CLASSES OF VERBS

VERBS

MEANING TRANSITIVITY

STATIVE DYNAMIC TRANSITIVE INTRANSITIVE

 CLASSIFICATION OF VERB BASED ON
MEANING

 STATIVE VERBS:
- verbs that denote a stable state of affairs (which may sometimes have
relatively short duration)
- This class of verbs includes verbs describing mental states
(e.g. know, believe) and emotions (e.g. like, love, hate).
 CLASSIFICATION OF VERB BASED ON
MEANING

 DYNAMIC VERBS:
- are verbs that typically denote an activity which is controlled by
an active 'doer' or agent. Examples include, among many others, verbs
like run, move, work, play, and make.
 CLASSIFICATION OF VERB BASED ON
TRANSITIVITY

Transitive verbs must have a direct object. A transitive verb demands something/someone

to be acted upon.
Example:
 I painted the car. (The verb ‘paint’ demands an object to be painted)
 She is reading the newspaper. (The verb ‘read’ asks the question “what is she reading?” – the
answer is the object)
 CLASSIFICATION OF VERB BASED ON
TRANSITIVITY

Intransitive verbs do not act upon anything. They may be followed by an adjective,
adverb, preposition, or another part of speech.
Example:
 She smiled. (The verb ‘smile’ cannot have any object since the action of ‘smiling’ does not
fall upon anything/anyone)
 I wake up at 6 AM. (No object is needed for this verb)
PROPERTIES OF VERBS
 VERBS

VOICE MOOD INFINITIVES TENSE PERSON NUMBER

 Voice

Voice only applies to transitive verbs and it is either active or passive.

Active voice demonstrates that the subject is the one performing the action,
whereas passive voice indicates that the subject is receiving the verb’s
action. Compare the following examples:
 The zombie ate some brains.
 The brain was eaten by the zombie.
 Mood

There are three moods for verbs.

The first is indicative, which is the most common. We use indicative mood to
ask questions or to express opinions and facts. Here are some examples:
 Zombies smell really bad.
 Does that vampire have red hair?
 Mood

The second mood is imperative, which we use for commands, requests and permission. The
subject of the verb is you, but it is generally implied rather than stated. For example:
 Get thee behind me!
The third mood is subjunctive, which is the least common. We use the subjunctive mood to
express mental conceptions that are hypothetical, imagined, desired, etc. It is often signaled
by if. Here are some examples:
 If I were you, I’d practice using that stake.
 If only we lived in a world without zombies.
 INFINITIVES

An infinitive is formed from a verb but doesn’t act as a verb.

It acts as a noun, adjective or adverb and is made up of two words:
to+verb.
EXAMPLE:
I love to swim. (NOUN)
I cant wait to see! (ADVERB)
The person to call is Jeff. (ADJECTIVE)
 INFINITIVES

Bare infinitives pertains to the removal of TO to the formula.

The infinitive is used without to after certain verbs like bid, let, make, see,
hear, need, dare etc.
 I bade him go. (NOT I bade him to go.)
 Let him sit there. (NOT Let him to sit there.)
 She made me cry. (NOT She made me to cry.)
 I heard him sing a lovely song. (NOT I heard him to sing a lovely song.)
 INFINITIVES

The bare infinitive is also used after the verbs will, would, shall, should,
may, might, can, could and must.
 I will wait. (NOT I will to wait.)
 You must obey my instructions. (NOT You must to obey my instructions.)
 He can speak five languages. (NOT He can to speak five languages.)
 You should come to school in time. (NOT You should to come to school in
time.)
 INFINITIVES

The infinitive is also used without to after had better, would rather,

sooner than and rather than.
 You had better ask his permission. (NOT You had better to ask his
permission.)
 I would rather die than surrender. (NOT I would rather to die than surrender.)
 He would rather play than work.
 Tense

Verb tense indicates the time that an act, state, or condition happens or
happened. In English, tense is divided into three major sections: present, past and
future. (Each of these also includes a perfect tense, which refers to a
comparatively more remote time, but we won’t look at those today.)
Present tense, unsurprisingly, usually indicates something that happens in the
present. However, it can also indicate habitual actions, general truths and timeless
facts. It is formed by using the verb’s stem
I chop off zombies’ heads with a machete.
Vampires hunt at night.
 Tense

