Verbs in English

 

Objectives

At the end of the lesson students will be able to identify

  –  what is a verb
  –  how to recognize a verb
 –   common types of verb

What is a verb?

– A verb is a doing word that shows an action, an event or a state.

-A verb is the part of a sentence that tells us what the subject performs.

-Verbs are the hearts of English sentences.

                               Ex.    Kamal eats rice.

                               Children paly cricket

How to Recognize a Verb

-One clue to help us recognize a verb is its location compared to the subject.

-Usually, verb comes after the noun or pronoun. These nouns or pronouns refers to the subject.

                        Ex. We went to the market.

According to the above example, ‘we’ is the subject and ‘went’ is the verb.

Exercise 01

Read the following paragraph and try to recognize verbs contained.

Hello everyone. My name is John. I came from Switzerland. I am currently living in Sri Lanka. I’m a Student as I still learn new things every day. I have visited many countries. But this is my first time to Sri Lanka. I think Sri Lanka is a beautiful country. Sri Lankan people help each other. They highly appreciate hospitality. I love Sri Lanka.

Common types of verbs

-Regular verbs

-Irregular verbs

-Phrasal verbs

Regular Verbs

A verb that’s past and past participle is made by adding ‘d’ or ‘ed’ is called regular verb.

Example:

    Verb                 Past simple           Past Participle

Clean	Cleaned	Cleaned
Choke	Choked	Choked
Grate	Grated	Grated
Book	Booked	Booked
Ban	Banned	Banned

Irregular Verbs

If the formation of the verb is otherwise than the regular verb, it is called irregular verb.

Example

Break	Broke	Broken
Beat	Beat	Beaten
Become	Became	Become
Bid	Bid	Bid
Drive	Drove	Driven
Know	Knew	Known

Phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs are very common in English, especially in more informal contexts. They are made up of a verb and a particle or, sometimes, two particles.

Example:

I gave up doing my homework because I didn’t understand it.

The mother asked her daughter to clean up her room.

He calmed down after the argument because he took a deep breath.

Who looks after the baby when you’re at work?

Who came up with that idea?

Here are some common Phrases for more knowledge.

• Hang out  
• Hang on
• Hold on 
• Ask out
• Mix up
• Pass out
• Look down
• Set up
• Warm up
• Work out
• Show off
• Put up with 

Exercise 2

Write the past participle form of the given verbs.

Complete :……………..

Become    :……………..

Receive    :……………..

Clean        :……………..

Learn        :……………..

Give up : ……………..

Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verb given in the bracket.

01. He _______ (want) to become an IAS officer.

02. Raju _______ (go) to market yesterday.

03. Saman _______ (eat) milk rice in the early morning.

04. I have ______ (complete) my homework just now.

07. We had ______ (reach) the airport by 9 O’clock.

Make sentences using given phrases.

1.  Hang on
2. Pass out
3. Set up
4. Warm up
5. Go over 
6. Come on