Verb

What is a verb?

The verb is derived from a Latin Verbum, a word. This is the most important word in a sentence. A Verb may tell us what a person does, what is done to a person, or what a person or a thing is. It often consists of more than one word. 

Examples Of Verb In English:

• The boy kicks the football; in this sentence, the action is denoted by the verb ‘kicks’, here it is passed over from the doer or the subject to the object ‘football.’ 
• The boy laughs loudly; in this sentence, the action is denoted by the verb ‘laughs’, which stops with the doer, and is not passed onto something or someone.
• Please keep yourself busy; this sentence is an example where the verb is used as a reflexive. The object and the subject refer to the subject only.
• The baby sleeps; It is an Intransitive sentence and it does not need an object.

Forms Of Verb:

In the English language. There are six forms of Verbs; 

• Base form: The boys play in the field.
• Infinitive: Ask the children not to play.
• Past tense: They played basketball yesterday.
• Past participle: I had eaten a whole pizza.
• Present participle: I saw them singing with the instruments today.
• Gerund: Swimming is the best water sport.

Types Of Verb:

Verbs in the English language are divided into two parts; Main Verb and Auxiliary Verb.

• Main Verb: The main verb is the act done by the verb’s subject. This is further divided into Finite and Infinite, Transitive and Intransitive and Regular and Irregular.
• Auxiliary Verb: This verb influences the mood, voice, aspect of another verb, or tense. Further divided into Modal Verbs and Helping Verbs.

Main Verb:

These are actions done on or by a subject. These action words can be easily identified. The main action you should notice is to see what the subject is doing. 

• Finite Verb: Usually, finite verbs correspond with a subject. These finite verbs are utilized in sentences to indicate tense. They have a specific relationship to a subject or noun. 

Example: He gave a written statement before a judge.

• Infinite Verb: These verbs do not correspond to the subject or tense.

Example: I want to achieve greatness; here, achieving is not dependent on tense or a person.

• Transitive Verb: A transitive verb is a verb that denotes an action that passes over from the subject or doer to an object. 

Example: The ants fought the wasps.

• Intransitive Verb: An Intransitive verb is a verb that denotes an action that does not pass over to an object; it expresses a state of being.

Example: Some ants fight very fiercely.

• Regular Verb: A regular verb is one whose inflexion follows predictable patterns.

Example: I’m going to sing a song today.

• Irregular Verb: A verb that does not produce the past tense by adding the normal -ed ending.

Example: I was singing a song the day before.

Are Auxiliary Verbs finite verbs?:

Auxiliary verbs are frequently referred to as assisting verbs. This means this verb influences the mood, tense, voice, or tense. They are employed in perfect and progressive tenses.

An auxiliary verb complements the primary verb by indicating time, tense, and potential. Auxiliary verbs include be verbs, have verbs, and do verbs.

There is a question that arises- are auxiliary verbs finite verbs? Auxiliary verbs, unlike main verbs, cannot be the sole verb in a phrase, except in elliptical forms in which the main verb is assumed to be present. Auxiliary verbs always come before main verbs within a verb phrase, for example, “You will aid me.” However, in interrogative phrases, the auxiliary comes before the subject, for example, “Will you aid me?”

According to the rules, a main verb in active voice can have auxiliaries that would be changed while changing the verb in passive voice. Eg- Ram kicked the ball- “Kicked” is the main verb in active voice. The ball was kicked by Ram while playing.- “Was kicked” is the auxiliary and main verbs respectively in passive voice. 

There are two types of Auxiliary verbs; modals and non-modals. Modals are also known to be used as non-infinitive forms, such as can, may, shall, need, dare, etc. Non-modals are also known to have infinitives, such as be, use, have, do, etc.

Examples of Auxiliary verbs:

The main verb is in italics and the auxiliary verb is in bold italics.

• She has been studying.
• He is waiting in the hallway.
• The phone will be disconnected very soon; here, the auxiliary verb helps the sentence form a passive word.
• Did you win the football match? Here the auxiliary verb is used to express an interrogative mood.
• Elliot has been drinking orange juice since the morning.

Conclusion:

In English for Business Correspondence, we usually use four sub-categories of the prevalent tenses- present, past and future. These four types are as follows: simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous.