THE VERB PHRASE
Recognize a verb phrase when you see one.
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Every sentence must have a verb.
Writers use ACTION VERBS to show ACTION.
Jay / eats Hallowe’en candy.
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Writers use HELPING (LINKING or AUXILIARY) VERBS, to
show A STATE OF BEING or A CONDITION.
Jay / is hungry.
Sometimes an action or condition occurs just once—pow!—
and it's over. Read these two short sentences:
Selena / ate Jay’s only bag of chips.
Jay / was upset.
At other times, the activity or condition either
- continues over a long stretch of time,
- happens predictably,
- or occurs in relationship to other events.
In these instances, a single-word verb like ate or was cannot
accurately describe what happened, so writers use multipart
verb phrases to communicate what they mean.
As many as four words can comprise a verb phrase.
MAIN (BASE) VERB: A main (or base verb) indicates the type
of action or condition.
HELPING (LINKING or AUXILIARY) VERB: Auxiliary—or
helping—verbs convey the other nuances that writers want to
express.
Read these three examples:
The chips crunched as Selena ate them.
Selena is always teasing her brother.
Selena should have been eating her own treats, because then
she would not have gotten in trouble when Jay told their
parents.
In the first sentence, crunched and ate, single-word verbs,
describe the quick actions of both the chips and Selena.
Since Selena has an inclination to tease, is teasing [a two-word
verb] communicates the on-going nature of this action.
The auxiliary verbs that comprise should have been eating [a
four-word verb] and would have gotten [a three-word verb]
express not only time relationships but also evaluation of
Selena's actions.
Realize that an adverb is not part of the verb phrase.
Since a verb phrase might use up to four words, a short
adverb—such as not, never, or also, always, often, —might
try to sneak in between the parts. When you find an adverb
snuggled in a verb phrase, it is still an adverb, not part of the
verb.
Read these examples:
Next time, Jay will also hide his treat bag.
Verb phrase = will hide
Adverb = also
Next time, Jay / will also hide his treat bag.
Selena will never take Jay’s only bag of chips again.
Verb phrase = will take
Adverb = never
Selena / will never take Jay’s only bag of chips again.
Bonus question: can you identify the direct object in the
above sample questions?
Review for Quiz:
Quiz Date to be determined (week of November 12-16)
Bare Subject/ Bare Predicate
Adjective
Adverb
Inverted Order (V/S) and Natural Order (S/V)
Direct Object
Indirect Object
Prepositions
Prepositional Phrases
Verb Phrases
Conjunctions
8 Parts of Speech (noun, verb, pronoun, adjective,
adverb, article, preposition, conjunction)