1-    What is a Verb

Being the name of a grammatical category, the word ‘Verb’ is a noun in itself. In fact, it tells us about some happening or action; or determines the tense. For example;

(1)  Tom grew old.        (Happening= taking place spontaneously)

(2)   Bob reads a book.        (Action= done by someone)

(3)    It was raining.        (Tense= refers to past)

Verb is one of the eight parts of speech in English. It is an integral part of every predicate because we cannot think of a sentence without a verb. Verbs can be divided into two parts e.g., main verb and auxiliary verb.

FUNCTIONAL/SYNTACTIC BASED CATEGORIES OF VERB

1.1    Auxiliary Verb

When such verbs as ‘be, do and have’ are used with principal verbs to show tense or to form questions or negatives, are called auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary verbs are also known as helping verbs. For example;

(25) Do you know where he has gone?

(26) He does not understand what she is trying to teach.

1.2-    Main/Principal Verb

A main verb is also known as principal verb which conveys or demonstrates the action of the subject or happening of the event. Very often, it appears right after the auxiliary verb and sometimes stands alone and gives full meaning without depending on other verbs (auxiliary).

(1)    Mangoes taste sweet.
(2)    she tasted a new fruit abroad.

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES OF MAIN VERB

1.2.1 Dynamic/Action Verb

It shows the activity of the subject. Generally, a verb is called dynamic if it passes the action of the subject onto the object, (though in some cases, object may be missing). These verbs describe an action rather than a state. For example;

(1)  The girl was combing.

(2)  The farmer grew potatoes on the upper rink of mountain.

(3)  Someone was beating the drum.

1.2.2    Stative Verb/States

A stative verb represents the events that befall spontaneously (when subject shows no activity). The romantic idea is that the verb does not transit its action onto the object but instead it passes its activity onto the subject and thus transforming it into object which keeps standing at the position of subject. For example;

(1) Water freezes at 0°C.

(2) Fountains play in the park every evening.

(3) Her hair grew grey rapidly after marriage.

SEMANTIC BASED CATEGORIES OF PRINCIPAL VERB

1.2.3    Intransitive Verb

A verb that does not require an object to complete the meaning of the sentence is called an intransitive verb. For example;

(1) The sun rises in the East.

(2) The ducks swim.

(3) I sneezed.

Hence, intransitive verbs can be followed by a preposition, prepositional phrase or an adverb:

(4) The knife is to cut with.    (preposition = with)

(5) I fell off my bike.    (prepositional phrase = off my bike)

(6) The ball rolled away.    (adverb = away)

1.2.4    Transitive Verb

A verb which needs an object to complete its meaning is called transitive verb. A transitive verb has the property of transitivity which means that an action begins with the subject that passes through the verb onto the object. For example;

(1)  Joe broke the window.

(2)  These girls pluck flowers every morning.

1.2.4.1    Mono Transitive Verb

Verbs that follow a single direct object are known as mono-transitive verbs. The object of a transitive verb may be:

a noun                    Tom sold his house.

a pronoun              He sold it.

a clause                  She knows where I live.

1.2.4.2    Di-Transitive Verb

A di-transitive verb is one which takes two objects i.e. the one direct and the other indirect. For example, in (1) the verb ‘told’ follows two objects i.e. 'a story' as direct object and 'the children' as indirect object.

(1) Joe told the children a story.

(2) Bring me a glass of water.

1.2.4.3    Both Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

Some verbs have flexibility to fall in both the categories i.e. transitive or intransitive. But every time the category change results in the change of meaning. For example;

(21) This fire place smokes the room badly.    (=to fill, transitive)

(22) She smokes heavily.                            (=to puff on tobacco, intransitive)

(23) The ship struck a rock.                      (=to hit, transitive)

(24) The pirates can strike.                       (=to attack, intransitive)

CONJUGATION BASED CATEGORIES OF VERB

1.1    Regular Verb

The verbs that form their past participle with ‘d’ or ‘ed’ are regular verbs. These verbs do not undergo substantial changes while changing forms between tenses. If the verb ends with a vowel, only ‘d’ is added. If the verb ends with a consonant, ‘ed’ is added. For example;

(27) share – shared – shared

(28) want – wanted – wanted.

1.2    Irregular Verb

The verbs that undergo substantial changes when changing their forms between tenses are called irregular verbs. Unlike regular verbs, they are not rule governed and thus may take any shape in a changed tense. For example;

(29) go – went – gone

(30) shut – hut – shut