the children when they broke my lamp. (past tense)

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 TO SEEM & TO BECOME
Besides “to be” there are seven other common linking verbs. Each of these other linking verbs
Forms of BECOME Forms of SEEM
has only 3 forms to remember. We’ll start by taking a
Become Seem look at the linking verbs “to become” and “to seem”.
Becomes Seems The chart to the left shows the different forms of these
Became Seemed
verbs. The orange boxes show the present tense of
every subject form except “he/she/it”. The purple boxes
show the present tense of the form “he/she/it” and the blue boxes show the past tense of all six
subject forms. Although the “he/she/it” form is different than the rest of the subject tenses, it is
easy to remember because the only difference is to add an “s”.
Examples:
To BECOME To SEEM
Present tense: Present tense:
I become better at English every day. I seem tired today.
You become better at English every day. You seem tired today.
He/she/it/Ali BECOMES better at English He/she/it/Ali SEEMS tired today.
every day. We seem tired today.
We become better at English every day. You (all) seem tired today.
You (all) become better at English every They seem tired today.
day.
They become better at English every day.
Past tense:
Past tense: I seemed tired yesterday.
I became the team leader on Monday. You seemed tired yesterday.
You became the team leader on Monday. He/she/it/Ali seemed tired yesterday.
He/she/it/Ali became the team leader on We seemed tired yesterday.
Monday. You (all) seemed tired yesterday.
We became the team leaders on Monday. They seemed tired yesterday.
You (all) became the team leaders on
Monday.
They became the team leaders on Monday.

EXERCISES:
Use the correct form of the linking verb at the end of the sentence.
 I ________ an excellent citizen when I volunteered in the community every week.(to become
—past)

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 Pat ________ happy because she won the award.(to seem—past)
 The lumps of clay ________ beautiful vases when the potter molds them. (to become—
present)
 “We must _______ crazy to the others around us,” exclaimed Marti.(to seem—present)
 We hope each good student _________ a student mentor. (to become—present)
 She ________ like a nerd, but I know she just wants to do well in her class. (to seem—
present)

THE SENSE VERBS

The sense verbs are tricky because they can be either action verbs or linking verbs, depending on
how they are used in each different sentence.
These verbs follow the same patterns as “to seem” and “to become”. In the chart below, the
orange boxes show the present tense of every subject form except “he/she/it”. The purple boxes
show the present tense of the form “he/she/it” and the blue boxes show the past tense of all six
subject forms. Although the “he/she/it” form is different than the rest of the subject tenses, it is
easy to remember because the only difference is to add an “s”.

Forms of APPEAR Forms of FEEL Forms of LOOK Forms of SMELL Forms of TASTE
Appear Feel Look Smell Taste
Appears Feels Looks Smells Tastes
Appeared Felt Looked Smelled Tasted

Examples:
To LOOK You (all) looked tired at the meeting Monday.
Present tense: They looked tired at the meeting Monday.
I look good in red. To SMELL
You look good in red. Present tense:
He/she/it/Ali LOOKS good in red. I smell bad after practice.
We look good in red. You smell bad after practice.
You (all) look good in red. He/she/it/Ali SMELLS bad after practice.
They look good in red. We smell bad after practice.
You (all) smell bad after practice.
Past tense: They smell bad after practice.
I looked tired at the meeting Monday.
You looked tired at the meeting Monday. Past tense:
He/she/it/Ali looked tired at the meeting I smelled lovely at the party.
Monday. You smelled lovely at the party.
We looked tired at the meeting Monday. He/she/it/Ali smelled lovely at the party.
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We smelled lovely at the party. They smelled lovely at the party.
You (all) smelled lovely at the party.

EXERCISES:
Use the correct form of the linking verb at the end of the sentence.
 The project ________ to be on schedule. (to appear—present)
 The cookie dough balls ________ delicious! (to taste—past)
 I ________ bad about the white lie my sister told my brother. (to feel—past tense)
 “You all ________ like you’ve been up all night,” the teacher commented. (to look—present)
 The high school boys’ locker room ________ terrible! (to smell—present)
That makes sense, but if these words can all be either linking verbs or action verbs, how can I tell
which it is? Just remember that when you use action verbs the subject DOES the action. For
example:
The house looks nice.

The subject is the house. Now ask yourself, does the house literally look? Obviously
not! Therefore, in this sentence, look is a linking verb. But what about this sentence:
Sally looks at the nice house.

Now the subject is Sally. Ask yourself, does Sally literally look? Yes, she does!!
Therefore, in this sentence, look is an action verb!

EXERCISES:
 The food tastes wonderful. (Action verb/ Linking verb)
 I always taste the cookie dough when I am baking cookies. (Action verb/ Linking verb)

 Ali looked very excited when she heard the news! (Action verb/ Linking verb)

 They looked at the organisms through the microscope. (Action verb/Linking verb)
 I felt the leather before I bought it. (Action verb/ Linking verb)
 We felt sick after we ate the liver. (Action verb/ Linking verb)

Linking verbs may be difficult to understand, but with practice they will become easier and very
manageable.

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Good luck!!

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