What Are Verbs?

Do you know that you can make a complete sentence with only one word – a verb in English?

Consider the sentence “Stop!” Any other sort of word cannot be used to form a one-word statement. That’s how powerful verbs can be.

But what are verbs exactly? What are their functions, and what are the rules in English grammar governing verbs?

Search no more because right here in this article, we will be discussing everything there is to know about verbs. Please continue reading. 

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What are Verbs?

Verbs are the action words in a phrase that describe what the subject is doing.

The most key element of a sentence or phrase is the verb, which, like nouns, tells a story about what is going on.

Whole concepts cannot be conveyed without a verb, and even the simplest statements, such as “Anna dances.”, require one. A verb, like “Drive!” and “Sing!”, can be considered a sentence in and of itself, the subject being ‘you’, inferred, in most cases.

When learning grammatical rules, students are frequently taught that verbs are ‘doing’ words, indicating that they represent the part of the phrase that explains the action taking place: “The horses run over the fields.”, “He walked away.”, and “She bakes chocolate cake on Sundays.”, 

The verbs in these sentences are ‘ran’, ‘walked’, and ‘bakes’ since they are the ‘action’ aspects of the sentences.

It can be perplexing, though, because not all verbs are clearly action verbs: “I recognize your name.”, “Jack considered it.”, and “We thought about numerous options.”

Non-action verbs are those that describe a state of being, feeling, possession, sensation, or opinion rather than an action.

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What are the Five Functions of English Verbs?

You should keep in mind that the form and function of word classes vary significantly among languages. 

In particular, processes of inflectional affixation may be utilized by a language to express grammatical notions dependent on the verb’s interactions with its surrounding words – such as tense, gender, mood, voice, or case – to a greater or greater or lesser extent.

While such variety is essential from a linguistic standpoint, the most crucial feature for students of academic English is how verbs function in the English language specifically.

Function 1 – To communicate action. 

Verbs, in English grammar, are employed to express actions (‘read’ or ‘study’), occurrences (‘become’ or ‘happen’), and states of being (‘be’ or ‘feel’).

This word class’s first and most significant linguistic function is to carry and transmit the main meaning of a clause or sentence.

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Function 2 – To make clauses. 

A sentence can be made up of one independent clause or a combination of numerous dependent and independent clauses.

Because an independent sentence must include both a subject and a predicate, and predicates must contain verbs and verb phrases, this word class serves to build the basic foundation of human language.

Verbs are at the heart of practically all clauses and sentences, whether they involve just a subject, a subject, and a complement, or a subject and an object:

Sentence Pattern	Examples
Subject + Verb	“The plane crashed.”
Subject + Verb + Object	“My sister prepared a sandwich.”
Subject + Verb + Complement	“She is a diligent student.”

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Function 3 – To provide tense and aspect. 

The third way verbs are important in the English language is that they can be employed to change the tense (time) or aspect of a sentence (duration of time).

A speaker can modify the temporal meaning of an expression rapidly and reliably by either adding auxiliary verbs to its verb phrase or conjugating a verb through inflectional affixation.

Tense	Examples
Present Tense	“She lives by herself.”
Simple Aspect	“She lives by herself.”
Continuous Aspect	“She is living by herself.”
Perfect Aspect	“She has lived by herself.”
Past Tense	“She lived by herself.”
Simple Aspect	“She lived by herself.”
Continuous Aspect	“She was living by herself.”
Perfect Aspect	“She had lived by herself.”

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Function 4 – To demonstrate modality. 

Verbs can express characteristics of mood and modality, albeit this is only achievable with particular auxiliary verbs.

Modality is a language element that expresses a speaker’s feelings about the world around them through judgments, assessments, or interpretations of a proposition’s believability, reality, obligation, or desirability. 

Attitudinal Modality 

ability	“I can speak French fluently.”
deduction	“She must be in the kitchen cooking.”
disapproval	“You could have told me.”
necessity	“You should learn how to drive.”
obligation	“You must attend the meeting.”
possibility	“We might not be able to make it on time.”

Communicative Modality 

advising	“You ought to tell your teacher.”
inviting	“Would you go shopping with me?”
offering	“May I help you?”
permitting	“You can go with them.”
requesting	“Can I take the day off?”
suggesting	“You might want to wear something formal.”

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Function 5 – To show agreement

Another useful usage of verbs is that they can be adjusted to show agreement – when a word changes its form due to the other words in the sentence to which it is related.

Agreement is a sort of inflectional affixation limited to grammatical person and number between subjects and verbs in the English language.

This means that English verbs can change form to show whether the subject is in the first, second, or third person, and also as whether the subject is singular or plural. 

Singular

First-person	“I am…”
Second-person	“You are…”
Third-person	“He/She is…”

Plural

First-person	“We are…”
Second-person	“You are…”
Third-person	“They are…”

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Which Tests Correctly Identify English Verbs?

To help with confident verb identification, remember that any word in the English language can belong to numerous word classes based on its form, function, and grammar.

For example, the word ‘swimming’ can be used as a verb in the statement “He is swimming in the pool.”, but it can also be used as a noun in the phrase “Swimming is a therapy for him”.

Because it is not always evident to the speaker which words belong to different word classes, and when we have put together a list of five tests to help you recognize verbs more easily and consistently.

Test 1 – Collocation 

One of the most effective ways to determine a word’s class is to look at the classes surrounding it – the words it collocates with.

However, because several of the primary word classes, including adjectives, adverbs, nouns, prepositions, and even other verbs, can commonly precede or follow verbs, this test alone may not be sufficient. 

Modifiers	Examples
Adjectives	“They are friendly.”
Adverbs	“The little ballerina danced gracefully.”
Nouns	“The guests arrived.”
Prepositions	“She speaks from the heart.”
Verbs	“The children are playing.”

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Test 2 – Function

Students should be aware of five common tasks that verbs can fulfill in the English language, including the communication of actions and the inclusion of tense and aspect.

Academics who want to improve their odds of correctly identifying verbs should recall and recognize the five functions mentioned in the previous section. 

Functions	Examples
To communicate action	“She plays guitar.”
To make clauses	“My brother fixed the car.”
To provide tense and aspect.	“He goes to school by bus.” “He went to school by bus.”
To demonstrate modality	“I should look for a job.”
To show agreement	“She loves to cook.” “They love to cook.”

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Test 3 – Morphology 

The study of how words are produced by affixation is known as morphology.

While English verbs do not change their form as frequently as some languages to indicate tense, gender, or number through prefixation and suffixation, there are still seven basic verb forms that can aid in identifying this word class. 

Verb Forms	Examples	Examples
Base Form	“She eats vegetables.”	“I watch movies.”
Third-Person Present	“They eat vegetables.”	“They watch movies every week.”
Infinitive	“I want to eat pizza.”	“I need to watch that movie.”
Past Tense	“She ate pizza yesterday.”	“We watched a movie last night.”
Past Participle	“They have eaten pizza.”	“You have watched that movie last year.”
Present Participle	“I am eating pizza.”	“We are watching a movie.”
Gerund	“Eating pizza is a stress-reliever for me.”	“Watching movies is my hobby.”

A learner who wants to identify verbs accurately should presumably be aware of the following list of common verb-forming prefixes and suffixes and these seven verb forms.

Prefix	Examples	Suffix	Examples
de-	deselect, devalue	-ate	circulate, regulate
mis-	misinform, mislead	-en	brighten, sharpen
un-	unsubscribe, untie	-fy	classify, simplify
be-	befriend, belittle	-ify	amplify, modify
trans-	transcribe, transform	-ise	advertise, chastise
out-	outdo, outrun	-ish	abolish, flourish
co-	coexist, cofound	-ize	agonize, finalize

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Test 4 – Syntax

Valency – or how many arguments a verb can grammatically take – is another useful predictor of whether a word is a verb or not.

Arguments are the subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, and oblique (prepositional) objects of a phrase, and verbs can only take them.

As a result, if a word is grammatical in one of the four patterns below, it is most likely a verb. 

Types of Verbs	Arguments	Examples:
Intransitive Verbs	1 argument	“The ice1 melted.”
Monotransitive Verbs	2 arguments	“The man1 helped the old lady2.”
Ditransitive Verbs	3 arguments	“I1 gave my sister2 a gift3.”
Tritransitive Verbs	4 arguments	“He1 paid the driver2 $503 for his service4.”

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Test 5 – Exceptions

Of course, every rule in grammar has exceptions that must be memorized if you wish to identify verbs every time correctly.

As previously discussed, there is some variation and irregularity in how verbs’ tense, aspect, and agreement are expressed, as well as how verbs are built (conjugated) in general.

Because collocation, function, morphology, and syntax alone may not be sufficient in some circumstances to establish whether or not a word is a verb, students should get familiar with the many types and rules that govern the grammar of this word class.

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What are the Thirteen Types of English Verbs?

This section will examine and demonstrate the thirteen different types of verbs that can be found in everyday speech and academic writing.

We have summarized the thirteen verb kinds, which will be explored in-depth one by one.

Please keep in mind that (a) these categories have been separated into general, semantic, (meaning-based), binary, and syntactic (structure-based) categories, and (b) other verbs can be appropriate for more than one. 

Verb Types 

General	Lexical Auxiliary
Binary	Regular/Irregular  Stative/Dynamic Finite/Non-finite Transitive/Intransitive
Semantic	Causative Mental-State Performative Reporting
Syntactic	Copular Catenative Phrasal

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General Categories

Because they are the widest of verb classifications, both lexical and auxiliary verbs are considered generic verb kinds.

Every one of the next eleven categories discussed in this chapter might be classified as lexical or auxiliary, making these two classifications the most significant and primary.

