1. English Verbs
By Piret Lehiste

2. Verbs
A verb is a word used mainly to indicate a type of
action (fly, walk, throw), though sometimes the
action is merely emotional or intellectual
(believe, think). It may also be used to indicate
a state of being (live, exist).
The term ‘verb’ is from the Latin ‘verbum’ meaning
‘word’: hence it is the word of a sentence.
Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form
according to many factors, possibly including its
tense and voice. It may also agree with the
person and number.

3. Transitive vs Intransitive Verbs
All action verbs are divided into transitive and
intransitive verbs.
To determine whether a verb is transitive, ask
whether someone or something receives the
action of the verb. If it does, then the verb is
transitive and the person or thing that receives
its action is the direct object.
E.g. Becky walked the dog. – ‘walk’ is a transitive
verb here.
But the word ‘walk’ can also be intransitive. E.g.
Becky walked to school. There is no object
following the verb in this example.
An intransitive verb never has a direct or indirect
object. E.g. He lives in Haapsalu.

4. Linking Verbs
A linking verb connects the subject of a sentence
to a noun or adjective that renames or describes
it. This noun or adjective is called the subject
complement.
E.g. Jason became a businessman. – The verb
‘became’ links the subject to its complement.
The most common linking verb is the verb BE in all
of its forms (am, is, are, was, were, etc.). But it
may also be used as a helping verb (see next
slide). Other common linking verbs are:
become, seem. Some verbs may be linking
verbs in some cases and action verbs in other
cases, e.g., to feel, to smell, to taste, to appear,
to look, to turn, etc.

5. Helping Verbs
Once upon a time there was a wealthy merchant named
Mr. Do. Mr. Do was very old and very rich. His many
relatives were dreaming of the day the old man would
die. They wondered which one of them would inherit
his money. Finally, one day Mr. Do died. All the
relatives searched his house for a will. They didn't find
one. They searched his house three times. They still
did not find a will. The relatives did not get one dime
of Mr. Do's fortune.
The moral of the story: Maybe Mr. Do should have
had a will.
Remember this sentence and you will know how to set
up a chart of the 23 helping verbs! The largest
"family" is the "BE" family with 8 members. The other
five families have 3 members each.

6. Helping Verbs
May be do should have will
Might being does could has can
Must been did would had shall
am
is
are
was
were
A sentence may contain up to three helping verbs
to the main verb. E.g. The dog must have been
chasing the cat.

7. Helping Verbs
Helping words are also called auxiliary verbs.
They come before the main verb of a sentence
and convey additional information regarding
aspects of possibility (can, could, etc.) or time
(was, did, has, etc.). Together with the main verb
they form a verb phrase.
Auxiliaries can be used before the word ‘not’, main
verbs cannot. The contracted form ‘n’t’ can also
be attached to almost all auxiliaries; this is not
possible with main verbs (apart from ‘be’ and
‘have’)
A modal verb is a type of auxiliary verb that is
used to indicate modality (i.e. possibility,
necessity), e.g., can, shall, will, must, may.

8. Phrasal Verbs
Phrasal verbs are "multi-word verbs“, e.g., pick
up, turn on or get on with. These verbs consist
of a basic verb + another word or words.
The other word(s) can be prepositions and/or
adverbs. The two or three words that make up
multi-word verbs form a short "phrase“ — which
is why these verbs are often called "phrasal
verbs".
The important thing to remember is that a multi-
word verb is still a verb. "Get" is a verb. "Get
up", is also a verb. "Get" and "get up" are two
different verbs.

9. Regular vs Irregular
Regular verbs appear in 4 forms: the base form (a
form with no endings, as listed in a dictionary),
the –s form (used for the 3rd
person singular in
the present tense), the –ing form (present
participle), the –ed form (in the past form and
-ed participle form). E.g. work, works, working,
worked.
An irregular verb is one where some of the forms
are unpredictable. They have either an
unpredictable past tense or an unpredictable –ed
participle form or both. Many irregular verbs
therefore appear in 5 forms: e.g. sing, sings,
singing, sang, sung.
There are more than 400 irregular verbs in English.

10. Tenses
A tense is a form of a verb used to indicate the
time, and sometimes the continuation or
completeness, of an action in relation to the time
of speaking. (From Latin tempus = ‘time’).
So, we talk about time in English with tenses. But:
• we can also talk about time without using tenses
(for example, going to is a special construction to
talk about the future, it is not a tense);
• one tense does not always talk about one time
(If I had time, I would go).

11. The English Verb Tense System
Present Simple Past Simple Future Simple
Present Continuous Past Continuous Future Continuous
Present Perfect Past Perfect Future Perfect
Present P. Continuous Past P. Continuous Future P. Continuous
+
Future Simple in the past
Future Continuous in the past
Future Perfect in the past
Future Perfect Continuous in the past
16 tenses in Active Voice
10 tenses in Passive Voice

12. Voice
A voice shows the relationship of the subject to the
action. In the active voice, the subject does the
action (cats eat mice). In the passive voice, the
subject receives the action (mice are eaten by cats).
Among other things, we can use voice to help us
change the focus of attention.
E.g. He has broken the window. - active
The window has been broken. - passive
Most verbs which take an object (transitive verbs) can
appear in both active and passive constructions (eat,
break, buy). There are just a few exceptions, such
as resemble and most uses of have (e.g. I had a
car.).

13. Bibliography
Crystal, D. (2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of
the English Language. CUP
Understanding Verbs: Basic Types of Verbs
www.uhv.edu/ac/efl/pdf/verbsbasictypes.pdf
Understanding Verbs: Verb Tenses
www.uhv.edu/ac/efl/pdf/verbstenses.pdf
The English Verb Tense System
www.bergen.edu/faculty/rfreud/verbtense.pdf