VERBS
Verbs are words that show action. Every sentence must have a
verb. A verb is not always one word. It may be made up of more than one word.
Auxiliary verbs
The words: am, is, are, was, and were are verbs. They are forms of
the verb ‘to be’. They are helping verbs called auxiliary verbs.
If the subject of
a sentence is singular, the verb must be singular. If thesubject of a sentence
is plural, the verb must be plural. The verb must agree with
the subject
in number.
Examples of ‘subjects’ and ‘verbs’ being singular: The man is sleeping. Shegoes to the
market. The student does his homework every day. The train hasarrived.
‘Man’, ‘she’, ‘student’ and ‘train’ are known as subjects.The subjects are all singular.The verbs ‘is’, ‘goes’, ‘does’ and ‘has’ are all singular too.
Examples of ‘subjects’ and ‘verbs’ being plural: The men are sleeping.They go to the market. The students do their homework
every day. Thetrains
have arrived.
‘Men’, ‘they’, ‘students’ and ‘trains’ are known as subjects. The subjectsare all plural. The verbs ‘are’, ‘go’, ‘do’ and ‘have’ are all plural too.
Singular
subject/verb
|
Plural subject/verb
|
|||||||||
1st
|
I
|
am
|
do
|
have
|
eat
|
We
|
are
|
do
|
have
|
eat
|
2nd
|
You
|
are
|
do
|
have
|
eat
|
You
|
are
|
do
|
have
|
eat
|
3rd
|
He
|
is
|
does
|
has
|
eats
|
They
|
are
|
do
|
have
|
eat
|
She
|
is
|
does
|
has
|
eats
|
They
|
are
|
do
|
have
|
eat
|
|
It
|
is
|
does
|
has
|
eats
|
They
|
are
|
do
|
have
|
eat
|
|
Other singular and plural subjects that take on singular and
plural verbs:
¨ Subjects with
words like ‘each’, ‘every’, ‘any’, ‘no’, ‘none’ and ‘nobody’ take on the singular verbs.
Examples:
|
Each student is given a pen.
|
Every child is happy watching the show.
|
|
Nobody is allowed to walk on the grass.
|
¨ Uncountable
nouns always
take singular verbs.
Examples:
|
Rice is eaten in many countries.
|
There is oil on the floor.
|
|
Salt is added to make the food taste better.
|
¨ Subjects with
words like ‘both’, ‘all’, ‘many’, ‘some’, ‘several’ and ‘a number of’ take on a plural verb.
Examples:
|
Both of you have to come home early.
|
All of us want to be happy.
|
|
Some of my friends are female.
|
¨ Two or
more subjects joined by ‘and’
always take a plural verb.
Examples:
|
My brother and his friends like to play
football.
|
His father and mother are watching television.
|
Transitive and
intransitive verbs
The verb which needs an object to make its meaning clear or
complete is called a transitive verb.
Example:
He feeds a cat. The word ‘cat’
is called the object of the verb ‘feeds’. The object can
be a noun or a pronoun.
The intransitive verb does not need an object but the meaning is clear or
complete.
Example:
He ran. The verb ‘ran’ does not need an object. She reads every day. (No
object) He eats quickly. (No object)
The Finite verb
The finite verb changes with the subject. The subject is the
person, thing, animal or place we refer to. When the subject is in the first or second personor is plural, the verb does not change. When the subject is in the third personor is singular, the verb changes from, say, ‘eat’
to ‘eats’. The verb ‘eat’ is afinite verb. Every
sentence must have a finite verb.
Subject
|
Singular subject
|
Plural subject
|
|
First Person
|
I eat
|
We eat
|
|
Second Person
|
You eat
|
You eat
|
|
Third Person
|
He eats
|
They eat
|
|
Third Person
|
She eats
|
They eat
|
|
Third Person
|
It eats
|
They eat
|
|
The pen/s
|
The pen is
|
The pens are
|
|
The elephant/s
|
The elephant does
|
The elephants do not
|
|
The house/s
|
The house has
|
The houses have
|
|
The Infinitive
The infinitive is a verb that is followed by ‘to’ and
does not change with the subject.
Subject
|
Singular Subject
|
Plural Subject
|
First Person
|
I want to play.
|
We want to play.
|
Second Person
|
You want to play.
|
You want to play.
|
Third Person
|
He wants to play.
|
They want to play.
|
She wants to play.
|
They want to play.
|
|
It wants to play.
|
They want to play.
|
The infinitive can take on an object. For example: He likes to
read book. (To read = infinitive; book = object).
Other usage of verbs
to remember
1. When “and” is used to
join two nouns or pronouns together, theverb is usually in
the plural.
Examples:
|
Beef and
mutton are meat.
|
He and I were classmates.
|
2. When we
use two nouns for the same person or thing, the verbshould be in the singular.
Examples:
|
My friend and
classmate is very helpful.
|
Bread and butter is his only food.
|
3. When we
use two nouns for the same person, we use the article‘the’ only once and the verb should be in
the singular.
Example:
|
The shopkeeper and
owner of the shop is my uncle.
|
4. When we
refer to two different
persons, we use the article twice and the verb must be in
the plural.
