The part of speech that tells us what the subject is doing is called a verb. It’s a word that can describe a physical action, a mental action, a feeling, a possession, a state of being, or existence.
एक क्रिया speech का वह हिस्सा है जो हमें बताता है कि subject क्या कर रहा है। यह एक ऐसा शब्द है जो एक शारीरिक क्रिया, एक मानसिक क्रिया, एक भावना, अधिकार, होने की स्थिति या अस्तित्व को व्यक्त करता है।
- Physical Action : For example, “To Sing”, “To walk”, “To run” etc.
- Mental action : For example, “To know”, “To understand”, “To think”
- State of being : For example, “to be”, “to exist”, “to appear”
Table of Contents
Physical Verb
When the action is done by body or tool, then it is considered as physical verb.
For Example, Lets run fastly, I see clouds in the sky, Come my home when you finished your work.
Mental Verb
Such types of verb is related to concepts like discovering, understand, thinking or planning etc.
For example, She recognized me even in mask, Students know the answer, Just believe in God.
States of Being Verb
It describes conditions or situations that exist. It is inactive and has forms such as “to be”, “such as”, “am”, “is”, “are”.
For example, I am a teacher. Please be silent, We are good friends.
Let us have a look at some sentences-
- Ram flies a kite.
- The monkey jumped.
- The driver drives the car.
- He is playing cricket.
- My sister loved her new doll.
- He feels tired.
In the above sentence we can say that flies, jumped, drives, playing, loved and tired are the some examples of verbs.
So, Verbs are also known as doing words.
Types of Verbs
- Main verbs
- Helping verbs
1) Main Verbs
It is an important verb in a sentence, it is usually indicates the state of being of the verb or subject.
The subject completes the main verb. We can use main verbs alone or we can use with auxiliary verbs. It is also known as a Principle or Lexical.
For example,
- Sita sings.
Here “sings” is the main verb and the subject “Sita” is completing the action.
2. I quenched my throat with some water.
In this example, “quenched” the main verb and subject “i” is the completing the action.
There can be two main verbs in a sentence. For example, Students read and write in a notebook, My Mother cooks breakfast then goes to her office.
Here “read” and “write” & “cooks” and “goes” all are main verbs and the subject is “students” and “My Mother” who is completing the action.
2) Helping Verbs
It helps the main verb to form a tense, mood or voice. It is also known as Auxiliary verb.
The auxiliary verbs are – be, have and do.
We divide the auxiliary verbs into two parts:
- Primary Auxiliaries
- Model Auxiliaries
Primary Auxiliaries
The Auxiliaries “be”, “have” and “do” are called primary auxiliaries.
The different forms of the auxiliaries “be” are am, is, are, was, were, being and been.
The different forms of auxiliaries “have” are has and had.
The other forms of “do” are does and did.
Model Auxiliaries
The auxiliaries – will, would, shall, should, can, could, may, might, must, ought to , dare, need , used to are called model auxiliaries.
Types of Main verbs
There are following types of main verbs:
- Transitive and In-transitive
- Linking
- Regular and Irregular
- Finite and Non-finite
- Dynamic and Stative
1) Transitive Verb
It has an object and for which the verb needs to be received. It can also be a noun, phrase or pronoun that refers to a person or thing.
For example, The kids hit the football.
Here, we know about the subject which is discussed, means “The kids” is subject, “hit” is main verb and “the football” is the direct object in the sentence, which completes this sentence as transitive verbs.
Another example is, I gave my sister a flower.
Here, subject is “i”, main verb is “gave”, direct object is “a flower” that make this sentence as transitive. Indirect object is “my sister”.
Let’s see about the Direct object.
- To know the direct object use the question : “The subject did what ?” or “The subject [verb] what?”
Some other examples of transitive verbs are “address”, “borrow”, “bring”, “discuss”, “offer”, “pay”, “write”, “promise” and “have”
2) Intransitive Verb
It does not pass from subject to object. In simple words, there is no object in an intransitive verb.
For example, The plant grows.
The baby was crying.
He speaks.
In the above sentence grows, crying and speaks are the intransitive verbs.