Type 1 – Lexical Verbs 

Lexical verbs, often known as ‘main’ verbs, are the most prevalent verb type in English.

Lexical verbs have a distinct meaning and do not require the usage of another verb to be grammatically correct, though they can be combined with other verbs to form bigger verb phrases in a sentence. 

Type 2 – Auxiliary Verbs 

 Auxiliary verbs, unlike lexical verbs, do not include much of an expression’s meaning and are instead utilized to illustrate grammatical qualities like tense, aspect, or modality.

Auxiliaries, sometimes known as ‘helping’ verbs, are most commonly used before lexical verbs in a phrase.

Auxiliary verbs like ‘should’, ‘have’, and ‘be’ can be employed to convey obligatory modality, perfect aspect, and continuous aspect.

2.1 Primary Auxiliary Verbs 

In the English language, there are three main auxiliary verbs, each with its own set of forms and uses. ‘

Be’, ‘do’, and ‘have’ are these three verbs. 

Primary Auxiliary Verbs	Functions	Examples
Be	To link subject and complement	“That is a cute puppy.”
Be	To show continuous aspect	“My parents are working hard.”
Be	To show passive voice	“The trip was postponed.”
Be	To create questions	“Were you at the park yesterday?”
Do	To offer support or emphasis	“The students did not understand the instructions.”   “I do eat meat.”
Do	To create questions	“Do you cook?”
Have	To show the perfect aspect	“I have packed my things.”
Have	To create questions	“Have you read the news?”

2.2 Modal Auxiliary Verbs 

There are six semi-modal and nine pure modal auxiliary verbs that you should learn to use and recognize in addition to these three major auxiliary verbs, especially when conveying modality in speech or writing projects.

Modality is a useful linguistic trait that expresses a speaker’s views toward the world around them, whether through judgments, assessments, or interpretations of a proposition’s believability, reality, obligation, or desirability. 

Pure Modal Verbs	Examples
can	“I can sing and dance.”
could	“She could be wrong.”
may	“May I know who’s calling?”
might	“They might leave earlier than expected.”
must	“You must try their lasagna.”
shall	“Shall we eat in the other restaurant instead?”
should	“He should start a new business.”
will	“They will take the next train.”
would	“She would love to be a doctor like her mom.”

Semi Modal Verbs	Examples
be able to	“She was able to get past security.”
dare	“I dare you to tumble ten times without stopping.”
had better	“He had better ask his parents.”
have to	“I have to be there by 11 o’clock.”
need	“You need to get a score of at least 65 to pass.”
ought to	“They ought to report the robbery to the police.”

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Binary Categories

The next four verb classes are grouped together because they exist in an either/or situation.

These words are either semantically, morphologically, or syntactically regular, stative, finite, or transitive, or they are not.

Type 3 – Regular and Irregular Verbs 

One of the most prominent binary distinctions among verbs is whether or not they are morphologically formed consistently.

Regular verbs are those that do not change spelling and only require the suffixes’ s/-es’ for plurality, ‘-d/-ed’ for simple past tense and past participle.

On the other hand, irregular verbs are much more complicated because their spellings change, and there are no specific rules governing these changes.  

Regular Verbs 

Base Form	Simple Past Tense	Past Participle
bake	baked	baked
carry	carried	carried
clean	cleaned	cleaned
cook	cooked	cooked
dance	danced	danced
fry	fried	fried
plant	planted	planted
serve	served	served
wash	washed	washed
watch	watched	watched

Irregular Verbs 

Base Form	Simple Past Tense	Past Participle
break	broke	broken
draw	drew	drawn
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
forget	forgot	forgotten
give	gave	given
grow	grew	grown
swim	swam	swum
weave	wove	woven

Type 4 – Stative and Dynamic Verbs

Another method to classify verbs is to divide them into stative and dynamic categories based on the event, action, state of being or occurrence they depict.

Stative verbs are those that describe situations or states of being that are undefinable in duration or unchangeable, such as ‘thought’ or ‘want’.

Dynamic verbs, such as ‘research’ or ‘measure’, on the other hand, depict actions and occurrences that have a beginning and an end.

Stative Verbs 

think	“I think it’s a great idea.”  NOT “I am thinking it’s a great idea.”
wish	“She wishes she could join the trip.”  NOT “She is wishing she could join the trip.”

Dynamic Verbs 

cook	“She cooks her own food.”  OR “She is cooking her own food.”
play	“He plays tennis with his sister.”   OR “He is playing tennis with his sister.”

Please keep in mind that some verbs, such as the verb ‘think’ in the following sentences, can be both stative and dynamic depending on how they are used in the sentence.

Stative	Dynamic
“I think you should buy the house.”  Meaning: To express an opinion	“I am thinking about my family.”  Meaning: To reflect or ponder on something

Type 5 – Finite and Non-Finite Verbs

When recognizing verbs, another binary classification that academic students may encounter is whether or not a verb is finite, which refers to the ability to indicate tense or agreement with a connected topic.

Non-finite verbs lack the grammatical flexibility of finite verbs, which can display tense and subject-verb agreement as well as occur as the singular verb in an independent phrase.

Non-finite verbs cannot be inflected and can only appear alone in a clause when that clause is dependent. 

Verbs	Finite	Non-Finite
think	“I think you should wear a white dress.”   “She thinks it is a clever idea.” “They thought it was a boring movie.”	“I will think about it.”  “He is thinking of leaving his job.”  “Thinking too much causes stress.”
write	“I write in my journal every day.”  “He writes me a letter for my birthday every year.” “She wrote a message for her friend.”	“He loves to write children’s books.” “She is writing a message on the card.”  “Writing is my hobby.”

Type 6 – Transitive and Intransitive Verbs 

The last binary distinction among verbs examines whether a verb is transitive (able to accept an object) or intransitive (unable to take an object).

The accompanying table highlights two points:

(1) There are three categories of transitive verbs based on the number of arguments (subjects and objects) they can take, and

(2) verbs like ‘melt’ can be both transitive and intransitive, which could be dependent on their use and meaning. 

Transitive Verbs 

bring	“I brought an umbrella.”
wish	“I wish for good health.”

Intransitive Verbs 

jump	“He jumped out of his bed.”
scream	“She screamed but no one heard her.”

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Semantic Categories

Another way to categorize verbs is to group them semantically or according to their meanings. 

Type 7 – Causative Verbs 

The causatives are the first semantic category of verbs.

The act of one thing or person that causes another thing or person to do or get something is expressed by causative verbs.

There are about fifty verbs in the English language that can generate transitivity-increasing causative constructions.

Causative Verbs	Examples
have	“I have to meet them in two hours.”
let	“They let the guests take photos of the exhibit.”
make	“She made him accept the offer.”

Type 8 – Mental-State Verbs

Mental-state verbs are most often stative and extremely polysemous, indicating that each verb can demonstrate a variety of state-based meanings.

They are related to deciding, discovering, planning, understanding, and the general contents of our minds that cannot be externally evaluated.

Such verbs are very valuable in academic argumentation writing when qualifying the ideas and facts of other authors. 

Mental-State Verbs	Examples
believe	“She believes in miracles.”
hope	“He hopes to win the election.”
know	“They know the truth.”

Type 9 – Performative Verbs

This semantic classification explains the small number of verbs that unambiguously reflect the performance of a speech act.

These are verbs whose meaning is the speech act they perform. In performative sentences — the speaker is always the subject. 

Mental-State Verbs	Examples
apologize	“I apologize for being late.”
dare	“I dare you to finish the whole pie.”
promise	“I promise to behave better next time.”

Type 10 – Reporting Verbs

Reporting verbs or a verb form that permits the speaker or writer to directly or indirectly record the words of others is the final semantic category of verbs. 

Reporting Verbs	Examples
advised	“She advised her friend to take some time off.”
argued	“He argued that the time given was too short.”
noted	“The panel noted that the applicant was a former businessman himself.”

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Syntactic Categories 

The syntactic structures that each of the final three verb kinds requires, such as whether a verb must come before a complement, a verb phrase, or a specific particle, preposition, or adverb, have been grouped together.

Type 11 – Copular Verbs

Copular (or connecting) verbs are a limited group of verbs that cannot take objects within a phrase, such as ‘be’ or ‘feel’.

They require a nominal or adjectival complement that provides further information about the clause subject.

This illustrates that copular verbs are more grammatical in nature – connecting subject and complement. 

Copular Verbs	Examples
be	“Ms Brookes is a teacher.”  “They are twins.”
feel	“She feels sick.”  “They feel happy about the success of the project.”

Type 12 – Catenative Verbs

Catenative verbs are lexical verbs that are not primary or modal auxiliary verbs but can be preceded by another lexical verb in the same clause.

Catenative verbs, which are derived from the Latin word for ‘chain’, are unique in that they can be put together to form a chain of non-finite verbal complements. 

Catenative Verbs	Examples
Gerund	“Singing makes her happy.”
Bare-Infinitive	“She helped plan the party.”
To-Infinitive	“It started to snow.”

Type 13 – Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are one of the most prevalent and difficult verb kinds for non-native English speakers.

A phrasal verb is a unique and often idiomatic blend of either a preposition or an adverbial particle (or both) and a lexical verb.

Phrasal Verbs for ‘Take’	Meaning	Examples
take after	To have the appearance or traits of a family member or relative	“Dan takes after his father who is a hardworking man.”
take back	To reclaim ownership of someone or something	“He is willing to take her back.”
take over	To take command of something	“After four years of being junior manager, he is now taking over as the branch’s senior manager.”

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What are the Seven Rules in Forming Verbs?

After a number of key principles for accurately recognizing the forms and functions of verbs have been examined, the next section will look at seven more guidelines that, if followed, should considerably aid scholastic performance.

