VERBS

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ERRORS

MECHANICS

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101

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A) *DEFINITION:

· Verbs show action: run, jump, punch.

· Verbs also show state of being: is, am, are, was, were (forms of "to be")

B) *TENSES:

· Essentially, the English language has four verb tenses.

· However, the first two are the most common in essays:

	SIMPLE	PERFECT (HAVE)
PAST	ROOT (+ED)	HAD + -ED
PRESENT	ROOT (he/she/it +S)	HAS/HAVE + -ED
FUTURE	WILL + ROOT	WILL HAVE + -ED

	PROGRESSIVE	PERFECT PROGRESSIVE
PAST	WAS/WERE + -ING	HAD BEEN + ING
PRESENT	IS/AM + -ING	HAS/HAVE BEEN + ING
FUTURE	WILL BE + -ING	WILL HAVE BEEN + ING

(* -ED = past participle, regular or irregular forms)

(* -ING = present participle)

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I. SIMPLE TENSES:

SIMPLE PRESENT:

· ROOT (+s)

· present/current or habitual action

· Jane drinks coffee every morning before her English class.

· ** “eternal present” works of literature and art are referred to in the present tense (every time you open the text to Hamlet it says…)

SIMPLE PAST:

· ROOT + ed

· completed action

· Duane finished his assignment before the rest of the class.

SIMPLE FUTURE:

· WILL BE + -ING

· action to be completed in the future

· Mary Anne will interview Dr. Wilson for her interrogative speech assignment.

II. PERFECT TENSES:

PRESENT PERFECT:

· HAS/HAVE + -ED

· action that began in the past AND continues still

· action overlaps 2 time periods: past and present

· Angel has not smoked a cigarette since her aunt died of lung cancer.

PAST PERFECT:

· HAD + -ED

· action completed before another action in the past

· action completed by a certain time (I had a dollar = simple past, but I had had a dollar until I was hungry for a candy bar = past perfect, with the necessary inclusion of a clause that specifies a time the action stopped in the past)

· Before Dr. Housenick could begin his lecture, JoJo had begun to daydream about the holiday vacation.

FUTURE PERFECT:

· WILL HAVE + -ED

· action to be completed before/by a specific time in the future

· action may have been started in the past, continued in the present, and completed in the future (overlap of 3 time periods)

· By the time of the Writing Competency Exam, we will have written four essays.

III. PROGRESSIVE TENSES:

PRESENT PROGRESSIVE:

· IS/AM + -ING

· action that is still in progress

· The vice-President of Student Affairs is considering the students’ proposal.

PAST PROGRESSIVE:

· WAS/WERE + -ING

· past action that took place over a period of time OR past action that was interrupted by another action

· It began to storm while they were looking for a place to park.

· She was singing the national anthem as the jets flew overhead.

FUTURE PROGRESSIVE:

· WILL BE + -ING

· future action that will continue for some time

· “I will be studying for Dr. Housenick’s grammar test all night long,” Jean claimed.

IV. PERFECT PROGRESSIVE TENSES:

PRESENT PERFECT PROGRESSIVE:

· HAS/HAVE BEEN + ING

· action that began in the past, continues in the present, and may continue into the future

· The city council members have been considering the closure of that school since March of last year.

PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE:

· HAD BEEN + ING

· ongoing condition of the past that has ended

· Dr. Housenick had been correcting the test when he got too frustrated and went home.

FUTURE PERFECT PROGRESSIVE:

· WILL HAVE BEEN + ING

· action continuing until a specified time in the future

· Come May, those five students will have been attending LCCC for five years.

(* -ED = past participle, regular or irregular forms)

(* -ING = present participle)

C) *IRREGULAR VERB FORMS:

LAY (to set):	lay	laid	have laid
LIE (to recline):	lie	lay	have lain

DRIVE:	drive	drove	have driven
RIDE:	ride	rode	have ridden

AWAKE:	awake	awoke	have awoken
WAKE:	wake	woke	have woken

RISE: (no object)	rise	rose	have risen
RAISE: (takes object)	raise	raised (regular verb)	have raised

*SNEAK:	sneak	sneaked (not* snuck)**	have sneaked
*DRAG:	drag	dragged (not* drug)**	have dragged

D) *ACTIVE and PASSIVE VOICE:

1) Active Voice:

· the subject is the performer of the verb action.

· preferred*

· Castiglione hit the home run.

2) Passive Voice:

· the action of the verb is done to someone/thing (to be + verb—“was bitten”) (“by”)

· The home run was hit by Castiglione.

· At times, the passive voice may be necessary:

o you want to keep the focus on the person or object acted upon, as opposed to the performer of that action

§ The quarterly profits were significantly reduced by the opening of the competitor’s new store.

§ Here, the focus is on the quarterly profits and not on the opening of a new store.

o the performer of the action is unknown

§ The suspected terrorist was held for questioning.

§ Here, the person/s detaining the suspect is unknown and unimportant; also, readers could surmise who was detaining the prisoner based on common sense and knowledge of who has such specialized authority.

E. *LINKING and HELPING VERBS:

1) LINKING VERBS:

1) forms of “to be” (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been)

2) appear, become, feel, grow, look, remain, seem, smell, sound, stay, taste

2) HELPING VERBS: (part of full verb) (-ing)

is	am	are	was	were	be	being
been	has	have	had	do	does	did
can	may	might	must	will, shall	could	should/would

*Note: those LINKING VERBS can function as HELPING VERBS in different sentences.

CAN-COULD and WILL-WOULD:

PRESENT	PAST and POSSIBILITY
CAN	COULD
WILL	WOULD

F. *GERUND vs. VERB:

· VERB =

o Helping Verb + -ing

o Bob was running to across the Quad because he was late for class.

· GERUND =

o -ing functioning as NOUN

o Running is a great form of exercise. (no Helping Verb, and names an activity)

G. *MAIN VERBS vs. VERBS in DEPENDENT CLAUSES:

· MAIN VERB can have a HELPING VERB

o Jackie was revising her English Composition essay.

· MAIN VERB can be more than one verb (“compound predicate” when the Subject performs more than one action)

o Barry jumped, danced, and sang after he learned he aced his Statistics exam.

· Because our sentences become more complex as we mature as writers, they often include dependent clauses, which have, by definition, verbs within them. In order not to confuse the MAIN VERB with other verbs that may appear in the sentence, find the Subject and ask, “What did he/she/it do?”

o “relative clauses” (that, which, who) and “subordinate clauses” (because, since, when, if, although)

o The professor who had a mental breakdown retired from the teaching profession.

Because it was raining, I brought an umbrella to school.