Verbs
A verb is a word that expresses action or a state of being and is a necessary part of a sentence.
Examples:
Students concentrate
The teacher reviewed the story.
The test is tomorrow.
The class became noisy.
A verb expresses time—present, past, and future—by means of various tense forms.
Examples:
Present tense:
Past tense:
Future tense:
We see the waves.
We saw the waves.
We will see the waves.
Exercise 1
Highlight the verb in each sentence and label it as present, past, or future.
1. Pollution is one of the world’s most serious problems.
2. It affects all parts of the earth, including the land, sea, and air.
3. Oil spills caused the death of numerous sea animals in the oceans.
4. Unfortunately, people’s carelessness will destroy many of our country’s natural resources.
5. In time people will surely realize the effects of their carelessness.
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Action verbs / Transitive and Intransitive
An action verb tells what someone or something does. An action verb can express action that is
either physical or mental.
Physical action: The baker prepared the cake.
Mental action: The baker studied the recipe closely.
A transitive verb is an action verb that is followed by a word or words that answer the question
what? or whom?
The athletes obey their coach. (The action verb obey is followed by the noun coach, which
answers the question obey whom?)
An intransitive verb is an action verb that is not followed by a word that answers the question what?
or whom?
The athletes obey immediately without protest. (The action verb is followed by words that tell
when and how.)
Exercise 2
Highlight the transitive verbs one color and the intransitive verbs another color.
1. The Anasazi lived in parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
2. They first settled there almost two thousand years ago.
3. The ruins of one of their most spectacular settlements survive high on the Mesa Verde, a plateau
in Colorado.
4. The earliest Anasazi hunted game for much of their food.
5. Later generations also cultivated the land.
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Linking Verbs
A linking verb links, or joins, the subject of a sentence (often a noun or pronoun) with a word or
expression that identifies or describes the subject.
Be in all its forms is the most commonly used linking verb. Forms of be include am, is, are, was,
were, will be, has been, and was being.
The hiker is an expert.
These trees are rare.
The noise was loud.
The bus will be late.
Other linking verbs: (Some of these can also be action verbs.)
Appear
grow
seem
stay
Become
look
smell
taste
Feel
remain
sound
Exercise 3
Highlight the linking verbs. Draw a line connecting the subject to the word or expression to which it
was linked.
Example: My cousin is a writer.
1. Surprisingly, the damage appeared inconsequential.
2. The stolen vehicle will become a statistic on the list.
3. Thankfully, Timothy remains my best friend to this day.
4. The recovered automobile was unrecognizable after the accident.
5. Since the first day of his release from the hospital, the accident victim has been cautious.
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Verb Phrases
The verb in a sentence may consist of more than one word. The words that accompany the main
verb are called auxiliary, or helping, verbs.
A verb phrase consists of a main verb and all its auxiliary, or helping, verbs.
Auxiliary Verbs:
Forms of BE:
Forms of HAVE:
Other auxiliaries:
am, is, are, was, were, being, been
has, have, had, having
can, could / do, does, did / may, might / must / shall, should / will, would
The most commonly used forms of auxiliary verbs are forms of BE and HAVE.
Example: She is talking.
Exercise 4:
In the following verb phrases, highlight the main verb one color and the auxiliary verb another color.
(Words that interrupt a verb phrase are not considered part of the verb phrase and should not be
highlighted.)
Example: would have never expected
1. may have brought
4. might still appear
2. has never been told
5. had been running
3. should have been approached
6. must surely have been notified
Exercise 5
Highlight the verb phrase(s) in the sentences below. Put parenthesis around the auxiliary verbs in
each phrase. Words that interrupt a verb phrase are not considered part of the verb phrase.
Example: Law books (have been) written about the opinions of Justice Holmes.
1. “The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience.”
2. The above words were spoken by Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holms Jr. in 1899.
3. Holmes was still expressing eloquent ideas thirty-two years later, when he was approaching the
age of ninety.
4. In 1871, five years after he had graduated from Harvard Law School, Holmes was appointed
university lecturer on jurisprudence at that same institution.
5. After he had spent a year in the law office of George Shattuck, Holmes could have chosen a
number of jobs.
