Verbs and Conjugation

Verbs
• Verbs are words that describe the actions—or states of being—of
people, animals, places, or things. Words in English which describe
the specific actions in a sentence are called verbs. Verbs function as
the root of what’s called the predicate, which is required (along with
a subject) to form a complete sentence; therefore, every sentence must
include at least one verb.
• Verbs include action words like run, walk, write, or sing, as well as
words describing states of being, such as be, seem, feel, or sound
• For example, in a sentence like:
• James told the story,
• The word told is a verb because it describes the action James performed.
• ,In the same way, in the statements below:
• Jude spoke yesterday.
• Jane cooked the food.
• She jumped over the wall,
• The words spoke, cooked and jumped are all verbs because they tell us what actions are
described in the statements
• IDENTIFICATION
• A word is said to be a verb if it has an infinitive form.
• to go
• to ask
• to swim
• to eat
• to run
• If it is possible to express a word in this form, then that word is a verb.
• Secondly, a word is said to be a verb if it can have (-s) added to it to show the present tense.
• Edem sings very well.
• She swims every afternoon.
• He prays every night

• The third feature is that it is only words we call verbs which can show the past tense by adding (-
ed) in most cases.
• E.g. acted, allowed, burned, commanded, played, worked
• TYPES

• Visible Action verbs

• These are action verbs you can see. E.g. walk. Stand, sit, open, spin, sing, chase
• Mental Action verbs.
• These are action verbs which are difficult to see. E.g. wonder, think. Believe,
worry, remember, dream, consider, decide
• Regular Verbs

• These are verbs which form their past tense form by taking (-ed)
• Peter danced well.
• She washed her clothes.

• Irregular Verbs
• These are verbs in English which do not form their past tense by adding (-ed)
They have different forms for their past tense.
• FORMS OF REGULAR VERBS
• Infinitive Present Past Continuous Perfective
• To act act(s) acted acting acted
• To appoint appoint(s) appointed appointing appointed
• To check check(s) checked checking checked
• To hate hate(s) hated hating hated
• To solve solves(s) solved solving solved
• FORMS OF IRREGULAR VERBS
• Infinitive Present Past Continuous Perfect
• To become become(s) became becoming become
• To beat beat(s) beat beating beaten
• To cut cut(s) cut cutting cut
• To feel feel(s) felt feeling felt
• To hit hit(s) hit hitting hit
Uses of “to be
• The words am, is, are are also verbs, but they are not action
words.
• They are the simple present tense of the verb “to be”.
• Use am with the pronoun I.
• I am Peter. I am not Paul.
• I am an apple of God’s eye.
• I am the way the truth and the life.
Forms of the “to be” verb

• Be He will be going home.

• I am I’m fine.
• Is THE GOVERNMENT is generous.
• Are YOU are my friend. THE BOYS are my friends.
• Was YESTERDAY was a holiday.
• Were IF I were you, I would have paid the fees. The boys were in the class.
• Been I had been standing here for hours. I had been here.
• Being Food is being prepared. The house is being sold
Uses of “to be
• Use the verb is with a third person singular noun.
• She is Miss Lee. She is a teacher.
• He is my father. He is a doctor. He is not a lawyer.
• Use are with plural nouns (you, we and they).
• You are a stranger.
• You are not my friend.
• We are in the same class, but we are not on the same team.
• They are good friends. They are not enemies.
Uses of “to be”

• Use is and are with the word there to say what you can see and hear.
• There is a man in the room.
• There are some men in the room.
• Here is the man.
• Here are the men.
• Where are you going?
• Where is the boy?
Verbs cont’d

• 1. Transitive verbs
• They are verbs that accept nouns directly, to function as objects. A verb is said to be transitive,
if it allows a noun group to immediately follow it.
• The man killed AN ELEPHANT.
• Kwame loves MARY.
• Patience saw my bag.
• We know the answer.
• The seller sold the net.

• 2. Intransitive verbs
• They are verbs that do not accept nouns directly after them.
• The bus has arrived.
• She is sleeping.
• Kate has grown old.
• We sang well.
• My friend slept.
• The intransitive verbs can never allow a noun group to follow them. These verbs may
be followed by adjectives, adverbs, prepositions or nothing may follow them.
Examples of such verbs are: dance, run, sit, stand. Weep.

• Ditransitive verbs
• These are verbs which allow two noun groups to follow them.
• E.g. We will lend John the money.
• He told his child a story.
• My mother made the children a bed.
• I may buy my son a book.
• ACTIVITY
• Give the principal forms of the verbs listed below.
• Awake bang saw swim
• Bear hit seek swing
• Beset hurt sell teach
• Cost keep set tear
• Supply the correct tense form of the bracketed verbs in each of the
following sentences.
• Saiar (carry) an old umbrella to school; though she (stop) since 1994.
• Yesterday, I (think) Mavis (speak) to you before I (come).
• kofi (regain) his strength since he (drink) the medicine.
• I (make sure) I (see) my results before I (travel) tomorrow.
• A mysterious beast (appear) on the scene since the police (stop)
patrols
• last month.
• Indicate whether the following sentences are either
transitive or intransitive.
• i. Kwame kicked the ball.
• ii.They have arrived on time.
• iii.Our mission is to go with them.
• iv. The men sold the dog.
ASSIGNMENT

• Write notes on the following :

