Verb Forms

Verb forms

The verb forms: finite forms, inflected forms, conjugated forms, tense forms. Different linguistic sources list from three: base form, past form, past participle and principal parts or list from five: base form, third person singular, past form, past participle, and present participle. The verb “be”: be – is – was/were – been – being.

 

     Simple form (basic form, plain form, infinitive, present infinitive, present tense, present form, first form): be, have, take, look, play.

 

     Third person singular present ( 3rd person singular present tense): is, has, takes, looks, plays.

 

     Past simple (past form, past tense, second form):  was/were, had, took, looked, played.

 

     Past participle (perfect form, third form): been, had, taken, looked, played.

 

     Present participle (continuous form, progressive form, ing-form): being, having, taking, looking, playing.

 

 

 

Verb endings

 

Ending “_s / _es”

 

The ending “_s/_es” is added to the base form to form the third person singular of the simple present tense.

 

I/we/you/they buy, give, go, look, permit, push, see, study, take, try, write

 

He/she/it buys, gives, goes, looks, permits, pushes, sees, studies, takes, tries, writes.

 

Ending “ed”

 

The ending “ed” is added to the base form of regular verbs to form the Past simple tense and the past participle, which are the same for regular verbs.

 

Look (base form) – looked (past tense) – looked (past participle)

 

Permit – permitted – permitted; study – studied – studied;

 

Try – tried – tried.

 

Ending “_ ing”

 

The ending “_ing” is added to the base form of the verb to form the present participle or gerund:

 

Buying, giving, going, permitting, pushing, seeing, studying, trying, and writing.

 

 

 

Paradigm

 

 

A set of inflected forms of a verb is called a paradigm. For example, a conjugation table illustrating present, past and future tense forms of the verb "work" in the active voice is the paradigm of the verb "work" in the active.

 

 

 

 

 

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Regular and irregular verbs

 

 

Regular verbs form the Past simple tense and the past participle by adding the ending "ed" to the base form of the verb: work – worked – worked; play – played – played; copy – copied – copied; borrow – borrowed – borrowed.

 

Irregular verbs form the Past simple tense and the past participle by changing the root of the word:

 

Irregular verbs form the Past simple tense and the past participle by changing the root of the

 

word: take – took – taken; go – went – gone; buy – bought – bought; sit – sat – sat; be –

 

was/were – been.

 

See – saw – seen,

 

Write – wrote – written,

 

Be – was/were – been,

 

Have/has – had – had,

 

Do – did – done.

 

 

 

Inflection

 

 

Inflection means changing the word form in order to express certain grammatical categories. Applied to verbs, inflection means changing the base form of the verb by adding affixes (suffixes, endings) or changing the root of the verb to express the categories of person, number, tense, voice, and mood.

 

Inflection of pronouns and nouns for case and number is called declension:

 

I – me, he – him, she – her, we – us; book – books, man – men.

 

Inflection of adjectives and adverbs to show degree is called comparison.

 

Degrees of comparison of adjectives: cold, colder, coldest; difficult, more difficult, most difficult.

 

Degrees of comparison of adverbs: soon, sooner, soonest; loudly, more loudly, most loudly.

 

Inflection of verbs is called conjugation. Conjugation is the inflection of verbs for person, number, tense, voice, mood. Conjugation is also the whole set of inflected verb forms. A typical conjugation shows how this verb changes to show person, number, and tense. I play, he plays, she plays, it plays, we play, you play, they play; ...;

 

I was playing, he was playing, she was playing, it was playing, we were playing, ...; I will play, he will play, ..., they will have been playing.

 

Conjugated forms consisting of one word are simple forms: play, plays, played. Conjugated forms consisting of two or more parts are compound forms, also called analytical forms or periphrastic forms: was playing, have been playing. With the exception of the simple forms for the simple present and the Past simple tenses in the active, the conjugation is periphrastic conjugation, i.e., with the help of auxiliary verbs.