Rule 1 – Forming Agreement

English speakers benefit from verbs because they can show the person and number of a nominal subject through suffixation.

In other words, whether a subject is in the first, second, or third person or singular or plural will affect the grammatical formulation of the verb in question. 

Subject	‘Be’ Verb	Example Lexical Verb 1	Example Lexical Verb 2
I	am/was	play	eat
you	are/were	play	eat
we	are/were	play	eat
he/she/it	is/was	plays	eats
they	are/were	play	eat

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Rule 2 – Forming Tenses

In the English language, the recurrent suffixes ‘-s/-es’ and ‘-d/-ed’ can be used to show present and past tenses by adding them to a finite verb.

However, a subject-verb agreement has many more restrictions; there are a lot of variances in how to spell and create verb tenses. 

Present Tense	‘Be’ Verb	Regular Verbs	Irregular Verbs
First/Second-Person	am/are	cook dance	fall go
Third-Person	is/are	cooks dances	falls goes
Participle	being	cooking dancing	falling going

Past Tense	‘Be’ Verb	Regular Verbs	Irregular Verbs
First/Second-Person	was/were	baked cleaned	hid wore
Third-Person	was/were	baked cleaned	hid wore
Participle	been	baked cleaned	hidden worn

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Rule 3 – Forming Aspects

While tense conveys time through morphological inflection, aspect expresses duration through the syntactic insertion of extra words to the verb phrase, such as ‘be’ and ‘have’.

There are three types of aspects in the English language: simple, continuous, and perfect.

Simple is the default aspect. To use the continuous or perfect elements in a piece of writing, a student must adhere to the following guidelines.

Continuous = Be Verb + Present Participle

“She is preparing dinner.”  I am cleaning my room.” “They were arguing about which team is better.”

Perfect = Have + Past Participle

“The bus has arrived.”   “The judges have come to a decision.”  “He has gone to Peru before.”

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Rule 4 – Forming the Passive Voice

Another common source of confusion for most people, is how to appropriately form the passive voice.

The passive voice is used when the writer or speaker wants to either eliminate the agent of the verb’s act or move that agent from the subject position into an optional object position using the word ‘by’. 

Active Voice	Passive Voice
“Anna baked an apple pie today.”	“An apple pie was baked by Anna today.”
“Jim is receiving a package.”	“A package is being received by Jim.”

While there may be some other variations that you need to study and memorize, the following is the typical construction for forming the passive:

Present = Am/Is/Are + Past Participle

“The party is planned by Mindy and her friends.”   “The announcement is made by the professor.”  “Those gifts are given by my parents.”

Past = Was/Were + Past Participle

“The decision was made by the referees.”   “This sweater was knitted by my favorite aunt.”  “The flowers were arranged by my sister.”

Perfect = Has/Have/Had Been + Past Participle

“She has been chosen by the panel of judges.”    “The walls have been painted by my dad.”   “The buildings had been destroyed by the earthquake.”

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Rule 5 – Forming Yes/No Questions

Due to what is known as subject-auxiliary inversion, which occurs when the auxiliary verb, whether primary or modal, is pushed before the subject in interrogative sentences, you may have difficulty creating yes or no questions in English.

The declarative statement and its interrogative variant with this inversion are shown in the following examples. 

Declarative	Interrogative
“She will move to a new school.”	“Will she move to a new school?”
“He is my favorite actor.”	“Is he your favorite teacher?”
“Luke can do a headstand.”	“Can Luke do a headstand?
“She has called the police.”	“Has she called the police?”
“They are his parents.”	“Are they his parents?”
“He likes playing video games.”	“Does he like playing video games?”
“I walk to school every day.”	“Do you walk to school every day?”

If the declarative has an auxiliary verb, such as ‘can’, ‘will,’ ‘be’, or ‘have’, the auxiliary verb is shifted before the subject to generate the interrogative statement, as seen in the examples above. When no auxiliary verb is present in the declarative, the auxiliary and supporting verb ‘do’ or ‘does’ is inserted before the subject to form interrogative constructions.

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Rule 6 – Forming Negatives

The rules for generating negative constructs are comparable to the rules for forming yes/no questions.

If an auxiliary verb appears in a declarative statement, simply add ‘not’ after that auxiliary verb or make a contracted contraction of both the auxiliary verb and the negative marker – such as ‘can’t’ or ‘haven’t’.

If the declarative lacks an auxiliary, you should add both the ‘do’ verb and the negative marking ‘not’, either as two independent words or in their combined contracted forms.

Declarative	Negated Form
“He will be late.”	“He will not (won’t) be late.”
“She has told me about her problem.”	“She has not (hasn’t) told me about her problem.”
“I can finish a book overnight.”	“I cannot (can’t) finish a book overnight.”
“They talk every day.”	“They do not (don’t) talk every day.”
“He is a doctor.”	“He is not (isn’t) a doctor.”

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Rule 7 – Forming Short Answers

The final rule to remember while employing verbs is thankfully the most straightforward.

When making positive short responses to questions like “Yes, he will.’ or “No, she cannot.’, the easiest thing for a learner to do is to repeat the auxiliary verb that was moved before the subject (inverted) to produce the question.

The same structure can be used to create negative short answers, but with the inclusion of the negative marker ‘not’:

Interrogative	Short Answer
“Will you go to the supermarket today?”	“No, I will not (won’t).”
“Have you seen Cara lately?”	“Yes, I have.”
“Is your car red?”	“Yes, it is.”
“Has she returned your calls?”	“No, she has not (hasn’t).”
“Can you help me with these books?”	“Yes, I can.”
“Do you like pizza?”	“No, I do not (don’t).”

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Which Academic Verbs and Phrases are Best?

After discussing and demonstrating the roles of verbs, as well as how to recognize this word class and its many kinds, and how to follow the most important rules for constructing grammatical sentences, it is now time to concentrate on the correct usage of verbs in academic contexts.

Here are some of the most common academic verbs and expressions for you to familiarize yourself with to help you improve your knowledge about verbs. 

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Why Should We be Familiar with Verbs?

Verbs are an essential component of speech.

There cannot be a coherent sentence, let alone a phrase, without a verb. They are the building pieces that allow you to construct meaningful sentences.

They are the words that aid in the explanation of any message we are trying to convey.

Without them, it would be impossible to understand each other. That being said, it is worth noting that verbs indeed play a vital role in our academic and professional life.

We do hope that the information we have provided in this article aids you in understanding verbs better and eventually makes you confident in using them more effectively. 

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Do you know that you can make a complete sentence with only one word – a verb in English?

Consider the sentence “Stop!” Any other sort of word cannot be used to form a one-word statement. That’s how powerful verbs can be.

But what are verbs exactly? What are their functions, and what are the rules in English grammar governing verbs?

Search no more because right here in this article, we will be discussing everything there is to know about verbs. Please continue reading. 

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What are Verbs?

Verbs are the action words in a phrase that describe what the subject is doing.

The most key element of a sentence or phrase is the verb, which, like nouns, tells a story about what is going on.

Whole concepts cannot be conveyed without a verb, and even the simplest statements, such as “Anna dances.”, require one. A verb, like “Drive!” and “Sing!”, can be considered a sentence in and of itself, the subject being ‘you’, inferred, in most cases.

When learning grammatical rules, students are frequently taught that verbs are ‘doing’ words, indicating that they represent the part of the phrase that explains the action taking place: “The horses run over the fields.”, “He walked away.”, and “She bakes chocolate cake on Sundays.”, 

The verbs in these sentences are ‘ran’, ‘walked’, and ‘bakes’ since they are the ‘action’ aspects of the sentences.

It can be perplexing, though, because not all verbs are clearly action verbs: “I recognize your name.”, “Jack considered it.”, and “We thought about numerous options.”

Non-action verbs are those that describe a state of being, feeling, possession, sensation, or opinion rather than an action.

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What are the Five Functions of English Verbs?

You should keep in mind that the form and function of word classes vary significantly among languages. 

In particular, processes of inflectional affixation may be utilized by a language to express grammatical notions dependent on the verb’s interactions with its surrounding words – such as tense, gender, mood, voice, or case – to a greater or greater or lesser extent.

While such variety is essential from a linguistic standpoint, the most crucial feature for students of academic English is how verbs function in the English language specifically.

Function 1 – To communicate action. 

Verbs, in English grammar, are employed to express actions (‘read’ or ‘study’), occurrences (‘become’ or ‘happen’), and states of being (‘be’ or ‘feel’).

This word class’s first and most significant linguistic function is to carry and transmit the main meaning of a clause or sentence.

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Function 2 – To make clauses. 

A sentence can be made up of one independent clause or a combination of numerous dependent and independent clauses.

Because an independent sentence must include both a subject and a predicate, and predicates must contain verbs and verb phrases, this word class serves to build the basic foundation of human language.

Verbs are at the heart of practically all clauses and sentences, whether they involve just a subject, a subject, and a complement, or a subject and an object:

Sentence Pattern	Examples
Subject + Verb	“The plane crashed.”
Subject + Verb + Object	“My sister prepared a sandwich.”
Subject + Verb + Complement	“She is a diligent student.”

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Function 3 – To provide tense and aspect. 

The third way verbs are important in the English language is that they can be employed to change the tense (time) or aspect of a sentence (duration of time).

A speaker can modify the temporal meaning of an expression rapidly and reliably by either adding auxiliary verbs to its verb phrase or conjugating a verb through inflectional affixation.

Tense	Examples
Present Tense	“She lives by herself.”
Simple Aspect	“She lives by herself.”
Continuous Aspect	“She is living by herself.”
Perfect Aspect	“She has lived by herself.”
Past Tense	“She lived by herself.”
Simple Aspect	“She lived by herself.”
Continuous Aspect	“She was living by herself.”
Perfect Aspect	“She had lived by herself.”

