A lecture on verb tense from John Langan's book English Brushup.

1. VERBS
Brushup Chap 2

2. What is a Verb?
•Verb—a word that designates an action or state-of-being
•There are three categories of verb:
•Action verbs—words that tell what is being done in a sentence,
like swim, drive, dance, write
•State-of-being verbs—words like be, is, am, seem, or become
that communicate a noun’s existence rather than an action
•Helping verbs—multi-word verbs like may be leaving, should
start, or does not stop

3. Verb Tenses
Verbs all carry a tense that communicates when the
action occurred.
Present Tense
(I succeed)
Past
Tense
(I succeeded)
Future
Tense
(I will succeed)

4. Past Tense
•Past Tense—an action has happened
•Past tense verbs may take an –ed ending or change
their spellings.
Regular Irregular
Accepted Broke
Kissed Brought
Succeeded Drank
Worked Sent

5. Practice 1
1. The high jumper has just (broke, broken) the world record.
2. After I had (ate, eaten) half of my brother’s hot dog and had
(drank, drunk) from his water bottle, I worried about catching
his cold.
3. After the campers had (drove, driven) away, they looked back
and (saw, seen) their dog running after them.
4. Before the writing course ended, students had (read, readed)
fifteen essays, had (wrote, written) ten short papers, and had
(took, taken) a midterm and a final exam.

6. Present Tense
•Present Tense—an action is
happening now
•Verbs in present tense may
take an –s or –es ending
•The subject is he, she, it
or a singular noun
•Standard English—the
grammar used for college
and work
Singular Plural
I am We are
You are You are
He, she, it is They are

7. Practice 2
1. On April Fool’s Day, the principal (dress, dresses) like a clown.
2. The fans groaned when the receiver (drop, dropped) the pass
in the end zone.
3. I (look, looked) all over for my keys and finally found them in
my coat pocket.
4. Most people (hate, hates) going to the dentist.
5. Though Kia moved last year, she still (manage, manages) to
keep in touch.

8. Verb Tense Shift
• In an essay, verbs must be in a consistent tense.
•Consistent verb tense communicates when the action of
the essay takes place
•Verb Tense Shift—the verbs in an essay do not remain in
the same tense, therefore confuse readers

9. Practice 4
1. The mossy green log lay in the shallow water. When it began to
move, I realize that it was an alligator.
2. Every time my mother feels like snacking, she brushes her teeth,
and the hunger disappeared.
3. I came home early because I felt sick; then I discover I did not have
my house key.
4. The children love going to the school library because they can take
out any book they wanted, even if they can’t read it yet.
5. After the coach yells at him, Gary thought all night about quitting
the team, but then he decided to give himself once more chance.