Verbs 1

VERBS Note Taking Guide Name____________________________________________

A verb is a word that _____________________________ ___________________________

___________________________________.

_______________Verbs

A finite verb is considered _________________________ or ___________________________ depending

upon its relationship with some other words in the sentence.

_________________Verbs• A transitive verb has _______ characteristics.

• First, it is an __________________________, expressing a _________________ activity like kick,

want, paint, write, eat, clean, etc.

• Second, it must have a __________________________, something or someone who

_________________ the action of the verb.

• Look at these sentences:

He met her yesterday.

She wrote a story last year.

Rust destroys iron.

• In these sentences, the verbs are the words ________, ___________ and ____________.  

• In each sentence, you ask the question, '_________ _______________/______________?'  

• You will get the answers as follows:

– sentence 1 — question: met whom?  answer: _________

– sentence 2 — question: wrote what?  answer: _________

– sentence 3 — question: destroys what?  answer: _________

• (note that we use whom in the questions for ___________________ and what for _______________

and also for __________________.)

• The words her, story and iron in the sentences above are called ____________________ in grammar.

A transitive verb is, therefore, a __________________________________________________.

Verbs 2What is an object?• An object, we may say, is the _________ or

__________________ or ________________________ or ___________________ of a verb's action.

• In our three example-sentences, the verbs met, wrote and

destroys have the words her, story and iron as their ________________.

• These targets are called ___________________.  

• With a transitive verb, we can _____________________

these objects.

Why are these verbs called “Transitive”?We call these verbs 'transitive' because these verbs have the property of _________________________

What is transitivity?

• To transit means __________________________.

• Each of the verbs met, wrote and destroys in our examples

has its action _____________________ (_____________________) to the direct object.

• We might also say that the action begins with the

_________________ (he, she, rust in our sentences) and _____________________________ the verb to the

direct object.

This property of the verb is transitivity. Hence we call these verbs transitive.

Understanding these verbs in this way helps us to remember what they are.

• Here's a list of transitive verbs:

eat, ___________, read, ___________, play, ___________, hear, ___________, ___________, love,

___________, understand, ___________, bring, ___________, meet, ___________, take, ___________,

forget, ___________, sell, ___________, help.

Examples:

• (a) The teacher answered the question. Trans Verb = ______________ Object =

______________

• (b) My friend bought a house. Trans Verb = ______________ Object =

______________

Verbs 3• (c) The children found the money. Trans Verb = ______________ Object =

______________

• (d) Most Indians love cricket. Trans Verb = ______________ Object = ______________

• (e) The Robinsons like football. Trans Verb = ______________ Object =

______________

• (f) Sylvia kicked Juan under the table. Trans Verb = ______________ Object =

______________

• (g) Joshua wants a smile from Leah, his beautiful but serious lab partner.

Trans Verb = ______________ Object = ______________

Pinky the poodle cleans the dirty supper dishes with his tongue before Grandma loads the "prewashed" items

into dishwasher. Trans Verbs = ___________&___________ Objects = ___________&___________

___________________Verbs

• Important Note: When no _______________________ follows an action verb, the verb is

INTRANSITIVE.

• An intransitive verb has _______ characteristics.

First, _______________ a transitive verb, it is an ________________________, expressing a

_________________ activity like arrive, go, lie, sneeze, sit, die, etc.

Second, _________________ a transitive verb, it will ________ have a direct object receiving the action.

• Here are some examples:

walk, jump, sleep, sit, lie, stand, weep, kneel, fall, fly, flow, remain, die, belong, wait, come, go.

• Here are some example sentences.

(a)  We walk to the railway station.

(b)  The children jump with joy.

(c)  Babies sleep for many hours.

(d)  My brother stood there.

(e)  Jesus wept.

Verbs 4

• Identify the Intransitive Verb:

1. Huffing and puffing, we arrived at the classroom door with only seven seconds to spare.

_________________________ = intransitive verb.

2. James went to the campus cafe for a steaming bowl of squid eyeball stew.

_________________________ = intransitive verb.

3. To escape the midday sun, the cats lie in the shade under our cars.

_________________________ = intransitive verb.

4. Around fresh ground pepper, Sheryl sneezes with violence.

_________________________ = intransitive verb.

5. In the evenings, Glenda sits on the front porch to admire her immaculate lawn.

_________________________ = intransitive verb.

6. Flipped on its back, the beetle that Clara soaked with insecticide dies under the refrigerator.

_________________________ = intransitive verb.

EXCEPTIONS:• You will often find TRANSITIVE verbs used ________________________________,

i.e. without an ____________________.

– They are eating.

– We play in the evening.

– I understand.

• At rare times INTRANSITIVE verbs are used _______________________________.

– How did you cover all that distance? We walked it.

– ('walked' has the object '________' in this sentence)

– I cannot stand such nonsense.

