Types of Verbs

The verb in its finite forms possesses the grammatical categories of person, number, tense, aspect, voice and mood.

E.g. Her dream is to become an actress.

Non-finite forms - verbals (the infinitive, the participle I, the participle II and the gerund) cannot be used as the predicate of a sentence.

E.g. She speaks perfect English.

The verb is a part of speech which denotes a process, an action or a state. It presents a system of finite and non-finite forms. Finite forms can be used as the predicate of a sentence.

The Verb

e.g. He was walking in the direction of the station. – 1^st person (person) singular (number) Past (tense) Continuous (aspect), Active (voice), Indicative (mood).

There are four basic forms of the verb:

1. the infinitive – to lay, to rise.

2. the simple past — played, rose.

3. the participle II – played, risen

4. the participle I – playing, rising

The infinitive stem and participles I and II are used to build other verbal forms, the Simple Past is not.

Owing to the historical development of the verb system English verbs fall into two groups: regular and irregular verbs.

Regular verbs, which go back to the Germanic weak verbs, constitute the largest group. The past simple and past participle of these verbs are formed by means of the suffix –ed added to the stem of the verb.

Irregular verbs form their past simple and past participle according to some fixed traditional patterns going back partly to the Germanic strong verbs, partly to the weak verbs, which underwent some changes in the process of history.

English morphological categories are formed in two ways: synthetically and analytically. Synthetic or simple forms are those the formal elements of which are to be found within one word from which they are inseparable (write, writes, wrote). Analytical or compound forms consist of at least two verbal elements, an auxiliary verb and a notional verb (is writing, has been writing).

According to their morphological composition verbs can be divided into simple, derived, compound and phrasal. Simple verbs consist of only one root morpheme each: to walk, to run, to build. Derived verbs are composed of one root morpheme and one or more prefix or suffix: to enumerate, to criticize, to justify. Compound verbs consist of at least two stems: to whitewash, to daydream, to browbeat, to blackmail. Phrasal verbs consist of a verbal stem and an adverbial particle: to give up, to make up, to look after, to come across.

English verbs can be divided into notional, auxiliary, link and modal verbs from the semantic and the syntactic point of view. Notional verbs have a lexical meaning of their own and can have an independent syntactic function (a simple predicate) in the sentence.

e.g. He left early this morning.

Auxiliary verbs are those which have lost their meaning and are used as form words, thus having only a grammatical function. Here belong such verbs as to do, to be, to have, shall, should.

e.g. I have lost my way.

Link verbs have to a smaller or greater extent lost their meaning and are used in compound nominal predicate. Here belong such verbs as to be, to get, to turn, to become, to sound, to taste, to smell, to appear, to seem, to feel.

e.g. When water freezes and becomes solid we call it ice.

In different contexts the same verb can be used as a notional verb and an auxiliary verb or a link verb.

e.g. Her sister is in London now. (notional verb)

She is reading a telegram. (auxiliary verb)

She is a doctor. (link verb)

There is a special group of verbs which cannot be used without additional words, though they have a meaning of their own. These are modal verbs such as can/could, may/might, must, ought to, shall/should, will/would, dare, to have to, to be to.

e.g. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Semantically English verbs are divided into two groups: actional verbs and statal (non-continuous) verbs. Most verbs are actional verbs. These verbs usually denote physical actions which we can see somebody doing (to run, to walk, to eat, to fly, to go, to say, to touch, etc). These verbs can be used in all tenses. The second group, called statal verbs, is smaller. These verbs usually denote states, processes or conditions which are facts and not activities (to admit, to agree, to believe, to deserve, to doubt, to forget, to know, etc.). These verbs are not used in continuous tenses.

English verbs fall into two groups – transitive and intransitive verbs. Transitive verbstake a direct object (they express an action which passes on to a person or thing directly). Examples are: to invite, to give, to send, to make, to see, to show, to love.

e.g. She took the letter and went out.

Intransitive verbsdo not require any object. Here belong such verbs as: to stand, to laugh, to hear, to think, to go, to come, to swim.

As we stood on the steps, we felt the smell of fallen leaves coming from the garden.

There are verbs that can function as both transitive and intransitive. Examples are to sell, to read, to add, to act, to open, to move, to turn, to change, to drop.

Tom is writing a letter (transitive). Tom writes clearly (intransitive).

She is changing the baby. (transitive) Will he ever change or will he always be selfish? (intransitive).

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