University of 20 Août 1955 Skikda English: Semester 01

Verbs

Verbs are words that describe actions, whether physical or mental.

Verbs also describe a “state of being,” like the verbs be, become, or exist.

Salah ran across the field, kicked the ball, and scored a goal.

Types of verbs

Dynamic (action) verbs

Most verbs describe a physical action or activity, something external that can be
seen or heard. These verbs are formally known as dynamic or action verbs.

Examples: walk, laugh, swim, play, eat, drink, sing, dance, talk, say

Stative (state-of-being) verbs

The opposite of dynamic verbs of action is stative verbs of being. Stative verbs
describe a subject’s state or feeling, including things they like and don’t like.

Examples: want, need, prefer, love, hate, like.

Auxiliary (helping) verbs

Auxiliary verbs, or “helping verbs,” are used in English to change another verb’s
tense, voice, or mood. When auxiliary verbs are used, there’s always a main verb
that represents the main action. The main auxiliary verbs are be, have, and do.

Examples:

I have eaten sushi many times before. (tense)

That piece of sushi was eaten by me. (voice)

Did you eat my sushi? (mood)

Modal auxiliary verbs

Some auxiliary verbs are added to another verb to show necessity, possibility, or
capability. Like other auxiliary verbs, modal auxiliary verbs are not the main verb,
but they do change its meaning slightly. Some common examples are:
can, may, could, should, would, must, ought, and might.

Examples:

I could swim across the river, but should i do it?

He must be the strongest person on the team, and might be the strongest person in
the region.
Phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs are phrases that act as individual verbs, often combining two or
more words and changing their meaning. The verb get, for example, becomes many
different phrasal verbs when combined with different prepositions.

When the bus stops, passengers get out on the sidewalk.

After losing his job, he’s getting by on savings.

Verb categories

Aside from the different types, verbs also come in different categories. Dynamic,
stative, and auxiliary verbs all make up the categories below.

Transitive, intransitive, and ditransitive

Transitive, intransitive, and ditransitive refer to how a verb acts with direct and
indirect objects. A direct object is the person or thing that the action happens to,
while an indirect object is the person or thing that receives the direct object.

Examle: Mandi threw the ball to Belaili.

Verbs that don’t use either a direct or indirect object are called intransitive. These
verbs are complete actions by themselves.
 Examples: go, walk, run, talk, sit, sleep, work

Verbs that use a direct object, but not an indirect object, are called transitive. They
don’t always need a direct object, but they have the option.

Examples: clean, like, love, dislike, hate, want, learn, deserve, say

Verbs that use both direct and indirect objects are called ditransitive. They don’t
always need an indirect object, but they have the option.

Examples: throw, make, buy, sell, read, give, lend, bring.

Just as a verb can be either dynamic or stative depending on the meaning, a verb can
sometimes act transitive while at other times act intransitive. These are known as
ambitransitive. For example, if you ask someone if they’re hungry, they might
respond:

No, I already ate. (intransitive)

No, I already ate a sandwich. (transitive)

Active vs. passive voice

In English, the standard format where the subject performs the action is known as
the active voice. However, you can switch around your words to make the direct or
indirect objects the subject of the sentence, known as the passive voice. You can
make a verb passive by adding a conjugated form of be in front of its past participle.
 Examples:

Mahrez threw the ball to Slimani. (active)

The ball was thrown to Slimani by Mahrez. (passive)

Linking verbs

A linking verb is any verb that connects the subject to other words in the sentence.
For example: Garfield is a cat. Although the verb be is the most used linking verb in
English, other linking verbs like seem and become are also common.

Garfield is in the kitchen.

Garfield became fat by eating lasagnas.

Garfield seems to hate Mondays.

Regular vs. irregular Verbs

Verbs have different forms to show different uses, such as an action that happened in
the past, or an action that happens continuously. Normally, these forms follow the
same patterns of conjugation, so that you can use the same rules on all verbs. Verbs
that use the normal forms are regular verbs.
Unfortunately, some verbs don’t want to play by the rules. They have their own
unique forms with no patterns, specifically for the simple past tense and past participle
forms. These are the irregular verbs.