Verb is an important ingredient in sentence making. Even a single standing verb can be a sentence. A sentence is not understood complete if it doesn’t have a verb. Whatever a subject intends to do, a verb makes it true.
You | write.
Sara | played.
You and Sara | are speaking.
In all of the above sentences, the subjects (you, Sara, & you and Sara) intend to start some action (writing, playing and speaking) that the verbs (write, play and speak) make them happen. Without the help of the verbs, you cannot express what you is going to do. Because these verbs work to express some actions, they are called action verbs.
A verb is also important in a sentence because it helps the subject in expressing the state of its existence or being or helps in describing a subject.
You |are| in the room.
Sara |is| a girl.
You and Sara |will be| happy.
The sentences shown above obviously do not have verbs like previous examples of the sentences. The verbs (are, is and will) do not imply any actions but, of course, it is expressing the subject’s existence (in the room) or being (girl) or describing the subjects (happy).
These verbs work to link the subject to its state of being, and that is why they are called linking verbs. Since linking verbs show connection or express either existence or state of being or describes the subjects, they always take either nouns or adjectives or prepositional phrases. In above examples, girl, happy and in the room are noun, adjective and prepositional phrases respectively.
Apart from is-are-am categories (to be category) of linking verbs, some linking verbs appear like action verbs.
You |seem| lucky.
Sara |becomes| smart.
You and Sara |feel| dizzy.
The verbs, seem, become, and feel, are linking verbs. Also, lucky, smart, and dizzy are adjectives, so obviously the verbs here are linking verbs.
Note that these types of linking verbs do not take nouns and adverbs. A linking verb does not have an object. And if a noun follows a linking verb, it is no longer a linking verb. It is an action verb. Likewise if a linking verb ends in an adverb, it is not a linking verb. See below examples
Sara |smells| like the soup.
Sara |smells| the soup.
Sara |smells| bad.
Sara |smells| badly.
In the first example, smell is a linking verb because of the adjective, like. In the second, smell is an action verb because of soup being a noun used as an object. In the third example, smell is a linking verb because of the adjective, bad. In the fourth example, smell is not a linking verb because of the adverb, badly.
There is another category of is-are-am that looks the same, but is not the linking verb. These verbs help the verb to perform action in a certain time.
You |were| going to Patna.
Sara |has| helped me.
You and Sara |will| come.
Were, has and will are indicating the time of the actions of going, helping, coming being the past, present, and future time respectively. Because these verbs help a verb showing its time relations, they are called helping verbs or auxiliary verbs.
Helping verbs also work like linking verbs but in a time frame.
You |were| in the room.
Sara |was| happy.
You and Sara |are| nice.
Were, was (past) and is (present) indicate time. Non to-be linking verbs also indicate time. Some of them (seem and appear) change their verb forms like action verbs to indicate time; and most of them (feel, smell, look) may take to be verbs (is, are, am, was, were) to indicate time. Some of the helping verbs are will, would, do, did, may, might, can, should, etc.
You |appeared| happy.
Sara |seemed| crazy for the noodles.
You |are| feeling nice. Or, you |feel| nice.
Sara |is| looking ill. Or, Sara |looks| ill.
Action always happens in a time frame. An action of eating may occur in present, past or future time. So a verb needs to be adapted or accompanied with to be verbs to show the time of action it performs.
You |play|. (Present)
You |played|. (Past)
You |will play|. (Future)
So a sentence not only tells about a subject’s intention but it also shows some time frame in which this intention is poured out.
Some verbs take an object to clear a sense, some do not. Linking verbs always do not take an object. Action verbs may or may not. The verb that takes an object is a transitive verb and the rest is an intransitive verb.
Transitive verb
He | takes dinner at 10.
You | played tennis.
Sara | is planning a trip to London.
We | give him apples to eat.
All of these verbs need an object to make a thought complete. The last one has two objects- him, a direct object and apples, an indirect object.
Intransitive verb
He | went to Patna.
Sara | sits on the sofa.
Most people | die of hunger.
You | arrived here in a car.
She | sings at the party.
All of these verbs need not take an object to make a thought complete. They can stand alone in a sentence. The last one can be both types of verb. If we add an object, for example, song, after the verb, it becomes transitive.
She | sings a song at the party.
Verbs with some of the helping verbs (can, could, may, might, must, should, etc.), placed before the verb, are used to show certainty, probability, possibility, ability, or can be used to ask permission, and make a request. These verbs are modal verbs.
The boy |must be| in the class. (certainty)
It |might be| raining when we leave the office. (probability)
He |could take| the train tomorrow. (possibility)
Sara |can lift up| the box. (ability)
|May| I use your laptop? (permission)
|Would| you bring a coffee for me? (request)
Verbs often come with prepositions that alter its original meaning. Verbs such as look after, make up, bring about, look forward to, etc. are treated as single units and called phrasal verbs.
Sara has to |look after| the kids at home.
The thief |made up| a story to save himself.
The principal did all to |bring about| a change in the college system.
You are |looking forward to| receiving a grant.
We |look up to| our boss for inspiration.
There is another class of verb which we often use in our sentences. This class is known as a non-finite or infinitive verb. The infinitive verb always follows to, such as to know, to run, to read, to go, etc.
Infinitives can come in a sentence as the main verb or they can follow a main verb. When they are used as the main verb, they either take to be (is, are, am, was, were, will be, shall be) or to have (have, has, had, will have, shall have).
When they take to-be construct, they are used to express intention or external obligation.
You |are to move| to Delhi.
Sara |was to go| to the party yesterday.
We |are to ask| a question.
In all of the above sentences, the speakers are willing to perform those actions (moving to Delhi, going to party, asking a question).
When these verbs come with a to-have construct, they are used to express internal compulsion.
You |have to move| to Delhi.
Sara |had to go| to the party yesterday.
We |have to ask| a question.
In all of the above sentences, the speakers have no choice. They are bound to perform those actions (moving to Delhi, going to party, asking a question).
When these verbs come after the main verb, they just add the meaning of that verb (i.e. infinitives).
You |decided to take| lunch.
Sara |wanted to cook| herself.
We |are asked to provide| dinner.
They |advised him to teach|.
She gave him peanuts |to eat|.
Infinitives are not verbs, therefore, they don’t behave like verbs grammatically, but, of course, they retain their basic meaning. They behave like nouns, adjectives and adverbs.
The verbs are important parts of sentences. There are more to study in verbs. And that needs a full chapter and out of scope here.
No comments:
Post a Comment