Types & Tenses of Verbs

​a verb describes an action or state of being

​a verb tells time based on tense formation

​a verb tells what the noun/pronoun/subject is doing or being

​a verb begins the predicate part of a sentence

ACTION, LINKING, and HELPING (AUXILIARY) ​

​verbs that show activity, movement, process, or thought. Action verbs tell what type of action the subject performs -- what the subject is doing

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​verbs that show a relationship between the subject of a sentence and the noun or adjective being linked to it; it expresses a state of being

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​verbs that connect (link) the subject to another word or words that describe or rename the subject. Linking verbs show NO action.

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​AKA 'state of being' verbs

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​Identify a verb as linking if it can be replaced with 'is' or = and still have the sentence make sense

​verbs that appear with the main verb to create the complete verb or a verb phrase

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​Helping verbs HELP indicate time, tense, voice, mood, person, and number

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​More than one helping verb can be used

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​Common helping verbs: may, do, have, am, were, can, shall, will, might, does, has, is, be, could, should, would, must, might, did, had, are, being, was, been

Simple, perfect, progressive, perfect progressive​

​Past Tense - describes events that have already happened and are completely finished.

​Most verbs can be made past tense by adding -d or -ed at the end of the base form of the verb

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​John and Casey walked to school yesterday.

​Present Tense - describes events happening now. It's also useful for describing direct action that's not exclusive to the past or future.

​Formed by using the root word and adding -s, -es, etc. depending on the number in the subject

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​John and Casey walk to school. (plural subject, plural verb)

​John walks to school. (singular subject, singular verb)

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​Future Tense - describes events that have not happened yet, but will happen at a later time.

​Future tense verbs are formed by combinging a helping verb with a main verb in its base form. Many times, the helping verb WILL is used to indicate future tense is being used.

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​John and Casey will walk to school tomorrow.

​used to indicate a completed or 'perfected' action or condition. Verbs can appear in the past perfect, present perfect, and future perfect.

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​PAST PERFECT - an action occurred before another event in the past

​formation: had + verb-ed

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Julie had traveled to hundred of countries before she moved to Spain.

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​​PRESENT PERFECT - an action occurred at an unspecified time in the past

formation: has/have + verb-ed​

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Julie has traveled to hundreds of countries looking for a place to live.

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FUTURE PERFECT - an action will occur before another event in the future

​​formation: will have + verb-ed

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Julie will have traveled to hundreds of countries before the end of the year.

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​used to show an ongoing action in progress at some point in time. Verbs can be in the past progressive, present progressive, and future progressive.

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​PAST PROGRESSIVE - an ongoing action that occurred in the past

​formation: was/were + verb-ing

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​I was talking to Benjamin.

​Benjamin was talking to me.

​The students were talking to Benjamin.

​PRESENT PROGRESSIVE - an ongoing action that is occurring right now.

​formation: am/is/are + verb-ing

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​I am talking to Benjamin.

​Benjamin is talking to me.

​The students are talking to Benjamin.

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​FUTURE PROGRESSIVE - an ongoing action that will occur in the future

​formation: will be + verb-ing

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​Benjamin will be talking to me.

used to say that an event or action is, was, or will be continually occurring (progressive) but that it is, was, or will be completed at a later time, or that it relates to a later time (perfect).

The perfect progressive verb tense has a present, a past, and a future.

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​PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE - a continuous action started in the past and was completed before another event in the past.

​formation: had been + verb-ing

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​Present Perfect Progressive - says that a continuous action started in the past and relates to the present.

​formation: have/has been + verb-ing

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​Future Perfect Progressive - tells us that a continuous action will be completed at, or relates to, a time in the future

​formation: will have been + verb-ing

​If a verb is irregular, it means that the formation of the tense is different from a regular verb; regular verbs in the past tense add -ed

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​Irregular verbs formed in the past tense or past participle do NOT add -ed. The formation of the verb usually has different spelling from the base form.

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(past participle - a word formed from a verb and used as an adjective or noun)

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