Recently Added Articles Page #42

Four Principal Parts or Forms of Verbs

Drink, Drank, Drunk, DrinkingMain verbs appear in four different forms:1. infinitive 2. finite 3. present participle 4. past participleIn Miss Hamrick’s class, we learned the principal parts of verbs, which are similar to my four forms: (1) infini...

Infinitive - The "to" Verb

Academic tomes might go on for pages defining the meaning of the infinitive form of a verb. I, on the other hand, have developed a definition requiring only a single sentence:The infinitive form of a verb is the one you would ordinarily look up in th...

Finite Verb - Tense, Person, Number, Mood

A finite verb is just that: finite. It’s finite in time, as in present, past, future, and other time dimensions.Tense, What Is It?When we talk about time in relation to verbs, in grammarian parlance we are talking about tense. We have six major ten...

Present Participle - The -ing Verb

Every verb in the English language has a present participle, and you form it the same way for every verb: Just add ‑ing. Sometimes you’ll have to drop an ending silent ‑e, as in write and writing. Sometimes you’ll have to double up an ending ...

Past Participle - The -ed Verb

Every verb also has a past-participial form, which, for most verbs, you create by adding ‑ed, ‑d, or ‑t. As with present participles, you’ll sometimes have to double up an ending consonant: The past participle of occur is occurred. Check the...

Past Tense vs. Past Participle

Past Tense vs. Past ParticipleSome people confuse the past tense with the past participle. Usually, they will use the past participle instead of the correct past tense. You will hear some people say I seen it, when they should say I saw it. Or they w...

Irregular Verbs

In the English language, we have fewer than 200 irregular verbs. (A fairly complete list appears in Garner Oxford, pp. 195-97.) Below are some causing the most trouble. Remember, use the past tense for statements showing that something happened in t...

Developing Your Love Affair

Falling in Love with the VerbPowerful words, these verbs. Maybe that’s why Hugo once said, “The word is the verb, and the verb is God.”Verb PowerPretty neat, these verbs. They aren’t content to serve just the verb function in the language, th...

Verb Conjugation

Verb Conjugation in EnglishEvery verb in the English language has two states or dimensions—two realms, if you will. In the infinitive state, the verb reveals only the activity described: to hit or to run. From neither of these do we know who is hit...

Present Tense of Verbs

Some authors write novels in the present tense, and it drives me bats. Whenever I browse in a bookstore, seeking the latest in top beach literature, I always sneak a few peeks to make certain the author does not use the present tense in the narrative...

Past Tense - How to Form

Here’s the tense the novelist should use, for the past tense describes what took place yesterday and not right now on the beach. Thus, from our novel of purple beach prose above: Juan looked longingly at Teresa, who looked back with total disintere...

Future Tense - How to Form

When the activity you describe isn’t happening right now (present tense) and didn’t happen yesterday (past tense), perhaps it’ll take place tomorrow (future tense).Other Ways of Expressing FuturityIn English, we have several ways of expressing ...

Perfect Tenses - How to Form

In addition to the three main tenses of present, past, and future, the English language allows us to make three statements about accomplished facts. We use one of the three perfect tenses to show an action that has taken place as of the present time ...

Conditional Structures of Verbs

The Conditionals: If p, then qIn the English language, we often express conditions. Naturally, Miss Hamrick, Amber, and Igor dreamed up some rules to govern how we form these structures. We have four types of conditional statements. Now one would thi...

Six Major Tenses of Verbs

Now you’re ready to conjugate to skip in the six tenses of verbs.To conjugate a verb, you must include all tenses: present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect. You must account for all persons: first, second, and third....

Conjugating Regular Verbs

Conjugating Regular Verbs - ChartsHere are completed charts showing the conjugation of the regular verb to skip:Present Tense, Regular VerbHere’s the present tense of the verb to skip: Person Singular Plural First Person I skip We skip Secon...

Conjugating Irregular Verbs

Our grades plummeted when we had to conjugate irregular verbs in Miss Hamrick’s class. There was no way to figure out a scheme or system that would explain the necessary forms of irregular verbs, that is, the past tense and the past participle. For...

Conjugating the Verb "To Be"

Now let’s take the verb to be through a complete conjugation. But first, consider its uniqueness.To Be, Unique Among All VerbsIn the entire English language, one verb stands out: the verb to be. It serves more roles than most verbs, for it can serv...

Conjugating in the Progressive Aspect

The progressive tenses show an ongoing action. Some grammarians call the progressive tense the progressive aspect. So let's learn the tricks of conjugating in the progressive aspect.Once Amber and Igor learned all about the verb to be and present par...

Contractions - Use in Formal Writing

Before we leave our general discussion of verbs, we should pause to contemplate contractions. You remember them, don’t you? There. I just used one: don’t. You form contractions by compressing two words into one. One of those words is ordinarily a...

A Summary of Verbs

We’re going to return to verbs in more detail below, but now let’s summarize what you’ve learned. For right now, you need to remember that all verbs break down into five groups.A Summary of Verbs Verbs break down into five groups:1. action tra...

Verbs - What They Do

Shake hands with the most powerful word in the English language: the verb. You learned the basics in our discussion above. Now let’s carefully explore the five functions of verbs, see what they do, and then understand why F. Scott Fitzgerald once s...

Verb Function 1 - Conjugated Verb

The conjugated verb performs the most crucial role in English: It forms the sentence. Without the conjugated verb, we would have no complete grammatical sentences.When conjugated, the verb forms two kinds of clauses. The independent clause can stand ...

Verb Function 2 - Infinitive Phrase - "To" Phrase

Remember the definition of the infinitive form of a verb: the word you would ordinarily look up in the dictionary. Its bare form is just the word by itself: write. Its periphrastic form consists of the infinitive preceded by the preposition to: to wr...

Infinitives Showing Tense and Voice

Elsewhere I’ve stated that the conjugated verb shows four things: tense, person, number, and mood. I’ve also stated that verbal phrases like the infinitive phrase do not show tense. Well, that’s true for what’s called the simple infinitive: t...