Difference between revisions of "Verb"
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*[http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/subjectVerbAgree.asp Subject and Verb Agreement] and [http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/subject_verb_agreement_1.asp Subject and Verb Agreement Quiz] | *[http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/subjectVerbAgree.asp Subject and Verb Agreement] and [http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/subject_verb_agreement_1.asp Subject and Verb Agreement Quiz] | ||
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[[Category:Parts of Speech]] | [[Category:Parts of Speech]] | ||
Revision as of 17:45, September 23, 2008
A verb is a word or words that express actions, events, or states of being. The verb or compound verb is often a critical element of the predicate of a sentence. In each of the following sentences, the verb or compound verb is italicized:
"Jesus died on the cross for your sins."
The verb "died" describes the action of Jesus.
"God gave us memories that we might have roses in December."
Forms of "to be", such as "is", "are", etc. are also verbs of a particular type, called copulas, which define states of being (Jesus is the perfect teacher. Mary is Jesus' mother.) Some languages, such as Russian, do not use copulas.
Many languages inflect verbs to indicate such categories as person, number, tense, aspect, mood, and voice. The set of all forms of a verb is called its conjugation. English inflects for number and tense. God loves us; but we love God. God created the Heavens and the Earth; but He creates things daily.
Compound verbs
The most simple compound verb are verbs with the "helper" verb of "has" and "to be". I am going. He had been going. In English, compound verbs generally mark space in time, telling us what actions in a sentence happen in relation to other actions. "I had been reading the Bible, when I decided to change my life". "had been" tells us what the subject (I) was doing, when I acted "decided" to change.