Example:
|
The shopkeeper and the owner of the shop are my good
friends.
|
5. When we
join two nouns and treat
them as a whole, the verb is in the singular.
Example:
|
Bread and butter is his usual
breakfast.
|
6. When a noun is a quantity or an amount, it is treated as a whole and the verb is in the singular.
Examples:
|
Ten kilometers is not a long way
to travel.
|
Nowadays, fifty
dollars is not a lot of
money.
|
A verb is used in different forms as follow:
Simple Present Tense
|
eat
|
Simple Past Tense
|
ate
|
Present Particle
|
is eating
|
Past Particle
|
has eaten
|
Future Tense
|
will eat
|
THE PRESENT TENSE
1. The Present
Simple
① Used for a habitual or
repeated action, that is, for something that we do always, every day, often,
usually, etc.
Example:
|
He plays football on
Sundays.
|
② Used for a
general truth or a fact, that is, for something that is true.
Example:
|
Night follows day.
|
③ Used for
something or an action happening now.
Example:
|
See how she walks.
|
④ Used instead of
the future tense.
Example:
|
He arrives tomorrow.
|
⑤ Used instead of
the past tense, to make something look more real.
Example:
|
The tiger comes; it
catches the boy.
|
⑥ Used instead of
the present perfect tense.
Example:
|
We hear that the
king is dead.
|
⑦ Used to
introduce a quotation, that is, to repeat words spoken or written by someone
else.
Example:
|
Shakespeare says:
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”
|
2. The Present Continuous
Tense
① Used to show that
something is still happening, that is, an action is still going on at the time
of speaking. It shows that the action is not yet complete.
Example:
|
He is writing a
letter.
|
② Used instead of
the future tense. We usually say the time when this future action will take
place
Example:
|
He is going to Japan
next week.
|
③ Used to use the
phrase ‘is going’ which means ‘about to’.
Example:
|
It is going to rain.
|
④ Used to show an
action which happens many times. We often use ‘always’ with this expression.
Example:
|
He is always getting
into trouble.
|
3. The Present
Perfect Tense
① Used to show an
action which has just been completed or a past action when the time is not
mentioned. The action may be a recent one or it may be one which happened a
long time ago.
Example:
|
I have finished reading the book.
|
There have been many changes in this country.
|
② Used for an
action that has been going on from the past until now, that is, something that
happened in the past but is going on still.
Example:
|
I have lived here
for ten years.
|
③ Used often with
‘just’, ‘already’, ‘recently’, ‘never’, ‘yet’ and (in questions) with ‘ever’.
Example:
|
I have already told them about the plan
|
She has never replied to my letter.
|
|
Have you ever been to London?
|
④ Used often to
answer questions which contain a verb in the Present Perfect tense.
Example:
|
Where have you been? I have been to London to see the
Queen.
|
What have you lost? I have lost all my money.
|
4. The Present
Perfect Continuous Tense
① Used for an action
just completed or continued up to now.
Example:
|
He has been talking
for an hour.
|
THE PAST TENSE
1. The Past Simple Tense
① Used to describe a
completed past action when the time of the action is mentioned.
Example:
|
I went to the cinema
yesterday.
|
② Used to show for
a past action that was completely done in the past.
Example:
|
My mother made a
cake and we all ate it.
|
③ Used to express
a habitual past action.
Example:
|
He always came home
late.
|
2. The Past
Continuous Tense
① Used for an action
that was going on in the past when something else happened.
Example:
|
While they were
watching television, the light went out.
|
② Used to show an
action that was going on at a certain time in the past.
Example:
|
I was eating my
dinner at 7 o’clock last night.
|
③ Used for two
actions that were going on at the same time in the past.
Example:
|
While his father was
reading the newspaper, his mother was cooking.
|
3. The Past Perfect
Tense
① Used for an action
that was completed before another action took place.
Example:
|
I had left the house
before he arrived.
|
② Used in the
Indirect or Reported Speech.
Example:
|
“I have read the
book”. He said that he had read the book.
|
4. The Past Perfect
Continuous Tense
① Used
for an action that had been going on in the past before another action occurred
in the past.
Example:
|
She had been cooking
when we visited her.
|
THE FUTURE TENSE
The Future Tense is used to show some action or happening in the
future. Future Simple + ‘Going To”
1. Simple Future Tense is used to show
future action or that something will happen in the future.
Example:
|
We will complete the
work tomorrow.
|
2. ‘Going to’ is used to
express a future action that has been planned in advance.
Example:
|
We are going to
Japan next week.
|
3. Future
Continuous Tense is used to show
continuous action at some future time.
Example:
|
I shall be seeing
both of you tomorrow.
|
4. Future Perfect
Tense is used for an
action which will have finished by some future time or date which is mentioned
or before another action has begun.
Example:
|
I shall have finished this job by seven o’clock.
|
I shall have finished this job by the time you arrive.
|
5. Future Perfect
Continuous Tense. This continuous tense is formed with ‘shall/will have been’ + a
present particle.
Example:
|
I shall have been
married for exactly ten years next Saturday.
|
