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Verbs
• What is a Verb?
• A verb is a part of speech that expresses
existence, action, or occurrence. This is the
most important part of a sentence. A sentence
can have only one word as long as that word is a
verb. Verbs constitute, singly or in a phrase, a
minimal predicate in a clause govern the number
and types of other constituents which may occur
in the clause, and in inflectional languages, may
be inflected for tense, aspect, voice, modality, or
agreement with other constituents in person,
number, or grammatical gender.
Classification of verbs
• Verbs can be classified into
• transitive verbs vs. intransitive verbs vs
linking verbs
• dynamic verbs vs. stative verbs
• finite verbs vs. non-finite verbs
• single-word verbs vs. phrasal verbs
• regular verbs vs. irregular verbs
Transitive verbs, intransitive
verbs and linking verbs
• Main verbs can be divided into transitive
verbs, intransitive verbs and linking verbs
in accordance with whether or not they
must be followed by obligatory elements
functioning as complementation and what
kind of elements that must follow.
Transitive verbs
• A. Transitive verbs
• A transitive verb expresses an action and is followed by
an object that receives the action of the verb.
• mono-transitive verbs: taking an object
• What language do you speak?
• ditransitive verbs: taking an indirect and a direct object
• He gave me a book.
• complex transitive verbs: taking a direct object and an
object complement
• You should keep the room clean.
Intransitive verbs
• An intransitive verb expresses an action
but is not followed by an object. Applying
(what?) or (whom?) test to an intransitive
verb shows immediately that an object
cannot follow.
Linking verbs/copula
• A linking verb (also called copulative verb)
links or establishes a relationship between
the subject and its complement. It
describes or renames the subject.
• List of common linking verbs
appear, become, feel, get, go, grow, look,
prove, remain, seem, smell, sound, taste,
turn and any form of the verb be
Dynamic verbs and stative verbs
• According to lexical meaning, main verbs
can be dynamic and stative. Dynamic
verbs (sometimes referred to as “action
verbs”) usually describe actions we can
take, or things that happen; stative verbs
usually refer to a state or condition which
is quite static or unchanging.
DYNAMIC VERBS
• Activity Verbs
I am begging you. I was learning French. They
will be playing upstairs..
Virtually identical in meaning to simple tense
forms:
I beg you. I learned French. They will play
upstairs
• abandon, ask, beg, call, drink, eat, help, learn,
listen, look at, play, rain, read, say, slice, throw,
whisper, work, write
Dynamic Verbs
• Process Verbs
The corn is growing rapidly. Traffic is
slowing down.
Virtually identical in meaning to simple
present tense forms:
The corn grows rapidly. Traffic slows down.
• change, deteriorate, grow, mature, slow
down, widen
Dynamic Verbs
• Verbs of Bodily Sensation
"I feel bad" and "I am feeling bad" are
virtually identical in meaning.
• ache, feel, hurt, itch
Dynamic Verbs
• Transitional Events Verbs
Progressive forms indicate the beginning
of an event,
as opposed to the simple present tense.
"She was falling out of bed [when I caught
her]" as opposed to
"She falls out of bed every night."
• arrive, die, fall, land, leave, lose
Dynamic Verbs
• Momentary Verbs
Progressive forms indicate little duration
and suggest repetition.
She is hitting her brother.
He is jumping around the house.
Stative Verbs
• Verbs of Inert Perception and Cognition*
• astonish, believe, desire, detest, dislike,
doubt, feel, forgive, guess, hate, hear,
imagine, impress, intend, know, like, love,
mean, mind, perceive, please, prefer,
presuppose, realize, recall, recognize,
regard, remember, satisfy, see, smell,
suppose, taste, think, understand, want,
wish
Stative Verbs
• Relational Verbs
I am sick, but not I am being sick.
I own ten acres of land, but not I am
owning ten acres.
belong to, concern, consist of, contain,
cost, depend on, deserve, equal, fit, have,
include, involve, lack, matter, need, owe,
own, possess, require, require, resemble,
seem, sound
Regular and irregular verbs
• Regular Verbs
Verbs whose past tense and –ed participle forms
are predictable are referred to as regular verbs,
and those with unpredictable past tense and –ed
participle forms are called irregular verbs.
• Regular verbs just add –ed when they change
principal parts from the present to the past or to
the past participle.
Regular and irregular verbs
• Irregular Verbs
Irregular Verbs form their past tenses
and past participles in unpredictable ways.
There are some patterns among them
(blow-blew, know-knew), (spring-sprang,
drink-drank) but it is not always easy to
apply these patterns. The only way to
learn irregular verbs is to memorize them
A survey of tense, aspect, voice
and mood
1. Tense
• Tense is a grammatical form associated
with verbs that tells of the distinctions of
time. It shows the relationship between the
form of the verb and the time of the action
or state it describes.
A survey of tense, aspect, voice
and mood
2. Aspect
• Aspect is a grammatical term
indicating whether an action or state
at a given time is viewed as complete
or incomplete.
A survey of tense, aspect, voice
and mood
• 3. Voice
• Voice is a grammatical category, a form of
the verb which shows whether the subject
of a sentence acts or is acted on.
• the active voice
• the passive voice
A survey of tense, aspect, voice
and mood
• 4. Mood
• Mood is a finite verb form that indicate
whether an utterance expresses a fact, a
command or request, or a non-fact and
hypothesis.
• the indicative mood
• the imperative mood
• the subjunctive mood
Homework
• Discuss the classification of verbs
• Discuss verb tense, aspect, voice and
mood