Grammar Smart 3rd Edition - Princeton Review 2014
C. Verbs
Part 1. The Names of Things
Without a verb, you have no sentence. Verbs express either action (like hit, sprint, or touch) or state-of-being (like am, seems, will be). The first kind of verb is called an action verb; the second kind is called a linking verb. This distinction is not anything to worry about; we only mention it to show the various functions of different kinds of verbs.
Put another way, a verb tells what the subject is doing or what is being done to the subject, even if the subject is doing nothing more than just existing.
The rules for verbs chiefly concern two characteristics: tense, and agreement with the subject. Tense is discussed below; for agreement, see Part 3, Section A.
Tense
The tense of a verb places the action at a particular time. The English language has twelve tenses altogether, so we are able to be quite precise in explaining when something happened. Although memorizing the names of the tenses is not terribly important, you do want to understand which moment in time each tense refers to. The six basic tenses are:
Now let’s take a look at what moment in time each tense indicates.
Present: The “now” tense. Use the present tense if
1. The action is happening right now: I am hungry (right now).
2. The action happens habitually: I am hungry every afternoon.
3. You are stating a fact: Elvis Costello is a great songwriter.
4. You want dramatic effect in fiction, or in expository writing: The phone rings. Fitzgerald is more interesting than Hemingway. (This use of the present is called the historical present.)
5. You are speaking about the future (this is more informal, and if this seems confusing, you can always safely use the tense to about the future): She leaves for Paris in the morning. (Or: She will leave for Paris in the morning.)
Present Perfect: Use the present perfect if
1. The action started in the past and continues into the present moment: I have eaten sixteen cookies so far this week.
2. The action was finished at some earlier time but affects the present: I have eaten all of the pie, so there isn’t any left for you.
Past: The “before” tense. Use the past tense if
1. The action happened in the past and does not continue to happen: I ate it.
Past Perfect: The “even before before” tense. Use the past perfect if
1. You are discussing an action already in the past, and you need to make clear that another action happened even earlier. Think of past perfect as the double past tense: Before I ate your dessert, I had eaten87 doughnuts. (Ate is past tense, had eaten is past perfect.)
2. You have an “if” clause followed by the conditional (would) and the present perfect: If I had thought about it first, I would not have eaten all those doughnuts.
Future: The Star Trek tense. All statements using future tense have not yet happened— they are in the future. (This is all pretty logical, isn’t it?) Use the future tense if
1. You are talking about something that will happen in the future: Tomorrow I will go on a diet.
Future Perfect: This tense combines future and past—and it doesn’t come up very often. Use future perfect if
1. An action is finished before a specified time in the future: By next week I will have lost ten pounds.
In addition to these six tenses are the continuous (or progressive) forms of all six. As with the whole subject of tenses, the names of the tenses are not important—what is important is being able to use the right tense in the right situation. The continuous tenses use the -ing verb, or present participle: I am eating, I was eating, I will be eating. Use the continuous form if
1. You want to show continuous action: I will be dieting for eternity.
Quick Quiz #5
Are You Tense?
Take note of the correct verb form for each of the blanks below. The verb to use is given in the infinitive form at the end of the sentence.
1. Today Lulu ... for Alfred to call her. (to wait)
2. Yesterday Lulu ... at Alfred because he ... her birthday. (to scream, to forget)
3. Tomorrow, if he is smart, Alfred ... her bunches of flowers. (to give)
4. If he ..., he would not be in so much trouble. (to remember)
5. By next week Alfred and Lulu ... fun again. (to have)
More on Verbs
If you’ve ever studied a foreign language, you know about conjugating verbs. For most verbs, your ear will match the correct verb to your subject—it doesn’t take any special thought to say I go instead of I goes. First, some terms.
Person: This applies only when you have an actual person as the subject of the verb.
Singular Plural
First person I we
Second person you you
Third person he/she they
Number: Number is simply the differences between singular and plural.
Present Participle: The -ing verb form. This form of the verb goes with is or are to form the continuous tenses: is walking, are swearing, is loving.
Past Participle: The form of the verb that goes with have to form the present perfect: have walked, have sworn, have loved.
Infinitive: The infinitive is the “to” form of the verb, as in to go, to do, to see. For rules on infinitives, see Part 2, Section D.
Deciding on the right verb form presents no problem if the verb is regular. A regular verb i conjugated like any other regular verb.
I move, I moved, I am moving, I have moved
I walk, I walked, I am walking, I have walked
The trouble arises when the verb is irregular, and doesn’t fit into the pattern of an added -e to make the past tense and past participle: I walked, I have walked. Many irregular verbs— like the verb to be—are used so frequently that their irregularity is not a problem, becaus you know the principal parts by heart, even if you’d never heard of the term principal part before opening this book.
Here’s a list of headache-causing irregular verbs as well as some regular verbs that ar often misused.
Principal Parts
Quick Quiz #6
Principal Parts
Pick the correct verb.
1. The man had (drunk, drank) too much and robbed a bank.
2. When he was caught, he (lay, laid) down his gun and (weeped, wept).
3. Will I be (hanged, hung)?” he sobbed.
4. I have (sweared, sworn) never to break the law again,” he said.
5. I have (lay, lied, lain) on the bed of adversity and tasted the bitter fruits of my misbehavior,” he mumbled, on his way to jail.