Additional Information about Verbs

1. Chapter Twenty-Eight Additional Information about Verbs College Writing Skills, 5E and College Writing Skills with Readings, 5EJohn Langan ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

2. Additional Information about Verbs Here are the three areas we’ll discuss in this section: • Verb Tense • Helping Verbs • Verbals ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

3. Verb Tense. . . . . . tells you the time of the action. Let’s start with the simple • present, • past, and • future. ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

4. Present Tense The present tense tells you that something is happening now. ? Example: Tom counts the sparrows. ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

5. Past Tense The past tense tells you that something happened before. Example: Sally counted the sparrows yesterday. ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

6. Future Tense The future tense tells you that something will happen later. Example: Tom and Sally will count the sparrows next weekend. ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

7. Verb Tense • We can be a little more specific about time using these other tenses: • Perfect Tense (Add a form of the verb “have”) • Progressive Tense (Add a form of the verb “be”) • Perfect Progressive Tense (Add both the verbs “have” and “be.”) ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

8. Helping Verbs Which brings us to the subject of helping verbs. There are three verbs that can both stand alone and help other verbs: Be Have Do ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

9. Helping Verbs Used Alone Used as Helping Verbs I was busy. I was getting tired. Mary has the floor. Mary has stepped in it. He did a bad thing. He did love her. Be Have Do ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

10. Helping Verbs Let’s review for a minute: I was getting tired. Mary has stepped in it. Analysis: verb “be” used as helper = progressive, and past tense of verb “be” = past progressive. Analysis: verb “have” used as helper = perfect, and present tense of verb “have” = present perfect. ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

11. There are also nine helping verbs called that are always used together to help other verbs. Let’s look at a chart: Helping Verbs Modals ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

12. Helping Verbs Can I can hope, can’t I? Could I could eat more, I suppose. May Roger may be detained. Might You might regret that tattoo, Jerry. Shall I shall see if there’s another room, sir. Should John should get his head examined. Will William will want to wander around a bit. Would Glasses would help, I think. Must You must take your feet off that rug, Marty. Modals ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

13. Verbals Verbals Verbals are words formed from verbs. There are three kinds: • Infinitives • Participles • Gerunds ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

14. An is formed by adding the word “to” to the base form of the verb. Verbals Infinitive “to” + “steal” = “to steal” Example: Jesse James loved to steal money from bankers. What is the infinitive of the verb “steal”? ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

15. A is a verb form used as an adjective. The present participle ends in -ing. The past participle ends in -ed or is irregular. Verbals Participle Example: Looking over her tax returns, the weeping accountant tugged her bleached hair. ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

16. A is the -ing form of a verb used as a noun. Example: Bowling is not a sport, because you can smoke while you’re doing it. Verbals Gerund Let’s make a gerund out of the verb “bowl.” “Bowl” + “ing” = “Bowling” ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc