Sentence Skills: About Verbs

8/14/2019 Sentence Skills: About Verbs

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Additional Information about

VerbsHere are the three areas we’ll discuss

in this section:

• Verb Tense

• Helping Verbs

• Verbals



Verb Tense. . .

. . . tells you the time

of the action.

Let’s start with thesimple

• present,

• past, and• future.



Present Tense

The present tense tells

you that something is

happening now.

Example:Example:

TomTom countscounts thethe

sparrows.sparrows.

?



Past Tense

The past tense tells

you that

somethinghappened before.

Example:Example:

Sally Sally counted counted the sparrowsthe sparrows

yesterday.yesterday.



Future Tense

The future tense tells

you that something

will happen later.

Example:Example:

Tom and Sally Tom and Sally will will

count count the sparrowsthe sparrows

next weekend.next weekend.



Verb Tense

We can be a little more specific about

timetime using these other tenses:

•Perfect Tense (Add a form of thePerfect Tense (Add a form of the

verb “have”)verb “have”)

•Progressive Tense (Add a form of theProgressive Tense (Add a form of the

verb “be”)verb “be”)

•Perfect Progressive Tense (Add bothPerfect Progressive Tense (Add both

the verbs “have” and “be.”)the verbs “have” and “be.”)

(See pp 337-338 for examples of 12 verb(See pp 337-338 for examples of 12 verb

tenses)tenses)



Helping Verbs

Which brings us to the

subject of

helpinghelpingverbs.verbs.

There are three verbs

that can both standalone and help other

verbs:





Helping Verbs

Let’s review for a minute:

I was getting tired.

Mary has stepped in it.

Analysis: verb “be” used as helper =Analysis: verb “be” used as helper =progressive, and past tense of verbprogressive, and past tense of verb

“be” = past progressive.“be” = past progressive.

Analysis: verb “have” used as helperAnalysis: verb “have” used as helper

= perfect, and present tense of verb= perfect, and present tense of verb

“have” = present perfect.“have” = present perfect.



Helping Verbs

There are also nine

helping verbs

called

that are always

used together to

help other verbs.Let’s look at a chart:



Helping Verbs

Can I can hope, can’t I?

Could I could eat more, I suppose.

May Roger may be detained.Might You might regret that tattoo, Jerry.

Shall I shall see if there’s another room, sir.

Should John should get his head examined.

Will William will want to wander around a bit.

Would Glasses would help, I think.

Must You must take your feet off that rug, Marty.



Verbals

Verbals are words

formed from verbs.

There are three kinds:

• Infinitives

• Participles

• Gerunds



Verbals

An is

formed by adding

the word “to” tothe base form of

the verb.

What is the infinitive

of the verb “steal”?

Example:Example:

Jesse James loved Jesse James lovedto steal to steal moneymoney

from bankers.from bankers.

“to” + “steal” =

“to steal”



Verbals

A is a verb form

used as an adjective.

The present participle ends

in -ing .

The past participle

ends in -ed or is

irregular.Example:Example:

LookingLooking over herover her

tax returns, thetax returns, theweepingweeping accountantaccountant

tugged hertugged her

bleached bleached hair.hair.



Verbals

A is the -ing

form of a verb

used as a noun.

Example:Example:

BowlingBowling is not a sport,is not a sport,

because you canbecause you can

smoke while you’resmoke while you’re

doing it.doing it.

Let’s make a gerund out of

the verb “bowl.”

“Bowl” + “ing” =“Bowling”

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Sentence Skills: About Verbs