What Are Verbs?

Do you know that you can make a complete sentence with only one word – a verb in English?

Consider the sentence “Stop!” Any other sort of word cannot be used to form a one-word statement. That’s how powerful verbs can be.

But what are verbs exactly? What are their functions, and what are the rules in English grammar governing verbs?

Search no more because right here in this article, we will be discussing everything there is to know about verbs. Please continue reading. 

What are Verbs?

Verbs are the action words in a phrase that describe what the subject is doing.

The most key element of a sentence or phrase is the verb, which, like nouns, tells a story about what is going on.

Whole concepts cannot be conveyed without a verb, and even the simplest statements, such as “Anna dances.”, require one. A verb, like “Drive!” and “Sing!”, can be considered a sentence in and of itself, the subject being ‘you’, inferred, in most cases.

When learning grammatical rules, students are frequently taught that verbs are ‘doing’ words, indicating that they represent the part of the phrase that explains the action taking place: “The horses run over the fields.”, “He walked away.”, and “She bakes chocolate cake on Sundays.”, 

The verbs in these sentences are ‘ran’, ‘walked’, and ‘bakes’ since they are the ‘action’ aspects of the sentences.

It can be perplexing, though, because not all verbs are clearly action verbs: “I recognize your name.”, “Jack considered it.”, and “We thought about numerous options.”

Non-action verbs are those that describe a state of being, feeling, possession, sensation, or opinion rather than an action.

What are the Five Functions of English Verbs?

You should keep in mind that the form and function of word classes vary significantly among languages. 

In particular, processes of inflectional affixation may be utilized by a language to express grammatical notions dependent on the verb’s interactions with its surrounding words – such as tense, gender, mood, voice, or case – to a greater or greater or lesser extent.

While such variety is essential from a linguistic standpoint, the most crucial feature for students of academic English is how verbs function in the English language specifically.

Function 1 – To communicate action. 

Verbs, in English grammar, are employed to express actions (‘read’ or ‘study’), occurrences (‘become’ or ‘happen’), and states of being (‘be’ or ‘feel’).

This word class’s first and most significant linguistic function is to carry and transmit the main meaning of a clause or sentence.

Function 2 – To make clauses. 

A sentence can be made up of one independent clause or a combination of numerous dependent and independent clauses.

Because an independent sentence must include both a subject and a predicate, and predicates must contain verbs and verb phrases, this word class serves to build the basic foundation of human language.

Verbs are at the heart of practically all clauses and sentences, whether they involve just a subject, a subject, and a complement, or a subject and an object:

Function 3 – To provide tense and aspect. 

The third way verbs are important in the English language is that they can be employed to change the tense (time) or aspect of a sentence (duration of time).

A speaker can modify the temporal meaning of an expression rapidly and reliably by either adding auxiliary verbs to its verb phrase or conjugating a verb through inflectional affixation.

Function 4 – To demonstrate modality. 

Verbs can express characteristics of mood and modality, albeit this is only achievable with particular auxiliary verbs.

Modality is a language element that expresses a speaker’s feelings about the world around them through judgments, assessments, or interpretations of a proposition’s believability, reality, obligation, or desirability. 

Attitudinal Modality 

Communicative Modality 

Function 5 – To show agreement

Another useful usage of verbs is that they can be adjusted to show agreement – when a word changes its form due to the other words in the sentence to which it is related.

Agreement is a sort of inflectional affixation limited to grammatical person and number between subjects and verbs in the English language.

This means that English verbs can change form to show whether the subject is in the first, second, or third person, and also as whether the subject is singular or plural. 

Singular

Plural

Which Tests Correctly Identify English Verbs?

To help with confident verb identification, remember that any word in the English language can belong to numerous word classes based on its form, function, and grammar.

For example, the word ‘swimming’ can be used as a verb in the statement “He is swimming in the pool.”, but it can also be used as a noun in the phrase “Swimming is a therapy for him”.

Because it is not always evident to the speaker which words belong to different word classes, and when we have put together a list of five tests to help you recognize verbs more easily and consistently.

