Helping verbs and verb phrase

• Every sentence must have a verb.

- To depict doable activities, writers use action verbs.
- To describe conditions, writers choose linking verbs.

• Sometimes an action or condition occurs just once—pow!—and it's over.

Read these two short sentences and tell me whether they are action verbs or
linking verbs:

Offering her license and registration, Selena sobbed in the driver's seat.
Action verb

Officer Carson was unmoved.

Linking verb
Auxiliary or helping verbs
• Other times, the activity or condition continues Selena is always disobeying the speed limit.
over a long stretch of time, happens predictably,
or occurs in relationship to other events. In these Helping (auxiliary) verb: is
instances, a single-word verb like sobbed or was Main verb: disobeying
cannot accurately describe what happened, so
writers use multipart verb phrases to
communicate what they mean. As many as four Selena should have been driving with more
words can comprise a verb phrase.
care, for then she would not have gotten her
third ticket this year.
• A main or base verb indicates the type of action
or condition, and auxiliary—or helping—verbs 1st verb phrase:
convey the other nuances that writers want to Helping (auxiliary) verbs: should have been
express.
Main verb: driving
• Read these three examples:
2nd verb phrase:
The tires screeched as Selena mashed the Helping (auxiliary) verbs: would have
accelerator.
No helping (auxiliary) verbs; they are both main Main verb: gotten
verbs
 Adverbs are not part of a verb phrase

Since a verb phrase might use up to four words, a short adverb—such as also, never, or not—
might try to sneak in between the parts. When you find an adverb snuggled in a verb phrase, it is
still an adverb, not part of the verb. Read these examples:

For her birthday, Selena would also like a radar detector.

• Would like = verb phrase; also = adverb.

To avoid another speeding ticket, Selena will never again take her eyes off the road to fiddle with
the radio.

• Will take = verb phrase; never, again = adverbs.

Despite the stern warning from Officer Carson, Selena has not lightened her foot on the
accelerator.

• Has lightened = verb phrase; not = adverb.

 Infinitives- the confusing “to”
to + noun = preposition
(i.e. to home, to the park, to the game)

to + verb = infinitive
(i.e. to dance, to sing, to yell, to leave, to be)

“ To be, or not to be, that is the question:” – Hamlet, William Shakespeare

“…..to boldly go where no man has gone before.” - Star Trek, Gene Rodenberry

(the adverb “boldly” splits the infinitive “to go”- we call these split infinitives and the are a no-no in
English grammar)
 Types of sentences
There are four (4) kinds of sentences: declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory.

1. A declarative sentence makes a statement.

Example: The assignment is due tomorrow. Rachel attends Dixie State. The New England Patriots
won another Super Bowl.

2. An imperative sentence gives a command or makes a request.

Examples: Hand it in now. Run. Bring the groceries in to the house out of the car.

3. An interrogative sentence asks a question.

Example: Do you know the man?

4. An exclamatory sentence shows strong feeling. Declarative, imperative, or interrogative

sentences can be made into exclamatory sentences by punctuating them with an exclamation
point.
Examples: The assignment is due tomorrow! Stop! Do you know the man!
 In an Imperative sentence, the subject is (You)

• An imperative sentence gives a command

• (You) is termed YOU UNDERSTOOD – it is written at the beginning of the sentence, underlined,
and placed in parenthesis.
What is the subject in each of the sentence examples below:

Go down the street.

(You) Go down the street.

Please look at me.

(You) Please look at me.

Put the scissor in the drawer.

(You) Put the scissors in the drawer.
 Class worksheet
Directions: Do the Prepositions worksheet for pages 29, 33, 37, and 39. Read the
directions carefully for each worksheet.

Special instructions for page 29: When underlining the verb phrases (i.e. the helping
[auxiliary] verbs and main verb) remember to not underline any adverbs. They are not
part of the verb phrase. Look out for contractions too, like can’t. It is a contraction for
can (verb) not (adverb), so underline the part that is part of the verb phrase.