Verb Types

Lesson 1 Verb Types

Essential Question

How do action verbs expand the possibilities for further description in a sentence?

Grammar in the World

Grammar 2-5-1.png

In the comic above, Kim is trying to tell Kara what she did the day before, but she leaves out one crucial piece of information: the action! She needs a word to show what is happening in the sentence, like any of the following:

I quickly ran around the path through the park.
I quickly jogged around the path through the park.
I quickly walked around the path through the park.

In this module, you will learn more about verbs and how you can use them to build sentences.

What Do I Know?

Aerial view of Central Park in New York City.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com Links to an external site.

Let's see what you already know about verb types with a short quiz:

Building Blocks

Grammar is a complex system and structure of language. Mizzou Academy Grammar Lab spotlights one skill (or block) at a time. It is also helpful to see how each skill works together with other, related blocks to build the language structure as a whole. You may find the following resource topics helpful as context for this lesson:

Learn About Verb Types

Sentences cannot exist without verbs. Verbs are so powerful that they come in many different forms and serve a variety of purposes. You will often see more than one type of verb in a sentence.

Verbs help us be specific about what is happening in these ways:

make a statement – She quickly walked around the path through the park.
ask a question – Did she jog around the path?
give a command – Run for ten minutes, and then take a break.
express activity – She ran for ten minutes.
express state of being – She is full of energy.

There are three types of verbs we can use to talk about thoughts, feelings, and actions in our sentences -- action (which can be transitive or intransitive), linking, and helping verbs. These types of verbs work together in sentences, so you often will see more than one type of verb in a single sentence.

Action Verbs

Purpose

Expresses physical or mental action.

Examples

He ran across the park.
She believed she could beat the fastest time.
They stopped to rest.
She found a beautiful flower.
They like visiting the park every day.

Tips

Action verbs can be either transitive or intransitive. See the following boxes for more examples.

Transitive Action Verbs

Purpose

Transfers the action to the object of the sentence.

Examples

They threw a football back and forth.
Please bring a picnic lunch on Saturday.
We love the sound of birds chirping.
They created the lakes and ponds in the park.
She enjoys the sculpture of Alice in Wonderland.

Tips

Most verbs can be either transitive or intransitive, depending on the sentence. To identify a verb as transitive or intransitive, ask a question about the verb and see if the answer is in the sentence:

What did they throw? (A football.)
What should I bring? (Lunch.)

Intransitive Action Verbs

Purpose

Expresses action on its own, without an object.

Examples

The birds sing beautifully.
They ran quickly.
The trees grow and the flowers bloom.
The sun is shining.
Are you hungry?
Let’s visit soon.

Tips

Some verbs are always intransitive. Some examples are:

arrive
lie
die
sit
go

Helping (also called Auxilliary) Verbs

Purpose

Extend the meaning of the main verb to show voice, tense, or mood.

Examples

In each sentence, we have two types of verbs. The underlined verbs are the main verbs; the verbs in bold are the helping verbs.

She can run faster than her friend.
He believed he could beat his best time.
They should stop to rest soon.
Flowers are blooming along the trail.
Do they visit the park often?

Tips

There are two main categories of helping verbs:

Forms of “to do,” “to be,” and “to have” show tense or add emphasis. These are called main helping verbs.
Modal verbs show possibility, necessity, or obligation, such as should, will/shall, would, could, can, must/have to, may, ought to, got to. These are called modal helping verbs.

Linking Verbs

Purpose

Connects the subject of the sentence to more information about the subject.

Linking verbs are forms of the verbs “to be,” “to seem,” and “to become.”

am, is, are, was, were

as well as:

become and seem

Examples

The park is in New York City.
It looks beautiful in autumn.
The leaves turn shades of red and yellow.
It becomes crowded in the summer.
There are 26 baseball fields and 58 miles of paths.

Some linking verbs and action verbs look the same. How can you tell whether one is functioning as an action or linking verb in a sentence?

Can you substitute the verb “is” in place of the verb in a sentence? If the answer is no, then the verb probably is an action verb.

He smells the flower.
- (He is the flower.) This does not make sense. “Smells” is an action verb in this sentence.)
It smells nice.
- (It is nice.) This makes sense. “Smells” is a linking verb in this sentence.

Do I Get It?

Now, let's see how well you can recognize different types of verbs with the following quiz. Use Tab 1 to quiz your knowledge over active, linking, and helping verbs. Use Tab 2 to quiz your knowledge over transitive versus intransitive action verbs.