English Verbs

A verb describes what a person or thing does or what happens. For example, verbs describe:

• an action – run, hit, travel
• an event – rain, occur
• a situation – be, seem, have
• a change – become, grow, develop

The basic form of a verb is known as the infinitive. It’s often preceded by the word ‘to’:

Click on the headings below to find out more about verbs:

• Verb tenses
• Regular and irregular verbs
• Subjects and objects
• Transitive and intransitive verbs
• Participles
• Active and passive
• The subjunctive
• Phrasal verbs
• Auxiliary verbs

 

Verb tenses

The tense of a verb tells you when a person did something or when something existed or happened. In English, the main tenses are:

• the present (e.g. I am, she laughs, they love, we begin)
• the past (e.g. I was, she laughed, they loved, we began)
• the future (e.g. I will/shall, she will laugh, they will love, we will/shall begin)

These main tenses can be further subdivided, as follows:

• the present continuous – she is laughing
• the past continuous – she was laughing
• the future continuous – she will be laughing
• the present perfect – she has laughed
• the present perfect continuous – she has been laughing
• the past perfect – she had laughed
• the past perfect continuous – she had been laughing
• the future perfect – she will have laughed
• the future perfect continuous – she will have been laughing

(Note that the continuous is also called the progressive.)

             Different tenses are typically formed either by adding -ed or -ing to the basic form of the verb (known as the ‘stem’), or with the help of other verbs known as auxiliary verbs such as am, was, have, has, had, and will.

Try to DO the following QUIZ ABOUT VERB TENSES to test yourself.

 

Regular and irregular verbs
Many English verbs are regular, which means that they form their different tenses according to an established pattern. Regular verbs work like this:

verb	3rd person singular present tense	3rd person singular past tense	past participle	present participle
laugh	he/she laughs	he/she laughed	laughed	laughing
love	he/she loves	he/she loved	loved	loving
boo	he/she boos	he/she booed	booed	booing

              In the present tense, the basic form of the verb only changes in the 3^rd person singular. Most verbs just add -s, but some verbs that end with a vowel other than e add -es (e.g. go/goes, veto/vetoes, do/does). If the verb ends in -y, you need to change the y to an i before adding -es (e.g. hurry/hurries, clarify/clarifies).
              If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e, then you add the letters -ed to make the past tense and the past participle, as with laugh or boo. If it ends in e then you just add -d, as with love. If the basic form ends in y, then you change the y to an i before adding -ed (e.g. hurry/hurried, clarify/clarified).
              If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e, then you add the letters -ing to make the present participle, as with laugh or boo. If it ends in e then you drop the e before adding -ing, as with love. Note that if the basic form ends in y there is no need to make any spelling changes: you just add -ing (e.g. hurry/hurrying, clarify/clarifying).

But there are also many irregular verbs that don’t follow the normal rules. Here are some examples:

verb	3rd person singular present tense	3rd person singular past tense	past participle	present participle
take	he/she takes	he/she took	taken	taking
sink	he/she sinks	he/she sank	sunk	sinking
swing	he/she swings	he/she swung	swung	swinging
creep	he/she creeps	he/she crept	crept	creeping
begin	he/she begins	he/she began	begun	beginning
go	he/she goes	he/she went	gone	going
fly	he/she flies	he/she flew	flown	flying

           If you aren’t sure how a verb behaves, it’s best to look it up. All irregular verb forms will be given in full at the main dictionary entry.

 

Subjects and objects

            All verbs have a subject. The subject is generally the person or thing that the sentence is about. It’s often the person or thing that performs the action of the verb in question and it usually (but not always) comes before the verb:

Catherine	followed	Jonathan.
[subject]		[object]
He	was eating a	sandwich.
[subject]		[object]

              In imperative sentences (i.e. ones that express a command), the subject is usually understood without being explicitly stated:
               Some verbs have an object as well as a subject. The object is the person or thing affected by the verb:

Catherine	followed	Jonathan.
[subject]		[object]
He	was eating a	sandwich.
[subject]		[object]

 

Direct objects and indirect objects

           There are two different types of object: direct objects and indirect objects. A direct object is, as its name suggests, directly affected by the action of the main verb. In the following two sentences, ‘a drink’ and ‘a story’ are direct objects: ‘a drink’ was bought and ‘a story’ was being read.

