Mohammad Abdullah,

                                            Verbs

Definition:-

Verbs are used to indicate the actions, processes, conditions, or states of beings of people or things.

Verbs play an integral role to the structure of a sentence. They constitute the root of the predicate, which, along with the subject (the “doer” of the verb’s action), forms a full clause or sentence—we cannot have a sentence without a verb.

When we discuss verbs’ role in the predicate, we usually divide them into two fundamental categories: finite and non-finite verbs.

Finite and Non-Finite Verbs:-

The predicate requires at least one finite verb to be considered complete. A finite verb has a direct relationship to the subject of a sentence or clause, and does not require another verb in the sentence in order to be grammatically correct. For example:

• “I swim every day.”
• “She reads many books.”
• “He talked for several hours.”

Each of the above is a finite verb, expressing an action that is directly related to the subject of the sentence. Non-finite verbs, on the other hand, do not express that relationship directly.

The only verbs that can be considered finite are those in their base form (the infinitive form without the particle to), their past tense form, or their third-person singular form. Verb forms that are never considered finite are gerunds, infinitives, and participles (both past and present).

Let’s look at an example containing both a finite and non-finite verb:

• “We are learning about the American Revolution in school.”

This sentence uses the present continuous verb are learning. This functions as a single unit, with learning expressing most of the meaning.

However, learning is a present participle, which is considered a non-finite verb; the finite verb of the sentence is actually just the auxiliary verb are. It is an inflection of the verb be used for a first person plural subject (we).

We can see the difference if we use each verb in isolation with the subject:

• “We are”
• “We learning”

We can see that the first verb is finite because it expresses a direct relationship with the subject, and it can go on to form any number of complete sentences. For example: 

• “We are”
• “We are almost there.”
• “We are a large group.”

The second verb, the present participle learning, cannot make such sentences, and so is not finite. The following examples all require a finite verb to be correct:

• “We learning”
• “We learning a lot.”
• “We learning in school.”

To learn more about the differences between these two classes of verbs, go to the section Finite and Non-finite Verbs in this chapter.

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs:-

Every verb is classed as being either transitive or intransitive.

Transitive verbs describe an action that is happening to someone or something. This person or thing is known as the direct object of the verb. For example: 

• “He’s reading a book.” (The action of reading is happening to the book.)
• “The people watched the game from the bleachers.” (The action of watched is happening to the game.)
• “I was eating a delicious steak for dinner last night.” (The action of eating is happening to a delicious steak.)

Transitive verbs can also take indirect objects, which are the people or things receiving the direct object. For instance:

• “I sent my brother a letter.” (My brother receives the letter through the action of sent.)

Conversely, intransitive verbs do not have objects—their action is not happening to anyone or anything. For example:

• “I can’t believe our dog ran away.” (There is no object receiving the action of ran away.)
• “There was a lot of dust in the air, which made me sneeze.” (There is no object receiving the action of sneeze.)
• “Don’t be too loud while the baby sleeps.” (There is no object receiving the action of sleeps.)

Regular and Irregular Verbs:-

Just as every verb is either transitive or intransitive, each one is considered to be either regular or irregular.

Most verbs are regular verbs, which means that “-d” or form (the infinitive of the verb without to) to conjugate participle forms. For example:

“-ed” can be added to their base both the past simple tense and past

Irregular verbs, on the other hand, have past tense and past participle forms that do not (or do not seem to) adhere to a distinct or predictable pattern, and they are usually completely different from one another.

Unfortunately, this means that there is generally no way of determining how to conjugate irregular verbs—we just have to learn each one individually. There are many irregular verbs, but here are a few common ones:

Uniquely, the verb be is considered highly irregular, having three different present tense forms (is, am, are) and two past tense forms (was, were), in addition to its base form and its past and present participles (been, being).

Source:- The Farlex English Grammar Book By Peter Herring.