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Verbs
1. Verb is a word or phrase that describes an action, condition or experience. A verb is a word that states something about a person, thing. It is the most important word in a sentence. There can be no sentence without it.
It may state:(i) What a person or thing (subject) does:
The child weeps.
He walks.
The bell rings.
(ii) What is done to a person or thing (subject):
The boy was punished.
The tree is cut down.
The slate was broken.
(iii) What a person or thing (subject) is:
He is a student.
They felt sad.
The shirt is white.
Here the verb tells the state of the subject he, they or shirt.
2. A verb sometimes may consist of more than one word. It is, then called a Compound Verb or Verb Phrase.
I have bought a car.You may come.
She was dancing.
The verb in the above sentences consists of two parts:
The Principal or the Main Verb bought, come, dance and the Helping Verb or the Auxiliary Verb, have, may
and was.
Thus, we see that there are two classes of verbs in English
(i) Auxiliaries: be (is, are, am, was, were, been), has, had, do, does, did,
has, have, had, will,
shall, can, would, should, could, might, ought (to), must, need, dare
(ii) Principal Verbs or Ordinary Verbs: Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
3. Transitive Verbs are those whose action passes from doer (subject) to some object. They always take an object. object generally answers the question what? or whom?
The teacher punished the boy.
I play football.
He called the doctor.
The action denoted by the verbs punished, play and called is incomplete without the words the boy,
football
and the doctor.
4. Some transitive verbs take two objects:
The teacher gave Ram a book.You played him a trick.
My mother told me a story.
In the above sentences one of the objects is directly affected by the verb and is called the Direct Object. It generally refers to something. The other object is indirectly affected by the verb and is called the Indirect Object. It generally refers to a person. Thus, a book, a trick and a story are Direct Objects while Ram, and me are Indirect Objects.
The Indirect Object comes first and the Direct Object comes after the Indirect Object.
But their positions can be inverted by making the Indirect Object the object of a preposition.
The teacher gave Ram a book.
The teacher gave a book to Ram.
You played him a trick.
You played a trick on him.
My mother told me a story.
My mother told a story to me
Note-The Direct Object cannot be made an object to a preposition.
The verbs that generally take two objects after them are ask, give, offer, promise, write, tell, grant,
show, etc.
Exercises
Rewrite the following sentences putting the direct objects first:
1. He showed me a picture.2. 1 shall send Raju an invitation.
3. She gave her daughter a new pen.
4. The Principal granted me two days leave.
5. I promise you a treat.
6. He wrote his father a letter.
7. The shopkeeper charged me twenty rupees for the umbrella.
8. Tell me everything.
9. You did him an injustice
10. The party offered me the chairmanship.
5. There are some transitive verbs which take one object but their predication is not complete without the addition of some word or words called the complement:
The boys made Kamal their monitor.
Success made him proud.
They found the soldier lying dead.
The sentence ‘The boys made Kamal' is incomplete and meaningless. What did the boys make Kamal? They made him their monitor. Hence the addition of the words ‘their monitor’ makes the sense complete. The complement after the Transitive Verbs is called the Objective Complement as it refers to the object. The complement may be used in the following different forms.
(a) Noun-They made him their leader.
(b) Adjective-The news turned him mad.
(c) Participle-The mother found the child sleeping.
(d) Infinitive-We wish him to retire.
(e) Preposition with object-The accident filled us with sorrow.
(f) Adverb-We found the watchman asleep.
(g) Clause-I found the book where it had been placed.
6. Intransitive Verbs are those that do not take an object.
The child is sleeping.The boys were laughing.
He hesitated.
In these sentences the action denoted by "is sleeping", "were laughing, hesitated' stops with the subject. The action is complete in itself.
7. Sometimes an Intransitive Verb takes an object similar in meaning to the verb. Such an object is called the Cognate Object.
He ran a race.They fought a good fight.
He lives a happy life.
The boy died a sad death.
We went a long way.