• Auxiliary verbs
• Linking verbs
• CONJUGATION
• What is conjugation
• Tenses
• Present
• Past
• Future
Conjugation
• Conjugation refers to the way we inflect (morphemes)
(change the form of) verbs to create particular meanings.
• We usually refer to ways in which we change a verb in order
to reflect grammatical tense,
• We also conjugate verbs to reflect aspect, mood, voice,
person, and speech
Inflections in Verbs
• Go
 es= goes present
 ing= going present continuous
 +ed= went past
 +ne gone perfect
• Walk
 Walks
 Walking
 Walked
 Walked
Conjugation
• Grammatical tense refers to the conjugation of a verb to reflect its place in time—that is, when the action
occurred.
• There are technically only two grammatical tenses in English: the past tense and the present tense.
• Verbs in their basic form inherently describe the present time, and they can be conjugated into a unique form
that describes the past.
• Using auxiliary verbs and verb participles, we can also create the continuous (or progressive) tenses, the
perfect tenses, and the perfect continuous (or perfect progressive) tenses. These are technically different
aspects of tense, but they are commonly included among the verb tenses
Present Tense

• Present Simple Aspect

(1). “I go to work every day.”
(2) “He works in finance.”
(3) “I don’t go out very often.”
(4) “Do you eat breakfast every morning?”
(5) “They are hungry.”
Present Tense
• Present Continuous Aspect
• (1) “John is sleeping at the moment.”
• (2) “Am I wearing the right uniform?”
• (3) “Jack isn’t coming to the movie with us.”
• (4) “Are you still reading that book?”
• (5) “We’re flying to Spain tomorrow.”
Present Tense
• Present Perfect Aspect
• (1) “I have lived in Italy for many years.”
• (2) “She has been here since 8 o’clock.”
• (3) “Have you been here since this morning?”
• (4) “We haven’t been to the movies in a long time.”
• (5) “Have you seen my jacket anywhere?”
• (6) ‘ I Have seen the man.
• (7) “ He has taken the money.
Exercise
•I am to live in Italy for many years.”
 Present simple aspect
 Present perfect aspect
 Present continuous aspect
 Present perfect continuous aspect
Present Tense
• Present Perfect Continuous Aspect
• (1) “I’ve been writing for over an hour.”
• (2) “How long have you been writing?”
• (3) “They haven’t been living in Spain for very long.”
• (4) “She’s tired because she’s been working a lot.”
• (5) “That bag looks new. Have you been shopping?”
• Have/has + been + -ing
Past Tense
• Past Simple Aspect
• (1) “She worked in finance before this job.”
• (2) “We lived in China for six years after I graduated from college.”
• (3) “They didn’t watch the movie last night.”
• (4) “I went to the park yesterday.”
• (5) “I was their accountant at the time.”
Past Tense
• Past Continuous Aspect
• (1) “I was reading a book when they arrived.”
• (2) “What were you talking about when I arrived?”
• (3) “She was worrying; we wouldn’t be able to afford the wedding.”
• (4) “I wasn’t feeling well.”
• (5) “Were you sleeping when I called?”
•I am reading.
•I was reading.

• Until you pay me my money, I will not let you go.

• Unless you pay me my money, I will not let you go.
Past Tense
• Past Perfect Aspect
• (1) “The movie had already ended when I turned on the TV.”
• (2) “I was sad to leave the house I had lived in for so many years.”
• (3) “Until this morning, I had never been on a plane.”
• (4) “Had you ever been on a tractor before working on our farm?”
• (5) “I hadn’t eaten Parmesan cheese before going to Italy.”
Past Tense
• Past Perfect Continuous Aspect

(1) “When I arrived at the bus stop, the other people there had been
waiting for nearly an hour.”
(2) “We hadn’t been talking for very long before she had to leave.”
(3) “My eyes were tired because I had been working on the computer.”
(4) “Had she been living in Italy for a long time?”
(5) “He had been feeling unwell, so he went to lie down.”
Future Time
• Future Time
• The most common constructions of the future time use the
modal auxiliary verb will or the verb phrase be going to. We
can also use the modal verb shall to create the future time,
but this is generally reserved for more formal or polite
English, and it is not very common in everyday speech and
writing, especially in American English.
Future Tense
• Future Simple Aspect
(1) “The Queen will be in Rome tomorrow.”
(2) “She won’t do her homework.”
(3) “Will they be late?”
(4) “I am going to wash my hair after dinner.”
(5) “Are you going to mow the lawn today?”
Future Tense
• Future Continuous Aspect
(1) “I’ll be flying to Boston tomorrow, so I can’t come to lunch.”
(2) “People are going to be consuming even more natural resources by
the year 2030.”
(3) “Is she going to be working from home now?”
(4) “I’m not going to be living in New York for much longer.”
(5) “You shouldn’t call their house now; they will be sleeping.”
Future Tense
• Future Perfect Aspect
(1) “By October we will have lived in this house for 20 years.”
(2) “After this next race, I will have completed 10 triathlons.”
(3) “You will have heard by now that the company is going
bankrupt.”
(4) “Will they have read the memo ahead of the meeting?”
Future Tense
• Future Perfect Continuous Aspect
• (1) “She’ll have been waiting for nearly an hour by the time we arrive.”
• (2) “I will have been living in this country for 10 years this November.”
• (3) “Will they have been looking through our tax returns for the last few years?”
• (4) “How will he have been coping on his own for all these years?”
• (5) “He won’t have been sleeping for very long, but I have to wake him up.”
Assignment
• Identify the tenses of the underlined verbs in the sentences below:
• 1. Many citizens have realized their past errors.
• 2. Tunde had celebrated his 10th anniversary on the throne.
• 3. The boys have been shouting at the girls.
• 4. No lady will cross this line.
• 5. The law protects only the rich.
• 6. They were fed only maize.
• 7. Prices are rising steadily.
• 8. My car will be burning by now.
• 9. They read a lot these days.
• 10. Have you been eating well?