Verb

Verb indicates what someone or something does or in another word it can be called as action word. There are many things that we will discuss if we talk about verb deeply. However, this will not tell you all about it because it will be discussed more in the next posting. It does not mean that this is not important to learn. Here I will tell you kinds of verbs. But before telling you about the kinds of verbs, let me give the example words of verbs first. Here are the examples of some verbs!

Buy	Play	Become	Type	Brush	Listen	Compose
Study	See	Come	Look	Walk	Write	Tell
Sleep	Understand	Take	Seem	Hold	Watch	Sell
Come	Know	Ask	Turn	Read	Fix	Send

Those words above are some of the English verbs. They become predication of the sentences. They tell what someone or something does. They also can describe the subjects. Therefore, verbs can be used to indicate what subject does or to describe the subject in the sentence. The most important thing that we have to remember is that verb comes after subject. Let’s see again the example sentence below!

They buy some food in the market because they are very hungry.

John was studying when I came to his house.

My father is sleeping while my mother is cooking.

Mr. Benny takes his bag and goes home.

The bold words above are called as the verbs. It is clear that those verbs indicates what the subjects do or describes the subject in the sentences. To ask verb in the sentence we can use question word ‘what’. For instance, what they do in the market? The answer is they buy some food. The word ‘buy’ in the sentence is the action of what the subject ‘they’ does.  Therefore, it is called an action word or a verb.

It is not just this. There are many things that we have to pay attention in learning it. You might be wondering what they are. Here I will tell you about the kinds of verbs. Remember! Each kind of words is not the same function. Therefore, we should care in using verbs. Here are the kinds of verbs.

1.      Transitive and Intransitive verb

a.      Transitive verb

Transitive verb is a verb that cannot stay alone. It needs an object in order that it can be understood. We cannot say ‘they buy’ without an object. We will ask ‘what they buy’. It is not clear, isn’t it? Thus, the word ‘buy’ there is called a transitive verb because it needs an object. We can ask question ‘what’ when we want to know whether it is a transitive or an intransitive verb. If it cannot be understood without an object, it must be a transitive verb. Look at the example words below!

Take	Steal	Drink	Wash	Give	Ask	Play
Watch	Shoot	Eat	Brush	Tell	Pay	Type

Those are some of transitive verbs. There are many others that we can find in an English dictionary. Here I will tell you why those words are transitive verbs. When we say ‘I drink’, the listeners will ask what you drink. But if we say ‘I drink a cup of tea’, the listeners will understand our statement. It means that the word ‘drink’ is transitive verb because it cannot be understood by the listeners if it does not have an object. 

b.      Intransitive verb

We have known the transitive verb above and now I tell you what intransitive verb is. Intransitive verb is a verb that can stay alone. It does not need an object. It can be understood even it does not have an object. Here are some words of intransitive verbs;

Sleep	Come	Run
Go	Sit	Work

When we say ‘she sleeps’, the listeners will not ask what she sleeps because it can already be understood. Thus, the word ‘sleep’ here is called as an intransitive verb. We also cannot make passive voice by using this verb because the word that can be used to make passive voice is only transitive verb. We can not say ‘I am slept’ or ‘I am gone’ because the words ‘slept and gone’ are past participles of intransitive verbs and intransitive verb cannot be passive.

2.      Linking verb

Another kind of verbs is linking verb. Linking verb is a verb for relating two things as its name ‘link’ means to relate. It is used to link between a subject and an object or a complement in a sentence. For instance, they turn blue. The word ‘turn’ there is called linking verb because it relates between the subject ‘they’ and the complement ‘blue’. Here are some other linking verbs;

Be	Grow	Look	Smell	Seem
Become	Appear	Feel	Taste	Remain

3.      Auxiliary verb

Auxiliary verb can also be called as the helping verb. It is used to help the verb. Look at the auxiliary verbs below!

a.      Be

To be can be is, am, are, was, were, been, being and be itself. It is used to vary the verb. For example, she is singing beautifully. The word ‘is’ in the sentence is called as auxiliary verb. It helps verb ‘sing’ to be ‘singing’. It is because the subject cannot directly be related with –ing form (V-ing). Therefore, ‘is’ is needed as the help of the verb ‘sing’.

b.      Do

The auxiliary ‘do’ can be varied into ‘does and did’. This auxiliary can be found in negative sentence, interrogative sentence and question by using question words. Look at the examples below!

Jenny does not study English.

Did William come to your party last week?

What do the two people drink?

c.       Have

Have can be has or had. The changing of that form depends on the subject and the tenses. It will be ‘have’ if the subjects are I, you, they and we in present tense. It will be ‘has’ if the subjects are she, he and it. Then, it will change into had if it is used in the past form. But remember, we use this auxiliary properly in the ‘perfect’ tense. Look at the examples below!

I have not visited him.

She has spoken English.

They had called you when you spoke English with your friend.

Notes:

Before I continue telling you the next auxiliary, let me tell you that the auxiliaries be, do and have above can be ordinary verb and have meaning. Have a look!

They are in the kitchen.

John does his homework seriously.

My mother has a handsome son.

The bold words above are not auxiliaries, but they are ordinary verbs that you can find later.

d.      Modal

It is really different from those auxiliaries above because this auxiliary adds meaning to the verb. Here are some words of modal auxiliary.