Adjectives
An adjective is a word that modifies (changes) a noun or pronoun by limiting its meaning.
Quiet song
Baby turtles
Blue sky
Windy day
two dollars
Korean cooking
official documents
every student
that house
these shoes
few people
any problems
An adjective’s position in relation to the word it modifies may vary.
How green the leaves are!
The green leaves shook in the breeze.
The leaves are green.
Sunlight makes the leaves green.
The leaves, green as emeralds, shook in the breeze.
Green as emeralds, the leaves shook in the breeze.
Exercise 1
Highlight the adjectives in each sentence and draw a line to the word it modifies. Do not count the
words a, an, and the.
Example: She was born a normal child, but Helen Keller suffered a serious illness when she was
nineteen months of age.
1. After the unknown illness, no one was able to communicate a clear message to Helen because
she was now deaf and blind.
2. The physical body continued to develop normally; however, because she needed language in
order to learn, the mind did not grow strong.
3. The Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston helped the parents with a difficult problem.
4. The Institution sent a recent graduate, Anne Sullivan, to educate Helen.
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Possessive Nouns and Pronouns as Adjectives
Possessive pronouns—such as my, our, and your—function as adjectives because they modify
nouns in addition to serving as pronouns: my dog, our dream.
Similarly, possessive nouns function as adjectives: Tanya’s vacation.
Exercise 2
Highlight the possessive noun or pronoun that is used as an adjective and draw a line connecting it to
the word it modifies.
1. Sarah reluctantly turned in her math homework, which wasn’t very legible on its crumpled paper.
2. Sarah realized her word was unacceptable and hoped Mrs. Ono would give her a chance to redo
it.
3. Mrs. Ono reviewed Sarah’s homework and then took two books off the shelf to examine their
contents.
4. After Mrs. Ono found a new math exercise, she asked Sarah, “Will you give this your best effort?”
5. Thankful for the second chance, Sarah replied, “This time I’m sure my work will meet your
expectations.”
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Adjectives that Compare
Many adjectives have different forms to indicate their degree of comparison.
Positive
Fast
Good
Beautiful
Comparative
faster
better
more beautiful
Superlative
fastest
best
most beautiful
Exercise 3
In the following sentences, highlight the comparative adjectives one color and the superlative
adjectives another color.
1. Selling a home is often more inconvenient than buying a home.
2. Because of the emotional ties inherent in home ownership, every homeowner believes his or her
domicile is the best.
3. Although there are many decisions to be made when selling your home, the most difficult task is
deciding on a fair price.
4. A buyer is more suspicious of an inflated price when the home is in disrepair.
5. The worst part of selling is having to allow strangers to roam through your home.
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Articles
Articles are the adjectives a, an, and the. A and an are called indefinite articles. The is called a
definite article.
Exercise 4
Fill in each blank with the appropriate article.
1. Although many disagreed with him, Dr. Martin Luther King believed nonviolence was _______
best way to achieve his goal.
2. King knew this approach would be difficult, but he did not believe in taking ______ easy way out.
3. In April 1963, Dr. King led _____ series of civil rights marches in Birmingham, Alabama.
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Proper Adjectives
A proper adjective is formed from a proper noun and begins with a capital letter.
Examples:
Federico Garcia Lorca was a Spanish writer.
They believe in the Jeffersonian ideals of democracy.
Russian is written is the Cyrillic alphabet.
The suffixes –an, -ian, -n, -ese, and –ish, along with others, are often used to create proper
adjectives. Check the spelling in the dictionary.
Examples:
Proper Nouns
Augustus Caesar
Brazil
China
Proper Adjectives
Augustan
Brazilian
Chinese
Exercise 5
Write a proper adjective from the following proper nouns.
1. India
___________________________
2. America
___________________________
3. Japan
___________________________
Exercise 6 Adjectives Review
Highlight the twenty adjectives, including articles, that appear in the following paragraph.
Some critics consider Marianne Moore the most delightful American poet. Her witty, sharp
poems quickly grasp the attention of readers. Her vision is original and precise but rather eccentric.
The brilliant and oblique surfaces of her poems are filled with observations of animals and nature.
Often she cryptically tosses in mysterious but appropriate quotations from her extensive reading.