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Function 4 – To demonstrate modality. 

Verbs can express characteristics of mood and modality, albeit this is only achievable with particular auxiliary verbs.

Modality is a language element that expresses a speaker’s feelings about the world around them through judgments, assessments, or interpretations of a proposition’s believability, reality, obligation, or desirability. 

Attitudinal Modality 

ability	“I can speak French fluently.”
deduction	“She must be in the kitchen cooking.”
disapproval	“You could have told me.”
necessity	“You should learn how to drive.”
obligation	“You must attend the meeting.”
possibility	“We might not be able to make it on time.”

Communicative Modality 

advising	“You ought to tell your teacher.”
inviting	“Would you go shopping with me?”
offering	“May I help you?”
permitting	“You can go with them.”
requesting	“Can I take the day off?”
suggesting	“You might want to wear something formal.”

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Function 5 – To show agreement

Another useful usage of verbs is that they can be adjusted to show agreement – when a word changes its form due to the other words in the sentence to which it is related.

Agreement is a sort of inflectional affixation limited to grammatical person and number between subjects and verbs in the English language.

This means that English verbs can change form to show whether the subject is in the first, second, or third person, and also as whether the subject is singular or plural. 

Singular

First-person	“I am…”
Second-person	“You are…”
Third-person	“He/She is…”

Plural

First-person	“We are…”
Second-person	“You are…”
Third-person	“They are…”

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Which Tests Correctly Identify English Verbs?

To help with confident verb identification, remember that any word in the English language can belong to numerous word classes based on its form, function, and grammar.

For example, the word ‘swimming’ can be used as a verb in the statement “He is swimming in the pool.”, but it can also be used as a noun in the phrase “Swimming is a therapy for him”.

Because it is not always evident to the speaker which words belong to different word classes, and when we have put together a list of five tests to help you recognize verbs more easily and consistently.

Test 1 – Collocation 

One of the most effective ways to determine a word’s class is to look at the classes surrounding it – the words it collocates with.

However, because several of the primary word classes, including adjectives, adverbs, nouns, prepositions, and even other verbs, can commonly precede or follow verbs, this test alone may not be sufficient. 

Modifiers	Examples
Adjectives	“They are friendly.”
Adverbs	“The little ballerina danced gracefully.”
Nouns	“The guests arrived.”
Prepositions	“She speaks from the heart.”
Verbs	“The children are playing.”

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Test 2 – Function

Students should be aware of five common tasks that verbs can fulfill in the English language, including the communication of actions and the inclusion of tense and aspect.

Academics who want to improve their odds of correctly identifying verbs should recall and recognize the five functions mentioned in the previous section. 

Functions	Examples
To communicate action	“She plays guitar.”
To make clauses	“My brother fixed the car.”
To provide tense and aspect.	“He goes to school by bus.” “He went to school by bus.”
To demonstrate modality	“I should look for a job.”
To show agreement	“She loves to cook.” “They love to cook.”

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Test 3 – Morphology 

The study of how words are produced by affixation is known as morphology.

While English verbs do not change their form as frequently as some languages to indicate tense, gender, or number through prefixation and suffixation, there are still seven basic verb forms that can aid in identifying this word class. 

Verb Forms	Examples	Examples
Base Form	“She eats vegetables.”	“I watch movies.”
Third-Person Present	“They eat vegetables.”	“They watch movies every week.”
Infinitive	“I want to eat pizza.”	“I need to watch that movie.”
Past Tense	“She ate pizza yesterday.”	“We watched a movie last night.”
Past Participle	“They have eaten pizza.”	“You have watched that movie last year.”
Present Participle	“I am eating pizza.”	“We are watching a movie.”
Gerund	“Eating pizza is a stress-reliever for me.”	“Watching movies is my hobby.”

A learner who wants to identify verbs accurately should presumably be aware of the following list of common verb-forming prefixes and suffixes and these seven verb forms.

Prefix	Examples	Suffix	Examples
de-	deselect, devalue	-ate	circulate, regulate
mis-	misinform, mislead	-en	brighten, sharpen
un-	unsubscribe, untie	-fy	classify, simplify
be-	befriend, belittle	-ify	amplify, modify
trans-	transcribe, transform	-ise	advertise, chastise
out-	outdo, outrun	-ish	abolish, flourish
co-	coexist, cofound	-ize	agonize, finalize

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Test 4 – Syntax

Valency – or how many arguments a verb can grammatically take – is another useful predictor of whether a word is a verb or not.

Arguments are the subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, and oblique (prepositional) objects of a phrase, and verbs can only take them.

As a result, if a word is grammatical in one of the four patterns below, it is most likely a verb. 

Types of Verbs	Arguments	Examples:
Intransitive Verbs	1 argument	“The ice1 melted.”
Monotransitive Verbs	2 arguments	“The man1 helped the old lady2.”
Ditransitive Verbs	3 arguments	“I1 gave my sister2 a gift3.”
Tritransitive Verbs	4 arguments	“He1 paid the driver2 $503 for his service4.”

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Test 5 – Exceptions

Of course, every rule in grammar has exceptions that must be memorized if you wish to identify verbs every time correctly.

As previously discussed, there is some variation and irregularity in how verbs’ tense, aspect, and agreement are expressed, as well as how verbs are built (conjugated) in general.

Because collocation, function, morphology, and syntax alone may not be sufficient in some circumstances to establish whether or not a word is a verb, students should get familiar with the many types and rules that govern the grammar of this word class.

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What are the Thirteen Types of English Verbs?

This section will examine and demonstrate the thirteen different types of verbs that can be found in everyday speech and academic writing.

We have summarized the thirteen verb kinds, which will be explored in-depth one by one.

Please keep in mind that (a) these categories have been separated into general, semantic, (meaning-based), binary, and syntactic (structure-based) categories, and (b) other verbs can be appropriate for more than one. 

Verb Types 

General	Lexical Auxiliary
Binary	Regular/Irregular  Stative/Dynamic Finite/Non-finite Transitive/Intransitive
Semantic	Causative Mental-State Performative Reporting
Syntactic	Copular Catenative Phrasal

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General Categories

Because they are the widest of verb classifications, both lexical and auxiliary verbs are considered generic verb kinds.

Every one of the next eleven categories discussed in this chapter might be classified as lexical or auxiliary, making these two classifications the most significant and primary.

Type 1 – Lexical Verbs 

Lexical verbs, often known as ‘main’ verbs, are the most prevalent verb type in English.

Lexical verbs have a distinct meaning and do not require the usage of another verb to be grammatically correct, though they can be combined with other verbs to form bigger verb phrases in a sentence. 

Type 2 – Auxiliary Verbs 

 Auxiliary verbs, unlike lexical verbs, do not include much of an expression’s meaning and are instead utilized to illustrate grammatical qualities like tense, aspect, or modality.

Auxiliaries, sometimes known as ‘helping’ verbs, are most commonly used before lexical verbs in a phrase.

Auxiliary verbs like ‘should’, ‘have’, and ‘be’ can be employed to convey obligatory modality, perfect aspect, and continuous aspect.

2.1 Primary Auxiliary Verbs 

In the English language, there are three main auxiliary verbs, each with its own set of forms and uses. ‘

Be’, ‘do’, and ‘have’ are these three verbs. 

Primary Auxiliary Verbs	Functions	Examples
Be	To link subject and complement	“That is a cute puppy.”
Be	To show continuous aspect	“My parents are working hard.”
Be	To show passive voice	“The trip was postponed.”
Be	To create questions	“Were you at the park yesterday?”
Do	To offer support or emphasis	“The students did not understand the instructions.”   “I do eat meat.”
Do	To create questions	“Do you cook?”
Have	To show the perfect aspect	“I have packed my things.”
Have	To create questions	“Have you read the news?”

2.2 Modal Auxiliary Verbs 

There are six semi-modal and nine pure modal auxiliary verbs that you should learn to use and recognize in addition to these three major auxiliary verbs, especially when conveying modality in speech or writing projects.

Modality is a useful linguistic trait that expresses a speaker’s views toward the world around them, whether through judgments, assessments, or interpretations of a proposition’s believability, reality, obligation, or desirability. 

Pure Modal Verbs	Examples
can	“I can sing and dance.”
could	“She could be wrong.”
may	“May I know who’s calling?”
might	“They might leave earlier than expected.”
must	“You must try their lasagna.”
shall	“Shall we eat in the other restaurant instead?”
should	“He should start a new business.”
will	“They will take the next train.”
would	“She would love to be a doctor like her mom.”

Semi Modal Verbs	Examples
be able to	“She was able to get past security.”
dare	“I dare you to tumble ten times without stopping.”
had better	“He had better ask his parents.”
have to	“I have to be there by 11 o’clock.”
need	“You need to get a score of at least 65 to pass.”
ought to	“They ought to report the robbery to the police.”

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Binary Categories

The next four verb classes are grouped together because they exist in an either/or situation.

These words are either semantically, morphologically, or syntactically regular, stative, finite, or transitive, or they are not.

Type 3 – Regular and Irregular Verbs 

One of the most prominent binary distinctions among verbs is whether or not they are morphologically formed consistently.

Regular verbs are those that do not change spelling and only require the suffixes’ s/-es’ for plurality, ‘-d/-ed’ for simple past tense and past participle.

On the other hand, irregular verbs are much more complicated because their spellings change, and there are no specific rules governing these changes.  

