VERBS, THE DOING WORDS

WITHOUT VERBS, NOTHING WOULD EVER HAPPEN -- LANGUAGE WOULD BE AS MOTIONLESS AS A FROZEN RIVER. Verbs bring the universe to life, describe actions, and indicate awareness. It goes without saying that every sentence needs a verb, although it may not always be verbally expressed.

In Latin, verbum means "word". The German word for "verb", meanwhile, is Zeitwort ("time word".) One could imagine that language started from simple commands among primitive humans like "come here!" or "go away!" Excitement, and inhibition were essential for primitive life. The more abstract stuff happened later on.

There are three moods of verbs: indicative, subjunctive, and interrogative. Indicative verbs describe the real world, while the subjunctive mood is used in conditional sentences. As its name suggests, the interrogative is used to ask questions.

I play volleyball well (Indicative)
I wish I played volleyball well (Subjunctive)
Do you play volleyball well? (Interrogative)

Verbs must agree with the number of the subject, of which there are two: singular or plural.

The boy plays volleyball (Singular Indicative)
The boys play volleyball (Plural Indicative)
The boy wishes he played volleyball (Subjunctive Singular)
Do the boys play volleyball? (Plural Interrogative)

It is as if there can be only one "s" shared between the subject and the verb... it can jump from one to another, but there can't be two of them! As well as three moods and two numbers, English employs three tenses (past, present and future) and four aspects (simple, simple continuous, perfect and perfect continuoys)... (For more details on tenses and aspects,

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TO BE, OR NOT TO BE

IN MY opinion, the fundamental verb in English is "be". There are eight basic forms of this verb depending on number, person and tense.

I am a boy (First Person Singular Present Indicative)
You are girls (Second Person Plural Present Indicative)
Was it a table? (Third Person Singular Past Interrogative)

To use "be" in a negative sense, add the word "not". For an interactive exercise using this verb, click here.

I believe you answered, “I feel sick.” However, on further discussion, I thought it would have been better for you to say, “I HAVE A RASH” or “I FEEL ITCHY.” “Feeling sick” often means that you want to vomit, or feel generally unwell (and need to rest, for example).

"I am ~~get~~ a little nervous..." (A mistake made by one of my Brazilian students)

As the Eurocentres Blog points out: "When you’re starting to learn English, you’ll probably want to keep things fairly simple. Using small, easy sentences – with a single subject, object and verb and a good way to build up your skills." Sooner or later, however, you will need to use more than one verb in the same sentence. Doing so is more difficult that simply running them together side by side, in an uninflected form. There are rules to follow, unfortunately.

PHRASAL VERBS

IF A VERB follows a preposition or phrasal verb, it must be conjugated as a gerund. Phrasal verbs, combining a verb with an adverb or preposition, are a distinctive feature of Germanic languages. There are many of them in English, and they often have more than one meaning. "Take off" could be used to describe a jet becoming airborne, or a person removing their clothes. It also means to become more popular (for consumer products). That said, you can often guess the meaning of the phrasal verb from the choice of adverb or preposition (the off in "take off" sounds like disappearing, as in turning off a light)... (For more details,

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MODAL VERBS

MODAL OR AUXILIARY verbs are "helping" verbs. Unlike phrasal verbs, they can actually go before other verbs without any modification. More than half of English sentences involve at least one modal verb, and they often set the stage for syntactical meaning.

Take one example: "I might like tea". "Might" is an auxiliary verb in this sentence, while "like" is a regular verb.

I like tea ......... I usually like tea
I might like tea ......... It is possible that I might want to drink tea now

Sometimes an auxiliary verb like "do" might be necessary even though it is absent in the sentence. In this case, it will be created out of thin air, thus:

Do you like tea?

One modal verb can have a lot of subtle differences in meaning: for example, "the bank will do it for you" means the bank is able to do this task for you. If you drop something and someone responds, "I will pick it up for you" then this indicates an offer to help.

Using "would", on the other hand, could be a sign that you making a conditional statement, but it is also used to make requests more polite.

Modal verbs are often used to make more abstract grammatical constructions, such as describing causative actions (eg, "I will have my hair cut".) "Have" and "get" are two of the most common modal verbs in English, although learners often get them confused. "Make" also causes a lot of problems, although it is not technically speaking a modal verb. Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules to learn the difference, so the best way to learn these verbs is in context with their related nouns, or as set phrases ("make breakfast", "do homework", "get married", and so on.)

Nonetheless, there are some tricks to help you remember. According to Jakub Marian, "When you use a camera to 'capture' a picture of something, lots of languages describe the situation using the verb “make” (e.g. ein Foto machen in German). English speakers, however, use a different verb."

"The process of pointing a camera at an object and pressing the shutter button is called 'taking a picture' or 'taking a photo(graph)'."

"Rid” is a verb which means "clear" or "empty", and it is often combined with “get” and “be” (you need to take action to “get rid of a problem”, and after that, you “are rid of that problem”.)

