Verbs are words that describe a mental or physical action, a state of being, or an occurrence. By doing so, they often give us the most information among the parts of speech in a sentence. A sentence can exist without a noun, but it cannot without a verb.<\/p>\n
A verb’s base form is its infinitive<\/a>, which is the verb root with the word “to.” From there, a basic understanding of verbs continues with action verbs and linking verbs<\/a>, which may be regular or irregular<\/a>.<\/p>\n An action verb expresses something that the subject can do. A linking verb describes the subject’s feelings or state of being by “linking” the subject to a subject complement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Verbs are also guided by tense, which conveys an action’s timing.<\/p>\n Examples Action Verb<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Wanda walks<\/u> a mile every morning. (present tense)<\/p>\n Jason jumped<\/u> into the swimming pool. (past tense)<\/p>\n Zendaya will<\/u> watch<\/u> the movie after school. (future tense)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Examples Linking Verb<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Wanda seems<\/u> dedicated to walking a mile every morning. (present tense)<\/p>\n Jason felt<\/u> cold in the swimming pool’s water. (past tense)<\/p>\n Zendaya will<\/u> be<\/u> excited about the movie after school. (future tense)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Note how each word that follows the linking verbs is descriptive.<\/p>\n A verb is regular if it follows a standard pattern of conjugation, which often means there is no vowel change among the present tense, past tense, and past participle. The past-tense verb and past participle also end in -d<\/em>, -ed, <\/em>or -ied<\/em>.<\/p>\n A verb is irregular if it follows a nonstandard pattern of conjugation, which often means it has vowel changes among the present tense, past tense, and past participle. The past-tense verb and past participle also typically end in something other than -d<\/em>, -ed, <\/em>or -ied<\/em>.<\/p>\n Examples Regular Verb<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Jason jumps<\/u> into the swimming pool. (present tense)<\/p>\n Jason jumped<\/u> into the swimming pool. (past tense)<\/p>\n Jason has<\/u> jumped<\/u> into the swimming pool. (present perfect<\/a> with participle<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Examples Irregular Verb<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Olena writes<\/u> good books. (present tense)<\/p>\n Olena wrote<\/u> good books. (past tense)<\/p>\n Olena has written<\/u> good books. (present perfect with participle)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As you’ve seen in the preceding examples, the verb tells us the action, state of being, or occurrence in a sentence. This makes the verb central to understanding what is happening in the sentence.<\/p>\nHow Do You Recognize Verbs in a Sentence?<\/h2>\n