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THE ENGLISH VERB - Definition and Characteristics: Classification of Verbs According To Their Composition
THE ENGLISH VERB - Definition and Characteristics: Classification of Verbs According To Their Composition
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THE ENGLISH VERB - Definition and Characteristics
The verb is a part of speech denoting
actions (to go, to make),
processes in the form of actions (to stand, to lie, to sleep),
the appearance or modification of a characteristic or attitude (to harden, to weaken).
States
Verbs can be classified under different heads, in accordance with:
a. composition;
b. derivation;
c. basic forms;
d. semantic content;
e. lexical aspect and predication.
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Grammatical Categories of the Verb
PERSON – a grammatical category that expresses the relationship between the subject and its verb and indicates
whether the person is speaking about himself/herself (1 st person), whether the person is being spoken to (2nd
person), or whether the person is being spoken about (3rd person).
NUMBER – a grammatical category that expresses counting distinctions. There are two numbers in English:
singular and plural.
MOOD – the grammatical category by which modality is expressed, reflecting the attitude of the speaker towards
the action or state expressed by the verb. There are four finite moods: Indicative, Conditional, Subjunctive,
Imperative and three non-finite moods: Infinitive, Gerund, Participle.
TENSE – represents the correspondence between the form of the verb and our concept of time (time : past,
present, future)
ASPECT (Grammatical aspect) is the verbal form which expresses the duration of the action or state (indefinite
duration, short duration, long duration; frequentative actions or states)
1. Simple / Indefinite Aspect
2. Progressive /Continuous Aspect
3. Frequentative Aspect
4. Perfective Aspect
VOICE - grammatical category which shows the relationship between the grammatical subject and the action.
There are two voices: Active Voice and Passive Voice.
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Verbs ending in –ed in the past tense and the past participle are called regular verbs: to like-liked-liked.
Verbs having different other endings in the past tense and the past participle are called irregular verbs,
including here the small group of modal verbs which only have two forms or only one as is the case of must,
ought to and need.
Spelling rules
The regular spelling of the –ed/past tense/past participle form in regular verbs is –ed:
play/played
talk/talked
disturb/disturbed
distinguish/distinguished
Here are additional spelling rules for particular cases.
1. If the base/infinitive form end in –e, drop the –e before adding –ed.
deceive/deceived
save/saved
co-operate/co-operated
BUT, if the first form of the verb ends in –ee, -oe, or –ye, keep the final –e:
disagree/disagreed
hoe/hoed
die/died
dye/dyed
2. If the base/infinitive/first verb form ends in a consonant plus y, change the y to i and then add
-ed:
worry/worried
cry/cried
apply/applied
deny/denied
TASK: Give the past tense form of the following verbs, mentioning each time the rule that you have
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observed.
hop
develop
hope
reply
cry
bar
infer
refer
kidnap
worship
permit
Pronunciation-wise, the following rules are to be observed when adding the –ed ending:
a. Verbs ending in a vowel sound or in voiced consonants: [b], [g], [l], [m], [n], [v], [z], [dʒ], [θ], get the phonetic
[d]:
play – played
call – called
move – moved
change – changed
bathe – bathed
long – longed
b. Verbs ending in the voiceless consonants [f], [k], [p], [s], [ʃ], [tʃ], [] get the phonetic [t], e.g.
to laugh – laughed
to look – looked
to stress – stressed
to wash – washed
to watch – watched]
c. Verbs ending in the consonants [d] or [t] get the phonetic [id], thus forming a new syllable, e.g.
to add – added
to discount – discounted