G AMMAR

3. V ERBS
A Verb is a word that tells or asserts something about a person or thing. Verb
comes from the Latin verbum, a word. It is so called because it is the most
important word in asentence.
Verbs can be classified under two categories
1. Action verbs: play, work, make, think, etc.
2. Stative verbs: be, act, appear, become, feel, look, run, seem, smell, taste,
sound, continue, prove, remain, sit, stand and turn (only when they are
followed by adjectives).
The meaning expressed by a verb in present or past tense depends to a great
extent on whether the verb refers to a single constant state, as in I know her
address, or to a dynamic occurrence, as in:‘He goes to work by train.’
More exactly, the meaning depends on whether the verb is being used statively
or dynamically, since many verbs lend themselves to both interpretations. ‘Have’
usually refers to a state, as in birds have wings, but it also has dynamic uses as in
have breakfast.
In general, dynamic but not stative senses can occur with the imperative and
progressive, and after do in wh-cleft sentences:
Have breakfast! We are having breakfast. What we did was have breakfast.
*Have wings! *Birds are having wings. *What birds do is have wings.

 They can be under the active or the passive voice

 They can be transitive or intransitive:
1. A Transitive verb is a verb that denotes an action which passes over
from the doer or Subject to an object. They need direct objects to
complete their meanings.
Heannoyedme.
S V O
Most transitive verbs take a single object. But such Transitive Verbs as give,
ask,offer, promise, tell, etc., take two objects after them - an Indirect Object
which denotesthe person to whom something is given or for whom something is
 done, and a DirectObject which is usually the name of something. E.g.; He gave
his mother (IO) a present (D.O).
She told them (IO) a secret (DO).
Note: in the example above the direct object is necessary for the completion of
the verb meaning. Therefore, if the object is omitted, the sentence becomes
meaningless.
2. An Intransitive verb is a verb that denotes an action which does not
pass over to an
object, or which expresses a state or being. They do not need objects to
complete their meanings.
Maryarrived.
S V
Note:Some Verbs, e.g., come, go, fall, die, sleep, lie, denote actions which cannot
be done to anything; they can, therefore, never be used transitively.
Most verbs can be used both as transitive and as intransitive verbs. It is,
therefore,better to say that a verb is used Transitively or Intransitively rather than
that it isTransitive or Intransitive.
Used transitively:
1. The ants fought the wasps.
2. The shot sank the ship.
3. Ring the bell, Rama.
4. The driver stopped the train.
Used Intransitively:
1. Some ants fight very fiercely.
2. The ship sank rapidly.
3. The bell rang loudly.
4. The train stopped suddenly.
In such a sentence as ‘The man killed himself. ' where the Subject and the Object
bothrefer to the same person, the verb is said to be used reflexively.
 Sometimes, though the verb is used reflexively, the Object is not expressed. In
thefollowingexamples the reflexive pronoun understood is put in brackets:
1. The bubble burst [itself].
2. The guests made [themselves] merry.
3. Please keep [yourselves] quiet.
 4. With these words he turned [himself] to the door.
 Some Intransitive Verbs may become Transitive by having a Preposition added to
them ; as:
1. All his friends laughed at (= derided) him.
2. He will soon run through (= consume) his fortune.
3. Please look into (= investigate) the matter carefully.
 Intransitive Verbs sometimes take after them an object akin or similar in meaning
to
the Verb. Such an object is called the Cognate Object or Cognate Accusative.
E.g.;
1. I have fought a good fight.
2. He laughed a hearty laugh.
3. I dreamt a strange dream.
4. He sleeps the sleep of the just.
5. Let me die the death of the righteous.
 Verbs can also be regular or irregular under the past simple tense and the past
participle.
 They can be singular or plural
Verbs do not form their plurals by adding an ‘s’ as nouns do. So we say that a
verb is singular when it follows a singular noun or the third person pronouns (he,
she, it) in some tenses. Consider the tables below:
The singular form
To be To have To do To play, to cry,
etc.
Present Is Has Does Plays, cries, etc.
simple
Past simple Was / / /

The plural form

To be To have To do To play, to cry,
etc.
Present Are Have Do Play, cries, etc.
simple
Past simple Were / / /
We say that a verb is plural when it is preceded by a plural noun but there are
some tricky cases:

1. The news is bad today. (News takes an ‘s’ but it is singular.)

2. Everybody is here. (Everybody, somebody, everyone, etc. are singular.)
3. The number of students is high this year. (The subject here is number.)
4. Two and two is four. (Sums and products of mathematical processes are
expressed as singular.)
5. Thirty-five thousand dollars is a lot of money. (We refer to the sum.)
6. Dollars are usually used here. (We refer to the dollars themselves.)
7. The whole family is on a trip. (The word family is a collective noun regarded
as a unit.)
8. The family have decided to go on a trip. (We refer to the individuals of the
family.)