Verbs 1 (pages 1-3 of the chapter)



Verbs 1 (pages 1-3 of the chapter)

E. Siler

Important Concepts

Verb phrase: A simple verb phrase is a lexical verb and its auxiliaries.

EXERCISE: Find the verb phrases in these sentences taken from the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

This is a murder mystery novel.

Then the police arrived. I like the police.

And why were you holding the dog?

What in fuck’s name have you done to my dog?

I had been hugging the dog for four minutes when I heard screaming.

She was wearing pajamas and a housecoat.

Lexical verb: verbs that aren’t auxiliaries (“helping verbs”); verbs that carry the major lexical information of the verb phrase. Sometimes inaccurately called the “main verb.”

HINT: If you were teaching and students came across a verb phrase they didn’t understand, this is the piece of the verb phrase you’d tell them to look up.

EXAMPLE: The king had been defenestrated.

Think about it: Would you send the student off to look up “had” or “been” or “defenestrated”?

EXERCISE: Find the lexical verbs in the verb phrases in these sentences taken from the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

This is a murder mystery novel.

Then the police arrived. I like the police.

And why were you holding the dog?

What in fuck’s name have you done to my dog?

I had been hugging the dog for four minutes when I heard screaming.

She was wearing pajamas and a housecoat.

Base form: the unmarked form of the verb -- what you find in the dictionary entry.

EXAMPLE: The king had been defenestrated.

THINK ABOUT IT: Would you send the student off to look up “defenestrated” or “defenestrate”?

EXERCISE: Find the base form of the verbs (both the lexical verbs and the auxiliaries) in the verb phrases in these sentences taken from the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

This is a murder mystery novel.

Then the police arrived. I like the police.

And why were you holding the dog?

What in fuck’s name have you done to my dog?

I had been hugging the dog for four minutes when I heard screaming.

She was wearing pajamas and a housecoat.

Inflected forms: Forms developed by changes to the base form for grammatical purposes.

- s form: defenestrates

- past tense form: defenestrated

- past participle form: defenestrated

hint: this is the form after “have”

- present participle form: defenestrating

hint: this is the form after a form of “be”

EXERCISE: Find the inflected forms of the base forms of the verbs given below from the verb phrases taken from the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

This is a murder mystery novel. (BE)

Then the police arrived. (ARRIVE)

I like the police. (LIKE)

And why were you holding the dog? (HOLD)

What in fuck’s name have you done to my dog? (HAVE/DO)

I had been hugging the dog for four minutes (HAVE/BE/HUG)when I heard screaming. (HEAR)

She was wearing (BE/WEAR) pajamas and a housecoat.

Finite verb: can mark tense and agreement; has a subject

EXERCISE: Find the finite verbs in these sentences taken from the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

This is a murder mystery novel.

Then the police arrived. I like the police.

And why were you holding the dog?

What in fuck’s name have you done to my dog?

I had been hugging the dog for four minutes when I heard screaming.

She was wearing pajamas and a housecoat.

Tense: a change in the form of the verb to show the time frame in which the verb occurs.

EXAMPLE: The viceroy defenestrated the king.

When did this happen?

EXERCISE: Find the verb that indicates tense in each verb phrase and identify that tense. Is it present or past?

This is a murder mystery novel.

Then the police arrived. I like the police.

And why were you holding the dog?

What in fuck’s name have you done to my dog?

I had been hugging the dog for four minutes when I heard screaming.

She was wearing pajamas and a housecoat.

Agreement: a change in the form of the verb in the present tense to show accordance between the verb and the number and person of the subject.

EXERCISE: Find the verb that shows agreement in each verb phrase in these sentences, taken from the novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Find the subject it agrees with.

This is a murder mystery novel.

Then the police arrived. I like the police.

And why were you holding the dog?

What in fuck’s name have you done to my dog?

I had been hugging the dog for four minutes when I heard screaming.

She was wearing pajamas and a housecoat.

Person: English has three persons (1, 2, 3).

SING PLUR

First person: I we

Second person: You You (all)

Third person: He/she/it They

EXERCISE: Determine if each subject is first, second, or third person and whether it is singular or plural.

This is a murder mystery novel.

Then the police arrived. I like the police.

And why were you holding the dog?

What in fuck’s name have you done to my dog?

I had been hugging the dog for four minutes when I heard screaming.

She was wearing pajamas and a housecoat.

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