Test 1 – Collocation 

One of the most effective ways to determine a word’s class is to look at the classes surrounding it – the words it collocates with.

However, because several of the primary word classes, including adjectives, adverbs, nouns, prepositions, and even other verbs, can commonly precede or follow verbs, this test alone may not be sufficient. 

Test 2 – Function

Students should be aware of five common tasks that verbs can fulfill in the English language, including the communication of actions and the inclusion of tense and aspect.

Academics who want to improve their odds of correctly identifying verbs should recall and recognize the five functions mentioned in the previous section. 

Test 3 – Morphology 

The study of how words are produced by affixation is known as morphology.

While English verbs do not change their form as frequently as some languages to indicate tense, gender, or number through prefixation and suffixation, there are still seven basic verb forms that can aid in identifying this word class. 

A learner who wants to identify verbs accurately should presumably be aware of the following list of common verb-forming prefixes and suffixes and these seven verb forms.

Test 4 – Syntax

Valency – or how many arguments a verb can grammatically take – is another useful predictor of whether a word is a verb or not.

Arguments are the subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, and oblique (prepositional) objects of a phrase, and verbs can only take them.

As a result, if a word is grammatical in one of the four patterns below, it is most likely a verb. 

Test 5 – Exceptions

Of course, every rule in grammar has exceptions that must be memorized if you wish to identify verbs every time correctly.

As previously discussed, there is some variation and irregularity in how verbs’ tense, aspect, and agreement are expressed, as well as how verbs are built (conjugated) in general.

Because collocation, function, morphology, and syntax alone may not be sufficient in some circumstances to establish whether or not a word is a verb, students should get familiar with the many types and rules that govern the grammar of this word class.

What are the Thirteen Types of English Verbs?

This section will examine and demonstrate the thirteen different types of verbs that can be found in everyday speech and academic writing.

We have summarized the thirteen verb kinds, which will be explored in-depth one by one.

Please keep in mind that (a) these categories have been separated into general, semantic, (meaning-based), binary, and syntactic (structure-based) categories, and (b) other verbs can be appropriate for more than one. 

Verb Types 

General Categories

Because they are the widest of verb classifications, both lexical and auxiliary verbs are considered generic verb kinds.

Every one of the next eleven categories discussed in this chapter might be classified as lexical or auxiliary, making these two classifications the most significant and primary.

Type 1 – Lexical Verbs 

Lexical verbs, often known as ‘main’ verbs, are the most prevalent verb type in English.

Lexical verbs have a distinct meaning and do not require the usage of another verb to be grammatically correct, though they can be combined with other verbs to form bigger verb phrases in a sentence. 

Type 2 – Auxiliary Verbs 

 Auxiliary verbs, unlike lexical verbs, do not include much of an expression’s meaning and are instead utilized to illustrate grammatical qualities like tense, aspect, or modality.

Auxiliaries, sometimes known as ‘helping’ verbs, are most commonly used before lexical verbs in a phrase.

Auxiliary verbs like ‘should’, ‘have’, and ‘be’ can be employed to convey obligatory modality, perfect aspect, and continuous aspect.

2.1 Primary Auxiliary Verbs 

In the English language, there are three main auxiliary verbs, each with its own set of forms and uses. ‘

Be’, ‘do’, and ‘have’ are these three verbs. 

2.2 Modal Auxiliary Verbs 

There are six semi-modal and nine pure modal auxiliary verbs that you should learn to use and recognize in addition to these three major auxiliary verbs, especially when conveying modality in speech or writing projects.

Modality is a useful linguistic trait that expresses a speaker’s views toward the world around them, whether through judgments, assessments, or interpretations of a proposition’s believability, reality, obligation, or desirability. 

Binary Categories

The next four verb classes are grouped together because they exist in an either/or situation.

These words are either semantically, morphologically, or syntactically regular, stative, finite, or transitive, or they are not.

Type 3 – Regular and Irregular Verbs 

One of the most prominent binary distinctions among verbs is whether or not they are morphologically formed consistently.