Jonathan	bought	a drink.
[subject]		[direct object]
He	was reading	a story.
[subject]		[object]

              An indirect object is usually a person or thing that benefits in some way from the action of the main verb. Take a look at the following sentences:

Jonathan	bought	Catherine	a drink.
[subject]		[indirect object]	[direct object]
He	was reading	his daughter	a story.
[subject]		[indirect object]	[direct object]

‘Catherine’ has received a drink, but it is ‘the drink’ that has been bought. ‘His daughter’ is hearing the story, but it’s ‘the story’ that is being read.

 

Transitive and intransitive verbs

A transitive verb is one that is used with an object. In the following sentences, admire and love are transitive verbs:
Some transitive verbs can be used with a direct object and an indirect object:

Liz brought	her	a glass of water.
	[indirect object]	[direct object]
He sent	her	a letter.
	[indirect object]	[direct object]

An intransitive verb is not followed by an object. In the following sentences, cry and talk are intransitive verbs:
Some verbs can be transitive or intransitive. For example:

 

Participles

A participle is a word formed from a verb, usually by adding -d, -ed, or -ing.
There are two kinds of participle in English, as follows:
The present participle
The present participle ends with -ing, e.g.:
The past participle
The past participle ends with -d or -ed for regular verbs, e.g.:
and with -t or -en or some other form for irregular ones, e.g.:

 

Using participles

Participles are used:

• with auxiliary verbs to make verb tenses such as the present continuous and the past perfect:

• as adjectives, e.g.:

• as nouns, e.g.:

When a present participle is used as a noun, as in the last two examples above, it’s known as a verbal noun or a gerund. Here are two more examples of verbal nouns:

 Active and passive

Depending on the way in which you word a sentence, a verb can be either active or passive.
When the verb is active, the subject of the verb is doing the action, as in this sentence:

France	beat Brazil in the final.
[subject]	[active verb]

When the verb is passive, the subject undergoes the action rather than doing it:

Brazil	were beaten in the final.
[subject]	[passive verb]

Here, the sentence’s point of view has changed, and Brazil has become the subject of the passive verb were beaten.
The passive is formed with the auxiliary verb ‘be’ and the past participle of the main verb.
These two different ways of using verbs are known as voices. In everyday writing, the active voice is much more common than the passive, which tends to be used in formal documents such as official reports or scientific papers.

 

The subjunctive

The usual form of a verb is known as the indicative. The subjunctive is a special form that expresses a wish or possibility instead of a fact (the technical term for forms like this is mood). The subjunctive has a limited role in English compared to other languages such as French or Italian, but it's important to use it properly in formal writing.
Take a look at these two sentences:
In these sentences, the verbs wait and explain are in the subjunctive. The ordinary, indicative forms would be waits and explains and it would be grammatically incorrect to use them in these sentences:
Here are other typical uses of the subjunctive:

• after if, as if, as though, and unless, in sentences that state a hypothetical condition:

• be and were are used at the beginning of sentences or clauses when the subject follows:

• in certain fixed expressions, for example ‘be that as it may’, ‘come what may’, and ‘so be it’.

 

Phrasal verbs

A phrasal verb is a verb that is made up of a main verb together with an adverb or a preposition, or both. Typically, their meaning is not obvious from the meanings of the individual words themselves. For example:

 

Auxiliary verbs

Auxiliary verbs are used to form the various tenses, moods, and voices of other verbs. The principal ones are be, do, and have:
There is also a further set of auxiliary verbs known as modal verbs. These combine with other verbs to express necessity, possibility, or ability. The modal auxiliary verbs are must, shall, will, should, would, ought (to), can, could, may, and might. For example: