By Puan Noraza Ahmad Zabidi

 Verbs are a class of words used to show the performance of

an action (do, throw, run), existence (be), possession (have),
or state (know, love) of a subject. To put it simply a verb
shows what something or someone does.

 Most statements in speech and writing have a main verb.

These verbs are expressed in tenses which place everything
in a point in time.
 The verb is perhaps the most important part of the
sentence. A verb or compound verb asserts
something about the subject of the sentence and
express actions, events, or states of being.

 The verb or compound verb is the critical element

of the predicate of a sentence.
 In each of the following sentences, the verb or
compound verb is highlighted:

 Dracula bites his victims on the neck.

 The verb "bites" describes the action Dracula takes.

 In early October, Giselle will plant twenty tulip bulbs.

 Here the compound verb "will plant" describes an
action that will take place in the future.

 My first teacher was Miss Crawford, but I remember

the janitor Mr. Weatherbee more vividly.
 In this sentence, the verb "was" (the simple
past tense of "is") identifies a particular
person and the verb "remembered" describes
a mental action.
 Karl Creelman bicycled around the world in

1899, but his diaries and his bicycle were

destroyed.
 In this sentence, the compound verb "were

destroyed" describes an action which took

place in the past.
 Vebs can be grouped into 3 major classes

 1 Lexical verbs(run,eat,think) function only

as main verbs
 2. Primary verbs(be,have ,do) can function

as both auxiliary and main verbs

 Modal verbs(can, could,shall, will,would,

may, might, must function only as auxiliary

verbs
 Lexical verbs(sometimes called ‘full verbs)
are only used as main verbs.
 Children and dogs ran from side to side
 He barely ate or slept that night
 Most lexical verbs have regular endings for

forming past and present tense(call, calls,

called)
 Many of the most common lexical lexical

verbs in English have irregular morphology.

 2. primary verbs

 There are primary verbs—be,have , do are the most

common verbs form a separate class because they
can be used either as a main verb or as an
auxiliary verb
 Compare the following uses of each primary verb

 Primary verbs-main verbs –main verb function:

 He does my washing
 His dad was an art professor
 Every atom has a dense nucleus
 Primary verbs-auxiliary verb function(with
main verb underlined):

 He doesn’t look at the numbers

 He was wearing a dark ski mask
 A particular combination of results has

occurred
 In the English language, a modal auxiliary verb is an auxiliary
verb( or helping verb) that can modify the grammatical mood
of a verb
 The modal auxiliaries do not have participles or infinitives
 The modal auxiliaries are as follows:

 Will and would

 Shall and would
 May and might
 Can and could
 Must and have to
 Ought to and had better
 Stative verbs are static; they have no duration
and no distinguished endpoint
 Examples of sentences with stative verbs

-I am tired
-I have two children
-I like the colour blue
-I think they want something to eat
-We believe in one God
-The case contains six bottles
-This would imply that we didn’t care
 It includes
 1) Verbs about mental activity:believe, forget,
know, notice, recognise, remember,
understand.
 Eg: he believes in God
 Not: he is believing in God
 I don’t recognise her
 Not; I an not recognising her
 Do you understand?
 Not: are you undertanding
 2) Verbs which describe emotional states: desire,
hate, like, love, prefer, want
 Eg : she loves her parents
 Not; she is loving her parents
 Which do you prefer?
 Not: which one are you preferring?
 He wants a new car
 Not; he is wanting a new car
 3)Certain other verbs: belong, cost, fit, include ,
mean, need, own, matter.
 Eg : this book belongs to me
 Not; this book is belonging to me
 The ticket cost five pounds
 Not; the ticket was costing five pounds
 I own three houses
 Not ; I am owning three houses
 4) Verbs of perception : see, hear, smell, taste,
feel(5 senses)
 Eg: can you hear that music?
 Not: are you hearing that music?
 I couldn’t taste the onions in the soup
 Not: I wasn’t tasting the onions
 It’s dark. I can feel you but I can’t see you.
 Not I am feeling but I’m seeing…
 Can you smell the scent of the roses?
 Not: are you smelling the scent
 Some other English stative verbs are believe, know,
seem, and have
 All these generally denote states rather than actions
 However, it should be noted that verbs like have and be,
which are usually stative, can be dynamic in certain
situations
 Think is stative when it means ‘ believe’, but not when it
means ‘consider’.

 The following are not stative;

 You are being silly
 She is having a baby.
 Quiet please, I am thinking.
 Forms of the present simple
 3rd person singular all others
 He works I work
 She works You work
 The boss works we work
 The telephone(it works ) they work
 Her friend works Her friends
work
 I am/have/do/say
 We/you/they are/have do say
 He/she/it is has/does/says

 What do you mean?

 What does she mean?
 I don’t like sweets
 She likes sweets
 We have pets
 Siti has a pet
 Ann doesn’t have any pets
 1) A present state. It indicates a state which
exists now; a fact which is always or
generally true
 Something was true in the past, is true now
and will be true in the future

 Eg: water consists of hydrogen and oxygen

 Most animals kill only for food
 The world is round
 The sun rises in the east
 2) A present habit; an action we repeat
regularly.

 E.g I study for 2 hours every night

 My classes begin at nine
 He always eats sandwich for lunch
 E.g What do you do on weekdays? Well, I get
up at 7, have breakfast, walk to the station,
and catch the train to work. I arrive at home
from work at about 6 o’clock
 3) A present event. It refers to an event which
happens at the very moment of speaking. e.g when
we describe what we are saying as offering,
accepting, begging

 E.g I regret that I made a mistake

 We accept your offer
 I beg you not to go there
 E.g I have only a dollar right now
 I don’t recognise that man
 He needs a pen right now
 Note-the ‘event’ meaning of the present simple is
also found in newspaper headlines

 (Italy wins World cup)

 (monkeys escape from London zoo)
 In sports commentaries
 (Ali passes the ball to Ahmad)