VERBS

 Meaning of verbs 

    According Cambridge Dictionary .Difine verb as a word or phrase that describe an action ,condition or experience .

  Collins dictionary .Verb are words that allows us to talk about activities ,process, state of being and states of mind.

 A verb is that part of a sentence which indicates an action or a state of being carrid out by the subject.It is the most important element in the clause structure .This is because it gives meaning to the sentence,and it is mandatory in a sentence. Example of verb play ,go,speak,watch etc .  

          

   VERB CLASSIFICATION

We divide verbs into two classifications:

• Lexical verb(main verb)

• Auxiliary verb (helping verb) 

     

    Lexical Verb 

Lexical Verb are also called" main verb "because they carry lexical meanings.There are thousand of main verb,and we can classify in several ways:

 Transitive and Intransitive verbs

A transitive verb takes a direct object :

Somebody  killed the President .An intransive verb does not have a direct object:He  died. Many verbs,like speak ,can be transitive or intransitive.Examples:

 Transitive :

       •He  speaks English

       •We are watching TV

Intransitive:

        •He has arrived .

        • John goes to school.

    Linking Verbs

A linking verb does not have much meaning in itself. It"links" the subject to what is said about the subjecSubject.Usually, a linking verb shows equality or Change to a different state or place .linking verbs are always intransitive.Example:

•Moza is a teacher.

•The sky became dark.       

    Dynamic and Stative Verbs  

Some verb describe action .They called "dynamic",and can be used with continuous tenses. Other verbs describe state (non-action,a situation ).They called "stative" and can not normally used with ccontinous tense

Dynamic verbs .Examples:

Hit,explode, fight, run.

Stative verb.Examples.

•like ,love,wish

•hear,see,sound

•belong to, consist of, contain, include, need.

    Regular and Irregular verbs

This is more a question of vocabulary than of grammar.Regular verbs, the past tense ending is always the same:- ed .Irregular verbs , the past tense ending and the past participle ending is variable.

Regular verbs: base ,past tense, past participle

•look, looked, looked

Irreguler verbs:base , past tense , past participle     

•do,did, done. 

   Auxiliary Verbs

    

Auxiliary verbs are also called "helping verbs".

Helping verbs have no meaning on their own.They are necessary for the grammatical structure of a sentence, but they do not tell us very much alone .We usually use helping verbs with main verbs. There are only about 15 helping verbs in English, and we divide them into two basic groups:

Primary helping verbs

These are the verbs be, do, and have .

Be

•to make the passive (Small fish are eaten by big fish.)

•to make continuous tense (she is watching TV)

 Have 

•to make perfect tenses( I have finished my homework)

Do

•To make negatives (I do not like you.)

•To ask questions( Do you want some coffee ?)

•To show emphasis (I do want you to pass your exam.)

•To stand for a main verb in some construction (He speaks faster than she does)

     

Modal helping verbs

We use modal verb to modify the meaning of the maining verb in some way. Modal verbs :

•can, could

•may, might 

•will, would

•shall, should

•must

Modal verb are used to express functions such as:

1.Permission

2.Ability

3.Obligation

4.Prohibition

5.possibility

6.probability

 

N.B Modal verb do not have participle or infinitive forms and do not take the ending (e)s in the third person singuler.