Past tense indicates something that happened in the past. It is typically

formed by adding –ed or –d.
Buffy staked many vampires in Sunnydale.
I slapped the impertinent human.
Future tense indicates something that is expected to happen in the
future. It is typically formed by adding will or shall to the verb stem.
If Hector turns into a zombie I will cut off his head.
You shall obey me.
 Person

Verb person indicates who is acting. There are three options in English:
first person (I or we), second person (you) or third person
(he, she, it or they). Here are examples of each:
I staked the vampire.
You decapitated the zombie
They quaked in fear.
 Number

The last property is number. A verb will be either singular or plural and it must agree
with its pronoun. Check out the following example:
I was relieved it was over.
They were relieved it was over.
Okay, you can exhale. We’re finished with verbs for now! Once you’ve all had some
time to recover — perhaps in a couple of months — we’ll look at conjugating verbs.
For now, pat yourself on the back if you read this entire post and remember than
mental gymnastics are really good for your brain, even if it hurts!
GERUNDS
Gerunds are the elusive shapeshifters of the English language. They are created out
of verbs, but function as nouns.
For example: “Do you mind my borrowing these supplies?” At a quick
glance, borrowing could easily be labeled as a verb. However, when working as a
gerund, borrowing is now a noun.
 One way to spot a gerund is to notice that they always end in -ing. Just remember
they're not the only players in the game ending in -ing. Present participles (verbs
indicating continuous activity) also end in -ing. For example: “I
was sitting there.” Sitting looks like and acts like a verb in this instance.
 Gerunds can function as subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, objects of
prepositions, and predicate nouns.
Gerunds as subjects:
 Reading is relaxing.
 Writing is an exchange of ideas.
Gerund phrases as subjects:
 Swimming laps is the most relaxing activity in the world.
 Filing papers can give you a paper cut.
Gerunds as direct objects:
 I love reading. (verb = love; love what? reading)
 Patrick likes photographing nature. (verb = likes; likes what? photographing)
CONJUGATION
In order to communicate in more than one tone, verbs must be conjugated. To
conjugate something is to change a verb’s form to express a different meaning.

Conjugation Changes to Express:

 person (subject)
 number (singular or plural)
 tense (past, present, future)
 aspect (the degree to which the action is completed)
 gender (male or female—in some languages but not in English)
 Changing (or conjugating) a verb means taking it out of its infinitive (base) form
and making it fit the sentence appropriately.
PRINCIPAL PARTS
 Principle Part Example

Basic Form
kick
(An action in the present: I + present tense)

Past Tense
kicked
(An action in the past: I + past tense)

Past Participle
(Often the same as the past tense. Usually kicked
formed by adding -ed to the present tense)

Present Participle
kicking
(Formed by adding -ing to the basic form)
 Basic Form Past Tense Past Participle Present Participle