('stand' has the object '__________________' in this sentence)

• Realize that many verbs can be both ______________________ and

____________________________.

Recall:An action verb with a direct object is transitive while an action verb with no direct object is intransitive.

Verbs 5• Some verbs, such as arrive, go, lie, sneeze, sit, and die, are always INTRANSITIVE; it is

___________________________ for a __________________________ to follow.

• Other action verbs, however, __________ be transitive or intransitive, depending on what follows in

the sentence.

• Because of blood sugar problems, Rosa always eats before leaving for school.

Eats = ____________________ verb.

• If there is no leftover pizza, Rosa usually eats whole-grain cereal.

Eats = ____________________ verb cereal = ________________________

• During cross-country practice, Damien runs over hills, through fields, across the river, and along the

highway.

Runs = ______________________ verb.

• In the spring, Damien will run his first marathon.

Will run = ____________________ verb marathon = ________________________

NOTE:Besides transitive and intransitive verbs, we have __________________________ in the finite verbs family.

VERBALS:A verbal is the form of a verb used as a _______________, __________________ or __________________.

• Verbals is another name for ___________________________ verbs.

• The important questions are...

– __________________________________________________________________________?

– __________________________________________________________________________?

– __________________________________________________________________________?

Non-Finites:

• Simply put, non-finite verbs are verbs which are NOT ___________________________.

• Looks very simple, but it's not entirely so.

The basic points of difference between _____________ and ______-finites are as follows:

Verbs 6#1 A non-finite verb ______________ change according to its __________________, as a finite verb does.

• Example: He likes to drive. They like to drive.

The non-finite verb to drive remains ___________________, while the finite verb like/likes changes

according to the _______________ he/they.

#2 Non-finite verbs are not affected by _______________________________, finite verbs are...

• Example: They like to drive. They liked to drive.

The finite verb shows two ________________________ forms like or liked for the simple present and simple

past tenses respectively.

For the non-finite verb to drive, tense is _____________________________.

Why are Non-Finites called Verbals?

• We often call the different types of non-finite verbs a "VERBAL ____________________,"

depending on the non-verblike work they do.

• So the word 'verbal' becomes a kind of ___________________ (common) name for them.

• There are three types of ___________________/Non-finite verbs:

1. The ____________________is known as a ________________________________.

2. The ____________________ is often called a ________________________________.

3. The ____________________ does the work of a _______________, or an ____________________, or

an ____________________ (adjective modifier, purpose modifier, etc). 

• We usually don't call the infinitive a verbal noun or a verbal adjective, only because we don't

want to _____________________ it with the gerund or the participle.

Verbs 7

INFINITIVES:Infinitives are one of the three groups of __________________ verbs (also called ________________)

• We shall look at this particular type of verb from three angles:

1. How it _____________ (its form or ________________________)

2. What ___________ it does in a sentence (its function or ______________)

3. Its ___________________ (or _____________________)

How Can You Recognize an Infinitive?

• Its form is usually as follows:

– to eat, to drink, to play, to be, etc.

• with a '_______' before it.

• In some cases the word 'to' is _________________.

• We speak of such a verb (with the word 'to' dropped) as a _______________ INFINITIVE.

• The bare infinitive is the ______________________ FORM of an English verb.

What work does it do?

• According to function, that is, the work it does in a sentence (syntax), it may be both a

_______________ and a __________________.

Verbs 8• Here is an example:

– I like to finish the work quickly.

• In this sentence the infinitive to finish does the following jobs:

1. It is the object of the finite verb like—therefore to finish is similar to a _____________ (because

being an object is a noun's job).

2. The phrase to finish has its own object, work—so to finish is a _____________ (since verbs have

objects).

3. The adverb quickly modifies (i.e. tells us something more about) to finish.

Since the phrase to finish is modifiable by an adverb, it must be a ____________.

4. We can say that the infinitive, though born in the verb family, does not limit itself to being a verb.

5. It often behaves like a noun when it goes around socializing in the world of sentences!

• Also, in some cases...

• It behaves even as an ______________________, as in the following sentence.

Ex. That was a game to watch!

• In this sentence, to watch tells us something more about the ____________of the game (a

noun). Describing a noun is the work of an adjective.

• Sometimes it can behave like an _________________. The sentence below illustrates this.

Ex. Her voice is pleasant to hear.

• The phrase to hear tells us something more about the _______________ of being

pleasant.

• The word pleasant is an adjective, and words that tell us more about an adjective are

traditionally called adverbs.

The Infinitive and Meaning:

• If we take the meaning, (semantics) then the infinitive could be viewed as a pure, unadulterated form

of a ___________________.

Verbs 9• This pure meaning we modify, change, or mutate, by imposing on it such things as

________________, ________________, ________________, etc.

• The infinitive in itself (semantically) is a pure ________________ WORD (to do, to write, etc) or a

word denoting ___________________ (to be)

GERUNDS:• A gerund is a non-finite verb and is often referred to as a _____________________________.

