Verbs
It’s what you do, or are, or seem, or other things too, but
mostly what you do.
Verb: a word that expresses an action,
condition, or state of being.
 Action verb: A verb that demonstrates
an action
 Linking verb: A verb that connects the
subject to the noun or adjective in the
predicate
 Auxiliary (helping) verbs: Used to
change the tense of a verb and are part of
a verb phrase. The “verb” in the sentence
includes not just the action, but also the
auxiliary verbs.

Week 4 Vocab Words

Gerunds: are –ing verbs acting as nouns.
◦ GERUNDS ALWAYS END IN –ING.

Participle: Functions as an adjective
describing a noun.

Infinitives: A verb form that can be used
as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb
◦ will always have the word “to” followed by the
base form of the verb
Week 4 Vocab Words
A verb is a word that expresses an
condition, or state of being.
LINKING
Actions
Condition
Jump
appear
Sleep
seems
Swim
remain
Act
feel
Taste
taste
Look
look

action,
Being
am
is
are
was
were
be
Some verbs are action or linking
depending on whether or not the
subject commits the action.

Action verb (A verb that demonstrates an
action)
◦ I looked in Mrs. Regan’s house while she was not
home.
◦ The subject “I” did the looking with his or her eyes.

Linking verb (A verb that connects the
subject to the noun or adjective in the
predicate)
◦ Mrs. Regan looked angry when she found me in the
house.
 In this example, Mrs. Regan did not use her eyes to
look at anything. It was an observation made by “me.”
This is a linking verb.
Action verbs are preferable in
writing and should be used as
often as possible.








Smell
Seem
Grow
Become
Appear
Sound
Taste
Feel
Get
 Remain
 Stay
 Look

Common Linking Verbs
Common Helping / Auxiliary Verbs
is
Do
Could
am
Did
Will
are
Does
Shall
was
Has
Can
were
Have
May
be
Had
Might
Being
Should
must
Been
Would
Auxiliary (helping) verbs are used to change
the tense of a verb and are part of a verb
phrase. The “verb” in the sentence includes
not just the action, but also the auxiliary
verbs.

A verb is singular if its subject is singular.
Singular subjects require singular verbs.
◦ The boy walks down the hallway. (singular)
 The confusion, here, is that in the present tense,
regular, singular verbs take on an “s” in the third
person.
◦ The boys walk down the hallway. (plural)

Just remember, if the subject is singular,
so is the verb.
Number of a Verb

A verb with a direct object is called
transitive.
◦ Mrs. Regan kicked the ladder away from her
window.
◦ Chase threw Addison the ball.
◦ Remember, the Direct object is who or what was directly
affected by the action. In this case, the BALL.
◦ The indirect object is to whom or for whom the action was
done.

A verb without a direct object is called
intransitive.
◦ Mr. Hostetler cried all night.
Verbs with Objects
Past, present and future are basic tenses that most
students use effectively.
 The PAST tense requires an –ed on regular verbs.

◦ I walked to work.

Irregular verbs are just annoying and require
memorization.
◦ I went to work. (Not I goed to work.)
◦ I swam in the pool. (Not I swimmed)

The “perfect” and “continuous” tenses are more
complex requiring one or more helping verbs to
create them.
◦ I will have finished this PowerPoint before the students
see it.
 In this example, there is both a future and a past element to the
verb phrase. The action will be completed at a future time, but
by the time the “students” see it, it will be something that is in
the past.
 You will not be expected to identify different tenses, but need to
be aware of how to express your ideas in them.
Tense Shifts

Present tense indicates something happening
right now. It is rarely used in writing.
◦ I go to the store on Mondays.
◦ I walk down the hallway.

Past tense indicates something that happened
before. This is most common in writing.
◦ I went to the store on Monday.
◦ I walked down the hallway.

Past Participles are used to create perfect tenses
with the help of has, have, had, or will.
◦ I have gone to the store on Mondays.
◦ I have walked down the hallway.
◦ I will have walked down the hallway.
Present, Past, Past Participle
With regular verbs, the past tense is
created by adding –ed
 Past participles are created by adding has
or have to the past tense form.

◦ Stalk
◦ Walk


stalked
walked 
Regular Verbs
has / have stalked
has / have walked

In the “active voice” the subject of the
sentence commits the action
◦ Mr. Hostetler’s wife loves him. (active)
◦ Mr. Hostetler is loved by his wife. (passive)
 In this example Mr. Hostetler (the subject) is not
the one who “loves.” Passive voice usually
requires a prepositional phrase that begins with
“by” to indicate who is responsible for the action.
 The phrase can be “understood” and excluded
from the sentence.
◦ Mr. Hostetler is loved.

Use active voice whenever possible
Active Vs. Passive Voice
“Verbals” refers to verb forms that are
acting as another part of speech. They
can act as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.
 These can be confusing in writing because
they LOOK like verbs, but are not.

◦
◦
◦
◦
Swimming is fun. (Swimming = Noun)
To swim 500 yards is challenging. (noun)
The bored student slept in class. (adjective)
Some people find it difficult to swim. (adverb)
Verbals


Gerunds are –ing verbs acting as nouns.
GERUNDS ALWAYS END IN –ING.
◦ Running is hard on the knees. (gerund as subject)
◦ Jumping off of a rooftop is dangerous. (gerund
phrase as subject)
◦ In high school, I chose swimming as my favorite
sport. (gerund as direct object)
◦ I gave swimming a chance. (gerund as indirect
object)
◦ I learned about swimming. (gerund as object of a
preposition)
Gerunds
Participles may be in past participle form
or in –ing form.
 To tell the difference between a gerund
and a participle, you have to see how the
word or phrase is used.
 A gerund functions as a noun. A
participle functions as an adjective
describing a noun.

Participles

The woman walking down the street is my
wife.
◦ The verb in this sentence is “is.”
◦ The participial phrase “Walking down the street”
tells us “which woman” and is describing her. The
phrase acts like an adjective.

The sleeping student received a detention.
◦ Sleeping tells WHICH student (adjective)

Bored with the class, the student fell asleep.
◦ Bored with the class tells which student.
More participles
Infinitives are easy to spot, but hardest to
determine what they are “doing” in the
sentence.
 Infinitives will always have the word “to”
followed by the base form of the verb.

◦ To be, to run, to swim, to sleep, to go, etc.

Infinitives and infinitive phrases can act
as nouns, adjectives or adverbs.
Infinitives
I love to sleep. (direct object)
 To sleep in class is forbidden. (subject)
 It is easy to get a Friday. (adverb…It tells
what is easy. Easy is an adjective.)
 The need to sleep can overtake you in
Friday school. (adjective describing
need…What kind of need?)

Examples of infinitives