Verbs

Question 1

What is a verb?

Answer 1

A verb is the idea of being or action in a sentence.
“I am a student.”
“The students passed all their courses.”

Question 2

What is the name given to verbs that require an object to complete their meaning?

Answer 2

They are called Transitive Verbs
“She gave ___?” Gave what? “She gave money to the church.”

Question 3

What are verbs called when they do not need an object to complete their meaning?

Answer 3

Intransitive verbs. “The building collapsed.”
In English, you cannot tell the difference between a transitive and intransitive verb by its form; you have to see how the verb is functioning in the sentence.

Question 4

Can a verb be both transitive and intransitive?

Answer 4

Yes.
“The monster collapsed the building by sitting on it.”

Question 5

What is a ditransitive verb?

Answer 5

A ditransitive is a verb that can take a direct object and an indirect object at the same time: “That horrid music gave ‘me’ a headache.”

Question 6

What is a finite verb?

Answer 6

A finite verb makes an assertion or expresses a state of being and can stand by itself as the main verb of a sentence.
“The truck demolished the restaurant.”
“The leaves were yellow and sickly.”

Question 7

What is a non-finite verb?

Answer 7

(think “unfinished”) Non-finite verbs cannot, by themselves, be main verbs:
“The broken window.”
“The wheezing gentleman.”
Another term for non-finite verbs is Verbal.

Question 8

What are the four verb forms?

Answer 8

1. Base Form: “I can work”
2. Past Form: “I worked”
3. Present Participle: “I am working”
4. Past Participle: “I have worked”

Question 9

What is a linking verb?

Answer 9

It connects a subject and it’s complement. Sometimes called copulas, linking verbs are often forms of the verb to be, but are sometimes related to the five senses (look, sound, smell, feel, taste) and sometimes verbs that somehow reflect a state of being (appear, seem, become, grow, turn, prove, remain).

Question 10

What follows a linking verb?

Answer 10

Either a noun complement or an adjective complement:
“Those people are all professors.”
“Those professors are brilliant”
“This room smells bad”
“I feel great”
“A victory today seems unlikely.”

Question 11

A handful of verbs that reflect a change in state of being are sometimes called what?

Answer 11

Resulting Copulas. They, too, link a subject to a predicate adjective:
“His face turned purple”
“She became older”
“The dogs ran wild”
“The milk has gone wild”
“The crowd grew ugly”

Question 12

When answering the phone the correct response would be in subject form or object form?

Answer 12

Subject form: “This is he.”

Question 13

What is “mood” in verbs?

Answer 13

It refers to one of three attitudes that a writer or speaker has to what is being written or spoken.

Question 14

What are the 3 moods in verbs?

Answer 14

1. The Indicative Mood
2. The Imperative Mood
3. The Subjunctive mood

Question 15

What does the Indicative Mood do?

Answer 15

It describes most sentences on this page, it is used to make a statement or ask a question.
“Are apple pies good?”

Question 16

What does the Imperative Mood do?

Answer 16

It is used when we’re feeling sort of bossy and want to give a directive, strong suggestion, or order:
“Get out of town!”

Question 17

What does the Subjunctive Mood do?

Answer 17

It is used in dependent clauses that do one of the following: 1) express a wish; 2) begins with if and expresses a condition that does not exist (is contrary to fact); 3) begin with as if and as though when such clauses describe a speculation or condition contrary to the fact; and 4) begin with that and express a demand, requirement, request, or suggestion.
“She wishes her boyfriend were here.”
“We would have passed if we had studied harder.”
“I requested that he be present at the hearing.”

Question 18

The present tense of the subjunctive mood only uses what form of a verb?

Answer 18

The base form.
“He demanded that his students use two-inch margins.

Question 19

The past tense of the subjunctive mood has the same forms as which mood?

Answer 19

The indicative mood except for the verb to be which uses were regardless of the number of the subject.
“If I were seven feet tall, I’d be a great basketball player.”
“He wishes he were a better student.”

Question 20

What is a phrasal verb?

Answer 20

Phrasal Verbs consist of a verb and another word or phrase, usually a preposition. The resulting combination creates what amounts to a new verb.

Question 21

Can phrasal verbs be both transitive and intransitive?

Answer 21

Yes.
“The children were sitting around, doing nothing.” “The witness finally broke down on the stand.”
“Our boss called off the meeting.” “She looked up her old boyfriend.”

Question 22

The word that is combined with a verb in a phrasal verb is called a what?

Answer 22

A Particle

Question 23

What is a causative verb?

