VERBS | PARTS OF SPEECH – ENGLISH

The word verbs can be defined as those words that describe an action or make a statement about a thing or a person. Or

Verbs are telling words, this is because they express an action done by the subject in the sentence or they express a state of being.

Those verbs which express an action are called Action Verbs.

Examples:

-He is sick.

-He ate some food.

-The ball was kicked by the student.

Kinds of verbs

1. Main verbs/Lexical verbs
2. Auxiliary verbs/Helping verbs

MAIN VERBS

Main verbs are those which can stand on their own and convey a complete meaning or Main verb are those which can stand alone and express a meaningful thought .

These includes words like go, eat, walk, clear, come, write, show, give, break, love ,drive, speak, talk, call, announce, wait ,dig, play, calculate, sleep, leave, defeat, dance, paint, steal, send, teach, receive, obey, start, wash, learn, rain, cry, jump, watch, get, sweep, see, pay, do, arrive, appear, correct, stay, study etc.

TYPES OF MAIN VERBS

• Regular verbs
• Irregular verbs

REGULAR VERBS

Regular verbs those are verbs that have a regular form .In most cases these verbs form their past and past participle by adding ed at the end of the verb .These verbs have the base form, s-form, -ing form, ed₁ form and ed₂form.

_Examples:

Base form	S-form	Continuous(-ing form)	Past (ed1)	Past participle(ed2)
Play jump enable cook want study arrive live Walk Switch	Plays jumps enables cooks wants studies arrives lives walks switches	Playing jumping enabling cooking wanting studying arriving living walking switching	Played jumped enabled cooked wanted studied arrived lived walked switched	played jumped enabled cooked wanted studied arrived lived walked switched

Examples:

-They play football.

-We are living here since 1987.

-I called him three times.

-We are waiting the teacher.

-She walks to school.

IRREGULAR VERBS

Irregular verbs are those main verbs that do not have normal edending when forming their past or past participle tense. Irregular verbs are like Regular verbs but they differ in the way how they form their past and past participle forms.

Examples:

Base form	S-form	Continuous form	Past	Past participle
Arise Come Cut Choose Bring Know Build Spell Write Speak Do Leave Go Wear Take Feel Break	Arises Comes Cut Chooses Brings Knows Builds Spells Writes Speaks Does Leaves goes wears takes feels breaks	Arising Coming Cutting Choosing Bringing Knowing Building Spelling Writing Speaking Doing Leaving going wearing taking feeling breaking	Arose Came Cut Chose Brought Knew Built Spelt Wrote Spoke Did Left went wore took felt broke	Arisen Come Cut Chosen Brought Known Built Spelt Written Spoken Done Left gone worn taken felt broken
Add any other More, there Are about 200 Irregular verbs in English.

Examples:

–Did you come to school last week?

-She arrived safely.

-They builta house last year.

-He wrote a letter.

AUXILIARY VERBS

Auxiliary verbs are those which used to help the main verbs to complete the intended meaning. These are also known as Helping Verbs.

TYPES OF AUXILIARY VERBS

• Primary auxiliary verbs
• Secondary auxiliary verbs

PRIMARY AUXILIARY VERBS

Primary auxiliary verbs are those which can be used both as a helping verb and as the main verbs. These includes: BE, DO and HAVE.

BE

This kind of primary auxiliary verbs has eight different forms, these are as follows:

Present	Past
Is	Was
Are	Were
Am	Was
Be	Been

Are / were= Plural

Is / am / was = Singular

NB:

Normally the lexical use of auxiliary verb BE indicates the state.

Examples:

-They are stupid

-You are a teacher

-She isbeautiful

USES OF VERB BE IN RELATION TO PRONOUNS

DO

Besidesbeing used as an auxiliary verb, it is also used as a full verb to mean perform an activity or task. It has three forms, these includes Do, Does and Did.

USES OF VERB DO IN RELATION TO PRONOUNS

He/She/You/I/We/They/Itdidis used to all kinds of pronouns but it is used to

Show the past events/activities.

NB:

When the auxiliary verb ”did” used in the sentence, if there is main verb in the sentence that come after it, the main verbs remain on its original form (infinitive/Base form).

E.g.1. Hedidn’t do anything.

      2.Did you go to hospital?

      3. We didn’t understand the lesson.

4. Did I dance music?

HAVE

This is among the primary auxiliary verbs that can be also used both as the main verb and as the helping verb to assist the main verbs to convey the intended meaning .There are three form of the verb HAVE, these are:- Have, Has and Had.

USES OF VERB HAVE IN RELATION TO PRONOUNS

He/she/you/we/they/i/Ali/Jakaya and Mrisho   had is used to indicate past time.

E.g.   -We had eaten Ugali

– They had played football.

-Had you eaten mango?

-I had married Ashura

SECONDARY/MODAL AUXILIARY VERBS

Modal auxiliary verbs are those which in most cases used to support the main verb to complete the intended meaning. They rarely used as the main verb in the sentence. These includes shall, will, can, could, would, should, must, may, might, used to, dare ctc.

USES OF AUXILIARY VERBS (BOTH PRIMARY AND MODAL HELPING VERBS)

1. Auxiliary verbs are used to make statement negative.

POSITIVE                                           NEGATIVE

E.g.- I hate you                             I don’t hate you

– He likes it                            He doesn’t like it

-We went to school               We didn’t go to school.

-She loves me                     She doesn’t love me

-They were playing football     They were not playing football.

2. Auxiliary verbs also used to express ability and inability.

       E.g.-I can write notes  -I can’t write notes

–We can kill a lion                            -We can’t kill a lion

–He can drive while talking -He can’t drive while talking

3. Auxiliary verbs are used to make request and need permission.

     E.g. –Could I sit here?

  –May I go out.

           -Would you lend me your book?

4. Also they are used to mark tenses.

E.g.-He is writing a letter

-He was writing a letter

-She has eaten the mango

-We had eaten the mangoes

5. Auxiliary verbs are used in tag questions.

E.g.-She knows how to write a letter, doesn’t she?

–You are not Ndevu, are you?

-She was a student, wasn’t she?

6. Auxiliary verbs are used to ask question.

STATEMENT                                                 QUESTION

E.g.-They are learning                               – Are they learning?

-They didn’t come to school                     –Did they come to school?

-You can help me                                        -Can you help me?