Download Action verbs and verbals

Liveliness:
Hard-working Action Verbs and Verbals
Action verbs
Action verbals
Review A
Review B
Action verbs
Strong action verbs bring sentences to life. The
best writers use strong action verbs as highoctane fuel to power their sentences.
Look at how Jack London uses the verb frowned
in the opening sentence of White Fang:
Dark spruce forest frowned on either
side of the frozen waterway.
London uses frowned as a metaphor
to show that the forest is a hostile,
threatening place.
Action verbs
Note the vivid verbs that London uses to create
his gloomy setting in the next few sentences of
the opening paragraph.
A
recent
removed
covering
of
The
treeswind
had had
been
strippedthe
by white
a recent
wind of
frost
trees, of
and
theyand
seemed
to moveto lean
their from
whitethe
covering
frost,
they seemed
toward each other, black and ominous, in the
decreasing
light.
vast silence
was
over
the
land.
fading light. A
vastAsilence
reigned
over
the
land.
Using less vivid verb
forms takes the life from
the passage.
Action verbals
Other action-oriented words in the passage are
not main verbs but verbals.
Verbals are words that are formed from verbs
but do the work of adverbs, adjectives, or nouns.
The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their
white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean
toward each other, black and ominous, in the
fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land.
Infinitive functioning as an adverb
(How did they seem?)
Present participle functioning as an adjective
(What kind of light?)
Action verbals
Writers use action verbs and verbals to create
excitement, as in this passage from Mark Twain’s
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Action verbs
Verbals
They sprang
away,stumbling
stumbling
over
roots
and
among
sprang away,
stumblingover
over
roots
roots
and
and
among
among
vines in the dark, no two plunging
thesame
same
plunging ininthe
direction. A furious blast roared
throughthe
thetrees,
trees,
roared through
making
everythingsing
singasasit itwent.
went.One
Oneblinding
blinding
making everything
flash after another came, and peal on peal of
deafening
thunder.
deafening thunder.
All these verbals are present participles except
the infinitive sing.
Action verbs and verbals
On Your Own
The following sentences contain lifeless verbs and verbals.
Replace the italicized words to make each sentence more
vivid.
1. “Don’t open that!” Bill said.
2. The car swerved right, touching the rail.
3. Fans went to ask the star for her autograph.
4. Making a sound ominously, the door opened by itself.
5. This is the building that the architect made to get first
prize in the contest.
[End of Section]
Review A
Underline each verb, and circle each verbal in this passage
from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Which do
you think are the most lively?
The boys cried out to each other, but the roaring blasts
and the booming thunder blasts drowned their voices
utterly. However, one by one they straggled in at last and
took shelter under the tent, cold, scared, and streaming
with water; but to have company in misery seemed
something to be grateful for. They could not talk, the old
sail flapped so furiously, even if the other voices would
have allowed them.
Review B
Using action verbs and verbals, write a paragraph
describing an exciting or frightening event. Then,
identify each verb and verbal that you use.
The End