Sometimes many verbs can be transitive or intransitive which are as follows:
| Transitive Verbs | Intransitive Verbs |
| John sang a song. | She always sings while cooking food. |
| My brother left Mumbai on Sept. 10. | I want to leave early. |
| The leaves of tree were moving in the breeze. | The trees were moving in the breeze. |
3) Regular Verb
It creates the Part Simple and Past Participle by adding “ed” to the Base form.
| Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
| talk | talked | talked |
| help | helped | helped |
| move | moved | moved |
If the verb ends with the consonant say “y”, we change the “y” to “i” and add “ed”. For example,
| Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
| fry | fried | fried |
| cry | cried | cried |
| study | studied | studied |
If a verb ends with “e” we simply add “d”. For example,
| Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
| love | loved | loved |
| like | liked | liked |
4) Irregular Verb
- Verbs which have the same base form, past simple and past participle. For example,
| Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
| cut | cut | cut |
| read | meet | meet |
| meet | meet | meet |
2. Verbs which have the same past simple and past participle but base forms are different. For example,
| Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
| bring | brought | brought |
| have | had | had |
| buy | bought | bought |
3. Verbs which have the same base form and past participle but past simples are different. For example,
| Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
| come | came | come |
| run | ran | run |
4. Verbs which have the different base form, past simple as well as different past participle. For example,
| Base Form | Past Simple | Past Participle |
| give | gave | given |
| go | went | gone |
| eat | ate | eaten |
5) Finite Verb
It has a subject and shows tense.
For example, Ram writes a letter
Rohit is sad
She was painting the wall.
Here the subjects are “Ram”, “Rohit”,and “she”. “writes”, “is” and “was” are finite verbs, and tense of the verb is present tense. But tense of last sentence is past tense.
6) Non-finite Verb
It does not show tense. In other words, you can not tell if a sentence is in the past tense, present tense or future tense by looking at a non-finite verbs. So it is never the main verb in a sentence. There are three types of non-finite verbs:
- Gerund
- Infinitive
- Participle
Gerund Verb
Gerund is only the present participle that acts as a noun through it is formed as a verb. All the gerund ends with “ing”.
For example,
Cooking is a type of hobby.
Reading newspaper improves knowledge.
I like writing in English.
My Brother loves painting.
Infinitive Verb
The infinitive form of a verb appears in its Basic form. It is the version of the verb which will appear in the dictionary. It is usually proceeded by “to”.
For example,
I like to write in English.
To swim in the sea may be dangerous.
I want to sleep.
Some infinitives are used without “to”. For example
Let him go.
I will go tomorrow.
You must write.
Participle Verb
There are two types of participle which are as follows:
- Present Participle : Cooking, Dancing, Helping and so on. Example of Present Participle as a verb
We saw boys playing football.
I don’t want to waste time by watching television. - Past Participle : Baked, Studied, Hung and so on. Example of Past Participle as a verb
My father has burned lunch before.
Students have been very worried about their examination.
7) Linking Verb
Verbs which do not take object sometimes. It is also known as Copula, that joins a subject with a predicate that often describe a quality to that subject.
The part of the predicate to which subject is joined by the linking verb is called the Complement.
For example,
I am glad, today is holiday
Here the linking verb “am” connects the subject to the state of being glad.
Swati is teaching her students.
Here linking verb is “is” which connects the subject complement “teaching her students.”
Some linking verbs are verbs of transition(change) such as become, grow, turn or remain.
There are also linking verbs that suggest an impression such as prove, appear and seem.
8) Dynamic Verbs
It is a type of adjective which means something is moving or changing. In English grammar a “Dynamic verb” means that the verb describes an action rather than a state. Sometimes it is also known as “action verbs” because it describe an action like run, buy, jump, skip, exit, cry etc. For Example
He accepted my apology. Here the action verb is “accepted”. It describes what “he” did. Dynamic verbs can also be used in the progressive or continuous form. For Example
I am playing basketball with my friends.
9) Stative Verbs
Like Dynamic it also works as adjective which describes something as having a state or existing. In English grammar “stative verb” means that the verb describes a state rather than an action. It is also known as “State verbs”. For Example
I believe you are amazing.
Stative verbs can be related to-
- Thoughts and opinions: agree, believe, doubt, guess, imagine, know, mean, recognize, remember, etc.
- Feelings and Emotions: dislike, hate, love, prefer, want etc.
- Senses and perceptions: appear, be, feel, look, see, seem etc.
- possession and measurement: belong, have, measure, own etc.
These verbs can be used in simple and perfect tense. However, they can not be used in the continuous forms. For Example
She really likes you.
But Stative verbs may be used in the continuous form if they refer to temporary action or an action in progress at a certain moment rather than a permanent attitude. For Example
You’re looking so beautiful in those skirts.
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