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).
  

There are three major forms of a verb.

1. Base Form        (1st form)
2. Past Simple       (2nd form)
3. 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.

Verbs are divided into the following two types based on the formation of their 2nd and 3rd forms.

1. Regular Verbs
2. Irregular 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

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