Verb definition

What is a Verb? A verb is a word that shows an action (‘I will jog to the store’), occurrence (‘The bananas ripened overnight’), or state of being (‘I have the same right to exist as you’). Almost every sentence requires a verb, or else nothing happens! Transitive Verbs There are two main kinds of verb: transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. Transitive verbs require a direct object, meaning a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase that receives the action of the verb and so completes the sentence’s meaning. The direct object typically answers the question what? or who? Here are some examples: “The kids like pickles.” ( Like is the verb and pickles are the direct object.) “Can you ask the neighbor when the yard sale will be?” ( Ask is the verb and the noun phrase the neighbor is the direct object.) "We ate cake for breakfast." ( Ate is the verb and cake is the direct object.) Intransitive Verbs Intransitive verbs do not take direct objects. They are often followed by words that answer questions such as where?, when?, how?, or how long? Here are some examples of intransitive verbs: “Her car died suddenly last week.” (The verb is die and we are told when it happened.) “We ate at a fancy restaurant.” (The verb is ate and we are told where this happened) “Someone was coughing loudly.” (The verb is coughing and we are told how this was happening.) “The movie marathon took all night to finish watching.” (The verb is took and we are told how long this took.) A single verb can also have b...

Eliminate grammar errors and improve your writing with our free AI-powered grammar checker. Try for free What Is a Verb? | Definition, Types & Examples A verb is a word that describes what the subject of a sentence is doing. Verbs can indicate (physical or mental) actions, occurrences, and states of being. Examples: Verbs in a sentenceJeffrey builds a house. Anita is thinking about horses. True love exists. Every sentence must have at least one verb. At the most basic level, a sentence can consist solely of a single verb in the imperative form (e.g., “Run.”). In this example, the implied subject is “you.” • • • • • • • • • • • Verb conjugation Verbs can change form depending on subject, tense, mood, and voice. This is called conjugation. Subject There are six subject forms in English: I You He/she/it Third person singular We First person plural You Second person plural They Third person plural Verbs and subjects must agree in number. If the subject is singular, the verb must also be singular. Similarly, if the subject is plural, the verb must be plural. This is called Examples: Subject-verb agreement • She talks • She talk a lot. • We talk a lot. • We talks a lot. Tense Verbs are also conjugated based on tense. There are three main tenses in English: • Past (an action has taken place) • Present (an action is taking place) • Future (an action will take place) Each tense has a simple, progressive, perfect, and perfect progressive aspect with its own rules for conjugation. Th...

the word or phrase that gives the action, or asserts something, in a sentence, clause etc. I saw him; He ran away from me; I have a feeling; What is this? werkwoord глагол verbo sloveso das Verb verbum; udsagnsord tegusõna فعل verbi क्रिया glagol ige kata kerja, verba sögn, sagnorð 動詞 동사 veiksmažodis darbības vārds kata kerja verb sloveso glagol glagol erb คำกริยา 動詞 дієслово فعل động từ ˈverbal adjective 1. of, or concerning, verbs. verbal endings such as `-fy', `-ize'. werkwoordelik فِعْلي، مُتَعَلِّق بالأفْعال глаголен verbal slovesný Verbal-... verbal verbi- فعلی verbi- פוֹעַלִי मौखिक glagolski igei mengenai kata kerja sagn-, sagnar- 動詞の 동사의 veiksmažodžio verbāls; darbības vārda- kata-kata czasownikowy verbal (от)глагольный slovesný glagolski glagolski verb- เกี่ยวกับคำกริยา fiil ile ilgili 動詞的，與動詞有關的 дієслівний; віддієслівний فعل سے متعلق thuộc động từ, có gốc động từ 动词的，由动词构成的 2. consisting of, or concerning, spoken words. a verbal warning/agreement. mondelingse لَفْظي، كلامي устен verbal slovní mundtlig suuline شفاهی verbaalinen בְּעַל-פֶּה मौखिक usmeni szóbeli lisan munnlegur 言葉の 구두의 žodinis mutisks lisan verbal, oral slovný usten verbalni verbal, muntlig ที่ใช้คำพูด 口頭的 усний; вербальний زباني bằng miệng, bằng lời nói ˈverbally adverb in or by speech, not writing. I replied to the invitation verbally. verbaal كلاميّا словом verbalmente slovně mundtligt suuliselt به صورت شفاهی suullisesti בְּעַל-פֶּה मौखिक रूप में usmeno élőszóban secara lisan munnlega 口頭で 구두로 žod...

Verbs are the action words in a sentence that describe what the subject is doing. Along with nouns, verbs are the main part of a sentence or phrase, telling a story about what is taking place. In fact, without a verb, full thoughts can’t be properly conveyed, and even the simplest sentences, such as Maria sings , have one. Actually, a verb can be a sentence by itself, with the subject, in most case you, implied, such as, Sing! and Drive! When learning the rules of grammar, schoolchildren are often taught that verbs are ‘doing’ words, meaning they signify the part of the sentence which explains the action taking place: He ran away, she eats chocolate cake on Sundays, the horses gallop across the fields. Ran, eats and gallop are the ‘action’ parts of those sentences, thus they are the verbs. However, it can be confusing because not all verbs are easily identifiable as action: I know your name, Jack thought about it, we considered several applications. These are non-action verbs, i.e. those that describe a state of being, emotion, possession, sense or opinion. Other non-action verbs include include love, agree, feel, am, and have. How to Recognize a Verb As you can see from the examples above, one clue to help you recognize a verb is its location compared to the subject. Verbs almost always come after a noun or pronoun. These nouns and pronouns are referred to as the subject. The verb thought comes after the noun Jack, so the action Jack (subject) was taking was thinking (ver...

: a word that characteristically is the grammatical center of a predicate and expresses an act, occurrence, or mode of being, that in various languages is inflected for agreement with the subject, for tense, for voice, for mood, or for aspect, and that typically has rather full descriptive meaning and characterizing quality but is sometimes nearly devoid of these especially when used as an auxiliary or linking verb What is a verb? Verbs are words that show an action ( sing), occurrence ( develop), or state of being ( exist). Almost every sentence requires a verb. The basic form of a verb is known as its infinitive. The forms call, love, break, and go are all infinitives. Almost all verbs have two other important forms called participles. Participles are forms that are used to create several verb present participle always ends in -ing: calling, loving, breaking, going. (There is also a kind of noun, called a gerund, that is identical in form to the present participle form of a verb.) The past participle usually ends in -ed, but many past participles have irregular endings: called, loved, broken, gone. The verb's past tense usually has the same -ed form as the past participle. For many verbs, however, the past tense is irregular. An irregular past tense is not always identical to an irregular past participle: called, loved, broke, went. The two main kinds of verbs, transitive verbs and intransitive verbs, are discussed at the entries for transitive and intransitive. Noun Und...

Compound verbs Compound verbs are two words which combine to make one meaning. The first word is usually a noun, an adjective or a preposition, and the second word is a verb. The words are sometimes written as one word and sometimes joined by hyphens. A good learner’s dictionary will tell you how the compound is normally written: … Linking verbs Some main verbs are called linking verbs (or copular verbs). These verbs are not followed by objects. Instead, they are followed by phrases which give extra information about the subject (e.g. noun phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases or prepositional phrases). Linking verbs include: …