English Verbs
English Verbs
There are four kinds of English verbs: intransitives, transitives, copulas, and auxiliaries.
Intransitive Verbs
An intransitive verb can occur alone after its subject and the two words then form a standard, grammatical English sentence.
left.> (1)
laughed.> (2)
[ In (1) and (2), left and laughed are intransitive verbs, and are the predicates in their respective sentences .]
Transitive Verbs
A transitive verb occurs after its subject and before its direct object. Some common examples of direct object follow:
Direct object which is a noun or noun phrase:
need water.> (3)
brought a box of candy.> (4)
The transitive verb in (3), need, has a common noun, water, as its direct object.
The transitive verb in (4), brought, has the noun phrase, a box of candy, as its direct object.
Direct object which is a full [finite] clause introduced by the subordinating conjunction that:
hope that she gets here on time.> (5)
The transitive verb in (5), hope, has as its direct object a full sentence introduced by that. Such a clause, after that, is always finite, i.e., a sentence whose first or only verb is in the present or past tense.
[Among transitives commonly introducing that clauses, the following have to do with communication: admit, agree, announce, argue, bet, claim, complain, confess, declare, deny, explain, guarantee, insist, mention, object, predict, promise, reply, report, say, state, suggest, swear, warn, write. Following are some other transitive verbs that occur before that clauses and are connected with knowledge, thought, understanding, etc.: believe, consider, decide, doubt, expect, fear, feel, forget, guess, hope, know, notice, presume, realize, recognize, remember, see, suppose, think, understand.]
Direct object which is a finite wh- or if clause:
heard whether the casino will open?>
know if they can afford it.>
Following are some verbs commonly occurring with such an object:
ask, care, decide, doubt, explain, forget, hear, know, mind, notice, remember, say, see, tell, wonder.
Direct object which is a nonfinite clause, i.e., a phrase that is not a full sentence:
Wh-word phrase or how-to phrase
where the dance floor is - I know how to tango.> (6)
Some verbs taking such an object:
decide, discuss, explain, forget, know, learn, remember, say, see, tell, think.
To-infinitive clause with no subject
to hike.> (7)
Some verbs taking such an object:
ask, forget, hate, hope, learn, like, love, need, offer, prefer, want
To-infinitive clause with subject
you kids to be quiet!> (8)
Some verbs that take such an object:
hate, love, prefer, want, wish.
Gerund clause with no subject
skiing because of his bad knee.> (9)
Gerund clause with subject in genitive or objective case
their praising my daughter.> (10)
them playing those old songs.> (11)
An extraposed that clause looks something like an object because it follows the verb; but it in fact is a clause that is the notional subject of the sentence, and it has been moved (“extraposed”) to the end of the sentence because of its length, and because English speakers expect the new and/or important part of a sentence to come at the end of that sentence. The few verbs with which an extraposed clause occurs are intransitives; they are appear, chance, come about, happen, seem, transpire, turn out. These seven
intransitives cannot be used at the end of the sentence, as can the kind of intransitive say in (1) and (2). [See (12), below.]
appears that we’ve lost the contract.> (12)
[appears.> is not acceptable English. ]
chanced that we had the same wish.> (13)
came about that they had both taken that train.> (14)
happens that I might know something about the incident.> (15)
seems that she doesn’t care to help you.> (16)
transpired that they did give her the job.> (17)
turns out that you’ve been wrong all along.> (18)
[The grammatical subject in examples 12-18 is the meaningless anticipatory it.]
Copulative Verbs
A copula (or copulative verb, or linking verb) connects the subject of a sentence to a noun or an adjective that usually describes or identifies the subject:
She seems bright. [Description]
They are my parents. [Identification]
or the copula connects the subject to an adverb or adverbial phrase naming a location:
They’re outside. [Location.]
The kids are in the water. [Location.]
The copulas can name something that is present or that currently exists, or something that results because of a change:
Current: He looks sick.
