Identifying Verbs

Question 1

What are verbs?

Answer 1

Verbs are words in sentences that always signify action or state of being. Every sentence has a verb

Question 2

How to find the verbs?

Answer 2

To find the verbs ask the question what is the action or state of being for e.g.

Action verb
1. Marie opened the window to look at the moon in the sky

What is the action in this sentence?

Opening the window is the action hence opened is the verb

State of being
2. Marie is sick

There is no action in the above sentence but it represents the state of being with the word “is”. So “is” is the verb in the above sentence

Question 3

What are aiding verbs?

Answer 3

Aiding verbs are words that help the main verb by adding to/extending the meaning conveyed. for e.g.

“adding to” could signify adding information in the sentence about the tense of the action

“extending the meaning conveyed” could signify adding info. in sentences such as uncertainty

Marie is waiting for you outside the hotel

“is waiting” is the verb, in which “is” is the aiding verb adding information about the tense of the sentence.

Marie may visit you today

“may visit” is the verb, in which “may” is the aiding verb extending information about the uncertainty of the action.

Few examples of aiding verbs 
is/am/are
have/has
can/will/may
and many more

Question 4

What role does the word “to look” plays in the below sentence?

Marie opened the window to look at the moon in the sky

Answer 4

The word “to look” looks like a verb but it is not, words that look like a verb but don’t act as verbs are called verbal.

In the sentence to look does not denote the main action but rather the purpose of the main action i.e. why Marie opened the window

Question 5

What are verbals?

Answer 5

These are words that look like verbs but are not verbs examples

1. to verbals
2. -ing verbals
3. -ed verbals

Question 6

How to identify “to verbals”

Answer 6

They are the easiest to spot, they take the form “to” followed by “verb” for eg “to look”.

They convey the intent/purpose of an action, they never function as verbs

Question 7

How to identify “ing verbals”

Answer 7

These are the “ing” forms of the verbs that are not preceded by an aiding verb, if they were then they would be the main verb. Eg. of “ing” verbals are Teaching, Swimming, etc.

1. Marie was teaching her students when the school bell rang.

“was teaching” here is the verb because “ing” verbal is preceded by aiding verb “was”

2. Swimming is a physical activity

“Swiming” above is not the verb because it is not preceded by an aiding verb.

Question 8

What role does an “ing” verbal plays?

Answer 8

1. They can act as nouns (Gerund)

a. Teaching grammar to young children is not always easy
b. Marie enjoys teaching grammar to young children

2. They can modify a noun (adjective)

a. The blackboard is one of the oldest teaching tools known to us
“teaching” is acting as an adjective here

Question 9

What role does “ed” verbal plays?

Answer 9

They are the “ed” form of the verbs not preceded by aiding verbs.

They provide additional information about noun entities i.e. noun modifier /adjectives. They can also act like verbs so we have to be careful in assessing the role played by them. To test what role ed/en verbs play in the sentence use below test

Test 1: If they are preceded by an aiding verb then they act as a verb

Test 2: Ask the question Who/What ‘ed/en’ verbal and if the question is sensical and the answer to the question is the subject of the sentence then they act as verb else they act as verbal

a. Marie abandoned the car that she leased last year.

1. Test 1 is not applicable as no aiding verb is present
2. Test 2 Who abandoned the car - Marie so “abandoned” is a verb
   Who leased the car last year - She -> “Marie” so leased is a verb

b. The abandoned car was sent to the scrap recycling plant

“Was sent” is definitely a verb, let’s check for abandoned

test 1 - not applicable
Test 2 - Who abandoned the car - no sensical answer as the car itself is the subject and it can not abandon itself, hence abandoned is not a verb.

You can think why can’t we ask the question “What was abandoned” if we ask that we will get the answer the car.,but notice that we added a verb “Was” is the question that was not present hence we cant add a verb, and if we ask the question “What abandoned” then that question is non-sensical.

Question 10

What kind of relation exists between subject and verb?

Answer 10

We can have many to many relations between S-V pair i.e. we can have one subject mapped to multiple verbs or one verb mapped to multiple subjects

1. Joe works at Google and lives in California (2 verbs)
2. Joe and Jenny work at Google (2 subjects)

Question 11

Identify the modifiers and the entity being modified.

Jack, a student of St. Andrews and a fan of Ronaldo, arrived at the birthday party.

Answer 11

1. a student of St. Andrews - Jack
2. a fan of Ronaldo - Jack
3. at the birthday party - arrived

The only confusion was with the last one, it tells more about arrived where? giving info. on arrival. Asking questions such as “Who arrived” will lead us to the subject of the sentence and we might think it modifies the subject, but that is not the case