Difference between revisions of "Verb"
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(It is sometimes useful to be able to classify verbs into such groups as verbs of '''utterance''' (e.g. 'to say', 'to argue', 'to define' etc) or verbs of '''thought''' ('to think', 'to consider', 'to agree' etc). These can be useful ways of thinking about verbs, particularly for foreign speakers learning some of the patterns of English; but they are not necessary as part of understanding [[grammar]]. Such groupings are more often useful as a [[semantic]] concept: they link words that deal with very similar ideas, but varied usage.) | (It is sometimes useful to be able to classify verbs into such groups as verbs of '''utterance''' (e.g. 'to say', 'to argue', 'to define' etc) or verbs of '''thought''' ('to think', 'to consider', 'to agree' etc). These can be useful ways of thinking about verbs, particularly for foreign speakers learning some of the patterns of English; but they are not necessary as part of understanding [[grammar]]. Such groupings are more often useful as a [[semantic]] concept: they link words that deal with very similar ideas, but varied usage.) | ||
| − | [[category:grammar]] [[category:Grammar Course]] [[category:Word | + | [[category:grammar]] [[category:Grammar Course]] [[category:Word Classes]] |
Revision as of 15:03, 14 February 2007
(The article on verbs belongs to Word Classes, part of the Grammar course in AWE. You may choose to follow it in a structured way by following the links. Each item can also be accessed separately.)
Verbs are one of the basic word classes. They are one of the semantic group which carry most of the meaning of the sentence. There are several ways of looking at them.
- Native speakers of English probably remember the Primary School definition of a verb as ‘a doing word’.
- In Secondary School, this may have been expanded to ‘a word that expresses an action or a state’.
- A more modern way of looking at a verb is as a word that can have tense – i.e. that can change, or be changed, to express past, present or future (etc). If you can say ‘I do it today’ (or ‘I am doing it today’) and then change it to ‘I will do it tomorrow’ or ‘I did it yesterday’, then it is probably a verb. This covers the case of verbs that express a state (e.g. to be and to become) as well as verbs of action (e.g. to fight, to play, to run.)
(It is sometimes useful to be able to classify verbs into such groups as verbs of utterance (e.g. 'to say', 'to argue', 'to define' etc) or verbs of thought ('to think', 'to consider', 'to agree' etc). These can be useful ways of thinking about verbs, particularly for foreign speakers learning some of the patterns of English; but they are not necessary as part of understanding grammar. Such groupings are more often useful as a semantic concept: they link words that deal with very similar ideas, but varied usage.)