Resulting: He got sick
The commonest current copulas are appear
The commonest resulting copulas are become < She became a revolutionary.>; get got sick last week.>; go went wild with excitement.>; grow grew old fast after Mama died.>; prove
The verbs get, go, grow, smell, and taste are used as copulas only with adjectives, never with nouns or adverbials.
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Auxiliary Verbs
The English auxiliary verbs are the trio be, do and have, and the nine modal auxiliaries. The modals are:
Present can may shall will
must [only the one form]
Past could might should would
An auxiliary carries the negative particle not, or n’t suffixed to the end of the verb, in a negative statement:
aren’t ready.> don’t look so good.> hasn’t finished her homework.>
may not smoke in here.> can’t hear you.> won’t be here tomorrow.>
and an auxiliary comes before the sentence subject in a yes-or-no question:
When a modal auxiliary occurs, it is always the first verb in the predicate, and is thus always finite. It has no -s form for the third singular [“she can sing beautifully” rather than “she cans sing beautifully”] and it is followed by the bare infinitive, rather than “to” plus the infinitive [“I could be here tonight “] rather than [“I could to be here tonight”].
The verbs be, do, and have are unique in English in that each is both a full verb as well as an auxiliary verb.
been an accident.> [There has occurred an accident.]
’s somebody at the door.> [There exists somebody…]
been to Edinburgh.> [I’ve never gone to Edinburgh.>
did the dishes.> [I just washed/saw to/took care of…]
do lunch?> {Shall we have/eat…]
had lunch.> [ate; consumed]
has room for a lot of people.> [hold or include]
have power brakes.> [possess]
Be is also the English progressive auxiliary and the passive auxiliary:
are now studying the English verb system.>
were married last week by her brother, the bishop.>
And be, unlike the other auxiliaries and indeed any other verb, acts as its own auxiliary in negative statements and yes-or-no questions :
are ready.>
are not ready.>
And be has eight forms - be, being, been, am, is, are, was, were.
The modal auxiliary verbs convey two main kinds of meaning: some human control over events; and human judgment, or opinion, about what is likely to be true or to happen.
Human control usually touches on obligation or permission.
may not smoke in here.>
must increase production.>
can’t talk that way to me!>
Human judgment usually has to do with (logical) necessity, prediction, or possibility/ability.
must be twenty.>
must be Tuesday.
can tie 35 different knots.>
can see the steeple from here.>
may snow tonight.>
might be able to help you.>
will be your last chance.>
The past tense of a modal is almost always more polite, or deferential, than the present tense of that verb:
The past tense of modals can express a hypothetical [as yet unreal or untrue] situation:
could win that contract.>
should do the job tomorrow, but…>
would improve the looks of this place.>
A past-tense modal followed by the perfective auxiliary, have, describes a past possibility that may or may not have been realized:
should have got home by noon yesterday.>
might have called us when we were out.>
could have communicated by snail mail rather than email.>
would have completed the project.>
And a past tense modal plus auxiliary have can also express something that was possible but that was not true or never happened - an unfulfilled possibility. Which meaning obtains must be inferred from the greater context:
might have called us, you know.>
should have asked my permission to borrow the car.>
could have won if you’d trained harder.>
would have got you arrested.>
could or should I have done? What would you have done?>
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Phrasal Verbs
English has two-part and three-part verbs that are always and only transitive or intransitive full verbs, never copulas or auxiliaries.
The first part of a two-part verb is a “lexical verb” - a word that an English dictionary identifies as a verb. The second part is a preposition or a spatial adverb.
dispose of that trash.> [Verb plus preposition; intransitive]
broke down.> [Verb plus spatial adverb; intransitive]
burned down the house.> [Verb plus spatial adverb; transitive]
threw the bums out..> [Verb plus spatial adverb; transitive]
The first part of a three-part verb is a lexical verb; the second part is a spatial adverb; the third part is a preposition.
puts up with a lot from him.> [Verb, plus spatial adverb, plus preposition]
There are thousands of phrasal verbs in English and a lot of them are idioms, phrases which have to be learnt and memorized as a unit.