SEMINAR 3 – FULL VERBS (SGEL 3.1 – 3.10; Chalker – ex.

8 – 15)

- major categories: full verbs – primary verbs – modal auxiliaries; finite v. non-finite
verb forms – spelling changes – irregular verbs

As a word class, verbs can be divided into 3 major categories:

a) full verbs (=lexical verbs) – e.g. work, live, like….etc. → can act only as main verbs
b) primary verbs: be, have, do → can act either as main verbs or auxiliaries
c) modal auxiliaries: can, may, shall, will, must, could, might, should, would → can act
only as auxiliary verbs

- if there is only one verb in the verb phrase, it is the main verb
- if there are more verbs, the final one is the main verb, the other verbs that
come before it are auxiliaries

e.g. He lives with his mother and sister. (1 verb – the main verb)
He has been working on the project for 3 months. (3 verbs – 2
auxiliaries + main verb)
A)

I. FULL VERBS

Verb forms

- regular full verbs have four morphological forms:

a) base form - the form which has no inflection = the bare infinitive (i.e. without to) or
to-infinitive
b) –s form (e.g. he works, she lives, it rains)
c) –ing participle (e.g. living, watching)
d) –ed form (e.g. worked, lived, watched)

- irregular verbs – the number of forms varies: speak (5 forms), cut (3 forms), build (4 forms)

! the primary verb “be” has eight forms: be, am, are, is, was, were, been, being

II. FINITE AND NON-FINITE VERB FORMS

We distinguish:

- finite and non-finite verb forms (=individual verb forms)

→one / or more verb forms then make a finite or non-finite verb phrases
→ the whole clause is then either finite or non-finite

A finite verb must normally have:

- a subject (which may be hidden, e.g. in the imperative)
- a tense – e.g. She wrote a book.

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1. Finite verb forms:

-s form e.g. She gets up at 7 every day. (subject + present tense)

-past form e.g. He stayed there till 8 o’clock. (subject + past tense)

- the base form e.g. I call my parents regularly. (subject +present tense)
Call at once. (subject is ´you´ in the imperative)
They demanded that she call and see them. (subjunctive = base form with no
–s inflection in the 3rd person, used after certain verbs, e.g. insist,
recommend, suggest; or adjectives, e.g. essential, vital, etc.)

How do we recognize a finite verb form?

Finite verb forms:

a) can occur as the verb phrase of independent clauses

b) have tense contrast (i.e. between present and past tenses)
c) have person concord and number concord, e.g. she works, they are working
d) have mood – indicative, imperative, subjunctive

2. Non-finite verb forms:

- ing participle e.g. He is calling her now. (progressive aspect)

Seeing him, I remembered his sister. (-ing participle clause)

- ed participle e.g. He has called twice today. (perfect aspect)

Her brother is called John. (passive)
Asked for help, he tried to do his best. (-ed participle clause)

- the base form (sometimes) e.g. He may call tonight. (bare infinitive)
We want her to call. (to-infinitive)

III. FINITE AND NONFINITE VERB PHRASES

The above mentioned forms make verb phrases.

F N N
e.g. John has been learning Spanish for 3 months.

a) has is a finite verb form

b) been is a nonfinite form
c) learning is a nonfinite form
d) the whole verb phrase – has been learning – is finite because the 1st verb is finite →
the clause is finite too

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1. Finite verb phrase

- is a phrase which comprises only one finite verb

e.g. She works in a shop. (=finite verb and finite phrase)

Call me later. (here: the base form is finite, the verb phrase is finite too) - imperative

- or a phrase comprising more verb forms - the first is F, the others are NF

e.g. I have met him before. (= have (F) + met (NF) → the whole phrase is F)

2. Non-finite verb phrase

- is a phrase in which the first or only verb is a non-finite verb – i.e. –ing participle and –
ed participle (always) and the base form (only sometimes!)

e.g. Seeing him, I remembered I wanted to talk to him. (= a non-finite verb

form)
Called early, he ate a quick breakfast. (=a non-finite verb form)
To smoke like that must be dangerous. (= non-finite verb from)

Compare the following examples:

1. She has two sisters. – one verb form - “has” – a F verb form
– the verb phrase – “has” is F too
– the whole clause is therefore F!

2. He has finished the work. – 2 verb forms: “has” – F; “finished” – NF

- the verb phrase – “has finished” – is F (because the 1st
verb is finite)
- the whole clause is F!

3. Seeing the photo in the magazine, she remembered her holiday in Italy.

- “seeing” is a NF verb form – the verb phrase and the whole clause (=Seeing the
photo in the magazine) must be therefore NF too!

- the other clause (= she remembered her holiday in Italy) is finite –“ remembered” is
a F verb form

!!! THE ONLY POSSIBLE COMBINATIONS OF VERB FORMS IN A VERB PHRASE:

1) F (+N + N) He plays football. / He is playing football. / He has been playing football

for two years.

