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Tidewater Community College
Portsmouth Campus
Phone: 757-822-2931
July 27, 2015
Verbs express an action, occurrence, or a state of
being.
Linking verbs- main verb that indicate a state of being or a
condition.
Example: George was president.
Example: He seems funny.
Auxiliary verbs- also known as helping verbs, combine with
main verbs to make verb phrases.
Example: I am shopping for a new car.
Example: Bananas have increased in price.
Example: We might go to the movies later.
Intransitive verbs- require no object to complete the verb’s
meaning.
Example: I sing.
Transitive verbs- require an object to complete the verb’s
meaning.
Example: I need a guitar.
Verbs like need, have, and like are always transitive.
Verb tense conveys time by changing form.
Simple Tenses
Regular Verb Irregular Verb Progressive Form
Present I talk I eat I am talking;
I am eating
Past I talked I ate I was talking;
I was eating
Future I will talk I will eat I will be talking;
I will be eating
Perfect Tenses
Regular Verb Irregular Verb Progressive Form
Present Perfect I have talked I have eaten I have been talking;
I have been eating
Past Perfect I had talked I had eaten I had been talking;
I had been eating
Future Perfect I will have talked I will have eaten I will have been talking;
I will have been eating
Forms of the verb be
Person Present Tense Past Tense
I am was
You are were
He/she/it is was
We are were
You (plural) are were
They are were
Forms of the verbs do and have
Person Present Tense Past Tense
I do/have did/had
You do/have did/had
He/she/it does/has did/had
We do/have did/had
You (plural) do/have did/had
They do/have did/had
Writing Center
Portsmouth Campus

2. Page 2 of 2
Tidewater Community College
Portsmouth Campus
Phone: 757-822-2931
Work Cited July 27, 2015
Troyka, Lynn and Douglas Hesse. Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2013.
Print.
The past tense and participle of regular verbs are formed by adding –ed or –d to the simple form of the
verb: walk, walked; cook, cooked; type, typed.
Irregular verbs do not always add –d or –ed ending to the simple verb to form the past tense and past
participle. See the list below for common irregular verbs.
Active and Passive Voice
When the doer of an action is unknown, writers use the passive voice. If you want to emphasize, for
instance, people making discoveries, use the active voice.
ACTIVE Joseph Priestly discovered oxygen in 1774.
PASSIVE Oxygen was discovered in 1774 by Joseph Priestly.
Simple Form Past Tense Past Participle
awake awoke or awaked awaked or awoken
be (is, am, are) was, were been
become became become
begin began begun
choose chose chosen
drink drank drunk
drive drove driven
go went gone
know knew known
lay laid laid
lie lay lain
ride rode ridden
write wrote written