The verb is the most important word or group of words in the sentence. In fact, a sentence can consist of a verb on its own, though a subject is ‘understood’ – in this case you:
Stop!
There are many ways to classify verbs. Some of the most important are listed below.
Doing or linking: Verbs can be either doing (or action) words, or linking words.
The dog chased the postman. (chased tells what action was going on)
The postman is a middle-aged man. (is links postman and middle-aged man – they are one and the same; this type of sentence is known as ‘equational’)
Transitive or intransitive: Verbs are either transitive or intransitive. Transitive means that action passes across from the subject of the sentence to an object. Intransitive means that there is no action passing across.
The student read her book. (read is transitive – action is passing across from student to her book)
That child grizzles all the time. (grizzles is intransitive – no action is passing across from that child to anything)
Active or passive: Verbs are either active or passive. Active voice means that the agent (the doer of an action) is in the subject position of the sentence, with the recipient of the action in the object position. Passive voice means that the recipient of the action is in the subject position, while the agent (if any) is in the object position.
The committee has rejected your application for membership. (has rejected is active)
Your application for membership has been rejected by the committee. (has been rejected is passive – the agent is in object position)
Your application for membership has been rejected. (has been rejected is passive – in this construction the agent has been omitted – it is known as an agentless passive)
Note that all passive verbs are said to be transitive because action is going on, whether or not an agent appears in the sentence.
Tense: Verbs have tense – that is, they express time. The three main tenses are simple past, present and future, as in:
Yesterday I spoke to my grandmother. (past)
Today I speak to you. (present)
Tomorrow I shall speak to another group. (future)
One word or phrase: Verbs can consist of one or several words; when more than one word is used, the verb is a verb phrase. Verb phrases consist of the main verb plus one or more auxiliaries that help to show tense – for example, past, present, future; voice – whether it is active or passive; and aspect – whether it is still going on or has been completed.
Jan works hard. (works is a one-word verb – the following examples use forms of the main verb work plus auxiliaries)
Jan has worked for several employers.
Jan is working on your report.
Jan has been working for more than an hour.
Jan will have been working for two hours soon.
Participles: Verbs have parts called participles that are used with auxiliaries – often part of the verbs be or have – to form more complex tenses. In the examples above, work is the basic verb, working is its present participle and worked is its past participle. Most verbs follow this ing, -ed (or -t) pattern, but there are many exceptions. Consult a dictionary if you are unsure of the correct spelling of a participle. Here are a few examples, beginning with two regular formations and continuing with some that cause problems because their past tenses and past participles are irregular. Note that the root form of the verb is the infinitive, generally expressed as to + verb:
| Verb | Present | Present participle | Past | Past participle |
| to learn | learn | learning | learnt | learnta |
| to walk | walk | walking | walked | walked |
| to run | run | running | ran | run |
| to bear | bear | bearing | bore | borne |
| to go | go | going | went | gone |
| to rise | rise | rising | rose | risen |
| a Verbs such as ‘learn’ also have an ‘-ed’ form of the past and past participle. The ‘t’ ending is recommended for ‘learn’ as the verb form to avoid possible confusion with the adjective ‘learned’, pronounced [lern-ed], meaning ‘having much knowledge’. There are many more. |
Some verbs cause special difficulty. One group is lay/lie:
| Verb | Present | Present participle | Past | Past participle |
| to lay (to put down) | lay | laying | laid | laid |
| to lie (to recline) | lie | lying | lay | lain |
| to lie (to tell untruths) | lie | lying | lied | lied |
Here are sentences containing all these forms:
I always lay the table for dinner.
The hens are laying well at the moment.
He laid the books on the desk.
The rumour was laid to rest by the principal.
I lie on my couch when I need a nap. (Please, not lay here!)
She is lying on the floor.
He lay in the sun for too long today.
The patient has lain on his back for an hour now.
Some people lie about their ages.
She was lying when she said she hated music.
The witness was charged with perjury because he lied under oath.
He has lied all his life – he is unlikely to start telling the truth now.
There are other problem words, among them sat: often we hear or read:
She sat her parents in the front row or I was sat behind a post at the concert.
Sat is the past tense and past participle of sit – take care! This is not really a transitive verb. We should not say:
She sat the child in the high chair or He sat the heavy book on the table.
Alternatives could be:
She took her parents to seats in the front row.
I was seated behind a post at the concert.
She put the child in the high chair.
He placed the heavy book on the table.
Keep the parts of verb phrases together as far as possible. It is difficult to read a passage in which the verbs are consistently split. It is thus better to write:
The officer was glancing at the clock surreptitiously
