Verb Varieties Flashcards
Vebals
Besides eight main parts of speech, there are three other parts–participles, gerunds, and infinitives–called verbals. Verbals are hybrids that don’t act as verbs in a sentence, but as other parts of speech.
Participles
Some participles consist of verb plus–ing, present participles.
Others consist of verb plus–ed, past participles.
Participles are used as an adjective.
Gerunds
is a word that begins with a verb and ends in -ing, and used as a noun.
Running up steep hills for the last six months has greatly increased my stamina.
Use a possessive noun or possessive pronoun (my, your, his, her, its, our, and their) before a gerund.
I was upset about (us, our) leaving early. Should be “OUR.”
Infinities
is composed of to plus a verb: to carry, to go. Most of the time you will see infinitives used as nouns, but sometimes they crop up as adjectives or adverbs.
Sometimes the “to” part of an infinitive is left out.
Please help me make the bed before you leave.
Please help me “to” make . . .
Verb Tenses: Name the three tenses _________________, _____________________, ___________________. Name the subdivided categories _________________, ________________, ________________, __________________.
Present, Past, Future
Simple, Progressive, Perfect, Perfect Progressive
Present Tense:
Simple Progressive Perfect Perfect Progressive
hide am/is/are have/has have/has
hiding hidden been hiding
*Perfect tense deals with action that spans a period of time.
In traditional grammar, there are six tenses:
Simple Tenses (present, past, and future). Perfect Tenses (present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect).
Simples Tenses
refer to actions that take place at a single moment in time–at the present time, at a past moment in time, or at a future moment in time.
Present Tenses, when to use them?
There are two main uses of present tense: (1) to make statements of fact and (2) to make generalization.
Fact: Two plus two EQUALS four.
Generalization: Fast-food restaurants EXPLOIT their employees.
Technical and scientific writing is usually written in what tense?
Present
Most narration is written in _____________ tense.
Past
Future Tense
The future tense is formed by the present form of the helping verb WILL, followed by a verb in its base form.
The meeting WILL BE tomorrow at four.
*Will is only one of a group of verbs called MODALS.
Perfect Tenses
consists of the helping verb HAVE in some form followed by a verb in the past participle form. The term “perfect” comes from the Latin phrase “per factus,” meaning “completely done.”
So perfect tense deals with actions that span a period of time.
The fundamental difference between the present perfect and the past tense is _____________________________________________.
that the present perfect emphasizes the continual or repeated nature of a past action across a span of time, while the past tense describes a single-event action that is now over and done with.
Present Perfect: Elliot “has lived” in Chicago for ten years.
Past: Elliot “lived” in Chicago for 10 years.
Past Perfect Tense
is formed by the past tense of the helping verb have followed by a verb in the past participle form:
I “had stepped” into the shower just when the phone rang.
Future Perfect Tense
is formed by the future tense of the helping verb “have” followed by a verb in the past participle form:
The future tense sentence merely stats when some future action will take place. The future perfect sentence puts a “no-later-than” time limit on when the action will have been completed.
We “will have broken” for lunch by 12:30.
Present Progressive
is formed by the present tense of the verb “be” followed by a verb in the present participle form:
We “are waiting” to hear from the boss.l
We use the present progressive when we want to emphasize that some action is in progress at the present moment.
Past Progressive
is formed by the past tense of the verb “be” followed by a verb in the present participle form
I “was working” on it when you called.
We use the past progressive when we want to emphasize that some action was in process at a moment or period of past time.
Future Progressive
is formed by the future tense of the verb “be” followed by a verb in the present participle form: FP = will be + present participle
I “will be working” on it all next week.
We use the future progressive when we want to emphasize that some action will be in process at some moment or period in the future.
Sentences and clauses differ from phrases in one fundamental way:
sentences and clauses have verb phrases (or predicates) that begin with a “tensed” verb. A tensed verb is in either the present or past tense form.
Check page 89 in blue grammar book.
When is a verb not a verb?
When it’s a verbal.
Verb phrase must contain a “tensed” verb–either past or present tensed verb that agrees with the subject of its clause.
Verbal phrases do not enter into subject-verb agreement.
The “it” Test for Gerund Phrases
If a phrase heeded by a present participle can be replaced by the pronoun “it,” then that phrase is a gerund phrase.
Winning the game isn’t everything.
It isn’t everything.
How can you decide if it’s a gerund or a present participle.
His main activity is watching TV.
Ralph is ironing his clothes.
Ex1. His main activity is “it.”
Ex2. Ralph is “it.” hmmm,
Try moving the tense to past tense.
Ralph ironed his shirt. Okay.
His main activity watched TV. X Wrong
Participial Phrases
The sole function of participial phrases is to modify nouns. Single-word participles behave like adjectives and go in front of the words they modify: winning smile, sanded floors.