8. Some Intransitive verbs may become Transitive by adding a preposition to them:
The boys laughed at the beggar.The thief broke into the house.
Please look into the matter.
People these days run after money.
The river has overflown its banks.
He overcome his difficulties by hard work.
9. Some Intransitive Verbs do not make complete sense by themselves. They require a complement to make the senso complete. These verbs are called Verbs of Incomplete Predication. They usually express the idea of being, becoming, appearing, or seeming. The complement is usually, a Noun or an Adjective. If we say ‘The man appears’ we do not make complete sense. We shall have to add such words as sad, tired, hoppy etc to make the sense complete.
Thus, the sentence ‘The man appears sad or tired or happy’ makes complete sense.He is a doctor.
He seems happy.
Mr. Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister.
The leaves have turned yellow.
The baby has fallen asleep.
In these sentences the complement describes the subject. It is therefore, called Subjective complement.
10. Most verbs can be used both as Transitive and Intransitive Verbs. It is, therefore, more correct to say that a verb is used transitively or intransitively than it is Transitive or Intransitive.
Transitively used
He eats bread.
He opened the door.
The peon rings the bell.
I stopped the horse.
He moved the table.
Intransitively used
We eat to live.
The door room opened.
The bell rings.
The horse stopped suddenly.
The earth moves.
Note-Verbs like come, go, fall, die, sleep etc. can never be used transitively.
11. In sentences like
I enjoy myself.
The man killed himself.
One should not forget oneself.
Make yourself comfortable.
EXERCISE 2
In the following sentences, say whether the verb is used transitively or
intransitively. Name the object if it is used transitively:
1. He killed a bird.
2.The policemen waved his hand.
3.My watch has stopped.
4. The sun is shining brightly.
5. Please keep it yourself.
6. Please keep quiet.
7. The horse drew the cart.
8. He drew near me.
9. He sang a song.
10. He sang beautifully.
Write ten sentences of your own, five containing Transitive Verbs and five containing Intransitive
Verbs.
12. All English Verbs are divided into two classes according to the way they form their past tense and past participle farms. Most of the verbs form their past tense or past participle forms by adding 'd', 'ed' or 't' to the simple present form. Such verbs are called Weak Verbs or Regular Verbs
| No. | Present | Past | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ask | asked | asked |
| 2 | Tell | told | told |
| 3 | Weep | wept | wept |
| 4 | Catch | caught | caught |
13. Some form their past tense and past participle forms by shortening the vowel of the present tense, while there are others that make no change:
| No. | Present | Past | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Breed | Bred | Bred |
| 2 | Bleed | Bled | Bled |
| 3 | Meet | Met | Met |
| 4 | Shoot | Shot | Shot |
| 5 | Bet | Bet | Bet |
| 6 | Cast | Cast | Cast |
| 7 | Read | Read | Read |
| 8 | Let | Let | Let |
14. Some form their past tense or past participle forms by changing the inside vowel of the present tense:
| No. | Present | Past | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | arise | arose | arisen |
| 2 | bear | bore | born |
| 3 | choose | chose | chosen |
| 4 | cling | clang | clung |
| 5 | write | wrote | written |
. There are no rules to guide the student in finding these forms These can only be learnt.
