- Name an action or describe a state of being or a condition
- Every sentence must have a verb
- A verb always has a subject. Verbs are words that tell us what a subject does or is; they describe action and state
- It is possible to have two or more verbs in a sentence: I hope she returned the book to you in good condition.
- The word ‘verb’ comes from Latin ‘verbum’ meaning ‘word’
A verb
is a word (run) or a phrase (run out of) which expresses:
- The existence of a state (love, seem)
- The doing of an action (take, play)
Verbs are used to express
distinctions in time ( past, present, future) through tense (often with
adverbials of time or frequency)
There are 2 classes of verbs in
English:
- The auxiliary verbs (auxiliaries): to be, to have, to do, can, could, may, might, must, ought to, shall, should, will, would, need, dare, used to
- All other verbs which we may call ordinary verbs: to work, to sing etc
- Verbs can be regular and irregular