Intermediate English Grammar for ESL Learners - Robin Torres-Gouzerh 2016

Linking verbs
3 The verb

Verbs are words that express action. They can express tense (the time at which the action occurred) and voice. The voice can be active (where the subject performs the action) or passive (where the subject is placed in a passive position in the sentence).

The most common verb tenses are the present, past, and future. Each of these tenses has a progressive, habitual, and perfect form.

Linking verbs

A linking verb connects a subject and a subject complement, a word that describes or clarifies the subject. The most commonly used linking verb is the verb be. Consider the following examples.

Table tennis is fun.

Their grandfather was a war hero.

Other words commonly used as linking verbs are appear, seem, look, feel, sound, taste, and smell.

You seem a little unhappy today.

That woman looks rather sick.

This sweater feels warm.

Her meatloaf smells great!

Linking verbs are intransitive. They do not have direct objects. Notice that the verb in each of the following examples is a transitive verb with the direct object flower.

The little girl smelled the flower.

No one wanted to buy a flower from her.

I only sold one flower today.

To identify the direct object in a sentence, ask what or whom of the verb: What did the little girl smell? What did no one want to buy? What did I sell today? The answer to each question is flower, the direct object. Linking verbs never have a direct object.

Exercise 3.1 Complete each sentence with an appropriate linking verb.

1. Her suggestion ... useful at the time.

2. Barbara ... very different with her new haircut.

3. From here, clouds ... fluffy like cotton balls.

4. Chocolate eclairs ... my favorite pastry.

5. This honey ... wonderful.

6. That idea ... crazy to them.

7. Peter told me he ... sick today.

Most verbs have five forms:

• Base form. This is the verb in its original form, the form you find in the dictionary. Run, study, eat, think, write, fall, open, and ask are verbs in their base form.

• Third-person singular form: base form + -s (or -es). This form is used with he, she, or it in the present tense. Runs, studies, eats, thinks, writes, falls, opens, and asks are verbs in the third-person singular form.

• Past tense form. This form can be regular or irregular. The regular past tense is the base form + -ed. Studied, opened, and asked are verbs in the regular past tense form. There are fewer irregular verbs in the English language than regular verbs. These verbs are called irregular, because they do not end with -ed in the past tense. Ran, ate, thought, wrote, and fell are past tense forms of irregular verbs.

• Present participle, or progressive, form: base form + -ing. Running, studying, eating, thinking, writing, falling, opening, and asking are verbs in the present participle, or progressive, form.

• Past participle form. This form can be regular or irregular. The regular past participle form is the base form + -ed. Studied, opened, and asked are verbs in this form. Irregular past participles are formed differently, for example, run, eaten, thought, written, and fallen.