Verbs

When I was a child, my teachers taught me: "A verb is an action word." I too taught the same to children when I became a teacher.

It never occurs to young students to ask where the action word is in the sentence: I am a student. If a smart little one asked you that question, you'd be faced with a bit of a challenge, wouldn't you?

Little children's language stomachs can only digest the "milk" of English grammar. But you as a smart adult are surely looking for more 'solid food.'

So here are some verb-dishes for you. Try all, but not all on one day; lest you get grammatical indigestion!

What is a Verb?

You will find here a learner-centered explanation with words which help you visualize the verb-family.

Types of Verbs

Shows three different ways of classifying them, i.e. according to:

• their meaning,
• morphology, or
• syntax

Principal Parts of Verbs

The parts refer to the five single-word forms of a verb, including its base form. We also learn here the basis for the division into regular and irregular verbs.

List of Verbs

We begin here with a list of Finite and Non-Finite Verbs (formed from the verb 'to eat')

Subject-Verb Agreement

Subject-Verb Agreement is a problem area for many. Fact is that everything here is based on one single rule. This page explains what and how we need to understand and apply the rule.

Verb Tenses

A topic we have learned in school year after year; yet few have confidence in the use of it. This page will guide you how to approach this topic so that you can have an intimate understanding and relish of the topic and be able to guide others to a better understanding.

Helping Verbs

This page will help you to understand...

• what helping verbs are not
• what they are, and
• how they help in order to deserve their name.

For Further Reading...

Go from Verbs to Parts of Speech

or Return to English Grammar Home Page