Regular Verbs 

Base Form	Simple Past Tense	Past Participle
bake	baked	baked
carry	carried	carried
clean	cleaned	cleaned
cook	cooked	cooked
dance	danced	danced
fry	fried	fried
plant	planted	planted
serve	served	served
wash	washed	washed
watch	watched	watched

Irregular Verbs 

Base Form	Simple Past Tense	Past Participle
break	broke	broken
draw	drew	drawn
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
forget	forgot	forgotten
give	gave	given
grow	grew	grown
swim	swam	swum
weave	wove	woven

Type 4 – Stative and Dynamic Verbs

Another method to classify verbs is to divide them into stative and dynamic categories based on the event, action, state of being or occurrence they depict.

Stative verbs are those that describe situations or states of being that are undefinable in duration or unchangeable, such as ‘thought’ or ‘want’.

Dynamic verbs, such as ‘research’ or ‘measure’, on the other hand, depict actions and occurrences that have a beginning and an end.

Stative Verbs 

think	“I think it’s a great idea.”  NOT “I am thinking it’s a great idea.”
wish	“She wishes she could join the trip.”  NOT “She is wishing she could join the trip.”

Dynamic Verbs 

cook	“She cooks her own food.”  OR “She is cooking her own food.”
play	“He plays tennis with his sister.”   OR “He is playing tennis with his sister.”

Please keep in mind that some verbs, such as the verb ‘think’ in the following sentences, can be both stative and dynamic depending on how they are used in the sentence.

Stative	Dynamic
“I think you should buy the house.”  Meaning: To express an opinion	“I am thinking about my family.”  Meaning: To reflect or ponder on something

Type 5 – Finite and Non-Finite Verbs

When recognizing verbs, another binary classification that academic students may encounter is whether or not a verb is finite, which refers to the ability to indicate tense or agreement with a connected topic.

Non-finite verbs lack the grammatical flexibility of finite verbs, which can display tense and subject-verb agreement as well as occur as the singular verb in an independent phrase.

Non-finite verbs cannot be inflected and can only appear alone in a clause when that clause is dependent. 

Verbs	Finite	Non-Finite
think	“I think you should wear a white dress.”   “She thinks it is a clever idea.” “They thought it was a boring movie.”	“I will think about it.”  “He is thinking of leaving his job.”  “Thinking too much causes stress.”
write	“I write in my journal every day.”  “He writes me a letter for my birthday every year.” “She wrote a message for her friend.”	“He loves to write children’s books.” “She is writing a message on the card.”  “Writing is my hobby.”

Type 6 – Transitive and Intransitive Verbs 

The last binary distinction among verbs examines whether a verb is transitive (able to accept an object) or intransitive (unable to take an object).

The accompanying table highlights two points:

(1) There are three categories of transitive verbs based on the number of arguments (subjects and objects) they can take, and

(2) verbs like ‘melt’ can be both transitive and intransitive, which could be dependent on their use and meaning. 

Transitive Verbs 

bring	“I brought an umbrella.”
wish	“I wish for good health.”

Intransitive Verbs 

jump	“He jumped out of his bed.”
scream	“She screamed but no one heard her.”

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Semantic Categories

Another way to categorize verbs is to group them semantically or according to their meanings. 

Type 7 – Causative Verbs 

The causatives are the first semantic category of verbs.

The act of one thing or person that causes another thing or person to do or get something is expressed by causative verbs.

There are about fifty verbs in the English language that can generate transitivity-increasing causative constructions.

Causative Verbs	Examples
have	“I have to meet them in two hours.”
let	“They let the guests take photos of the exhibit.”
make	“She made him accept the offer.”

Type 8 – Mental-State Verbs

Mental-state verbs are most often stative and extremely polysemous, indicating that each verb can demonstrate a variety of state-based meanings.

They are related to deciding, discovering, planning, understanding, and the general contents of our minds that cannot be externally evaluated.

Such verbs are very valuable in academic argumentation writing when qualifying the ideas and facts of other authors. 

Mental-State Verbs	Examples
believe	“She believes in miracles.”
hope	“He hopes to win the election.”
know	“They know the truth.”

Type 9 – Performative Verbs

This semantic classification explains the small number of verbs that unambiguously reflect the performance of a speech act.

These are verbs whose meaning is the speech act they perform. In performative sentences — the speaker is always the subject. 

Mental-State Verbs	Examples
apologize	“I apologize for being late.”
dare	“I dare you to finish the whole pie.”
promise	“I promise to behave better next time.”

Type 10 – Reporting Verbs

Reporting verbs or a verb form that permits the speaker or writer to directly or indirectly record the words of others is the final semantic category of verbs. 

Reporting Verbs	Examples
advised	“She advised her friend to take some time off.”
argued	“He argued that the time given was too short.”
noted	“The panel noted that the applicant was a former businessman himself.”

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Syntactic Categories 

The syntactic structures that each of the final three verb kinds requires, such as whether a verb must come before a complement, a verb phrase, or a specific particle, preposition, or adverb, have been grouped together.

Type 11 – Copular Verbs

Copular (or connecting) verbs are a limited group of verbs that cannot take objects within a phrase, such as ‘be’ or ‘feel’.

They require a nominal or adjectival complement that provides further information about the clause subject.

This illustrates that copular verbs are more grammatical in nature – connecting subject and complement. 

Copular Verbs	Examples
be	“Ms Brookes is a teacher.”  “They are twins.”
feel	“She feels sick.”  “They feel happy about the success of the project.”

Type 12 – Catenative Verbs

Catenative verbs are lexical verbs that are not primary or modal auxiliary verbs but can be preceded by another lexical verb in the same clause.

Catenative verbs, which are derived from the Latin word for ‘chain’, are unique in that they can be put together to form a chain of non-finite verbal complements. 

Catenative Verbs	Examples
Gerund	“Singing makes her happy.”
Bare-Infinitive	“She helped plan the party.”
To-Infinitive	“It started to snow.”

Type 13 – Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are one of the most prevalent and difficult verb kinds for non-native English speakers.

A phrasal verb is a unique and often idiomatic blend of either a preposition or an adverbial particle (or both) and a lexical verb.

Phrasal Verbs for ‘Take’	Meaning	Examples
take after	To have the appearance or traits of a family member or relative	“Dan takes after his father who is a hardworking man.”
take back	To reclaim ownership of someone or something	“He is willing to take her back.”
take over	To take command of something	“After four years of being junior manager, he is now taking over as the branch’s senior manager.”

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What are the Seven Rules in Forming Verbs?

After a number of key principles for accurately recognizing the forms and functions of verbs have been examined, the next section will look at seven more guidelines that, if followed, should considerably aid scholastic performance.

Rule 1 – Forming Agreement

English speakers benefit from verbs because they can show the person and number of a nominal subject through suffixation.

In other words, whether a subject is in the first, second, or third person or singular or plural will affect the grammatical formulation of the verb in question. 

Subject	‘Be’ Verb	Example Lexical Verb 1	Example Lexical Verb 2
I	am/was	play	eat
you	are/were	play	eat
we	are/were	play	eat
he/she/it	is/was	plays	eats
they	are/were	play	eat

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Rule 2 – Forming Tenses

In the English language, the recurrent suffixes ‘-s/-es’ and ‘-d/-ed’ can be used to show present and past tenses by adding them to a finite verb.

However, a subject-verb agreement has many more restrictions; there are a lot of variances in how to spell and create verb tenses. 

Present Tense	‘Be’ Verb	Regular Verbs	Irregular Verbs
First/Second-Person	am/are	cook dance	fall go
Third-Person	is/are	cooks dances	falls goes
Participle	being	cooking dancing	falling going

Past Tense	‘Be’ Verb	Regular Verbs	Irregular Verbs
First/Second-Person	was/were	baked cleaned	hid wore
Third-Person	was/were	baked cleaned	hid wore
Participle	been	baked cleaned	hidden worn

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Rule 3 – Forming Aspects

While tense conveys time through morphological inflection, aspect expresses duration through the syntactic insertion of extra words to the verb phrase, such as ‘be’ and ‘have’.

There are three types of aspects in the English language: simple, continuous, and perfect.

Simple is the default aspect. To use the continuous or perfect elements in a piece of writing, a student must adhere to the following guidelines.

Continuous = Be Verb + Present Participle

“She is preparing dinner.”  I am cleaning my room.” “They were arguing about which team is better.”

Perfect = Have + Past Participle

“The bus has arrived.”   “The judges have come to a decision.”  “He has gone to Peru before.”

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Rule 4 – Forming the Passive Voice

Another common source of confusion for most people, is how to appropriately form the passive voice.

The passive voice is used when the writer or speaker wants to either eliminate the agent of the verb’s act or move that agent from the subject position into an optional object position using the word ‘by’. 

Active Voice	Passive Voice
“Anna baked an apple pie today.”	“An apple pie was baked by Anna today.”
“Jim is receiving a package.”	“A package is being received by Jim.”

While there may be some other variations that you need to study and memorize, the following is the typical construction for forming the passive:

Present = Am/Is/Are + Past Participle

“The party is planned by Mindy and her friends.”   “The announcement is made by the professor.”  “Those gifts are given by my parents.”

Past = Was/Were + Past Participle

“The decision was made by the referees.”   “This sweater was knitted by my favorite aunt.”  “The flowers were arranged by my sister.”

Perfect = Has/Have/Had Been + Past Participle

“She has been chosen by the panel of judges.”    “The walls have been painted by my dad.”   “The buildings had been destroyed by the earthquake.”

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Rule 5 – Forming Yes/No Questions

Due to what is known as subject-auxiliary inversion, which occurs when the auxiliary verb, whether primary or modal, is pushed before the subject in interrogative sentences, you may have difficulty creating yes or no questions in English.

The declarative statement and its interrogative variant with this inversion are shown in the following examples. 