 

 

 

Verb categories

 

English verbs have such verb categories as person, number, tense, voice, mood.

 

Person and number:

 

The verb “be” is the only verb that can be inflected to show person and number in its forms:

 

I am, he/she/it is, we/you/they are (present tense);

 

I/he/she/it was, we/you/they were (past tense).

 

Main verbs have only one ending that shows person and number – the ending S/ES that is added to the base form of the verb to form the third person singular in the simple present tense (he works, music plays). If this ending is absent, person and number should be clear from the subject with which the verb agrees in person and number: I play, we play, you play, musicians play.

 

Tense:

 

Tense form is used for expressing the time of the action. The term "tense form" is often shortened to "tense". The tense expressed by the tense form and the actual time of the action do not always correspond. For example, in the sentence "I am leaving tomorrow", the present continuous tense (the tense form "am leaving") is used, but, with the help of "tomorrow", the future time is expressed in this sentence.

 

Tense and aspect:

 

Tense specifies the time of the action, i.e., present, past, or future. Aspect indicates the character of the action, e.g., repetition, duration, completion, and can be simple, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous. In English, tense and aspect are inseparable and are used together to express the time and character of the action, which is reflected in the names of the tenses, for example, the present continuous, the present perfect continuous, the past perfect, the simple future. Verb forms expressing the time and aspect of the action are called tenses, tense forms, tense-aspect forms. Generally, the term "tense" is used in the meaning "tense form" and includes both tense and aspect.

 

System of tenses:

 

The system of English tenses includes four tenses in the present, four tenses in the past, and four tenses in the future. Tenses are often regarded in groups: the simple tenses / the indefinite tenses, the continuous tenses / the progressive tenses, the perfect tenses, the perfect continuous tenses / the perfect progressive tenses. Tenses can be in the active or passive voice.

 

Voice:

 

Voice shows whether the subject acts or is subjected to action. There are two voices in English: the active voice and the passive voice. If the subject performs the action, the verb form is used in the active voice:

      His parents built a new house ten years ago.

 

      If the subject is subjected to the action, the verb form is used in the passive voice:

 

      A new house was built by his parents ten years ago.

 

 

Tense forms in the active have corresponding tense forms in the passive, but the perfect continuous tenses and the future continuous tense are generally not used in the passive. Generally, only transitive verbs can be used in the passive: John wrote a letter. – The letter was written by John. 

Stems and Affixes

 

Verbs have few suffixes that identify them as verbs:

 

ize, ise – apologize, organize, advertise;

 

y – deny, imply;

 

fy – intensify, simplify;

 

en – liven, ripen;

 

ate – concentrate, decorate.

 

Verbs have a number of prefixes that signal that the word is a verb:enjoy, become, a ffirm, confirm, combine, dislike, display, forget, forgive, mistake, prefer, perceive, receive, remember, understand.

 

Using context clues is one way to discover the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Another way is word analysis, that is, looking at the meanings of parts of words. Many English words have been formed by combining parts of older English, Geek, and Latin words. If you know the meanings of some of these word parts, you can often guess the meaning of an unfamiliar English word.

 

For example, report is formed from “re”, which means back, and “port” which means carry. Scientist is derived from “sci”, which means know, and “ist,” which means one who. “Port” and “sci” are called stems.

 

A stem is the basic part on which groups of related words are built. “Re” and “ist” are called affixes, that is, word parts which are attached to stems. Affixes like “re,” like “ist,” are called suffixes. Generally, prefixes change the meaning of a word and suffixes change its part of speech.

 

Here is an example:
Stem:	pay (verb)	honest (adjective)
Prefix:	repay (verb)	dishonest (adjective)
Suffix:	repayment (noun)	dishonestly (adverb)

 

Word analysis is not always enough to give you the precise definition of a word you encounter in a reading passage, but often it will help you to understand the general meaning of the word you encounter in a reading passage, but often it will help you to understand the general meaning of the word so that you can continue reading without stopping to use a dictionary.