English Basics

What is Verb?

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.

  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
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.

  1. Regular Verbs
  2. 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

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