Declarative	Interrogative
“She will move to a new school.”	“Will she move to a new school?”
“He is my favorite actor.”	“Is he your favorite teacher?”
“Luke can do a headstand.”	“Can Luke do a headstand?
“She has called the police.”	“Has she called the police?”
“They are his parents.”	“Are they his parents?”
“He likes playing video games.”	“Does he like playing video games?”
“I walk to school every day.”	“Do you walk to school every day?”

If the declarative has an auxiliary verb, such as ‘can’, ‘will,’ ‘be’, or ‘have’, the auxiliary verb is shifted before the subject to generate the interrogative statement, as seen in the examples above. When no auxiliary verb is present in the declarative, the auxiliary and supporting verb ‘do’ or ‘does’ is inserted before the subject to form interrogative constructions.

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Rule 6 – Forming Negatives

The rules for generating negative constructs are comparable to the rules for forming yes/no questions.

If an auxiliary verb appears in a declarative statement, simply add ‘not’ after that auxiliary verb or make a contracted contraction of both the auxiliary verb and the negative marker – such as ‘can’t’ or ‘haven’t’.

If the declarative lacks an auxiliary, you should add both the ‘do’ verb and the negative marking ‘not’, either as two independent words or in their combined contracted forms.

Declarative	Negated Form
“He will be late.”	“He will not (won’t) be late.”
“She has told me about her problem.”	“She has not (hasn’t) told me about her problem.”
“I can finish a book overnight.”	“I cannot (can’t) finish a book overnight.”
“They talk every day.”	“They do not (don’t) talk every day.”
“He is a doctor.”	“He is not (isn’t) a doctor.”

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Rule 7 – Forming Short Answers

The final rule to remember while employing verbs is thankfully the most straightforward.

When making positive short responses to questions like “Yes, he will.’ or “No, she cannot.’, the easiest thing for a learner to do is to repeat the auxiliary verb that was moved before the subject (inverted) to produce the question.

The same structure can be used to create negative short answers, but with the inclusion of the negative marker ‘not’:

Interrogative	Short Answer
“Will you go to the supermarket today?”	“No, I will not (won’t).”
“Have you seen Cara lately?”	“Yes, I have.”
“Is your car red?”	“Yes, it is.”
“Has she returned your calls?”	“No, she has not (hasn’t).”
“Can you help me with these books?”	“Yes, I can.”
“Do you like pizza?”	“No, I do not (don’t).”

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Which Academic Verbs and Phrases are Best?

After discussing and demonstrating the roles of verbs, as well as how to recognize this word class and its many kinds, and how to follow the most important rules for constructing grammatical sentences, it is now time to concentrate on the correct usage of verbs in academic contexts.

Here are some of the most common academic verbs and expressions for you to familiarize yourself with to help you improve your knowledge about verbs. 

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Why Should We be Familiar with Verbs?

Verbs are an essential component of speech.

There cannot be a coherent sentence, let alone a phrase, without a verb. They are the building pieces that allow you to construct meaningful sentences.

They are the words that aid in the explanation of any message we are trying to convey.

Without them, it would be impossible to understand each other. That being said, it is worth noting that verbs indeed play a vital role in our academic and professional life.

We do hope that the information we have provided in this article aids you in understanding verbs better and eventually makes you confident in using them more effectively. 

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Do you know that you can make a complete sentence with only one word – a verb in English?

Consider the sentence “Stop!” Any other sort of word cannot be used to form a one-word statement. That’s how powerful verbs can be.

But what are verbs exactly? What are their functions, and what are the rules in English grammar governing verbs?

Search no more because right here in this article, we will be discussing everything there is to know about verbs. Please continue reading. 

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What are Verbs?

Verbs are the action words in a phrase that describe what the subject is doing.

The most key element of a sentence or phrase is the verb, which, like nouns, tells a story about what is going on.

Whole concepts cannot be conveyed without a verb, and even the simplest statements, such as “Anna dances.”, require one. A verb, like “Drive!” and “Sing!”, can be considered a sentence in and of itself, the subject being ‘you’, inferred, in most cases.

When learning grammatical rules, students are frequently taught that verbs are ‘doing’ words, indicating that they represent the part of the phrase that explains the action taking place: “The horses run over the fields.”, “He walked away.”, and “She bakes chocolate cake on Sundays.”, 

The verbs in these sentences are ‘ran’, ‘walked’, and ‘bakes’ since they are the ‘action’ aspects of the sentences.

It can be perplexing, though, because not all verbs are clearly action verbs: “I recognize your name.”, “Jack considered it.”, and “We thought about numerous options.”

Non-action verbs are those that describe a state of being, feeling, possession, sensation, or opinion rather than an action.

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What are the Five Functions of English Verbs?

You should keep in mind that the form and function of word classes vary significantly among languages. 

In particular, processes of inflectional affixation may be utilized by a language to express grammatical notions dependent on the verb’s interactions with its surrounding words – such as tense, gender, mood, voice, or case – to a greater or greater or lesser extent.

While such variety is essential from a linguistic standpoint, the most crucial feature for students of academic English is how verbs function in the English language specifically.

Function 1 – To communicate action. 

Verbs, in English grammar, are employed to express actions (‘read’ or ‘study’), occurrences (‘become’ or ‘happen’), and states of being (‘be’ or ‘feel’).

This word class’s first and most significant linguistic function is to carry and transmit the main meaning of a clause or sentence.

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Function 2 – To make clauses. 

A sentence can be made up of one independent clause or a combination of numerous dependent and independent clauses.

Because an independent sentence must include both a subject and a predicate, and predicates must contain verbs and verb phrases, this word class serves to build the basic foundation of human language.

Verbs are at the heart of practically all clauses and sentences, whether they involve just a subject, a subject, and a complement, or a subject and an object:

Sentence Pattern	Examples
Subject + Verb	“The plane crashed.”
Subject + Verb + Object	“My sister prepared a sandwich.”
Subject + Verb + Complement	“She is a diligent student.”

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Function 3 – To provide tense and aspect. 

The third way verbs are important in the English language is that they can be employed to change the tense (time) or aspect of a sentence (duration of time).

A speaker can modify the temporal meaning of an expression rapidly and reliably by either adding auxiliary verbs to its verb phrase or conjugating a verb through inflectional affixation.

Tense	Examples
Present Tense	“She lives by herself.”
Simple Aspect	“She lives by herself.”
Continuous Aspect	“She is living by herself.”
Perfect Aspect	“She has lived by herself.”
Past Tense	“She lived by herself.”
Simple Aspect	“She lived by herself.”
Continuous Aspect	“She was living by herself.”
Perfect Aspect	“She had lived by herself.”

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Function 4 – To demonstrate modality. 

Verbs can express characteristics of mood and modality, albeit this is only achievable with particular auxiliary verbs.

Modality is a language element that expresses a speaker’s feelings about the world around them through judgments, assessments, or interpretations of a proposition’s believability, reality, obligation, or desirability. 

Attitudinal Modality 

ability	“I can speak French fluently.”
deduction	“She must be in the kitchen cooking.”
disapproval	“You could have told me.”
necessity	“You should learn how to drive.”
obligation	“You must attend the meeting.”
possibility	“We might not be able to make it on time.”

Communicative Modality 

advising	“You ought to tell your teacher.”
inviting	“Would you go shopping with me?”
offering	“May I help you?”
permitting	“You can go with them.”
requesting	“Can I take the day off?”
suggesting	“You might want to wear something formal.”

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Function 5 – To show agreement

Another useful usage of verbs is that they can be adjusted to show agreement – when a word changes its form due to the other words in the sentence to which it is related.

Agreement is a sort of inflectional affixation limited to grammatical person and number between subjects and verbs in the English language.

This means that English verbs can change form to show whether the subject is in the first, second, or third person, and also as whether the subject is singular or plural. 

Singular

First-person	“I am…”
Second-person	“You are…”
Third-person	“He/She is…”

Plural

First-person	“We are…”
Second-person	“You are…”
Third-person	“They are…”

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Which Tests Correctly Identify English Verbs?

To help with confident verb identification, remember that any word in the English language can belong to numerous word classes based on its form, function, and grammar.

For example, the word ‘swimming’ can be used as a verb in the statement “He is swimming in the pool.”, but it can also be used as a noun in the phrase “Swimming is a therapy for him”.

Because it is not always evident to the speaker which words belong to different word classes, and when we have put together a list of five tests to help you recognize verbs more easily and consistently.

Test 1 – Collocation 

One of the most effective ways to determine a word’s class is to look at the classes surrounding it – the words it collocates with.

However, because several of the primary word classes, including adjectives, adverbs, nouns, prepositions, and even other verbs, can commonly precede or follow verbs, this test alone may not be sufficient. 

Modifiers	Examples
Adjectives	“They are friendly.”
Adverbs	“The little ballerina danced gracefully.”
Nouns	“The guests arrived.”
Prepositions	“She speaks from the heart.”
Verbs	“The children are playing.”

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Test 2 – Function

Students should be aware of five common tasks that verbs can fulfill in the English language, including the communication of actions and the inclusion of tense and aspect.

Academics who want to improve their odds of correctly identifying verbs should recall and recognize the five functions mentioned in the previous section. 

Functions	Examples
To communicate action	“She plays guitar.”
To make clauses	“My brother fixed the car.”
To provide tense and aspect.	“He goes to school by bus.” “He went to school by bus.”
To demonstrate modality	“I should look for a job.”
To show agreement	“She loves to cook.” “They love to cook.”

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Test 3 – Morphology 

The study of how words are produced by affixation is known as morphology.

While English verbs do not change their form as frequently as some languages to indicate tense, gender, or number through prefixation and suffixation, there are still seven basic verb forms that can aid in identifying this word class. 

