VERBS (verbs.doc)

Verbs have traditionally been defined as "action" words or "doing" words. The verb in the following sentence is rides:  

Paul rides a bicycle

Here, the verb rides certainly denotes an action which Paul performs - the action of riding a bicycle. However, there are many verbs which do not denote an action at all. For example, in Paul seems unhappy, we cannot say that the verb seems denotes an action. We would hardly say that Paul is performing any action when he seems unhappy. So the notion of verbs as "action" words is somewhat limited.  

We can achieve a more robust definition of verbs by looking first at their formal features.      

The Base Form

Here are some examples of verbs in sentences:  

[1] She travels to work by train  [2] David sings in the choir  [3] We walked five miles to a garage  [4] I cooked a meal for the family 

Notice that in [1] and [2], the verbs have an -s ending, while in [3] and [4], they have an -ed ending. These endings are known as INFLECTIONS, and they are added to the BASE FORM of the verb. In [1], for instance, the -s inflection is added to the base form travel.  

Certain endings are characteristic of the base forms of verbs:      

Past and Present Forms

When we refer to a verb in general terms, we usually cite its base form, as in "the verb travel", "the verb sing". We then add inflections to the base form as required.  

These inflections indicate TENSE. The -s inflection indicates the PRESENT TENSE, and the -ed inflection indicates the PAST TENSE.  

Verb endings also indicate PERSON. Recall that when we looked at nouns and pronouns, we saw that there are three persons, each with a singular and a plural form. These are shown in the table below.  

In sentence [1], She travels to work by train, we have a third person singular pronoun she, and the present tense ending -s. However, if we replace she with a plural pronoun, then the verb will change:  

[1] She travels to work by train  [1a] They travel to work by train 

The verb travel in [1a] is still in the present tense, but it has changed because the pronoun in front of it has changed. This correspondence between the pronoun (or noun) and the verb is called AGREEMENT or CONCORD. Agreement applies only to verbs in the present tense. In the past tense, there is no distinction between verb forms: she travelled/they travelled.  

The Infinitive Form

The INFINITIVE form of a verb is the form which follows to:  

This form is indistinguishable from the base form. Indeed, many people cite this form when they identify a verb, as in "This is the verb to be", although to is not part of the verb.  

Infinitives with to are referred to specifically as TO-INFINITIVES, in order to distinguish them from BARE INFINITIVES, in which to is absent:

More Verb Forms: -ing and -ed

So far we have looked at three verb forms: the present form, the past form, and the infinitive/base form. Verbs have two further forms which we will look at now.  

[1] The old lady is writing a play  [2] The film was produced in Hollywood 

The verb form writing in [1] is known as the -ing form, or the -ING PARTICIPLE form. In [2], the verb form produced is called the -ed form, or -ED PARTICIPLE form.  

Many so-called -ed participle forms do not end in -ed at all:  

The film was written by John Brown  The film was bought by a British company  The film was made in Hollywood 

All of these forms are called -ed participle forms, despite their various endings. The term "-ed participle form" is simply a cover term for all of these forms.  

The -ed participle form should not be confused with the -ed inflection which is used to indicate the past tense of many verbs.  

We have now looked at all five verb forms. By way of summary, let us bring them together and see how they look for different verbs. For convenience, we will illustrate only the third person singular forms (the forms which agree with he/she/it) of each verb. Notice that some verbs have irregular past forms and -ed forms.  

Finite and Nonfinite Verbs

Verbs which have the past or the present form are called FINITE verbs. Verbs in any other form (infinitive, -ing, or -ed) are called NONFINITE verbs. This means that verbs with tense are finite, and verbs without tense are nonfinite. The distinction between finite and nonfinite verbs is a very important one in grammar, since it affects how verbs behave in sentences. Here are some examples of each type:  

Auxiliary Verbs

In the examples of -ing and -ed forms which we looked at, you may have noticed that in each case two verbs appeared:   

[1] The old lady is writing a play  [2] The film was produced in Hollywood 

Writing and produced each has another verb before it. These other verbs (is and was) are known as AUXILIARY VERBS, while writing and produced are known as MAIN VERBS or LEXICAL VERBS. In fact, all the verbs we have looked at on the previous pages have been main verbs. 

Auxiliary verbs are sometimes called HELPING VERBS. This is because they may be said to "help" the main verb which comes after them. For example, in The old lady is writing a play, the auxiliary is helps the main verb writing by specifying that the action it denotes is still in progress.   

Auxiliary Verb Types

In this section we will give a brief account of of each type of auxiliary verb in English. There are five types in total: 

An important difference between auxiliary verbs and main verbs is that auxiliaries never occur alone in a sentence. For instance, we cannot remove the main verb from a sentence, leaving only the auxiliary: 

Auxiliaries always occur with a main verb. On the other hand, main verbs can occur without an auxiliary.   