• There are three kinds of non-finite verbs:

1. Gerund

2. ____________________

3. ____________________

• To understand the gerund, we shall look at its...

1. ____________________________: i.e. the shape of the gerund-word

2. ____________________________: i.e. its function in a sentence

3. ____________________________: i.e. its meaning.

Gerund:

- It has an "-________" ending.

- Please note that all verbs ending in “-ing" are ___________ gerunds.

- ______________________________ also have the same form.

- It is easy therefore to ____________________ a gerund with a present participle.

- This is why we need to look at the ____________ it does in a sentence.

The Syntax of a Gerund:

• The gerund does the work of a __________________ in a sentence.

Verbs 10• This means, it can be any one of the following:

1. The ______________________ of a verb, as in the sentence...

• Swimming is good exercise.

• The word swimming is the subject of the verb is

2. The _________________ of a _____________ verb, as in...

• You enjoy learning a new language.

• The word learning is the object of the finite verb enjoy.

3. The _________________ of a _______________ verb...

• She intends to begin writing the story soon.

• The word writing is the object of to begin, an infinitive (i.e. a non-finite

verb).

4. The _________________ of a ________________________...

• He is interested in joining the group.

• The word joining is the object of the preposition in.

5. The ______________ object of a verb...

• She gave reading great importance in her life.

• The word reading is the indirect object of the verb gave.

*All these functions which the gerund is shown doing are usually those of a ____________.

*Depending on the function, the grammatical case of the gerund will be nominative or accusative or genitive,

etc.

The Semantics of a Gerund:

• You know that the ____________is a name.

• The gerund is also a name.

• It is the name of an activity.

Verbs 11In so far as it is an activity, it is a verb.

In so far as it is a name, it is a noun.

• Here are two examples:

• walking stick —the word walking looks like an adjective describing stick...but it is not—

walking stick is not a stick which walks. It is a compressed form of stick for walking. So walking is the object

of the preposition for. So walking is a gerund.

• reading room—the phrase does not mean that the room reads. It is a compression of a room for (the

purpose of) reading. So reading is a gerund.

PARTICIPLES:• a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both _______________ and

__________________

• It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices, or as a modifier.

• A phrase composed of a participle and other words is a _________________________________.

Look at these two sentences:

1. The stranger ignored the barking dogs.

2. I saw a boy riding a bicycle.

- In sentence 1, the word barking...

- is formed from the verb 'bark' and it also denotes an action; therefore it is a ____________

- describes the noun 'dogs' and therefore it is like an ____________________

-In sentence 2, the whole phrase riding a bicycle... acts like an ____________________.

-It describes the noun 'boy'. 

- The whole phrase is called a _________________________________ and the word 'riding'

is called its ________________...

-and as the head it is mainly responsible for the adjectival function.

-The word 'riding' also acts like a ___________, because it has 'bicycle' as its ______________.

Verbs 12• Also remember that the phrase 'riding a bicycle' is an action-based description of the boy.

A PARTICIPLE IS A VERBAL ___________________.

- It is by birth a verb, but mostly serves nouns and pronouns as an ___________________ does.

They are of three types:

1. the ________________ Participle

2. the ______________ Participle

3. the ________________ Participle.

PRESENT Participle :

- This __________________ verb can be recognized from its -________ ending

(e.g. eating, playing, singing, studying, sleeping).

- However, this fact alone is not enough to recognize it for sure, because the _______________ also has the

same ending.

- A present participle does the work of an __________________, but a gerund does the work of a

___________.

- Though both have the same form, they are different in the __________ they do (i.e. in their function).

-These two examples will make this point clear…

1. I enjoy singing.

- 'singing' is the object of the verb 'enjoy'—being an object of a verb is the mark of a

____________—therefore, 'singing' is a __________________.

2. She is a singing girl.

- 'singing' describes the noun 'girl'—describing a noun is the function of an

_______________—therefore 'singing' is a ___________________.

**So if you want to recognize a present participle you need to take into consideration not only its form but

also its ___________ in sentences.

Verbs 13

PAST Participle :

- All past participles ________________ have one type of form.

- So they are ____________________ to recognize.

• Here are some ways to help you recognize them...

1. They often have one of these endings: -_______, -_____, -_____, -_______, -_____

- (as in: developed, hoped, burnt, fallen, grown).

2. Sometimes they are formed by making an ____________________________ in the basic form of

the verb

- e.g. sung from sing, won from win, bound from bind, met from meet).

3. A third way of forming the past participle is by not changing the form of the verb at all

- (as in verbs: put, cut, set).

PERFECT Participle :

- The form of this particular ______________________ verb depends on that of the ___________________

one, i.e. the _________________________.

- The form is: the word “_________________” + the past participle.

(e.g. having sung, having won, having met, having rested, having seen, etc).

Verbs 14