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traditionally: verbs are doing words

updated: verbs are words that name ways of doing, sensing, saying and being

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full

primary*

auxiliary

modal

*may be main verb

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• full verb = the lexical verb;

• primary auxiliary verbs be, have, do;

• modal auxiliary verbs express ability, possibility or obligation, e.g. can, might, must

The children played happily

The children were enjoying themselves

The children must hurry home

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WARNING: be, have and do may also be

used as the FULL verb

The children were late;

they had their dinner,

then they did their teeth

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doing She opened the doorsensing They saw the accident.saying He asked a questionbeing The child was hungry

e.g.

names ways of doing, sensing, saying and being

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some verbs of

cognition

reaction

perception

e.g. believe, know, think,

e.g. hear, feel, see, notice, smell

e.g. like, love, hate, fear, admire

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some verbs of

stating e.g. say, tell, talk, assert

enquiring

e.g. ask, question,

commanding

e.g. order, instruct

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some verbs of

doing

acting e.g. throw, walk, cook

happening e.g. fall,

behaving e.g. smile, sleep, yawn

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some verbs of

describing e.g. is, feel, seem

possessing e.g. have, own, belong,

identifying e.g. represent, mean,

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may be regular or irregular in form

regular verbs have 4 different forms:

•the base form (also called the infinitive) e.g.

jump

•the -s form - jumps

•the -ing form - jumping

•the -ed form – jumped (past tense or past

participle)

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irregular verbs have a different form for the past tense and the past participle: base -s -ing -ed past past participle

jump jumps jumping jumped jumped

speak speaks speaking spoke spoken

take takes taking took taken

swim swims swimming swam swum

verb forms

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when used as auxiliaries, be, have or do are followed by a full verb, e.g.

He is running fast.

She has forgotten her books.

Please do sit down.

be, have, do

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When used as full verbs be, have or do occur alone, e.g.

He is a fast runner.

She has her own books

I do my homework regularly.

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forms of be, have and do

base -s -ing -ed past -ed participle

have has having had had

do does doing did done

be am is are being was were been

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central can, could; may, might; will, would;

shall, should; must

marginal need; dare; ought to

central modals cannot be used as full verbs;

marginal modals can.

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possibility obligation/

necessity

permission volition/

prediction

ability

° of certainty is required to is allowed to is willing to is able to•must •must •can/could •shall/should •can/could•may/might •should •may/might •will/would•could

•need to•ought to•have to

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modals can be used in combination with different sentence forms to express different degrees of politeness in getting people to do things

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imperative Open the door

declarative I’ll open the door

interrogative Shall I open the door?

exhortative

assertive

consultative

command

statement

question

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When used with an interrogative form, the modals express politeness in getting

people to do things,

e.g. Could you help me (please)?

less polite: You must help me (declarative form).least polite: Help me! (imperative form)

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exhortative(imperative)

Do it least polite

assertive(declarative)

You could do it

You will do it You must do it less polite

consultative(interrogative)

Could you do it?

Will you do it? Shouldn’t you do it?

most polite

(possibility)

(inclination)

(obligation)

Ways of getting people to do things

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Q: When can the modals of obligation be used without giving offense?

A: i) when giving advice, e.g.You should see a doctor about that fever.

ii) when offering your services, e.g. You must have some tea.

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modals of possibility are also used to express how certain we when we assert some state of affairs.

may/might/could express tentativeness

e.g. She might be hungry.must expresses certainty

e.g She must be hungry.

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• whenever a negative is present in a sentence it is closely coupled with the auxiliary verb so that when the negative is contracted it becomes fused with the auxiliary, e.g.

The boy could not work hardThe boy couldn’t work hard

He has been ill, hasn’t he?

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• the auxiliary is portable: it moves to the front of the sentence in

order to make a question, e.g. The boy could work hard

Could the boy work hard?

Couldn’t he work harder?

• the main verb is not portable

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a present participle and a gerund have the same form -ing. The –ing form functions in a sentence in a number of ways:

• in the same way that a noun does, i.e. as subject of the verb e.g. Reading bores him.object of the verb, e.g. His hobby is swimming.after a preposition, e.g. He is good at runningas a classifier in a noun phrase, e.g. a walking stick.

It is often called gerund when functioning in these ways.

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the negative infinitive, e.g.not to go: We decided not

to go to the movies

to see: It’s nice to see you

the bare infinitive (i.e. without ‘to’) e.g. go: What I did yesterday was go to the movies.

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• agreement of subject and verb, e.g.They was early They were early

• leaving out the direct object of a transitive verb, e.g.This is to inform that.. This is to inform you thatWe enjoyed very much. We enjoyed it very much

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A Student’s Grammar… Greenbaum & Quirk pp.25-69

Rediscover Grammar by David Crystal London: Longman. (nd.) pp.52-65

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can, can’t; could, couldn’t

A: My father …lift a pig with one hand. …your father do that?

B: I’m not sure. Where do you get a pig with one hand?

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A: Can I have a pair of crocodile shoes please?

B: Sure. (size take crocodile what your does)

re-order the words in brackets to complete the joke:

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A: Waiter, can you get me some undercooked potatoes, some cold beans

and a cold fried egg covered in fat?

B: I’m sorry, sir but we couldn’t give you anything like that.

A: Why not? (me gave what yesterday that’s you)