I like my new job  I bought a new car  She sings like a bird 

In some sentences, it may appear that an auxiliary does occur alone. This is especially true in responses to questions:   

Q. Can you sing?   A. Yes, I can 

Here the auxiliary can does not really occur without a main verb, since the main verb -- sing -- is in the question. The response is understood to mean:   

Yes, I can sing 

This is known as ellipsis -- the main verb has been ellipted from the response.

Auxiliaries often appear in a shortened or contracted form, especially in informal contexts. For instance, auxiliary have is often shortened to 've:   

I have won the lottery    ~I've won the lottery 

These shortened forms are called enclitic forms. Sometimes different auxiliaries have the same enclitic forms, so you should distinguish carefully between them:   

I'd like a new job ( = modal auxiliary would)  We'd already spent the money by then ( = perfective auxiliary had)  

He's been in there for ages ( = perfective auxiliary has)  She's eating her lunch ( = progressive auxiliary is) 

The following exercise concentrates on three of the most important auxiliaries -- be, have, and do. 

The NICE Properties of Auxiliaries

The so-called NICE properties of auxiliaries serve to distinguish them from main verbs. NICE is an acronym for: 

Main verbs do not exhibit these properties. For instance, when we form a question using a main verb, we cannot invert:   

[John sings] in the choir ~*[Sings John] in the choir? 

Instead, we have to use the auxiliary verb do:   

[John sings] in the choir ~[Does John sing] in the choir?     

Semi-auxiliaries

Among the auxiliary verbs, we distinguish a large number of multi-word verbs, which are called SEMI-AUXILIARIES. These are two-or three-word combinations, and they include the following: 

Like other auxiliaries, the semi-auxiliaries occur before main verbs:   

The film is about to start 

I'm going to interview the Lord Mayor 

I have to leave early today 

You are supposed to sign both forms 

I used to live in that house 

Some of these combinations may, of course, occur in other contexts in which they are not semi-auxiliaries. For example:   

I'm going to London 

Here, the combination is not a semi-auxiliary, since it does not occur with a main verb. In this sentence, going is a main verb. Notice that it could be replaced by another main verb such as travel (I'm travelling to London). The word 'm is the contracted form of am, the progressive auxiliary, and to, as we'll see later, is a preposition. 

Tense and Aspect

TENSE refers to the absolute location of an event or action in time, either the present or the past. It is marked by an inflection of the verb: 

David walks to school (present tense) David walked to school (past tense) 

Reference to other times -- the future, for instance -- can be made in a number of ways, by using the modal auxiliary will, or the semi-auxiliary be going to: 

David will walk to school tomorrow David is going to walk to school tomorrow. 

Since the expression of future time does not involve any inflecton of the verb, we do not refer to a "future tense". Strictly speaking, there are only two tenses in English: present and past. 

ASPECT refers to how an event or action is to be viewed with respect to time, rather than to its actual location in time. We can illustrate this using the following examples: 

[1] David fell in love on his eighteenth birthday  [2] David has fallen in love  [3] David is falling in love 

In [1], the verb fell tells us that David fell in love in the past, and specifically on his eighteenth birthday. This is a simple past tense verb. 

In [2] also, the action took place in the past, but it is implied that it took place quite recently. Furthermore, it is implied that is still relevant at the time of speaking -- David has fallen in love, and that's why he's behaving strangely. It is worth noting that we cannot say *David has fallen in love on his eighteenth birthday. The auxiliary has here encodes what is known as PERFECTIVE ASPECT, and the auxiliary itself is known as the PERFECTIVE AUXILIARY. 

In [3], the action of falling in love is still in progress -- David is falling in love at the time of speaking. For this reason, we call it PROGRESSIVE ASPECT, and the auxiliary is called the PROGRESSIVE AUXILIARY. 

Aspect always includes tense. In [2] and [3] above, the aspectual auxiliaries are in the present tense, but they could also be in the past tense: 

David had fallen in love -- Perfective Aspect, Past Tense David was falling in love -- Progressive Aspect, Past Tense 

The perfective auxiliary is always followed by a main verb in the -ed form, while the progressive auxiliary is followed by a main verb in the -ing form. We exemplify these points in the table below: 

While aspect always includes tense, tense can occur without aspect (David falls in love, David fell in love).

Voice

There are two voices in English, the active voice and the passive voice: 

Passive constructions are formed using the PASSIVE AUXILIARY be, and the main verb has an -ed inflection. In active constructions, there is no passive auxiliary, though other auxiliaries may occur: 

Paul is congratulating David Paul will congratulate David  Paul has congratulated David 

All of these examples are active constructions, since they contain no passive auxiliary. Notice that in the first example (Paul is congratulating David), the auxiliary is the progressive auxiliary, not the passive auxiliary. We know this because the main verb congratulate has an -ing inflection, not an -ed inflection.

In the passive construction in [2], we refer to Paul as the AGENT. This is the one who performs the action of congratulating David. Sometimes no agent is specified:

David was congratulated 

We refer to this as an AGENTLESS PASSIVE