Answer 23

a verb that designates the action necessary to cause another action to happen. In “The Evil made me do it.”
the verb “made” causes the “do” to happen.

Question 24

Most causative verbs are followed by what?

Answer 24

Most causative verbs are followed by an object (noun or pronoun) followed by an infinitive: “She allows her pet cockatiel to perch on the windowsill.” “She hired a carpenter to build a new birdcage.”

Question 25

Three causative verbs are exceptions to the pattern of being followed by an object followed by an infinitive, what are their names?

Answer 25

1. Have
2. Make
3. Let
   They are followed by a noun/pronoun and the base form of the verb (which is actually an infinitive with the “to” left off).
   “Professor Villas had her students read four short novels in one week.”

Question 26

What is a factitive verb?

Answer 26

A verb that can take two objects, or seem to:
“They judged Philbert’s dog Best of Show.” (where “dog” is the direct object and “Best of Show” is the second complement).

Question 27

What is tense?

Answer 27

Tense shows the time of a verb’s action or being.

Question 28

What are the three forms of tense?

Answer 28

1. The present tense: indicates that something is happening or being now. “She is a student.” “She drives a new car.”
2. Simple past tense: indicates that something happened in the past. “She was a student.” “She drove a new car.”
3. Past participle: Combined with auxiliary verbs to indicate that something happened in the past prior to another action “She has been a student.” “She had driven a new car.”

Question 29

What is the progressive tense?

Answer 29

The progressive tense indicates something being or happening, formed with the present participle form (ending in -ing) along with various auxiliaries.
“She is driving. She was driving. She will be driving. She has been driving. She will have been driving.”

Question 30

What is the sequence of Tenses?

Answer 30

The relationship between verbs in a main clause and verbs in dependent clauses is important. These verb tenses don’t have to be identical as long as they reflect, logically, shifts in time and meaning: “My brother had graduated before I started college.”

Question 31

What is a verbal?

Answer 31

Words that seem to carry the idea of action or being but do not function as a true verb. Verbals are frequently accompanied by other, related words in what is called a verbal phrase.

Question 32

What is a Participle?

Answer 32

A verb form acting as an adjective. “The running dog chased the fluttering moth.” A present participle (like running or fluttering) describes a present condition; a past participle describes something that has happened: “The completely rotted tooth finally fell out of his mouth.” The distinction can be important to the meaning of the sentence; there is a huge difference between a confusing student and a confused student.

Question 33

What is an infinitive?

Answer 33

The root of a verb plus the word to. “To sleep, perchance to dream.”

Question 34

A present infinitive describes what?

Answer 34

A present condition: “I like to sleep.”

Question 35

A perfect infinitive describes what?

Answer 35

A time earlier than that of the verb: “I would like to have won that game.”

Question 36

What is a split infinitive?

Answer 36

An infinitive split by a word (often an adverb) or phrase snuck between the to of the infinitive and the root of the verb. “to boldly go”
Instead of writing “She expected her grandparents to not stay.” write “She expected her grandparents not to stay.” (Many a grammarian dislike split infinitives.)

Question 37

What is a gerund?

Answer 37

A verb form, ending in -ing, which acts as a noun. “Running in the park after dark can be dangerous.”
Gerunds are frequently accompanied by other associated words making up a gerund phrase (“running in the park after dark”).

Question 38

Can a gerund or gerund phrase be used any way a noun can?

Answer 38

Because gerunds and gerund phrases are nouns, they can be used in any way that a noun can be used:
1. as subject: Being king can be dangerous for your health.”
2. as object of the verb: “He didn’t particularly like being king.”
3. as object of a preposition: “He wrote a book about being king.”

Question 39

Although they are not, strictly speaking, verbs, infinitives and gerunds carry within them the idea of action. Combined with auxiliary verb forms, like verbs, they express what?

Answer 39

They express various shades of time.
Simple Forms: “Seeing those athletes perform is aways a great thrill.”
Perfective Forms: “The women’s hockey team hoped to have won a gold medal before they were done.”
Passive Forms: “Being chosen, however, is probably not enough.”
Perfective Passive Forms: “Having been honored this way, they went out and earned it by winning the gold.”
Perfective Progressive Infinitive: “To have been competing at that level, at their age already, was quite an accomplishment.”

Question 40

What is the difference in meaning between a gerund and an infinitive?

Answer 40

A gerund is used to describe an “actual, vivid, or fulfilled action” whereas infinitives are better used to describe “potential, hypothetical, or future events”. This is especially true with three kinds of verbs: verbs of emotion, verbs of completion/incompletion, and verbs of remembering.