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Verb. A verb (from Latin verbum 'word') is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action ( bring, read, walk, run, learn ), an occurrence ( happen, become ), or a state of being ( be, exist, stand ). In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive.
A regular English verb has only one principal part, from which all the forms of the verb can be derived.This is the base form or dictionary form.For example, from the base form exist, all the inflected forms of the verb (exist, exists, existed, existing) can be predictably derived.
e. In linguistics, conjugation ( / ˌkɒndʒʊˈɡeɪʃən / [ 1][ 2]) is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (alteration of form according to rules of grammar ). For instance, the verb break can be conjugated to form the words break, breaks, broke, broken and breaking. While English has a relatively ...
The English modal auxiliary verbs are a subset of the English auxiliary verbs used mostly to express modality (properties such as possibility and obligation). [a] They can most easily be distinguished from other verbs by their defectiveness (they do not have participles or plain forms [b]) and by their lack of the ending ‑ ( e) s for the ...
An example is the verb have in the sentence I have finished my lunch. Here, the auxiliary have helps to express the perfect aspect along with the participle, finished. Some sentences contain a chain of two or more auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary verbs are also called helping verbs, helper verbs, or (verbal) auxiliaries. Research has been conducted ...
A typical English verb may have five different inflected forms: The base form or plain form ( go, write, climb ), which has several uses—as an infinitive, imperative, present subjunctive, and present indicative except in the third-person singular. The -s form ( goes, writes, climbs ), used as the present indicative in the third-person singular.
A transitive verb is a verb that entails one or more transitive objects, for example, 'enjoys' in Amadeus enjoys music. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not entail transitive objects, for example, 'arose' in Beatrice arose. Transitivity is traditionally thought of as a global property of a clause, by which activity is ...
A verb whose conjugation follows a different pattern is called an irregular verb. This is one instance of the distinction between regular and irregular inflection, which can also apply to other word classes, such as nouns and adjectives. In English, for example, verbs such as play, enter, and like are regular since they form their inflected ...