What is Verb?
A verb is a word that expresses an action or state of something.
e.g., write, eat, drink, buy, go, come, laugh, play, catch, wash, speak, sleep, etc.
Example.
- He is eating an apple.
In the above sentence, the word ‘eat’ is a verb. It tells about an action which is done by the subject (he) in the sentence. A verb expresses some action. For instance, the verb ‘eat’ expresses an action of chewing a food and swallowing it.
Most verbs express an action, but a few verbs also express a state of something.
A verb that expresses an action is called a dynamic verb, e.g., go, write, eat, wash, buy.
Examples.
- He is going to school. .
- They are playing football.
- She writes a story.
- He broke a cup.
On the other hand, the verb which expresses a state of something is called a stative verb, e.g. seem, resemble, consists of, belong to, impress, surprise, etc.
Examples.
- He seems a nice man. (expresses a state).
- She resembles her sister. (expresses a state).
- She belongs to a noble family. (expresses a state).
A few verbs can be used both as dynamic as well as a stative verb.
Example.
- He looks handsome. (‘look’ used as a stative verb).
- He looked at the door. (‘look’ used as a dynamic verb).
![](img/b.gif)
FORMS OF VERBS
There are three major forms of a verb.
- Base Form (1st form)
- Past Simple (2nd form)
- Past Particle (3rd form)
Examples.
Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
---|---|---|
Write | Wrote | Written |
See | Saw | Seen |
Adding ‘ing’ to the base form of a verb (e.g., laugh) turns into a form (e.g., laughing) known as present participle. Examples: go – going, sleep – sleeping, play – playing, do – doing. The present participle is also sometime called a 4th form of a verb. The present participle form of verb is mostly used in continuous tenses.
![](img/b.gif)
Formation of 2nd and 3rd Forms of Verb
Verbs are divided into the following two types based on the formation of their 2nd and 3rd forms.
- Regular Verbs
- Irregular Verbs
![](img/e1.gif)
Regular Verbs
A verb whose past simple and past participle are formed simply by adding ‘-ed’ to it, is called a regular verb.
Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
---|---|---|
Ask | Asked | Asked |
Open | Opened | Opened |
Use | Used | Used |
Start | Started | Started |
Look | Looked | Looked |
Allow | Allowed | Allowed |
Need | Needed | Needed |
Help | Helped | Helped |
Try | Tried | Tried |
Pull | Pulled | Pulled |
![](img/e2.gif)
Irregular Verbs
A verb whose past simple and past participle are formed in different ways (not by adding ‘-ed’) is called an irregular verb.
Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
---|---|---|
See | Saw | Seen |
Eat | Ate | Eaten |
Write | Wrote | Written |
Drink | Drank | Drunk |
Send | Sent | Sent |
Sleep | Slept | Slept |
Find | Found | Found |
Buy | Bought | Bought |
Teach | Taught | Taught |
Do | Did | Did |
Fly | Flew | Flown |
A few verbs remain the same in all the three forms.
Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
---|---|---|
Put | Put | Put |
Shut | Shut | Shut |
Cut | Cut | Cut |
Spread | Spread | Spread |
Read | Read | Read |