Page 39 - DENG103_English - I

English–I Jayatee Bhattacharya, Lovely Professional University

Notes
Unit 4: Parts of Speech: Verb and Adverb

CONTENTS
Objectives

Introduction
4.1 Verb Classification
4.2 Adverb
4.3 Summary

4.4 Keywords
4.5 Review Questions
4.6 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Know about verbs and adverbs

• Explain helping verbs and main verbs
• Explain present, past and future tenses.

Introduction

The verb is king in English. The shortest sentence contains a verb. You can make a one-word
sentence with a verb, for example: “Stop!” You cannot make a one-word sentence with any
other type of word.
Verbs are sometimes described as “action words”. This is partly true. Many verbs give the
idea of action, of “doing” something. For example, words like run, fight, do and works all
convey action.

But some verbs do not give the idea of action; they give the idea of existence, of state, of
“being”. For example, verbs like be, exist, seem and belong all convey state.
A verb always has a subject. (In the sentence “John speaks English”, John is the subject and speaks is
the verb.) In simple terms, therefore, we can say that verbs are words that tell us what a
subject does or is; they describe:
• action (Ram plays football.)

• state (Anthony seems kind.)
There is something very special about verbs in English. Most other words (adjectives, adverbs,
prepositions etc) do not change in form (although nouns can have singular and plural forms).
But almost all verbs change in form. For example, the verb to work has five forms:

• to work, work, works, worked, working
Of course, this is still very few forms compared to some languages which may have thirty or
more forms for a single verb.

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