VERBS

Welcome to this lecture headed “VERBS”. We will be discussing all about verbs. Enjoy your lecture.

Verbs are a class of words used to illustrate the performance of an action (do, throw, run), existence (be), possession (have), or state (know, love) of a subject. Put in a nut shell, a verb shows what something or someone does.

The majority of statements we make in speech and writing have a main verb. These verbs are articulated in tenses which put everything in a point in time.

Verbs have moods, which show the viewpoint of the verb, whether it is a fact, a command or hypothetical.

Verbs have a voice too. The voice illustrates if the subject of a sentence is performing an action, or is having an action performed on it.

Verbs are conjugated to mirror the way they are utilized. There are two common areas in which conjugation takes place; for person and for tense. 

Conjugation for tense is performed on all verbs.  All conjugations begin with the infinitive form of the verb.  The infinitive is merely the to form of the verb For instance, to begin.  The present participle form (the -ing form), is created by adding ing to the “nude” infinitive. For instance, the present participle of the verb to begin is beginning. There are two other forms that the verb can take, depending on the tense type and time, the simple past form (began) and the past participle (begun).

Conjugation for person takes place when the verb alters form, depending on whether it is governed by a first, second, or third person subject.  This produces three conjugations for any verb depending on who is acting as the subject of the verb.  For instance, we have: to begin, you begin , and he begins.  It is important to note that only the third conjunction actually illustrates a difference.

Whereas the majority of English verbs merely do not exhibit broad conjugation forms for person, exclusion is the verb to be.

The Main Verb

Every so often there is more than one form of verb in a sentence. There are auxiliary verbs , modal verbs, and main verbs (oftentimes known as full or non-auxiliary verbs).

The main verb shows the main action or state of being of the subject in the sentence and alters form in relation to the subject (singular, plural, 1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person).

The majority of statements in speech and writing have a main verb.

The main verb alters its form with regards to the verb form (perfect tense, past tense, simple tense etc).

For instance:

Dogs normally pursue cats.

But my cat pursues my dog.

My cat is pursuing my dog.

My dog has on occasion pursued my cat.

But, only due to the fact that my cat ate my dog’s dinner.

My cat has been eating my dog’s dinner a lot.

Action Verbs

Action verbs are verbs that illustrate the carrying out of an action. They are changing verbs that illustrate something happening.

There are regular and irregular action verbs.

For instance:

To walk is a regular action verb.

To run is an irregular action verb

Finite Verbs

A finite verb (occasionally known as main verbs) is a verb that has a subject, this entails that it can be the main verb in a sentence. It illustrates tense (past / present etc) or number (singular / plural).

For instance:-

I live in Nigeria. (I is the subject – live explains what the subject does – live is a finite verb).

Non-Finite Verbs

A non-finite verb has no subject, tense or number. The only non-finite verb forms are the infinitive (illustrated by to), the gerund or the participle.

For instance:-

I travelled to Nigeria to improve my Igbo. (To improve is in the infinitive form).

Irregular verbs have no rules for conjugation. These can merely be learnt in context.

They all have a foundation form like to run.

A gerund is (ing) form where ing is incorporated to the end of the verb. e.g. running

An (s) form where s is incorporated to the end of the verb. For example, runs

A past tense’ form which ought to be learnt like ran

A past participle form which ought to be learnt like run

Regular Verbs

Regular verbs are conjugated to easy to learn rules.

They are all made up of a base form like to look

A gerund (ing) form where ing is incorporated to the end of the verb such as (looking).

An -s form where s is incorporated to the end of the verb. For instance, looks

A past tense form where ed is added to the end of the verb. e.g. looked 

A past participle form where ed is added to the end of the verb. e.g. looked.

Verbs are as well classified as either finite or non-finite. A finite verb makes a declaration or expresses a state of being and can stand by itself as the main verb of a sentence.

The bulldozer demolished the restaurant.

The leaves were dry and patchy.

Non-finite verbs (like “unfinished”) cannot, by themselves, be main verbs:

The broken door . . .

The wheezing lady . . .

Another, more essential term for non-finite verb is verbal. In this section, we discuss different verbal forms: infinitives, gerunds, and participles

Choosing the correct verb tense and conjugating verbs suitably is complicated in English.