Regular verbs are those that do not change spelling and only require the suffixes’ s/-es’ for plurality, ‘-d/-ed’ for simple past tense and past participle.

On the other hand, irregular verbs are much more complicated because their spellings change, and there are no specific rules governing these changes.  

Regular Verbs 

Irregular Verbs 

Type 4 – Stative and Dynamic Verbs

Another method to classify verbs is to divide them into stative and dynamic categories based on the event, action, state of being or occurrence they depict.

Stative verbs are those that describe situations or states of being that are undefinable in duration or unchangeable, such as ‘thought’ or ‘want’.

Dynamic verbs, such as ‘research’ or ‘measure’, on the other hand, depict actions and occurrences that have a beginning and an end.

Stative Verbs 

Dynamic Verbs 

Please keep in mind that some verbs, such as the verb ‘think’ in the following sentences, can be both stative and dynamic depending on how they are used in the sentence.

Type 5 – Finite and Non-Finite Verbs

When recognizing verbs, another binary classification that academic students may encounter is whether or not a verb is finite, which refers to the ability to indicate tense or agreement with a connected topic.

Non-finite verbs lack the grammatical flexibility of finite verbs, which can display tense and subject-verb agreement as well as occur as the singular verb in an independent phrase.

Non-finite verbs cannot be inflected and can only appear alone in a clause when that clause is dependent. 

Type 6 – Transitive and Intransitive Verbs 

The last binary distinction among verbs examines whether a verb is transitive (able to accept an object) or intransitive (unable to take an object).

The accompanying table highlights two points:

(1) There are three categories of transitive verbs based on the number of arguments (subjects and objects) they can take, and

(2) verbs like ‘melt’ can be both transitive and intransitive, which could be dependent on their use and meaning. 

Transitive Verbs 

Intransitive Verbs 

Semantic Categories

Another way to categorize verbs is to group them semantically or according to their meanings. 

Type 7 – Causative Verbs 

The causatives are the first semantic category of verbs.

The act of one thing or person that causes another thing or person to do or get something is expressed by causative verbs.

There are about fifty verbs in the English language that can generate transitivity-increasing causative constructions.

Type 8 – Mental-State Verbs

Mental-state verbs are most often stative and extremely polysemous, indicating that each verb can demonstrate a variety of state-based meanings.

They are related to deciding, discovering, planning, understanding, and the general contents of our minds that cannot be externally evaluated.

Such verbs are very valuable in academic argumentation writing when qualifying the ideas and facts of other authors. 

Type 9 – Performative Verbs

This semantic classification explains the small number of verbs that unambiguously reflect the performance of a speech act.

These are verbs whose meaning is the speech act they perform. In performative sentences — the speaker is always the subject. 

Type 10 – Reporting Verbs

Reporting verbs or a verb form that permits the speaker or writer to directly or indirectly record the words of others is the final semantic category of verbs. 

Syntactic Categories 

The syntactic structures that each of the final three verb kinds requires, such as whether a verb must come before a complement, a verb phrase, or a specific particle, preposition, or adverb, have been grouped together.

Type 11 – Copular Verbs

Copular (or connecting) verbs are a limited group of verbs that cannot take objects within a phrase, such as ‘be’ or ‘feel’.

They require a nominal or adjectival complement that provides further information about the clause subject.

This illustrates that copular verbs are more grammatical in nature – connecting subject and complement. 

Type 12 – Catenative Verbs

Catenative verbs are lexical verbs that are not primary or modal auxiliary verbs but can be preceded by another lexical verb in the same clause.

Catenative verbs, which are derived from the Latin word for ‘chain’, are unique in that they can be put together to form a chain of non-finite verbal complements. 

Type 13 – Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are one of the most prevalent and difficult verb kinds for non-native English speakers.

A phrasal verb is a unique and often idiomatic blend of either a preposition or an adverbial particle (or both) and a lexical verb.

What are the Seven Rules in Forming Verbs?