| No. | Present | Past | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Catch | Caught | Caught |
| 2 | Cast | cast | cast |
| 3 | Chide | chided | chided |
| 4 | choose | chose | chosen |
| 5 | climb | climbed | climbed |
| 6 | come | came | come |
| 7 | Part | parted | parted |
| 8 | Blow | blew | blown |
| 9 | Boil | Boiled | Boiled |
| 10 | Break | broke | broken |
| 11 | Bet | bet | bet |
| 12 | Forget | Forgot | forgot |
| 13 | Freeze | froze | frozen |
| 14 | Get | got | got |
| 15 | Give | gave | given |
| 16 | Grow | grew | grown |
| 17 | Do | did | done |
| 18 | Die | died | died |
| 19 | Dip | dipped | dipped |
| 20 | Dream | dreamt/dreamed | dreamed |
| 21 | Eat | ate | eaten |
| 22 | fall | fell | fallen |
| 23 | find | found | found |
| 24 | fight | fought | fought |
| 25 | fly | flew | flown |
| 26 | feel | felt | felt |
| 27 | forbid | forbade | forbidden |
| 28 | cost | cost | cost |
| 29 | creep | crept | crept |
| 30 | curse | cursed | cursed |
| 31 | cut | cut | cut |
| 32 | dig | dug | dug |
| 33 | do | did | done |
| 34 | die | died | died |
| 35 | dip | dipped | dipped |
| 36 | go | went | gone |
| 37 | grow | grew | grown |
| 38 | hang | hanged | hanged |
| 39 | keep | kept | kept |
| 40 | pay | paid | paid |
| 41 | lay | laid | laid |
| 42 | lead | lead | lead |
| 43 | leave | left | left |
| 44 | end | ended | ended |
| 45 | learn | learnt | learnt |
| 46 | make | made | made |
| 47 | meet | met | met |
| 48 | mend | mended | mended |
| 49 | marry | married | married |
| 50 | open | opened | opened |
| 51 | owe | owed | owed |
| 52 | play | played | played |
| 53 | put | put | put |
| 54 | prove | proved | proven |
| 55 | quit | quitted | quitted |
| 56 | read | read | read |
| 57 | ride | rode | ridden |
| 58 | ring | rang | rung |
| 59 | rise | rose | risen |
| 60 | rent | rented | rented |
| 61 | say | said | said |
| 62 | see | saw | seen |
| 63 | set | set | set |
| 64 | shake | shook | shaken |
| 65 | shave | shaved | shaved |
| 66 | spread | spread | spread |
| 67 | show | showed | showed |
| 68 | shrink | shrank | shrunk |
| 69 | shut | shut | shut |
| 70 | sing | sang | sung |
| 71 | sink | sank | sunk |
| 72 | sit | sat | sat |
| 73 | slay | slayed | slayed |
| 74 | speak | spoke | spoken |
| 75 | spoil | spoiled | spoiled |
| 76 | spin | spun | spun |
| 77 | spit | spit | spit |
| 78 | spring | sprang | sprung |
| 79 | spread | spread | spread |
| 80 | stand | stood | stood |
| 81 | steal | stole | stolen |
| 82 | stop | stopped | stopped |
| 83 | Swim | swam | swum |
| 84 | Swing | swang | swung |
| 85 | Sell | sold | sold |
| 86 | Send | sent | sent |
| 87 | Sleep | slept | slept |
| 88 | Smell | smelt | smelt |
| 89 | Speed | sped | sped |
| 90 | Spelt | spelt | spelt |
| 91 | Spill | spilled | spilled |
| 92 | Spend | spent | spent |
| 93 | Stay | stayed | stayed |
| 94 | Sweep | swept | swept |
| 95 | Shoot | shot | shot |
| 96 | Take | took | taken |
| 97 | Teach | Taught | Taught |
| 98 | Tell | told | told |
| 99 | Tear | tore | torn |
| 100 | Think | thought | thought |
| 101 | Travel | travelled | travelled |
| 102 | Try | tried | tried |
| 103 | Throw | threw | thrown |
| 104 | Vomit | vomited | vomited |
| 105 | Wash | washed | washed |
| 106 | Wear | wore | worn |
| 107 | Weave | Weaved | weaved |
| 108 | Work | worked | worked |
| 109 | Wind | wound | wound |
| 110 | Wound | wounded | wounded |
| 111 | Win | won | won |
| 112 | Wring | wrang | wrung |
| 113 | Write | wrote | written |
| 114 | Weep | wept | wept |
| 115 | Wrap | Wrapped | Wrapped |
Solved EXERCISE 3
Important Exam Style Questions on Verbs: Find out the transitive verbs in the following sentences.
(1) Mr. Sharma runs a hotel.
(2) The farmer killed a snake.
(3) He received the first prize.