Verb Forms	Examples	Examples
Base Form	“She eats vegetables.”	“I watch movies.”
Third-Person Present	“They eat vegetables.”	“They watch movies every week.”
Infinitive	“I want to eat pizza.”	“I need to watch that movie.”
Past Tense	“She ate pizza yesterday.”	“We watched a movie last night.”
Past Participle	“They have eaten pizza.”	“You have watched that movie last year.”
Present Participle	“I am eating pizza.”	“We are watching a movie.”
Gerund	“Eating pizza is a stress-reliever for me.”	“Watching movies is my hobby.”

A learner who wants to identify verbs accurately should presumably be aware of the following list of common verb-forming prefixes and suffixes and these seven verb forms.

Prefix	Examples	Suffix	Examples
de-	deselect, devalue	-ate	circulate, regulate
mis-	misinform, mislead	-en	brighten, sharpen
un-	unsubscribe, untie	-fy	classify, simplify
be-	befriend, belittle	-ify	amplify, modify
trans-	transcribe, transform	-ise	advertise, chastise
out-	outdo, outrun	-ish	abolish, flourish
co-	coexist, cofound	-ize	agonize, finalize

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Test 4 – Syntax

Valency – or how many arguments a verb can grammatically take – is another useful predictor of whether a word is a verb or not.

Arguments are the subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, and oblique (prepositional) objects of a phrase, and verbs can only take them.

As a result, if a word is grammatical in one of the four patterns below, it is most likely a verb. 

Types of Verbs	Arguments	Examples:
Intransitive Verbs	1 argument	“The ice1 melted.”
Monotransitive Verbs	2 arguments	“The man1 helped the old lady2.”
Ditransitive Verbs	3 arguments	“I1 gave my sister2 a gift3.”
Tritransitive Verbs	4 arguments	“He1 paid the driver2 $503 for his service4.”

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Test 5 – Exceptions

Of course, every rule in grammar has exceptions that must be memorized if you wish to identify verbs every time correctly.

As previously discussed, there is some variation and irregularity in how verbs’ tense, aspect, and agreement are expressed, as well as how verbs are built (conjugated) in general.

Because collocation, function, morphology, and syntax alone may not be sufficient in some circumstances to establish whether or not a word is a verb, students should get familiar with the many types and rules that govern the grammar of this word class.

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What are the Thirteen Types of English Verbs?

This section will examine and demonstrate the thirteen different types of verbs that can be found in everyday speech and academic writing.

We have summarized the thirteen verb kinds, which will be explored in-depth one by one.

Please keep in mind that (a) these categories have been separated into general, semantic, (meaning-based), binary, and syntactic (structure-based) categories, and (b) other verbs can be appropriate for more than one. 

Verb Types 

General	Lexical Auxiliary
Binary	Regular/Irregular  Stative/Dynamic Finite/Non-finite Transitive/Intransitive
Semantic	Causative Mental-State Performative Reporting
Syntactic	Copular Catenative Phrasal

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General Categories

Because they are the widest of verb classifications, both lexical and auxiliary verbs are considered generic verb kinds.

Every one of the next eleven categories discussed in this chapter might be classified as lexical or auxiliary, making these two classifications the most significant and primary.

Type 1 – Lexical Verbs 

Lexical verbs, often known as ‘main’ verbs, are the most prevalent verb type in English.

Lexical verbs have a distinct meaning and do not require the usage of another verb to be grammatically correct, though they can be combined with other verbs to form bigger verb phrases in a sentence. 

Type 2 – Auxiliary Verbs 

 Auxiliary verbs, unlike lexical verbs, do not include much of an expression’s meaning and are instead utilized to illustrate grammatical qualities like tense, aspect, or modality.

Auxiliaries, sometimes known as ‘helping’ verbs, are most commonly used before lexical verbs in a phrase.

Auxiliary verbs like ‘should’, ‘have’, and ‘be’ can be employed to convey obligatory modality, perfect aspect, and continuous aspect.

2.1 Primary Auxiliary Verbs 

In the English language, there are three main auxiliary verbs, each with its own set of forms and uses. ‘

Be’, ‘do’, and ‘have’ are these three verbs. 

Primary Auxiliary Verbs	Functions	Examples
Be	To link subject and complement	“That is a cute puppy.”
Be	To show continuous aspect	“My parents are working hard.”
Be	To show passive voice	“The trip was postponed.”
Be	To create questions	“Were you at the park yesterday?”
Do	To offer support or emphasis	“The students did not understand the instructions.”   “I do eat meat.”
Do	To create questions	“Do you cook?”
Have	To show the perfect aspect	“I have packed my things.”
Have	To create questions	“Have you read the news?”

2.2 Modal Auxiliary Verbs 

There are six semi-modal and nine pure modal auxiliary verbs that you should learn to use and recognize in addition to these three major auxiliary verbs, especially when conveying modality in speech or writing projects.

Modality is a useful linguistic trait that expresses a speaker’s views toward the world around them, whether through judgments, assessments, or interpretations of a proposition’s believability, reality, obligation, or desirability. 

Pure Modal Verbs	Examples
can	“I can sing and dance.”
could	“She could be wrong.”
may	“May I know who’s calling?”
might	“They might leave earlier than expected.”
must	“You must try their lasagna.”
shall	“Shall we eat in the other restaurant instead?”
should	“He should start a new business.”
will	“They will take the next train.”
would	“She would love to be a doctor like her mom.”

Semi Modal Verbs	Examples
be able to	“She was able to get past security.”
dare	“I dare you to tumble ten times without stopping.”
had better	“He had better ask his parents.”
have to	“I have to be there by 11 o’clock.”
need	“You need to get a score of at least 65 to pass.”
ought to	“They ought to report the robbery to the police.”

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Binary Categories

The next four verb classes are grouped together because they exist in an either/or situation.

These words are either semantically, morphologically, or syntactically regular, stative, finite, or transitive, or they are not.

Type 3 – Regular and Irregular Verbs 

One of the most prominent binary distinctions among verbs is whether or not they are morphologically formed consistently.

Regular verbs are those that do not change spelling and only require the suffixes’ s/-es’ for plurality, ‘-d/-ed’ for simple past tense and past participle.

On the other hand, irregular verbs are much more complicated because their spellings change, and there are no specific rules governing these changes.  

Regular Verbs 

Base Form	Simple Past Tense	Past Participle
bake	baked	baked
carry	carried	carried
clean	cleaned	cleaned
cook	cooked	cooked
dance	danced	danced
fry	fried	fried
plant	planted	planted
serve	served	served
wash	washed	washed
watch	watched	watched

Irregular Verbs 

Base Form	Simple Past Tense	Past Participle
break	broke	broken
draw	drew	drawn
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
forget	forgot	forgotten
give	gave	given
grow	grew	grown
swim	swam	swum
weave	wove	woven

Type 4 – Stative and Dynamic Verbs

Another method to classify verbs is to divide them into stative and dynamic categories based on the event, action, state of being or occurrence they depict.

Stative verbs are those that describe situations or states of being that are undefinable in duration or unchangeable, such as ‘thought’ or ‘want’.

Dynamic verbs, such as ‘research’ or ‘measure’, on the other hand, depict actions and occurrences that have a beginning and an end.

Stative Verbs 

think	“I think it’s a great idea.”  NOT “I am thinking it’s a great idea.”
wish	“She wishes she could join the trip.”  NOT “She is wishing she could join the trip.”

Dynamic Verbs 

cook	“She cooks her own food.”  OR “She is cooking her own food.”
play	“He plays tennis with his sister.”   OR “He is playing tennis with his sister.”

Please keep in mind that some verbs, such as the verb ‘think’ in the following sentences, can be both stative and dynamic depending on how they are used in the sentence.

Stative	Dynamic
“I think you should buy the house.”  Meaning: To express an opinion	“I am thinking about my family.”  Meaning: To reflect or ponder on something

Type 5 – Finite and Non-Finite Verbs

When recognizing verbs, another binary classification that academic students may encounter is whether or not a verb is finite, which refers to the ability to indicate tense or agreement with a connected topic.

Non-finite verbs lack the grammatical flexibility of finite verbs, which can display tense and subject-verb agreement as well as occur as the singular verb in an independent phrase.

Non-finite verbs cannot be inflected and can only appear alone in a clause when that clause is dependent. 

Verbs	Finite	Non-Finite
think	“I think you should wear a white dress.”   “She thinks it is a clever idea.” “They thought it was a boring movie.”	“I will think about it.”  “He is thinking of leaving his job.”  “Thinking too much causes stress.”
write	“I write in my journal every day.”  “He writes me a letter for my birthday every year.” “She wrote a message for her friend.”	“He loves to write children’s books.” “She is writing a message on the card.”  “Writing is my hobby.”

Type 6 – Transitive and Intransitive Verbs 

The last binary distinction among verbs examines whether a verb is transitive (able to accept an object) or intransitive (unable to take an object).

The accompanying table highlights two points:

(1) There are three categories of transitive verbs based on the number of arguments (subjects and objects) they can take, and

(2) verbs like ‘melt’ can be both transitive and intransitive, which could be dependent on their use and meaning. 

Transitive Verbs 

bring	“I brought an umbrella.”
wish	“I wish for good health.”

Intransitive Verbs 

jump	“He jumped out of his bed.”
scream	“She screamed but no one heard her.”

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Semantic Categories

Another way to categorize verbs is to group them semantically or according to their meanings. 

Type 7 – Causative Verbs 

The causatives are the first semantic category of verbs.

The act of one thing or person that causes another thing or person to do or get something is expressed by causative verbs.

There are about fifty verbs in the English language that can generate transitivity-increasing causative constructions.