After a number of key principles for accurately recognizing the forms and functions of verbs have been examined, the next section will look at seven more guidelines that, if followed, should considerably aid scholastic performance.

Rule 1 – Forming Agreement

English speakers benefit from verbs because they can show the person and number of a nominal subject through suffixation.

In other words, whether a subject is in the first, second, or third person or singular or plural will affect the grammatical formulation of the verb in question. 

Rule 2 – Forming Tenses

In the English language, the recurrent suffixes ‘-s/-es’ and ‘-d/-ed’ can be used to show present and past tenses by adding them to a finite verb.

However, a subject-verb agreement has many more restrictions; there are a lot of variances in how to spell and create verb tenses. 

Rule 3 – Forming Aspects

While tense conveys time through morphological inflection, aspect expresses duration through the syntactic insertion of extra words to the verb phrase, such as ‘be’ and ‘have’.

There are three types of aspects in the English language: simple, continuous, and perfect.

Simple is the default aspect. To use the continuous or perfect elements in a piece of writing, a student must adhere to the following guidelines.

Continuous = Be Verb + Present Participle

Perfect = Have + Past Participle

Rule 4 – Forming the Passive Voice

Another common source of confusion for most people, is how to appropriately form the passive voice.

The passive voice is used when the writer or speaker wants to either eliminate the agent of the verb’s act or move that agent from the subject position into an optional object position using the word ‘by’. 

While there may be some other variations that you need to study and memorize, the following is the typical construction for forming the passive:

Present = Am/Is/Are + Past Participle

Past = Was/Were + Past Participle

Perfect = Has/Have/Had Been + Past Participle

Rule 5 – Forming Yes/No Questions

Due to what is known as subject-auxiliary inversion, which occurs when the auxiliary verb, whether primary or modal, is pushed before the subject in interrogative sentences, you may have difficulty creating yes or no questions in English.

The declarative statement and its interrogative variant with this inversion are shown in the following examples. 

If the declarative has an auxiliary verb, such as ‘can’, ‘will,’ ‘be’, or ‘have’, the auxiliary verb is shifted before the subject to generate the interrogative statement, as seen in the examples above. When no auxiliary verb is present in the declarative, the auxiliary and supporting verb ‘do’ or ‘does’ is inserted before the subject to form interrogative constructions.

Rule 6 – Forming Negatives

The rules for generating negative constructs are comparable to the rules for forming yes/no questions.

If an auxiliary verb appears in a declarative statement, simply add ‘not’ after that auxiliary verb or make a contracted contraction of both the auxiliary verb and the negative marker – such as ‘can’t’ or ‘haven’t’.

If the declarative lacks an auxiliary, you should add both the ‘do’ verb and the negative marking ‘not’, either as two independent words or in their combined contracted forms.

Rule 7 – Forming Short Answers

The final rule to remember while employing verbs is thankfully the most straightforward.

When making positive short responses to questions like “Yes, he will.’ or “No, she cannot.’, the easiest thing for a learner to do is to repeat the auxiliary verb that was moved before the subject (inverted) to produce the question.

The same structure can be used to create negative short answers, but with the inclusion of the negative marker ‘not’:

Which Academic Verbs and Phrases are Best?

After discussing and demonstrating the roles of verbs, as well as how to recognize this word class and its many kinds, and how to follow the most important rules for constructing grammatical sentences, it is now time to concentrate on the correct usage of verbs in academic contexts.

Here are some of the most common academic verbs and expressions for you to familiarize yourself with to help you improve your knowledge about verbs. 

Why Should We be Familiar with Verbs?

Verbs are an essential component of speech.

There cannot be a coherent sentence, let alone a phrase, without a verb. They are the building pieces that allow you to construct meaningful sentences.

They are the words that aid in the explanation of any message we are trying to convey.

Without them, it would be impossible to understand each other. That being said, it is worth noting that verbs indeed play a vital role in our academic and professional life.

We do hope that the information we have provided in this article aids you in understanding verbs better and eventually makes you confident in using them more effectively.