What is Verb?
A verb is a word that expresses a state or an action of something.
e.g. Go, Write, come, run, play, eat, weep, read, catch, clean, drink, walk, speak, cut, hold.
Example:
She is driving a car.
In the above sentence, the word ‘drive’ is a verb because it tells about an action being done by the subject (she) of the sentence. It tells what is being done – the action.
Most of the verbs express the action of something but a few verbs also express a state of something.
The verbs which tell about the action of something are called dynamic verb. e.g. go, come, play, run, eat, drink etc.
Examples:
- She is singing a song. (expresses an action)
- He is laughing at a joker. (expresses an action)
- The kids are making a noise. (expresses an action)
One the other hand, those verbs which tells about a state of something, are called stative verbs. e.g. seem, resemble, consist of, belong to, be, impress, surprise.
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.
Examples:
- He looks very handsome. (‘look’ used as stative verb)
- He looked at the door. (‘look’ used as dynamic verb)
⇒ Forms of Verb
There are three forms of verbs depending upon its usage in sentence according to the tense.
- Base Form (1st Form)
- Past Simple (2nd Form)
- Past Particle (3rd Form)
Examples:
Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
---|---|---|
Write | Wrote | Written |
Go | Went | Gone |
Note: “-ing” attached to base form of a verb (i.e. laughing) is called present participle. e.g. run—running, drink—drinking, do—doing.
⇒ Formation of Past Simple and Past Participle Form
Verbs are divided into following two types depending on formation of its 2nd and 3rd forms.
- Regular Verbs
- Irregular Verbs
1⇒ Regular Verbs
A verb whose past-simple and past-participle are formed simply by adding ‘-ed’ to it, is called a regular verb.
Verb | Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
---|---|---|---|
To work | Work | Worked | Worked |
To look | Look | Looked | Looked |
To dry | Dry | Dried | Dried |
To help | Help | Helped | Helped |
To move | Move | Moved | Moved |
2⇒ Irregular Verbs
A verb whose past-simple and past-participle are formed in different ways (not by adding ‘-ed’) is called an irregular verb.
Verb | Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
---|---|---|---|
To Send | Send | Sent | Sent |
To buy | Buy | Bought | Bought |
To teach | Teach | Taught | Taught |
To do | Do | Did | Did |
To fly | Fly | Flew | Flown |
A few verb remains the same in all three forms (base, past-simple and past-participle).
Verb | Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
---|---|---|---|
To shut | shut | Shut | Shut |
To cut | Cut | Cut | Cut |
To spread | spread | spread | spread |
To read | Read | Read | Read |