Verb notes

This document is about Verb. What is verb? Types of Verb? Main verb and auxiliary verbs, helping verbs, primary auxiliary verbs, also it has transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. It also gives you definition and examples of all kinds of verbs. Examples of verbs

1. Verb – Notes
Definition of Verb:
The verb is a word that expresses some action, feeling or existence. Verbs are also
known as Action Words.
It tells us something about the subject. For example,
 Lions roar. (action)
 Boys fly kites. (action)
 I feel sorry. (feeling)
 Ashoka was a great king. (existence)
All the verbs – as shown in above examples - ‘roar’, ‘fly’, ‘feel’, and ‘was’, are limited by the
number and person of their subjects.
Therefore, ‘roar’, ‘fly’, ‘feel’, and ‘was’, are Main Verbs.
Two Parts of Verb:
A. Main Verbs (also called lexical verbs)
B. Helping Verbs (Auxiliaries—Primary and Modals)

All verbs in English except the 24 helping verbs are main verbs.
Look at the chart below:


Kinds of Verbs:
There are two kinds of verbs based on their function in a sentence:
1. Main Verbs / Lexical Verbs
2. Helping Verbs / Auxiliary verbs

2. There are two kinds of verbs based on their structure:
1. Strong / Irregular Verbs
2. Weak / Regular Verbs

 Main Verbs: Main verbs or lexical verbs have a meaning of their own. They express a full
action or a feeling.

Main verbs are further classified into two categories according to their usage:
1. Finite verbs
2. Non-finite verbs

Finite verbs are again classified into two categories:
1. Transitive verbs
2. Intransitive verbs

Transitive verbs: it is a verb that denotes an action which passes from the subject to the
object (something or somebody) of the verb. The verb must have a ‘doer’ and a ‘receiver’. A
transitive verb makes no complete sense without an object. In short, transitive verbs are those
which take an object to make a complete meaning. For example,
 Arnav reads newspaper.

Intransitive verbs: a verb that does not take an object in order to complete its sense is
called an intransitive verb. The action is limited to the subject only.


The verbs like – play, read, write, watch, show, cook, start, etc are transitive verbs.
The verbs like – sleep, run, cry, weep, smile, laugh, go, walk, come, tire, etc are intransitive
verbs.
However, some transitive verbs can sometimes be used intransitively and vice-versa.
Compare the following sentences to understand this.
Verbs used Transitively Verbs used Intransitively
She sang a nice song. She sang melodiously.
Dr. Gupta runs an organization for old people. He runs very fast.
Gauri is reading a comic. Gauri is reading loudly.
Deepanita wrote many articles. Deepanita wrote very precisely.

 Helping Verbs: A helping verb or an auxiliary verb is a verb that gives further information
about a main or full verb. It is used in compound sentences, Passive voice, etc.
There are 24 auxiliaries in English language. These are further classified as:
 Primary Auxiliaries
 Modal auxiliaries

Primary Auxiliaries (Verbs): Verbs such as am, is, are, was, were, do, did, have, etc are
used with other ordinary (or main) verbs to form tenses, passive voice, questions, negative

3. sentences etc.
e.g.
 Radha does not trust Krishna.
 They have worked for an hour.
Modal Auxiliaries (Verbs): Verbs will, shall, would, can, could, might etc are the modal
verbs or modals. They are used with main verbs to form sentences expressing permissions,
orders, obligations, requests etc.
e.g.
 Radha will not go to school tomorrow.
 It might rain today.

Forms of Verbs (Conjugation of Verbs):
Verbs have three principal forms. Forming these three forms is called conjugation of verbs. The
three forms of verbs are:
1. Present Tense (Original form)
2. Past Tense
3. Past Participle Tense


Verbs of Complete and Incomplete Predication:

Complete Predication: Intransitive verbs that make complete sense are called verbs of complete
predication.
Incomplete Predication: Intransitive verbs that require some other words to complete the
predicate are called verbs of incomplete predication.