drive drove driven driving

read read read reading

sing sang sung singing

swim swam swum swimming

 Not all grammar books include the present participle, but we’ve done so to
show that all verb tenses can be formed from these principal parts.
 By themselves past and present participles cannot be verbs (they’re called 
verbals), but with helping verbs they can be part of the verb phrase (e.g., will
be seeing).
 There are some verbs that are a bit irregular in how they form these four
principal parts. That’s why they are called irregular verbs!
THE STEM
 When we take prefixes or suffixes away from a word, the part that is left over is called the stem.
So if we took the prefix re- away from the word repaying, we would have the word paying left
over – and we call that leftover part the stem. If we took the suffix -ing away from the
word repaying, the stem would be repay. 
 We also use the word stem to refer to a word to which we are going to add prefixes or suffixes. If
we added the prefix re- to the word pay, we would say that pay was the stem of the new
word, repay.
 So the word stem can be used in two different ways: It can be used to refer to what is left over
after prefixes or suffixes are taken away from a word, and it can be used to refer to a word to
which we are going to add prefixes or suffixes. 
INFLECTION
Inflection is the name for the extra letter or letters added to
nouns, verbs and adjectives in their different grammatical
forms. Nouns are inflected in the plural, verbs are inflected in
the various tenses, and adjectives are inflected in the
comparative/superlative.
 Basic Form Past Tense Past Participle Present Participle
drive drove driven driving
Original word type Inflection Rule Examples reading
Words ending with a sibilant: -s/-ss/- Add -es in the plural noun or 3rd person bus → buses (n) / busses (v)
sh/-ch/x. singular verb. miss → misses
wish → wishes
watch → watches
fox → foxes
potato → potatoes
Words ending with the letter -o. do → does
Words ending consonant -  y. Change the -y to ie before the ending -s. party → parties
study → studies
cry → cries
Words ending consonant -  y. Change the -y to i before the endings -ed/- try → tried
er/-est/-ly. happy → happier
easy → easiest
Words ending consonant -  y. Do NOT change the -y before the ending carry → carrying
-ing. try → trying
Words ending vowel -  y. Do NOT change the -y. buy → buys
play → played
Words ending with the letters -ie. Change the -ie to a - y before the ending die → dying
-ing. lie → lying
Verbs ending consonant -e. Omit the -e before the ending -ing. ride → riding
love → loving
write → writing
provide → providing
One-syllable words ending consonant- Double the last consonant before the hit → hitting
vowel-consonant. endings -ing/-ed/-er/-est. stop → stopped
wet → wetter
fat → fattest
begin → beginning singing
Two or more syllable words prefer → preferred
ending  consonant-vowel-
consonant that are stressed on the last
syllable.
Two or more syllable words Do NOT double the last consonant before the happen → happening
ending  consonant-vowel- endings -ing/-ed/-er/-est. visit → visited
consonant that are stressed on the first
swimming
IRREGULAR VERBS
An irregular verb is one that does not form its simple past tense or its past participle by
adding "-ed" or "-d" to the base form. Irregular verbs contrast with regular verbs, which
form the simple past tense and past participle by adding "-ed" or "-d."

Regular Verb Simple Past Test Past Participle

jump jumped has jumped

Irregular Verb Simple Past Test Past Participle

arise arose arisen

LINKING VERBS
 A linking verb connects the subject with a word that gives information about the subject, such
as a condition or relationship. They do not show any action; they simply link the subject with the
rest of the sentence. For example, in the sentence "They are a problem," the word "are" is the
linking verb that connects "they" and "problem" to show the relationship between the two words.
The most common linking verbs are forms of the verb to be: am, is, are, was, were, being,
been.
Other common linking verbs relate to the five senses (to look, to feel, to smell, to sound,
and to taste). A linking verb is used to re-identify or to describe its subject. A linking verb is
called a linking verb because it links the subject to a subject complement 
MODALS
Modals (also called modal verbs, modal auxiliary verbs, modal
auxiliaries) are special verbs which behave irregularly in English.
They are different from normal verbs like "work, play, visit..." They
give additional information about the function of the main verb
that follows it. They have a great variety of communicative
functions.
Here are some characteristics of modal verbs:
•They never change their form. You can't add "s", "ed", "ing"...
•They are always followed by an infinitive without "to" (e.i. the bare
infinitive.)
•They are used to indicate modality allow speakers to express
certainty, possibility, willingness, obligation, necessity, ability
 Use of modal verbs:

Modal verbs are used to express functions such as:

Permission
Ability
Obligation
Prohibition
Lack of necessity
Advice
Possibility
Probability
 Modal Verb Expressing Example
Strong obligation You must stop when the traffic lights turn red.
must
logical conclusion / Certainty He must be very tired. He's been working all day long.

MODALSmust not prohibition

ability
You must not smoke in the hospital.

I can swim.

can permission Can I use your phone please?

possibility Smoking can cause cancer.

ability in the past When I was younger I could run fast.

could polite permission Excuse me, could I just say something?

Use of modal verbs: possibility It could rain tomorrow!

Modal verbs are used to express functions such as:
permission May I use your phone please?
Permission
may
possibility, probability It may rain tomorrow!
Ability
polite permission Might I suggest an idea?
Obligation
might
possibility, probability I might go on holiday to Australia next year.
Prohibition
Lack of necessity lack of necessity/absence of obligation I need not buy tomatoes. There are plenty of tomatoes in the
need not fridge.
Advice
possibility 50 % obligation I should / ought to see a doctor. I have a terrible headache.

probability
should/ought to advice You should / ought to revise your lessons

logical conclusion He should / ought to be very tired. He's been working all day
long.

had better advice You 'd better revise your lessons