(4) She bought a green hat.
(5) Poonam filled the jug with water.
(6) The soldiers fired their guns.
(7) The pirates sank the ship
(8) The boy flew kites.
(9) The referee stopped the football game.
(10) We grow ornamental plants in our garden.
Answers
(1) runs (2) killed, (3) received (4) bought, (5) filled, (6) fired, (7) sank, (8) flew, (9) stopped
(10) grow
Solved EXERCISE 4
Fill in the gaps with appropriate auxiliary verbs in brackets:
(1) Mohan. not scold any body. (is, has, does)
(2) Who beating the cow? (is, does, are)
(3) The patient………. died before the doctor arrived (have, was, had)
(4) She…….. going to library these days. (was, is, were)
(5) Rama ………stolen your shoes. (is, has, does)
(6) My father …………..watering the plants. (did, was, had)
(7) She………..not waste her time. (did, was, is)
(8) Why …………..you broken my mobile? (are, do, have)
(9). …………..you take a bath everyday? (is, do, did)
(10) …………the teacher give test yesterday? (was, had, did)
Answers
(1) does, (2) is, (3) had, (4) is, (5) has, (6) was, (7) did, (8) have, (9) Do, (10) Did
Solved EXERCISE 5
Find out the common errors in the following sentences and rewrite them:
(1) A crate of empty bottles were left in the backyard.
(2) We have received your letter last evening.
(3) He shook my hand.
(4) He is suffering from malaria since Monday.
(5) One and one makes eleven.
(6) If he will work hard, he will become a doctor.
(7) Stop to learn.
(8) They have audited our accounts on May of 1996 and 1997
(9) What make you cry?
(10) I did not know what did he want.
Answers
(1) A crate of empty bottles was left in the backyard.
(2) We received your letter last evening
(3) He shook hands with me.
(4) He has been suffering from malaria since Monday.
(5) One and one make eleven.
(6) If he works hard, he will become a doctor.
(7) Stop learning.
(8) They audited our accounts on May of 1996 and 1997.
(9) What makes you cry?
(10) I did not know what he wanted.
Solved EXERCISE 6
Make appropriate correction in the following sentences:
(1) It does not rain heavily last year.
(2) The sun rises at 5 o'clock yesterday.
(3) I do not remember what he did.
(4) He have won a scholarship by working hard.
(5) I am reading a book when my uncle came.
(6) This plan won't work. Isn't it?
(7) He did not see that the teacher is standing behind me.
(8) The snake bit the child when he is trying to catch it.
(9) The mother heard that the child is crying.
(10) Mohan has reached home before it started raining.
Answers
(1) It did not rain heavily last year.
(2) The sun rose at 5 o'clock yesterday.
(3) I do not remember what he was doing.
(4) He won a scholarship by working hard.
(5) I was reading a book when my uncle came.
(6) This plan won't work. Won't it?
(7) He did not see that the teacher stood behind me.
(8) The snake bit the child when he was trying to catch it.
(9) The mother heard that the child was crying.
(10) Mohan had reached home before it started raining.
Solved EXERCISE 7
Make appropriate correction in the following sentences:
(1) Do not come next Sunday. I go to U.S.A.
(2) He has set up a big factory. Isn't it?
(3) Lata does not recognise me when I went to see her.
(4) They knows several persons here.
(5) It is February. The next month be March.
(6) He always made fun of others.
(7) God helped those who help themselves.
(8) It happens in the year 1944.
(9) He was reaching here at 4 o'clock.
(10) They had broken the lock before I bring the key.
Answers
(1) Do not come next Sunday. I shall go to U.S.A.
(2) He has set up a big factory. Hasn't he?
(3) Lata did not recognise me when I went to see
(4) They know several persons here.
(5) It is February. The next month will be March.
(6) He always makes fun of others.
(7) God helps those who help themselves.
(8) It happened in the year 1944.
(9) He will be reaching here at 4 o'clock.
(10) They had broken the lock before I brought the key.
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