PARTS OF SPEECH:
VERBS
ENGLISH 7CP
MR. SNOW
THE VERB: OVERVIEW
• Verbs express action or a state of being.
• We celebrated the Chinese New Year today.
• The holiday is usually in February.
• Jan felt horrible about her error.
THE VERB: ACTION VERBS
• Action verbs express physical or mental
activity.
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•
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The owls hooted all night. [physical action]
Gloria plays volleyball. [physical action]
She thought about the problem. [mental action]
I love you. [mental action]
THE VERB: LINKING VERBS
• Linking verbs express state of
being.
• Linking verbs link the subject to a
word or word group identifying or
describing the subject.
• Denzel Washington is an actor. [is links
Denzel Washington, the subject, with
an actor, which describes him.]
• The children remained quiet.
[remained links children, the subject,
with quiet, which describes them.]
THE VERB: LINKING VERBS
• Common linking verbs:
• appear, become, feel, grow, look, remain, seem,
smell, sound, stay, taste, turn
• Note: some of these words can be either
action verbs or linking verbs:
• Amy looked through the telescope. [action]
• Amy looked sad. [looked links the subject Amy to
the description sad.]
• Remain in your seats, please. [action]
• Remain calm. [Remain links the implied subject
You to the description calm.]
THE VERB: LINKING VERBS
• To be = most common linking verb.
• Forms of to be:
• am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been, has been,
have been, had been, will be, shall be, may be,
might be, can be, should be, would be, would
have been, could have been, should have been,
was being, is being, etc.
THE VERB: HELPING VERBS
• Helping verbs help the main verb express
action or state of being.
• Many people in Africa can speak more than one
language.
• The packets were sent to 401 Maple St.
• Kansas has been named the Sunflower State.
• The ball should have been caught by the nearest
player.
• You should not have done that!
• The entire verb, helping and main together, is
called the verb phrase.
THE VERB: HELPING VERBS
• The most common helping verbs:
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am, is, are
was, were
be, being, been
do, does, did
have, has, had
can, could
may, might, must
will, would
shall, should
A QUICK NOTE…
• The words not and never are NOT VERBS.
• They are adverbs and are never considered
part of the verb phrase.
• She has not written me recently.
• I will never forget her.
• They don’t know my cousins. [Notice the verb is do know
since n’t is short for not.]
THE VERB: HELPING VERBS
• Sometimes helping verbs are split from the main
verb by other words.
• Did you hear that?
• You should probably bring your pillow.
• Some verbs are either helping or main
depending on usage.
• He was walking. [was helps walking]
• Which one was it? [was is the main verb]
THE VERB: HELPING VERBS
• I’m going to show you a picture. In your notes,
write as many sentences with verb phrases as
you can.
• Ex: “The children are playing.”
• Ex: “Kites are being flown in the sky.”
• Ex: “The snowman will melt soon.”
Phillippe Halsman: Dali Atomicus (1948)
THE VERB: TRANSITIVE ACTION
• Transitive action verbs express an action
directed towards a person, place, thing, or
idea (called the object).
• Transitive action verbs transfer energy from
the subject to the receiver of the verb (the
object). (Think of the verb carrying energy
from subject to object.)
• Derrick greeted the visitors. [Derrick sends the
energy of the greeting over towards the visitors]
• When will Felicia paint her room? [Felicia sends the
energy of painting over towards her room]
• He stomped the floor. [He sends the energy of
stomping down towards the floor.]
THE VERB: INTRANSITIVE ACTION
• Intransitive action verbs express action w/out
any action passing to a receiver (object).
• The train stopped. [The action of stopping doesn’t
pass to anything.]
• Last night we ate on the patio. [The action of
eating isn’t passing to the patio.]
FIN