2) N (+N + N) Seeing him, she smiled. / Having finished his work, he went home. /
Having been sacked, he had to look for a different job.

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B)

SPELLING AND PRONUNCIATION

a) -ing – is merely added to the base: walk – walking, work, listen, visit, play, etc.

-s inflection has 3 pronunciations:

/iz/ = after sibilants, e.g. passes, catches, pushes
/z/ = after voiced consonants+ vowels, e.g. tries, calls, plays
/s/ = after voiceless cons., e.g. locks, cuts, looks

-ed form has 3 pronunciations:

/id/ = after bases ending in –d + t, e.g. decided, wanted, visited
/d/ = after voiced cons. (except d) + vowels, e.g. played, earned
/t/ = after voiceless cons. (except t), e.g. worked, packed

b) doubling of consonant: before –ing and –ed when the preceding vowel is stressed and
spelled with a single letter
e.g. occur – occurring - occurred
prefer – preferring - preferred

!in BrE there is doubling after unstressed –l, -m, -p e.g. travelling, programming,
worshipped

!notice: words in -c (spelled –ck): panic – panicking - panicked

c) deletion of and addition of –e:

- unpronounced –e is dropped before –ing and –ed, e.g. create – creating

- but: bases in –ye, -oe, -nge (e.g. tinge) lose it before –ed, but do not lose it
before -ing
e.g. dye – dyed – dyeing
- before the –s ending an –e is added after sibilant consonants: s, z, ch, sh, x –
e.g. watches, washes, passes, coaxes
- -e is added after –o: goes, does, vetoes

d) treatment of -y

- consonant + y → -ie before –s and –ed, e.g. carries, carried

- vowel + -y and when preceded by –ing → y remains, e.g. stayed, staying
- notice: die, lie, tie, vie: -ie changes into –y before –ing: die – dying, lie - lying

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C)
IRREGULAR FULL VERBS

- have three principal parts – base form, the past form, the –ed participle
- some irregular verbs also have the regular –ed inflection, e.g.

burn burnt / burned burnt / burned

dream dreamt / dreamed dreamt / dreamed
learn learnt / learned learnt / learned

- the verbs with prefix usually have the same forms as the corresponding uprefixed forms, e.g.

sleep slept slept v. oversleep overslept overslept

go went gone v. undergo underwent undergone

!! LIST OF IRREGULAR VERBS – see Greenbaum and Quirk, A Student’s Grammar of the
English Language, p. 29 - 34

STUDENTS ARE EXPECTED TO STUDY THIS LIST AND LEARN THE

IRREGULAR VERBS WHICH THEY DO NOT KNOW YET!

D)
PARTICIPLES

- present participles – e.g. crying, walking, talking

- past participles – e.g. broken, gone, opened, started
- they can be put together to make progressive and perfect forms – e.g. being unemployed,
having been invited

Use

- with the auxiliary verbs “be” and “have” to make progressive, perfect and passive verb
forms, e.g. It was raining when I got home. / I’ve forgotten your name.

- like adjectives, e.g. I love the noise of falling rain. / John has become very boring.
She says she’s got a broken heart. / The house looked abandoned.

- they can combine with other words into clause-like structures, e.g.

Who’s the fat man sitting in the corner?

Having lost all my money, I went home.
Most of the people invited to the party didn’t turn up.
Rejected by all his friends, he decided to become a monk.

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Participle clauses (are nonfinite)

a) after nouns; reduced relative clauses

e.g. Anyone touching that wire will get a shock. (= Anyone who touches ….)
I found him sitting at a table covered with papers.
There’s Neville, eating as usual.

b) adverbial clauses (usually rather formal)

e.g. Used economically, one tin will last for six weeks. (=If it is used …)
Having failed my medical exams, I took up teaching. (=As I had failed…)
Being unable to help in any other way, I gave her some money. (= As I was unable..)

c) participle clauses after conjunctions and prepositions

e.g. After talking to you I always feel better.

When telephoning from abroad, dial 865, not 0865.
They left without saying goodbye.

- Ing forms

- perfect – Having slept for twelve hours, I felt marvellous.

- passive – She loves being looked at. / I don’t like being told what to do.
- negative – Not knowing what to do, I went home.

Examples:

a) two things happening at the same time:

e.g. She is in the bar having a drink. (=she is in the bar and she is having a drink)
A man ran out of the house shouting. (=he ran out of the house and he was shouting)
Jim hurt his arm playing tennis / while playing tennis. (=while he was playing)
Be careful when crossing the road. (=when your are crossing)

b) explaining something / saying why somebody does something

e.g. Feeling tired, he had some coffee. (=because he felt tired)

Being unemployed, he hasn’t got much money. (=because he is unemployed)

c) one action happens before another action (for the first action we use “having
done..”)

e.g. Having finished her work, she switched on TV and watched a film.
= After she (had) finished her work, .....

Having done all her shopping, she went for a cup of coffee.
= After she (had) done .../ When she had done all her shopping, ......