Verb tenses in English Language

Present Tenses in English	Examples
Simple present tense	They walk home.
Present continuous tense	They are walking home.
Past Tenses in English
Simple past tense	Peter lived in Dubai in 1999.
Past continuous tense	I was reading when she arrived.
Perfect Tenses in English
Present perfect tense	We have lived here since 2011
Present perfect continuous	We have been living here for years.
Past perfect	We had been to see her quite a few times before she visited us.
Past perfect continuous	Okoye had been watching her for some time when she turned and cried
Future perfect	We will have arrived in Lagos by the time you get this letter.
Future perfect continuous	By the end of your training, you will have been studying for five years.
Future Tenses in English
Simple future tense	They will go to Calaba next week.
Future continuous tense	I will be travelling by bus.
Conditional Tenses in English
Zero conditional	If ice gets hot it melts.
Type 1 conditional	If he is early I will be happy
Type 2 conditional	If she was in UK she would be getting up now
Type 3 conditional	Mum would have visited me if she had had time.
Mixed conditional	Robert would be playing tennis he hadn’t broken his arm.
The -ing forms in English
Gerund	He likes dancing
Present participle	She goes jumping every morning.

Four Verb Forms

The endings of English verb forms are easy to memorize. There are only four fundamental forms. Rather than forming complex tense forms with endings, English makes use of auxiliary verb forms. English does not even have a suitable ending for future forms; rather, we make use of auxiliaries like “I am going to read this afternoon.” or “I will read.” or even “I am reading this book tomorrow.” It would be helpful, though, to learn these four fundamental forms of verb formation.

Name of verb	Base form	Past form	Present participle	Past participle
to work	I can walk. I walk.	I walked.	I am walking	I have walked.
to write	I can write. I write.	I wrote.	I am writing.	I have written.

Linking Verbs

A linking verb links a subject and its complement. Occassionally known as copulas, linking verbs are frequently forms of the verb to be, but are from time to time verbs associated to the five senses (look, sound, smell, feel, taste) and now and then verbs that somehow show a state of being (appear, seem, become, grow, turn, prove, remain). What comes after the linking verb will be either a noun complement or an adjective complement.

For example:

Those people are all Medical doctors.

Those students are brilliant.

This house smells bad.

It tastes great.

A victory tomorrow appears unlikely.

A handful of verbs that show an alteration in state of being are often times known as resulting copulas. They, too, connect a subject to a predicate adjective:

Her face turned red.

He became older.

The goats ran wild.

The food has gone sour.

Active and Passive Voice

There is currently a distinct section that takes care of issues raised by a verb’s VOICE (active/passive).

Mood

Mood in verbs means one of three attitudes that a writer or speaker has to what is being written or spoken.

The indicative mood is used to make a statement or ask a question. The imperative mood is used when we’re feeling a kind of being in charge and want to give a directive, strong suggestion, or order:

Get your assignment completed before you watch television tonight.

Please incorporate cash payment with your order form.

Get out of room!

Observe that there is no subject in these imperative sentences. The pronoun you (singular or plural, depending on context) is the “implicit subject” in imperative sentences. Practically all imperative sentences, then, have a second person (singular or plural) subject. The main exception is the first person construction, which incorporates an objective form as subject: “Let’s (or Let us) work on these things together.”

The subjunctive mood is utilized in dependent clauses that do the following:

1) Express a wish;

2) Start with “if” and express a condition that does not subsist (is differing to fact);

3) Start with as if and as though when such clauses explain a speculation or condition opposed to fact; and

4) Start with that and show a demand, requirement, request, or suggestion.

The article on Conditional ought to assist you to comprehend the subjunctive mood. Example:

She wishes her husband were here.

If Edet were more forceful, he’d be a better gulf player.

They would have passed if they had studied harder.

Dad acted as if he were guilty.

He requested that I be present at the hearing.

The subjunctive is not as significant a mood in English as it is in other languages, like French and Spanish, which are more restrained and discriminating in hypothetical, doubtful, or wishful expressions. A lot of situations which would need the subjunctive in other languages are satisfied by making use of one of many auxiliary verbs in English.

The present tense of the subjunctive mood uses only the base form of the verb.

Examples

He requested that his students use two-inch margins.

She insisted that we be on time this evening.

The past tense of the subjunctive has equivalent forms as the indicative apart from (regrettably) for the verb to be, which makes use of were irrespective of the number of the subject.

If Augusta were seven feet tall, she’d be a great basketball player.

Sarah wishes he were a better student.

If we were rich, he wouldn’t be in such mess.

If James and John were faster, we could have won that race.

Thanks for reaching to this point marking the end of this lecture.

Your Lecture Master:

Mst. Ugonwanne Joshua