Verbs
Verbs have traditionally been described as ‘doing words’ or ‘action words’. This works well for some verbs, like sprint, chatter, eat. Here are some sentence examples with verbs which describe actions:
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Verbs: Tense
Tense is a grammatical notion that refers to the way in which a language encodes the real world notion of time. Typically this is done through endings on verbs called inflections. Verbs are the only word class that can carry tense inflections (though they don't always do so). Verbs that carry a tense ending are called finite verbs.
Verbs: Auxiliary verbs
A key distinction in the word class of verbs is between main verbs (also called lexical verbs) and auxiliary verbs:
Verbs: Modal verbs
Modal auxiliary verbs (or modals for short), as the name suggests, are a kind of auxiliary verb. They have most of the attributes of auxiliary verbs. They are a closed class that is identifiable as a short list, and they convey particular types of meaning.
Here is a table which lists the most important modal verbs (also called the core modals). It shows most of them in pairs as present and past tense forms, which makes them easier to remember.
Verbs: Nonfinite and finite
Verbs can be divided into finite and nonfinite forms. Finite verbs carry tense. So, past and present tense verb forms are finite. Nonfinite verbs do not carry tense, and do not show agreement with a Subject. Put differently, they are not 'limited' by tense or agreement.
The infinitive form of a verb is nonfinite. It is the form which follows to:
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The nonfinite form is the same as the from the base form. In addition to to-infinitives, there are also bare infinitives, in which to is absent:
- Help me to open the gate! (to-infinitive)
- Help me open the gate! (bare infinitive)
The word to in to-infinitives is called infinitival to or the infinitival particle to. It is different from the preposition to.
In addition to the infinitive, there are two additional nonfinite forms:
- the present participle
- the past participle
For example:
- The old lady is writing a play.
- The film was produced in Hollywood.
The verb form writing in (1) is known as the present participle form. It does not agree with the Subject the old lady. If it did, it would be writes as in The old lady writes a play. Instead, the auxiliary verb is agrees with the Subject the old lady. The nonfinite present participle writing is part of a present progressive construction. This is one of the most common uses of the present participle.
In (2), the verb form produced is called the past participle form. It does not agree with the Subject the film. Instead, the auxiliary verb was is the past tense verb related to the Subject. The nonfinite past participle produced is part of a passive construction. This is one of the most common uses of the past participle.
The -ed inflection on past participles should not be confused with the -ed inflection which is used to indicate the past tense of many verbs. For some verbs the past tense and -ed participle have the same shape (pronunciation and spelling), but the two forms are used in different ways. Compare:
- He produced the film in Hollywood. (past tense form)
- The film was produced in Hollywood. (past participle form)
In (1), produced is a past tense form. We could change it to present tense as in the example He produces the film in Hollywood. In (2), the auxiliary verb was is a past tense form, and produced is a past participle. We could not change produced to a present tense form, as in *The film was produces in Hollywood because it would then be ungrammatical.
