Verbal Verbs
August 24, 2011 
9 Comments
Over the past several weeks we have discussed several subjects including nouns (the person, place, and thing parts of speech) and pronouns which can replace a noun. Both nouns and pronouns are considered the subject of a sentence and the predicate is what the noun is doing. Right?
TENSES
For this week’s discussion I want to introduce how a person moves, how we do things, our actions. I am talking about the part of speech titled the VERB. An action is something like RUN, DREAM, FALL, SWIM, or JUMP. A verb can also take on a STATE OF BEING, examples are FEEL, SEEM, APPEAR, BEING, or BE.
A sentence written without a VERB is most likely a sentence fragment (remember the definition from a couple weeks ago?). We need verbs!!
In English grammar verbs are written in 6 tenses.
Present Tense – “I eat salmon often.”
Past Tense – “I ate salmon last night.”
Future Tense – “I will eat salmon tomorrow.”
Present Perfect Tense – “I have eaten salmon many times.”
Past Perfect Tense – “I had eaten salmon before you arrived.”
Future Perfect Tense – “I will have eaten salmon at least a fifty times by year 2012.”
The 6 verb tenses can have specific assignments that can be described in more detail. This definition includes 6 progressive forms (progressive being recognized as action that continue for awhile). I just have to note that understanding this information is not something you run through while talking with your friends, but being aware of the various levels of VERB makes writing, and reading more pleasurable and successful.
Present Progressive – “I am eating salmon.”
Past Progressive – “I was eating salmon when you called.”
Future Progressive – “I will be eating salmon tonight.”
Present Perfect Progressive – “I have been eating salmon all day.”
Past Perfect Progressive – “I had been eating salmon for 3 hours before we stopped to rest.”
Future Perfect Progressive – “I will have been eating salmon for 3 hours when the sun goes down.”
There is also the emphatic form of verbs, examples are:
Emphasis – “I do eat salmon!”
Questions – “Do I eat salmon?”
Negative – “I do not eat cod, only salmon.”
One of the hardest and most important pieces of working with verbs is to be consistent. In most cases it is obvious, but there are times.
Verb Consistency
A weak example – “I got to work late and my boss yells at me for not letting him know where I will be.”
“I got to work ” – past tense
“Boss yells” – present tense
“Where I will be” – future tense
A better way to be verb-consistent and write it would be: “I got to work late and my boss yelled at me for not calling in to let him know where I had been.”
“I got to work” – past tense
“Boss yelled” – past tense
“Where I had been” – past tense
Of course when writing a paper, short story or other publication it pays to keep the tense in mind. Many an author has strayed from verb consistency. Inconsistency not only is wrong, it is hard to read and makes reading disturbing.
There are other characteristics of VERBS, such as linking abilities but I will leave that information for other grammar posts involving adverbs and adjectives. But the last subject for this post is indeed SUBJECTS and their AGREEEMENT WITH VERBS; a grouping of items like books is considered singular.
Subject Agreement With Verbs
A singular subject requires a singular verb, and of course plural subjects need a plural verb.
Ex. “The girl reads Andy’s publications.” Girl is singular and Reads is singular.
Ex. “The girls read Andy’s publications.” Girls is plural and Read is plural.
Ex. “Andy is hungry.” Is = a singular verb
Ex. “Andy and his friends are hungry.”Are is a plural verb.
With all of this being said, the basic understanding of the VERB is it shows action or a state of being, it has three tenses or states of time (past, present and future), with 3 additional tenses (Present perfect, Past perfect, and Future perfect); and my suggestion to always review your work to ensure consistency between tenses.
Until next week be safe, enjoy your weekend and consider all the verbs when speaking or writing.
Image courtesy of blogs.monashores.net
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Thanks, Andy! I’m always on the look out for writing and grammar related posts. I check this site pretty frequently-http://www.dailywritingtips.com
Pete Goumas recently posted..BookCloseOuts Coupon Discount & Review
Excellent post, its amazing that its necessary really but it is brilliant and well deserved to give a thumbs up! Thanks for sharing!
It’s funny that I’ve been learning English for nearly 7 years but have still been making some of these silly mistakes.
Everything is nice and explained short. Good post
Michael recently posted..Kenmore Elite Stainless Steel Black Convection Microwave Oven Review
Nice write up about verbs. I want English when I was a kid, but when I was growing older, English language become my problem. However, thanks for sharing Verb tenses. I will study it as well to make my english more fluently.
Tracyann0312 recently posted..imi holsters
Very informative post about verbs! I have problems about english language especially on verbal.
Mika Castro recently posted..tactical gear
Nice post well as English not my native language I have few mistakes always,
and I have problems with punctuation too
that’s why I need to use spelling checker always before posting
Great post it helped me a lot
Salah recently posted..The Global Blogger’s Awards: The Reasons Why YOU Must Enroll
Thanks Salah for reading my post and sharing your thoughts. I am glad you found my “Verbal Verb” entry useful, I am alwasy glad to be of assistance. Using a speller checker is a great way to double-check your efforts. Unfortunately English, like most languages often defeats the intuitive abilities of the machine with its imperfection and the checker will still miss errors. But you make a great point, use all that is available to assist in improving your writing skills and finished product. Just keep in mind, if the spell check alerts you to something, take a moment and reconsider it for grammar implementations too, not just spelling. Good luck with your writing, if you have a question that you can’t seem to resolve leave me a note, or tweet me and I’ll see if I can help. Take care!
Twitter: reneepawlish
August 25, 2011 at 8:46 PM
Takes me back to school, lol. Great info, Andy, thanks.
I’m smiling *BIG* here Renee. Back to school days it may be, but that is how grammar is; used often but not considered as much and leaving us to review so we can stay sharp!! Thanks for reading me and leaving me a valued comment.
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