The Verb and Auxiliary Verbs in English

1. VERB

2. The verb is a word that signals an
action, occurrence, or a state of being.
It tells us what a person or thing does
(John plays football), or what is done to
a person or thing (The book is written
by Richard), or explains what a person
or thing is (He is dead).

3. Transitive Verb
and
Intransitive Verb

4. The verb that denotes an action can either be
transitive or intransitive. In a sentence that
carry a transitive verb, the action denoted by
the verb passes from the doer or subject to
the object of the sentence.
E.g.: John kicks the football. Here the action
kicks passes over from John to the object
football. It endures the result of John‟s
action.
Transitive Verb

5. If the action denoted by the verb in a
sentence stops with the doer or subject and
does not pass over to an object, then the verb
can be called an intransitive verb.
E.g.: Harold laughed loudly. In this sentence
the action laughs does not pass over to an
object and ends with the subject.
Intransitive Verb

6. Most verbs can be used as both transitive and
intransitive. Therefore, it is better to say that
a verb is used transitively or intransitively
rather than that it is transitive or intransitive.
Used Transitively Used Intransitively
The poison killed the man The poison kills instantly
The loco pilot stopped
the train
The train stopped
suddenly
The dog bites the man This dog never bites

7. Regular Verbs
and
Irregular Verbs
.

8. Regular Verbs
Regular verbs in English create the past
simple and past participle by adding suffix
-ed to the base form. If the verb ends with the
letter „e‟, then only a „-d‟ is added.
E.g.: He played hockey.
She danced in the park.

9. Irregular Verbs
Irregular verbs form their past and past
participle forms in different ways. There are
explained below:
1. Verbs which retain the base form in past
and past participle form. (cut-cut-cut; hurt-
hurt-hurt).
2. Verbs in which past and past participle
forms are the same (buy-bought-bought; get-
got-got).

10. 3. Verbs which has the same base form and
past participle; only past form is different
(come-came-come; run-ran-run).
4. Verbs which forms its past and past
participle in three different forms (drink-
drank-drunk; swim-swam-swum).

11. In the above four types, some internal
changes are made; the past and past
participle are formed by changing the vowel
in the verb. But in some other words, entirely
different words are used to form past and
past participle (E.g.: go-went-gone).

12. The Infinitive
The infinitive is the base form of a verb, often
followed by to. It is a kind of noun with certain
features of the verb.
E.g.: To respect our parents is our duty.
He likes to play cricket.
She loves to sing.
In the first sentence, the infinitive acts as the
subject of the sentence, by taking the role of a
noun. It is the object of the transitive verb „like‟
in the second sentence. It complements the verb
„love‟ in the third sentence.

13. The Gerund
The Gerund is a type of verbal noun in
English; the -ing form is often used to refer to
the gerund specifically.
E.g.: Reading is my favourite hobby.
In the above sentence, the word reading is
used as the subject, and hence does the work
of a noun.

14. The gerund may be used as,
• the subject of a sentence
E.g.: Seeing is believing.
• object of a transitive verb
E.g.: I like playing cricket.
• object of a preposition
E.g.: He was punished for killing a deer
• complement of a verb
E.g.: What I hate most is smoking

15. Auxiliary Verbs and Modals
An auxiliary verb, also called a helping verb,
is a verb used together with a main verb that
adds functional or grammatical meaning to
the clause such as to express tense, mood,
voice, question and negative.
The principal auxiliary verbs are do (does,
did), be (is, am, are, was, were), and have
(has, had).

16. „Do‟ can be used as an action verb and „does‟
is its form in the third person singular subject
in simple present and „did‟ in simple past. In
positive sentences, the forms of „do‟ in
simple present and simple past is understood
and thus omitted and they do not appear in
the clauses but they do appear (in do +
infinitive form) if it is used to add emphasis
(E.g.: They do look tired). The forms of „do‟
are always used if the sentence is negative
and they appear at the beginning of yes/no
questions.

17. Forms of „do‟

18. The forms of „be‟ are always paired with
another verb to create a complete verb
phrase. It has singular, plural, present and
past forms – am (with first person singular in
present tense), is (with third person singular
in present tense), are (with first person plural,
second person, and third person plural in
present tense), was (first/third person
singular past tense), were (with second
person, and third person plural in past tense).
Negative sentences are formed by adding the
word “not” to any of these forms.

19. Forms of „be‟

20. “Have and its related forms are used in
perfect tenses. When the subject of a
sentence is a third person singular, „‟has‟
appears as the helping verb. The past perfect
form is „had‟.

21. Forms of „have‟

22. „Have‟ is usually used to denote possession.
Eg: I have a guitar.
It can also be used to denote subject‟s ability
or to describe how the subject appears.
Eg: He has an extra bone.
She has feelings for you.

23. „Have‟ is also a popular substitute for „eating‟
and „drinking‟ something.
Eg: Let‟s have dinner.

24. Hence, „have‟ can appear as the main verb in
a sentence as well as the auxiliary verb. When
„have‟ is used as an auxiliary verb, it make a
verb phrase in combination with the main
verb. So it is easy to differentiate its role in a
sentence.
Eg: James has bought a new shirt. (auxiliary)
James has an estate. (main verb)