Causative Verbs	Examples
have	“I have to meet them in two hours.”
let	“They let the guests take photos of the exhibit.”
make	“She made him accept the offer.”

Type 8 – Mental-State Verbs

Mental-state verbs are most often stative and extremely polysemous, indicating that each verb can demonstrate a variety of state-based meanings.

They are related to deciding, discovering, planning, understanding, and the general contents of our minds that cannot be externally evaluated.

Such verbs are very valuable in academic argumentation writing when qualifying the ideas and facts of other authors. 

Mental-State Verbs	Examples
believe	“She believes in miracles.”
hope	“He hopes to win the election.”
know	“They know the truth.”

Type 9 – Performative Verbs

This semantic classification explains the small number of verbs that unambiguously reflect the performance of a speech act.

These are verbs whose meaning is the speech act they perform. In performative sentences — the speaker is always the subject. 

Mental-State Verbs	Examples
apologize	“I apologize for being late.”
dare	“I dare you to finish the whole pie.”
promise	“I promise to behave better next time.”

Type 10 – Reporting Verbs

Reporting verbs or a verb form that permits the speaker or writer to directly or indirectly record the words of others is the final semantic category of verbs. 

Reporting Verbs	Examples
advised	“She advised her friend to take some time off.”
argued	“He argued that the time given was too short.”
noted	“The panel noted that the applicant was a former businessman himself.”

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Syntactic Categories 

The syntactic structures that each of the final three verb kinds requires, such as whether a verb must come before a complement, a verb phrase, or a specific particle, preposition, or adverb, have been grouped together.

Type 11 – Copular Verbs

Copular (or connecting) verbs are a limited group of verbs that cannot take objects within a phrase, such as ‘be’ or ‘feel’.

They require a nominal or adjectival complement that provides further information about the clause subject.

This illustrates that copular verbs are more grammatical in nature – connecting subject and complement. 

Copular Verbs	Examples
be	“Ms Brookes is a teacher.”  “They are twins.”
feel	“She feels sick.”  “They feel happy about the success of the project.”

Type 12 – Catenative Verbs

Catenative verbs are lexical verbs that are not primary or modal auxiliary verbs but can be preceded by another lexical verb in the same clause.

Catenative verbs, which are derived from the Latin word for ‘chain’, are unique in that they can be put together to form a chain of non-finite verbal complements. 

Catenative Verbs	Examples
Gerund	“Singing makes her happy.”
Bare-Infinitive	“She helped plan the party.”
To-Infinitive	“It started to snow.”

Type 13 – Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are one of the most prevalent and difficult verb kinds for non-native English speakers.

A phrasal verb is a unique and often idiomatic blend of either a preposition or an adverbial particle (or both) and a lexical verb.

Phrasal Verbs for ‘Take’	Meaning	Examples
take after	To have the appearance or traits of a family member or relative	“Dan takes after his father who is a hardworking man.”
take back	To reclaim ownership of someone or something	“He is willing to take her back.”
take over	To take command of something	“After four years of being junior manager, he is now taking over as the branch’s senior manager.”

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What are the Seven Rules in Forming Verbs?

After a number of key principles for accurately recognizing the forms and functions of verbs have been examined, the next section will look at seven more guidelines that, if followed, should considerably aid scholastic performance.

Rule 1 – Forming Agreement

English speakers benefit from verbs because they can show the person and number of a nominal subject through suffixation.

In other words, whether a subject is in the first, second, or third person or singular or plural will affect the grammatical formulation of the verb in question. 

Subject	‘Be’ Verb	Example Lexical Verb 1	Example Lexical Verb 2
I	am/was	play	eat
you	are/were	play	eat
we	are/were	play	eat
he/she/it	is/was	plays	eats
they	are/were	play	eat

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Rule 2 – Forming Tenses

In the English language, the recurrent suffixes ‘-s/-es’ and ‘-d/-ed’ can be used to show present and past tenses by adding them to a finite verb.

However, a subject-verb agreement has many more restrictions; there are a lot of variances in how to spell and create verb tenses. 

Present Tense	‘Be’ Verb	Regular Verbs	Irregular Verbs
First/Second-Person	am/are	cook dance	fall go
Third-Person	is/are	cooks dances	falls goes
Participle	being	cooking dancing	falling going

Past Tense	‘Be’ Verb	Regular Verbs	Irregular Verbs
First/Second-Person	was/were	baked cleaned	hid wore
Third-Person	was/were	baked cleaned	hid wore
Participle	been	baked cleaned	hidden worn

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Rule 3 – Forming Aspects

While tense conveys time through morphological inflection, aspect expresses duration through the syntactic insertion of extra words to the verb phrase, such as ‘be’ and ‘have’.

There are three types of aspects in the English language: simple, continuous, and perfect.

Simple is the default aspect. To use the continuous or perfect elements in a piece of writing, a student must adhere to the following guidelines.

Continuous = Be Verb + Present Participle

“She is preparing dinner.”  I am cleaning my room.” “They were arguing about which team is better.”

Perfect = Have + Past Participle

“The bus has arrived.”   “The judges have come to a decision.”  “He has gone to Peru before.”

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Rule 4 – Forming the Passive Voice

Another common source of confusion for most people, is how to appropriately form the passive voice.

The passive voice is used when the writer or speaker wants to either eliminate the agent of the verb’s act or move that agent from the subject position into an optional object position using the word ‘by’. 

Active Voice	Passive Voice
“Anna baked an apple pie today.”	“An apple pie was baked by Anna today.”
“Jim is receiving a package.”	“A package is being received by Jim.”

While there may be some other variations that you need to study and memorize, the following is the typical construction for forming the passive:

Present = Am/Is/Are + Past Participle

“The party is planned by Mindy and her friends.”   “The announcement is made by the professor.”  “Those gifts are given by my parents.”

Past = Was/Were + Past Participle

“The decision was made by the referees.”   “This sweater was knitted by my favorite aunt.”  “The flowers were arranged by my sister.”

Perfect = Has/Have/Had Been + Past Participle

“She has been chosen by the panel of judges.”    “The walls have been painted by my dad.”   “The buildings had been destroyed by the earthquake.”

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Rule 5 – Forming Yes/No Questions

Due to what is known as subject-auxiliary inversion, which occurs when the auxiliary verb, whether primary or modal, is pushed before the subject in interrogative sentences, you may have difficulty creating yes or no questions in English.

The declarative statement and its interrogative variant with this inversion are shown in the following examples. 

Declarative	Interrogative
“She will move to a new school.”	“Will she move to a new school?”
“He is my favorite actor.”	“Is he your favorite teacher?”
“Luke can do a headstand.”	“Can Luke do a headstand?
“She has called the police.”	“Has she called the police?”
“They are his parents.”	“Are they his parents?”
“He likes playing video games.”	“Does he like playing video games?”
“I walk to school every day.”	“Do you walk to school every day?”

If the declarative has an auxiliary verb, such as ‘can’, ‘will,’ ‘be’, or ‘have’, the auxiliary verb is shifted before the subject to generate the interrogative statement, as seen in the examples above. When no auxiliary verb is present in the declarative, the auxiliary and supporting verb ‘do’ or ‘does’ is inserted before the subject to form interrogative constructions.

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Rule 6 – Forming Negatives

The rules for generating negative constructs are comparable to the rules for forming yes/no questions.

If an auxiliary verb appears in a declarative statement, simply add ‘not’ after that auxiliary verb or make a contracted contraction of both the auxiliary verb and the negative marker – such as ‘can’t’ or ‘haven’t’.

If the declarative lacks an auxiliary, you should add both the ‘do’ verb and the negative marking ‘not’, either as two independent words or in their combined contracted forms.

Declarative	Negated Form
“He will be late.”	“He will not (won’t) be late.”
“She has told me about her problem.”	“She has not (hasn’t) told me about her problem.”
“I can finish a book overnight.”	“I cannot (can’t) finish a book overnight.”
“They talk every day.”	“They do not (don’t) talk every day.”
“He is a doctor.”	“He is not (isn’t) a doctor.”

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Rule 7 – Forming Short Answers

The final rule to remember while employing verbs is thankfully the most straightforward.

When making positive short responses to questions like “Yes, he will.’ or “No, she cannot.’, the easiest thing for a learner to do is to repeat the auxiliary verb that was moved before the subject (inverted) to produce the question.

The same structure can be used to create negative short answers, but with the inclusion of the negative marker ‘not’:

Interrogative	Short Answer
“Will you go to the supermarket today?”	“No, I will not (won’t).”
“Have you seen Cara lately?”	“Yes, I have.”
“Is your car red?”	“Yes, it is.”
“Has she returned your calls?”	“No, she has not (hasn’t).”
“Can you help me with these books?”	“Yes, I can.”
“Do you like pizza?”	“No, I do not (don’t).”

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Which Academic Verbs and Phrases are Best?

After discussing and demonstrating the roles of verbs, as well as how to recognize this word class and its many kinds, and how to follow the most important rules for constructing grammatical sentences, it is now time to concentrate on the correct usage of verbs in academic contexts.

Here are some of the most common academic verbs and expressions for you to familiarize yourself with to help you improve your knowledge about verbs. 

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Why Should We be Familiar with Verbs?

Verbs are an essential component of speech.

There cannot be a coherent sentence, let alone a phrase, without a verb. They are the building pieces that allow you to construct meaningful sentences.

They are the words that aid in the explanation of any message we are trying to convey.

Without them, it would be impossible to understand each other. That being said, it is worth noting that verbs indeed play a vital role in our academic and professional life.

We do hope that the information we have provided in this article aids you in understanding verbs better and eventually makes you confident in using them more effectively. 

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