ENGLISH 7CPMR. SNOW

PARTS OF SPEECH: VERBS

THE VERB: OVERVIEW

• Verbs express action or a state of being.• We celebrated the Chinese New Year today.• The holiday is usually in February.• Jan felt horrible about her error.

THE VERB: ACTION VERBS

• Action verbs express physical or mental activity.• The owls hooted all night. [physical action]• Gloria plays volleyball. [physical action]• She thought about the problem. [mental action]• I love you. [mental action]

THE VERB: LINKING VERBS

• Linking verbs express state of being.• Linking verbs link the subject to a word or word group identifying or describing the subject.• Denzel Washington is an actor. [is

links Denzel Washington, the subject, with an actor, which describes him.]

• The children remained quiet. [remained links children, the subject, with quiet, which describes them.]

THE VERB: LINKING VERBS

• Common linking verbs:• appear, become, feel, grow, look, remain, seem,

smell, sound, stay, taste, turn

• Note: some of these words can be either action verbs or linking verbs:• Amy looked through the telescope. [action]• Amy looked sad. [looked links the subject Amy

to the description sad.]• Remain in your seats, please. [action]• Remain calm. [Remain links the implied subject

You to the description calm.]

THE VERB: LINKING VERBS

• To be = most common linking verb.• Forms of to be:• am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been, has

been, have been, had been, will be, shall be, may be, might be, can be, should be, would be, would have been, could have been, should have been, was being, is being, etc.

THE VERB: HELPING VERBS

• Helping verbs help the main verb express action or state of being.• Many people in Africa can speak more than one

language.• The packets were sent to 401 Maple St.• Kansas has been named the Sunflower State.• The ball should have been caught by the nearest

player.• You should not have done that!

• The entire verb, helping and main together, is called the verb phrase.

THE VERB: HELPING VERBS

• The most common helping verbs:• am, is, are• was, were• be, being, been• do, does, did• have, has, had• can, could• may, might, must• will, would• shall, should

A QUICK NOTE…

• The words not and never are NOT VERBS. • They are adverbs and are never considered

part of the verb phrase.• She has not written me recently.• I will never forget her.• They don’t know my cousins. [Notice the verb is do

know since n’t is short for not.]

THE VERB: HELPING VERBS

• Sometimes helping verbs are split from the main verb by other words.• Did you hear that?• You should probably bring your pillow.

• Some verbs are either helping or main depending on usage.• He was walking. [was helps walking]• Which one was it? [was is the main verb]

THE VERB: HELPING VERBS

• I’m going to show you a picture. In your notes, write as many sentences with verb phrases as you can.• Ex: “The children are playing.”• Ex: “Kites are being flown in the sky.”• Ex: “The snowman will melt soon.”

Phillippe Halsman: Dali Atomicus (1948)

THE VERB: TRANSITIVE ACTION

• Transitive action verbs express an action directed towards a person, place, thing, or idea (called the object).• Transitive action verbs transfer energy

from the subject to the receiver of the verb (the object). (Think of the verb carrying energy from subject to object.)• Derrick greeted the visitors. [Derrick sends the

energy of the greeting over towards the visitors]• When will Felicia paint her room? [Felicia sends

the energy of painting over towards her room]• He stomped the floor. [He sends the energy of

stomping down towards the floor.]

THE VERB: INTRANSITIVE ACTION

• Intransitive action verbs express action w/out any action passing to a receiver (object).• The train stopped. [The action of stopping

doesn’t pass to anything.]• Last night we ate on the patio. [The action of

eating isn’t passing to the patio.]

FIN