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THIS EMPTY H2 IS TO CORRECT AN ERROR FOR THE H3 IN THE POPUP WINDOW

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Parts of Speech: Verbs

Most people think of a verb as an action word, and that is correct in part: most of our verbs express action. But there are some that do not. In fact, there are three types of verbs: action, linking, and helping.

Knowing these three types of verbs is a very valuable skill, because you need a verb to write a sentence. Indeed, every complete sentence contains a verb.

Action verbs

Action verbs are the most common type of verb. In a sentence with an action verb, the subject does (or did, or will do) something.

The action taken by the subject is often visible, as in the verbs dance, jump, throw or fall, for example. But some action verbs don’t involve obvious physical action: verbs such as hope, want, fear, love and think are called mental action verbs.

Sentences with action verbs can be very short, because they may contain only a subject and a verb:

• Jean-Marc hiccupped.

Or in the case of a command, the sentence may consist solely of an action verb, with the subject you understood:

• Go!

Linking verbs

Linking verbs do not express an action; instead, they express a state of being. For that reason, the most common linking verb is the verb be.

Because this verb is very irregular, its forms am, is, are, was and were are unlike the infinitive to be. In fact, if you are having trouble finding the verb in a sentence, it may be because the verb is one of these forms of be.

In a sentence with a linking verb like be, the subject is not doing something. Instead, the subject is being something:

• Rashid is hungry. (Rashid isn’t doing anything; he’s being hungry.)

A verb of being is called a linking verb because it simply links the subject with the subject complement, a word or word group that tells you more about the subject. So hungry is a subject complement describing the subject Rashid.

Besides the verb be, several other verbs can act as linking verbs:

• seem, appear:
  • Jason seems (appears) angry.
• become, grow:
  • We became (grew) tired during the long hike.
• look:
  • Azura looks worried.
• feel:
  • Jaime feels embarrassed.
• taste:
  • The pie tasted good.
• smell:
  • Something smells funny.
• sound:
  • That band sounded great.

Tip: If you can replace the verb in the sentence with a form of be, the verb is almost certainly a linking verb.

• The pie tasted good = The pie was good.
  • (Here, tasted is a linking verb because you can replace it with was, a form of be.)
• John tasted the pie ≠ John was the pie.
  • (Here, tasted is an action verb because you cannot replace it with a form of be.)

Helping verbs

Helping verbs are used in front of another verb (called the main verb). They may change the tense of the main verb or add an idea to the verb.

The list below shows the helping verbs used in English:

• can, could
• shall, should
• will, would
• may, might, must
• be (am, is, are, was, were, been, being)
• do (does, did)
• have (has, had)

(Note that be, do and have can be used as main verbs as well.)

When you place one (or more) of these verbs in front of another verb, you get a verb phrase: must go, might have forgotten, will have been travelling.

The verb phrase may express a different tense: am reading (present progressive), have read (present perfect), will read (simple future), will have been reading (future perfect progressive).

Or the phrase may express an idea introduced by the helping verb: must read (necessity), can read (ability), might read (possibility), should read (advisability).