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The present continuous is formed by the present tense form of be and the present participle (-ing form) of the verb. [3] [4] For example, you would write the verb work in the present continuous form by adding the -ing suffix to the verb and placing a present tense form of be (am, are, is) in front of it: [3] I am working. You are working. She ...
Afrikaans has lost the distinction between the infinitive and present forms of verbs, with the exception of the verbs "wees" (to be), which admits the present form "is", and the verb "hê" (to have), whose present form is "het". In North Germanic languages the final -n was lost from the infinitive as early as 500–540 AD, reducing the suffix ...
The base form or plain form of an English verb is not marked by any inflectional ending.. Certain derivational suffixes are frequently used to form verbs, such as -en (sharpen), -ate (formulate), -fy (electrify), and -ise/ize (realise/realize), but verbs with those suffixes are nonetheless considered to be base-form verbs.
The simple past or past simple, sometimes also called the preterite, consists of the bare past tense of the verb (ending in -ed for regular verbs, and formed in various ways for irregular ones, with the following spelling rules for regular verbs: verbs ending in -e add only –d to the end (e.g. live – lived, not *liveed), verbs ending in -y ...
The English passive voice typically involves forms of the verbs to be or to get followed by a passive participle as the subject complement—sometimes referred to as a passive verb. [1] English allows a number of additional passive constructions that are not possible in many other languages with analogous passive formations to the above.
A major sentence is a regular sentence; it has a subject and a predicate, e.g. "I have a ball." In this sentence, one can change the persons, e.g. "We have a ball." However, a minor sentence is an irregular type of sentence that does not contain a main clause, e.g. "Mary!", "Precisely so.", "Next Tuesday evening after it gets dark."
These verbs are called "catenative" because of their ability to form chains in catenative constructions. For example: We need to go to the tennis court to help Jim to get some practice before the game. "Need" is used here as a catenative verb followed by the infinitive "to go", and "help" is a catenative verb followed by the infinitive "to get".
For more on the distinctions between these uses of the -ing verb form, see -ing: uses. For more details on uses of participles and other parts of verbs in English, see Uses of English verb forms, including the sections on the present participle and past participle. The following table summarises some of the uses of participles in English: