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VERB PHRASE
VP
He plays soccer in the garden every day.
He
plays
is playing
is going to play
will play
played
has played
has been playing
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VERB PHRASE
VP
A VP is a structure which has a verb as the head of the
phrase
Pre-modification here is given by modal and/or auxiliary
verbs
Auxiliaries are functional marks; if you say:
“He is singing”
using auxiliary “is” you have marked time (present) and
subject (third person singular).
The use of auxiliaries in English is obligatory for
interrogative and negative forms:
You are students. Are you students?
You are not students
You study English. Do you study Eng.?
You don’t study Eng.
He sings in a band. Does he sing in a band? He doesn’t sing in a band.
 Other applications of auxiliaries convey some meaning,
depending on the correlation between structural aspects
and semantic fields. Compare:
He would come
He could come
He must come
VP Pre-modifiers
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We have seen that pre-modifiers do not change the head of
the NP, while in VP the elements which precede the main verb
(auxiliaries) do modify the head-verb.
Let’s examine the following sentences, where the head-verb is
“sing”:
NOUN
PHRASE
He
AUXILIARY
VERB
_
sings
NOUN
PHRASE
a lovely song
He
is
singing
a lovely song
A lovely song
is
sung
by him
He
may
sing
a lovely song
Types of verbs in English
Regular
(Paradigm with -ed form)
1. Lexical verbs
(Full / Semantic)
Irregular
heart)
(Paradigm to be learned by
Primary (to be /to have /to do)
2. Auxiliary verbs
Secondary (modals)
(can/could/may/might/shall/should)
REGULAR LEXICAL VERBS
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Ex. Paradigm:
To call
infinitive
called
called
past simple
past participle
We have 4 forms:
1.
2.
3.
4.
call
calls
called
calling
(base)
(-s form)
(-ed form)
(-ing form)
IRREGULAR LEXICAL VERBS
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Ex. Paradigm:
a. To cut
cut
cut
+ –s form + –ing form
b. To meet
met
met
+ –s form + –ing form
c. To come
came
come
+ –s form + –ing form
d. To speak spoke
spoken
+ –s form + –ing form
all alike
=
3 forms
=
p.t. = p.p.
4 forms
=
base = p.p.
4 forms
all different
= 5 forms
But there is an English verb with 8 forms …
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It is an auxiliary and its paradigm is:
To be
Here are its 8 forms:
1. be
(base form)
2. was
3. been
4. am
5. are
6. is
7. were
8. being
was
been
… and verbs with no paradigm:
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They are all the modals (secondary auxiliaries), even
if we can find “could” as the past simple of “can”
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Compare:
I can drive a car
I could drive a car (also I was able to drive a car)
I will be able to drive a car
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She must
 She had to
She will have to
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dance
dance
dance
QUESTION TAGS
 Ted:
1
It’s nice today, isn’t it?
 Amy: Yes, we’re having a lovely summer,
aren’t we? You’ve been on holiday,
haven’t you?
 Ted: No, not yet. We’re going to Greece
next month. It’s nice today, isn’t it?
You haven’t been away this
summer,
have you?
 Amy: No, but we are going to Sweden in
the autumn.
QUESTION TAGS
A
2
question tag is a short question (e.g. isn’t
it?) added on to a statement.
 When there is a falling intonation, the
speaker is sure (or almost sure) that the
statement is true:
“It’s nice today, isn’t it?”
In this case the tag is not really a question!
 A rising intonation means that the speaker is
less sure:
“You’ve been on holiday, haven’t you?”
The tag is more like a real question.
QUESTION TAGS
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British English (BrE)
You’re Italian,
You aren’t English,
Tom’s got a car,
Jane hasn’t got a boat,
She speaks English,
You don’t speak French,
They saw him,
They didn’t see her,
Mike will come,
Amy won’t come,
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3
aren’t you?
are you?
hasn’t he?
has she?
doesn’t she?
do you?
didn’t they?
did they?
won’t he?
will she?
QUESTIONS TAGS
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You can do it,
Laura can’t do it,
He could do it,
She couldn’t do it,
They must do it,
You mustn’t do it,
Ann should do it,
He shouldn’t do it,
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4
can’t you?
can she?
couldn’t he?
could she?
mustn’t they?
must you?
shouldn’t she?
should he?
QUESTION TAGS
 In
5
American English (AmE) question tags
are used much less often than in BrE.
 A question tag like:
“We’ll have to hurry, won’t we?”
can sound strange to Americans.
They prefer using: right? and OK?
“We’ll have to hurry, right?”
“You can do it, OK?”
Adverbs: an overview
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An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb
An adverb “qualifies” or “modifies” a verb
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But adverbs can also modify adjectives
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Mary is really beautiful
or other adverbs
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The man ran quickly
It works very well
or even a whole sentence
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Obviously, I can’t know everything
Position of Adverbs
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Adverbs have three main positions in the sentence:
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Front (before the subject):
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Now we will study adverbs.
Middle (between the subject and the main verb,
except the verb “to be”):
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We often study adverbs (the adverb comes BEFORE the
verb)
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He is always late (the adverb comes AFTER the verb)
End (after the verb or object):
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They dance occasionally.
We study adverbs carefully.
Sentence Construction Game 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/en30stru-ga
The tongue twister game
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She sells sea shells on the sea shore
Shy Shelly says she shall sew sheets
A big black bug bit a big black bear
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
peppers, Where's the peck of pickled
peppers Peter Piper picked?
Give papa a cup of proper coffee in a
copper coffee cup.
A pleasant place to place a plaice is a place
where a plaice is pleased to be placed.
It’s your turn now!
1. Write your first name (or the name
of a friend)
2. What did she/he do / is doing?
3. Where?
4. When?
5. Why? Because…
Some examples:
Who – what – where – when – why
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Bob bought a bike in Bali on his birthday
because he was bored
Susan sang a song at the seaside on the
6th of September because she saw some
sunshine
Laura laughed in the laundrette at
lunchtime because she lost her laundry