(Almost) All About Verbs

The Principal Parts of a Verb

The four principal parts of a verb are as follows: Infinitive (base form) Present Participle Past Past Participle

Examples

Infinitive: to work Present participle: (is) working Past: worked Past participle: (have) worked

Helping verbs are used with the present participle and past participle to form some tenses.

Regular & Irregular Verbs

A regular verb forms its past and past participle by adding –d or –ed to the infinitive. Use/(is) using/used/(have used) Drown/(is)

drowning/drowned/(have)drowned Irregular verbs form past and past

participle in some other way than by adding –d or –ed. Ring/ring/rang/(have) rung Burst/burst/burst/(have) burst

Practice

Complete Exercise 1, page 188 Complete Exercise 2, page 193

Active and Passive Verbs

Voice

Active Voice: the verb expresses action done by its subject. Sarah ate the cake.(Sarah does the action of

eating)Passive Voice: Action done to the subject.

The cake had been eaten by the time Carlos got there. (The action of eating was done to the cake)

NOTE: Verbs in the passive voice always include a form of to be and the past participle of the main verb.

Practice

Exercise 5, page 247

Verb Tense

The Six Verb Tenses (p 242)

Past Perfect

PastPresent Perfect

PresentFuture Perfect

Future

The Tenses Explained

Past Perfect – happening before a specific time in the past. (I had written.)

Past – happening in the past. (I wrote.)Present Perfect – happening sometime

before now. (I have written.)Present – now. (I write.)Future Perfect – happening before a

specific time in the future. (I will have written.)

Future – happening in the future. (I will write.)

Verb Tense

The main thing to remember about verb tense is that you shouldn’t mix them. When we were comfortable, we begin to

do our homework. (Change begin to began to keep the tense in the past.)

Know how to recognize errors in verb tense and how to fix them.

“Keep the dead dead.”

Practice

Exercise 4, page 245 Rewrite numbers 1 – 3 in the past

tense. Then rewrite numbers 1 – 3 in the

present tense.