Give & Take

ENGLISH LEARNERS are often confused by words which express two arbitrarily divided sides of a single action. "Come" and "go" cause a great deal of confusion, as does the division of "give" and "take". "Give" and "take" can be subdivided into "borrow" and "lend". To borrow means to take an item for a certain period of time, lending is performed by the agent who is giving that item (which must be returned someday.)

One of my students asked me about the difference between "rent" and "borrow". Both mean receiving something for a temporary period of time. However, to rent an object means that you have to pay for the privilege of using it, while borrowing is free (unless you borrowing money from a bank, in which case you will need to pay interest on your loan.)

(For more example of how modal verbs can be used, click here!)

Phrasal Verbs

TO OBJECT OR NOT OBJECT

ONE FUNDAMENTAL feature of English verbs is the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs. A transitive verb is a verb which needs a direct object to make sense. The sentence “I like”, for example, is meaningless because there needs to be an object, something which is liked. Similarly, "think" ("I think it will rain today.")

While it's challenging to provide an exact proportion, it is generally estimated that approximately 60-70% of English verbs can be used transitively. This means that the majority of English verbs have the potential to take a direct object, although they may also be used intransitively in certain contexts. The exact proportion can vary based on different linguistic analyses and criteria used to determine transitivity.

So why are some verbs intransitive? Certain actions or states simply do not require an object to be logically or semantically complete. For example, verbs like "sleep," "arrive," or "exist" do not need a direct object to convey their meaning. The action or state is self-contained and does not require an additional participant.

In some cases, an object may not exist or may not be applicable to the action being described. For instance, verbs like "rain" or "shine" describe natural phenomena that do not have a direct object associated with them.

A class of transitive verbs can also take indirect objects, which are recipients of the direct object. They are also called ditransitive verbs. One example:

He showed me (Indirect Object) a photograph (Direct Object)

Indirect objects can also come after the preposition "to" or "for".

He gave the photograph to me

PASSIVE VOICE

THE PASSIVE VOICE is a distinctive feature of Subject-Oriented languages such as English. In passive sentences, the object becomes the subject, the active verb is rendered in the past participle form, and the two are connected by "be" conjugated in the same aspect or tense. Often, the agent is not mentioned at all.

A photograph was given to me (by him) (Simple Past Passive)
A photograph has been taken of me (by someone) (Present Perfect Passive)

Many expressions use the passive voice, for example: "Children should be seen and not heard." A passive gerund is a form of gerund which functions like a noun in a passive sentence. For example:

I hate being photographed (by others)

The subject in this sentence does not hate taking photographs, but they hate other people taking photographs of them.

CAUSATIVE CONSTRUCTION

A CAUSATIVE construction is when somebody makes somebody else do something. Many of my students say, "I cut my hair" when they really mean, "I had my hair cut." Some of the causative verbs are "make", "have" and "get". We use the causative "have" to arrange for someone to do something for us. "Get" is a more informal version of "have". "Make", on the other hand, is more forceful, while "let" is more passive (you allow someone to do something they want to do.)

"Help" is also a causative verb and involves persuading someone to do something.

The format for causative sentences is similar to that for the passive voice. The agent is often omitted:

Subject + have/had/get/got + object + verb in past participle.
I had my dog vaccinated.

If you want to say who performed the action, follow this pattern:

Subject + have/had + agent + verb in infinitive form + object.
I had the veterinarian vaccinate my dog.

SPECULATIVE VERBS

See here for the difference between "can't have" and "couldn't have".

REPORTING SPEECH

THERE ARE two methods of reporting the speech of others: direct, or indirect. Direct reported speech is often used in novels and quotations. The quotation is reproduced verbatim... word by word.

Most reporting verbs are followed by an object and then a gerund or infinitive clause. Promises, offers, orders, requests and suggestions often use the "to + infinitive". For example:

She told me to hurry up

VERBALS

AS NOAM CHOMSKY discovered, recursion is a fundamental feature of all languages. To make more complex sentences, we can use verbals, which look like verbs, but actually function like nouns or adjectives.

Building Verbs

TO TRANSFORM a noun or adjective into a verb, or vice versa, suffixes and prefixes are used.

The rules are quite complex, and it depends on the type of change in meaning that you want to make to the root word. You need to use a prefix or suffix which covers that particular meaning. For example, the suffix ~ness means "state or quality". Combined with the adjective "dry", it creates the noun "dryness" (the state of being dry). On the other hand, the suffix -ful means "full of". Combined with a noun like "joy", it makes the adjective "joyful" (full of joy). You can even add the suffix "-ness" to make another noun: "joyfulness".

"En" means "make or put", and can be used as either as a prefix ("enjoy") or a suffix ("widen").

While you might not be able to make a new word using these word components, you can at least understand an existing word if it features these affixes. For example, "helpful" means "full of help" while "unhelpful" is "not full of help". "Helpless", on the other hand, means "unable to help oneself." Empower means to give someone power

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