Can          : John can run fast.

Will          : She will invite you to her birthday party tomorrow.

Must        : You must be careful to drive your motorcycle.

4.      Ordinary verb.

Ordinary verb is divided into two; regular and irregular verb. Look at the list of regular and irregular verb below!

a.      Regular verb

Base Form	Past Simple	Past Participle	Present Participle
Accept	Accepted	Accepted	Accepting
Add	Added	Added	Adding
Admire	Admired	Admired	Admiring
Admit	Admitted	Admitted	Admitting
Advise	Advised	Advised	Advising
Afford	Afforded	Afforded	Affording
Agree	Agreed	Agreed	Agreeing
Allow	Allowed	Allowed	Allowing
Boil	Boiled	Boiled	Boiling
Borrow	Borrowed	Borrowed	Borrowing
Bless	Blessed	Blessed	Blessing
Brush	Brushed	Brushed	Brushing
Compare	Compared	Compared	Comparing
Compete	Competed	Competed	Competing
Complain	Complained	Complained	Complaining

We just need to put –ed for past tense and past participle. But it does not happen in all verbs. There are some verbs that are different from the verbs above.

b.      Irregular verb

Base Form	Past Simple	Past Participle	Present Participle
Arise	Arose	Arisen	Arising
Awake	Awoke	Awoken	Awaking
Be	Was, were	Been	Being
Beat	Beat	Beaten	Beating
Become	Became	Become	Becoming
Begin	Began	Begun	Beginning
Bend	Bent	Bent	Bending
Bet	Bet	Bet	Betting
Bid	Bid	Bid	Biding
Bite	Bit	Bitten	Biting
Blow	Blew	Blown	Blowing
Break	Broke	Broken	Breaking
Bring	Brought	Brought	Bringing
Broadcast	Broadcast	Broadcast	Broadcasting
Build	Built	Built	Building
Burn	Burned/burnt	Burned/burnt	Burning
Buy	Bought	Bought	Buying
Catch	Caught	Caught	Catching
Choose	Chose	Chosen	Choosing
Come	Came	Come	Coming
Cost	Cost	Cost	Costing
Cut	Cut	Cut	Cutting
Dig	Dug	Dug	Digging
Do	Did	Done	Doing
Draw	Drew	Drawn	Drawing
Dream	Dreamed/dreamt	Dreamed/dreamt	Dreaming
Drive	Drove	Driven	Driving
Drink	Drank	Drunk	Drinking
Eat	Ate	Eaten	Eating
Fall	Fell	Fallen	Falling
Feel	Felt	Felt	Feeling
Fight	Fought	Fought	Fighting
Find	Found	Found	Finding
Fly	Flew	Flown	Flying
Forget	Forgot	Forgotten	Forgetting
Forgive	Forgave	Forgiven	Forgiving
Freeze	Froze	Frozen	Freezing
Get	Got	Gotten	Getting
Give	Gave	Given	Giving
Go	Went	Gone	Going
Grow	Grew	Grown	Growing
Hang	Hung	Hung	Hanging
Have	Had	Had	Having
Hear	Heard	Heard	Hearing
Hide	Hid	Hidden	Hiding
Hit	Hit	Hit	Hitting
Hold	Held	Held	Holding
Hurt	Hurt	Hurt	Hurting
Keep	Kept	Kept	Keeping
Know	Knew	Known	Knowing
Lay	Laid	Laid	Laying
Lead	Led	Led	Leading
Learn	Learned/learnt	Learned/learnt	Learning
Leave	Left	Left	Leaving
Lend	Lent	Lent	Lending
Let	Let	Let	Letting
Lie	Lay	Lain	Lying
Lose	Lost	Lost	Losing
Make	Made	Made	Making
Mean	Meant	Meant	Meaning
Meet	Met	Met	Meeting
Pay	Paid	Paid	Paying
Put	Put	Put	Putting
Read	Read	Read	Reading
Ride	Rode	Ridden	Riding
Ring	Rang	Rung	Ringing
Rise	Rose	Risen	Rising
Run	Ran	Run	Running
Say	Said	Said	Saying
See	Saw	Seen	Seeing
Sell	Sold	Sold	Selling
Send	Sent	Sent	Sending
Show	Showed	Showed/shown	Showing
Shut	Shut	Shut	Shutting
Sing	Sang	Sung	Singing
Sit	Sat	Sat	Sitting
Sleep	Slept	Slept	Sleeping
Speak	Spoke	Spoken	Speaking
Spend	Spent	Spent	Spending
Stand	Stood	Stood	Standing
Swim	Swam	Swum	Swimming
Take	Took	Taken	Taking
Teach	Taught	Taught	Teaching
Tear	Tore	Torn	Tearing
Tell	Told	Told	Telling
Think	Thought	Thought	Thinking
Throw	Threw	Thrown	Throwing
Understand	Understood	Understood	Understanding
Wake	Woke	Woken	Waking
Wear	Wore	Worn	Wearing
Win	Won	Won	Winning
Write	Wrote	Written	Writing

You see those irregular verbs above? The past tense form and the past participle form are different. We have to memorize those words above because they are irregular.