Words That Describe an Action, an Occurrence, or a

State of Being

More than one-half of all mistakes in English are caused by the misuse of verbs.

It is time for you to put an end to careless mistakes.

Verbs just have a few rules to follow.

Verbs are NOT difficult.

Let’s get started.

Using Verbs Correctly

Regular Verbs

• Here’s a new word for many of you: conjugate. For grammar, the word means listing the verb, its helpers, and tenses. Right now, you need to know present tense, past tense, and past participle form. Don’t panic. This is not as difficult as it sounds. The present tense form of the verb is just the regular verb. With regular verbs, to make them past tense, usually just add an –ed. The past participle form will take a form of have (had or has) and usually the past tense form of the verb. If you have to know the future tense, put will or shall in from of the present tense verb. On the next slide, we will see how easy this is to do.

Physical Actions: eat, walk, run, sleep,swim, scream, read, write, watch, etc.

Quite Actions: love, think, sleep, watch, plan, care, grow, forgive, concentrate, etc.

Action Verbs Describe an Activity

Linking Verbs

Linking verbs describe a state of being.They LINK a noun or adjective to thesubject of a clause or sentence.

Bob was a great baseball coach.

The dinner looks wonderful.She is smart. (“Smart” is an adjective.In this sentence, she is not doing anything except being smart.)

Be Verbs be, am, is, are, was, were, been, being

Other Linking Verbs

appear, become, feel, grow, look, seem, remain, smell, sound, stay, taste, turn

Linking Verbs

BeBeenBeing

Am--Singular Is----SingularAre—PluralWas---SingularWere---Plural

Linking “Be” Verbs

There aren’t any easy way to learn these except memorize them, and while you’re at it, learn if they are singular or plural. I’ll explain why later.

Other Than The Than the “Be” Verbs, There Are Other Linking Verbs-Sometimes

• Appear, Become, Feel, Grow, Look, Seem, Remain, Smell, Sound, Stay, Taste, Turn

• Now, these verbs are a little tricky. You’re going to have to think about them to know exactly what kind of verb they are.

Tricky Linking Verbs

• Let me give you two sample sentences.• Ex. 1: The Pepsi tastes good.

Ex. 2: I tasted the Pepsi, and it was good.

Which sentence is “taste” an action verb and which one is it a linking verb?

Tricky Linking Verbs

• If you see someone drinking a Pepsi, there is a lot of action taking place. The can is raised to the lips; the Pepsi is poured or sipped into the mouth; the taste buds on the tongue spring into life and send a message to the brain, which sends a message to the throat to open and swallow the liquid because the Pepsi isn’t rotten or something.

Ex. 2 is the action verb.Ex. 1 is the linking verb. Why? Well, let me explain on the next slide.

Tricky Linking Verbs• BUT that is not what the Sample 1 sentence says.

It says that the Pepsi tastes good. Pepsi CANNOT taste. It doesn’t have taste buds or a tongue. You get the idea. In English, we are always trying to make things faster and easier, and that is why we have a shorten sentence that uses the linking verbs in this manner. Only the “Be” Verbs and the 12 other verbs in the chart will ever be linking verbs or action verbs. You must test them to tell. Can the subject be doing the action? If not, and it is one of these verbs in the chart, it is a linking verb.

Helping verbs help the main verb describe action that happened in the past,is happening in the present, or willhappen in the future. The experts say that these helping verbs “carry the time.” They tell the reader or speaker when the action happened.

be am is are

was were been being

have has had could

should would may might

must shall can will

do did does having

Helping Verbs

Helping Verbs

I can hear some of you screaming (silently) at me because have noticed that the “Be” Verbs are on this list also. Well, let me explain again. The “Be” Verbs are linking verbs if they are the only verb in the sentence, but if one more or is with another verb, they are helping verbs.Ex. 1 They are smart. Linking verb because no other verb is present.Ex. 2 They are going to town with their mother. Helping verb because “going” is the action verb and “are” is helping. There may be as many as 3 helping verbs in a sentence. Ex. 3 They may have been going to town tonight.

NOT and no form of it will ever be a verb. Be careful when you are asked to underline the verbs in a sentence. If you accidently underline or mark “n’t” in a contraction, it is wrong. Ex. 1 She didn’t go with us tonight.

NOT Is Never a Verb

Verbs

Just So You Will Know

• Using the words do or did as helping verbs is using the emphatic tense.

• Ex.1: I wrote my paper last night.• This sentence is just a simple declarative sentence.• Ex. 2: I did write my paper last night.• That sentence is called an emphatic sentence

because the did is used to show there is an emphasis put on the verb. This not something you have to know now, but you will need it in the future, and I wanted to prepare you for it.

Present

Tense

Past

Tense

Future

Tense

Tense Means Time When It Comes to Verbs

Happening Now Already Happened Will Happen

Present tense – nowThe lions chase the zebra.

Past tense – before nowThe lion chased the zebra.

Future tense – has not happened yetThe lion will chase the zebra.

A participle is usually a verb.

There are two kinds of participles – past and present.

Present Participles usually end in -ing.

Past Participles usually end in -ed or -en,or -d, -t, or –n, and follow the helpingverbs have or had.

Regular verbs are verbs that can be changedfrom the present to the past or past participleby adding –ed or –d.Making the participle form is easy because you just need to add have, has, or had in front of the past tense verb.If you want to make future tense, just add will or shall in front of the present tense verb.

Present Past Participle

talk talked have talked

walk walked have walked

call called have called

Regular Verbs

Irregular verbs are tricky. They are conjugated in various ways. You just have to memorize them. Luckily, there is only about 75 of them to worry about.

Present Past Past Participle

burst burst have burst

blow blew have blown

become became have become

catch caught have caught

see saw have seen

drink drank have drunk

More Examples of Irregular VerbsReally Confusing- So Pay Attention

Meaning Present Past Past Participle

Recline lie lay have lain

Place lay laid have laid

Recline sit sat have sat

Place set set have set

The End