1. Verbs: Where the Action Is Eng 050

2. The Almighty Verb When last we went over grammar we did an overview of the parts of speech and dabbled into sentence fragments. Now we need to turn our attention to the verb. It’s the most important part of the sentence, and can cause many issues.

3. Verbs—Regular and Irregular We went over helping verbs, linking verbs, action verbs, etc. Those are types of verbs. But in their simplest form, there’s two different kinds of verbs Regular verbs—those that in their past and past particle forms end in -d or -ed. Irregular-those that do not form their past tense and past participle with –d or –ed.

4. Regular Verbs Wait, hold up. What’s this about participles? Essentially verbs have three principal parts. Present tense-explains actions occurring in the now Past tense-explains actions that happened in the past Part participle-also explains actions that happened in the past. But this form of the verb is used with helping verbs such as have, has, had. With regular verbs, it’s pretty easy to figure out how to make them past tense.

5. Regular Verbs Let’s go over a few examples. The word skip Present tense: skip Past tense: slipped Past participle: had slipped The word dance Present tense: dance Past tense: danced Past participle: have danced Easy, right?

6. Irregular Verbs Here it gets more complicated. Irregular verbs do not form their past tense and past participle with –d or –ed (hence the name irregular). Some irregular verbs follow certain patterns: Present tense: ring; drink; shrink Past tense: rang; drank; shrank Past participle: (have) rung; (have) drunk; (have) shrunk

7. Irregular Verbs Others don’t follow a pattern. Present tense: am; are; be Past tense: was; were; was Past participle: (have) been; (have) been; (have) been Still others don’t change at all (rare but they exist) Present tense: set Past tense: set Past Participle: set

8. Irregular Verbs So how do I identify irregular verbs? Learning them Looking them up And we’re learning this why? Because using irregular verbs incorrectly is easy to do. Also, because sometimes forms of irregular verbs invade our everyday speech despite the fact that their usage is incorrect. Example: Got her hair did. This has become a well-known phrase, but is in fact incorrect.

9. Irregular Verbs Here’s two irregular verbs that are commonly misused. Lie (recline or lie down) Present tense: lie Past tense: lay Past participle: (have, has, had) lain Lay (put or place down) Present tense: lay Past tense: laid Past participle: (have, has, had) laid Note: the verb lay always takes an object. Examples: Lay down what? Lay down your books.

10. Irregular Verbs Sit (get into a seated position) Present tense: sit Past tense: sat Past participle: (have, has, had) sat Set (put or place down) Present tense: set Past tense: set Past participle: (have, has, had) set Note: just as with the verb lay, set must always have an object, as in you must set something down. Set what? Set the presents over here.

11. Verb Tense Now that we’ve gone over the different types of verbs, we’re going to go over verb tenses (which explains the timing of the verb). Incorrect tenses is another common error in college writing, and also occurs in everyday speech. Such errors usually occur when adding an “s” where none is needed, and omitting the “s” where it IS needed.

12. Verb Tense Here’s some examples from the book. Present Tense—Singular I talk is correct; I talks is incorrect You talk is correct; You talks is incorrect He, She, It talks is correct; He, She, It talk is incorrect Present Tense—Plural We talk is correct; We talks is incorrect You talk is correct; You talks is incorrect They talk is correct; They talks is incorrect

13. Verb Tenses So how do I tell the difference if I’m not sure? Look it up by checking the irregular verb chart in your book. Ask someone who would know. We just went over present tense, in which verbs that are plural often (but not always) have an “s” added on the end. Now let’s go over past tense. With past tense verbs, regular verbs send in –d or –ed.

14. Verb Tenses Past Tense—Singular I talked is correct; I talk is incorrect (because this is written in present tense) You talked is correct; You talk is incorrect He, She, It talked is correct; He, She, It talk is incorrect Past Tense—Plural We talked is correct; We talk is incorrect (because this is written in present tense) You talked is correct; You talk is incorrect They talked is correct; They talk is incorrect

15. Helping Words with Past Participles Helping verbs (is, was, were, have, has or had) are used only with the past participle form, NOT with the past tense form. This is where your irregular verbs chart in your textbook will come in handy. Examples: He has gone is correct; He has went is incorrect She has chosen to stay home is correct; She has chosen to stay home is incorrect. I have eaten at Jimmy’s restaurant; I have ate at Jimmy’s restaurant is incorrect. We had flown into Memphis is correct; We had flew into Memphis is incorrect.

16. Using –ing Verbs Correctly Verbs ending in –ing describe action that is going on, or that was going on for a while. To be a complete verb, an – ing verb is always used with a helping verb. Two common errors with helping verbs Using be or been instead of the correct helping verb Using no helping verbs at all Here’s some examples The dog is chasing the cat is correct; The dog be chasing the cat is incorrect We are drinking Dr. Pepper is correct; We drinking Dr. Pepper is incorrect. The dog has been chasing the cat is incorrect; The dog been chasing the cat is incorrect.

17. Problems with the Verb “Be” This word can cause numerous issues. Here’s some examples: Present Tense, Singular I am/I am not is correct; I be/I ain’t is incorrect Your are/You are not is correct; You be/You ain’t is ocrrect He/She/It is and He/She/It is not is correct; He/She/It Be is incorrect; He/She/It ain’t is incorrect. Present Tense, Plural We are/We are not is correct; We be/We ain’t is incorrect You are/You are not is correct; You be/You ain’t is incorrect They are/They are not is correct; They be/They ain’t is incorrect

18. Problems with the Verb “Be” Past tense, Singular I was is correct; I were is incorrect You were is correct; You was is incorrect He/She/It was is correct; He/She/It were is incorrect Past tense, Plural We were is correct; We was is incorrect You were is correct; You was is incorrect They were is correct; They was is incorrect

19. Problems with the Verb “Do” Let’s go over the correct usage for this verb. Present tense, singular I do is correct; I does is incorrect You do is correct; You done is incorrect He/She/It does is correct; He/She/It do is incorrect Present tense, plural We do is correct; We does is incorrect You do is correct; You does is incorrect They do is correct; They does is incorrect

20. Problems with the Verb “Do” Past tense, singular I did is correct; I done is incorrect You did is correct; You done is incorrect He/She/It did is correct; He/She/It done is incorrect Past tense, plural We did is correct; We done is incorrect You did is correct; You done is incorrect They did is correct; They done is incorrect

21. Problems with the Verb “Have” Let’s go over the proper usage of this verb. Present tense, singular I have is correct; I has is incorrect You have is correct; You has is incorrect He/She/It has is correct; He/She/it have is incorrect Present tense, plural We have is correct; We has is incorrect You have is correct; You has is incorrect They have is correct; They has is incorrect

22. Problems with the Verb “Have” Past tense, singular I had is correct; I has is incorrect You had is correct; You has is incorrect He/She/It had is correct; He/She/it have is incorrect Past tense, plural We had is correct; We has is incorrect You had is correct; You has is incorrect They had is correct; They has is incorrect

23. Subject-Verb Agreement All of the slides before have led up to this moment! Namely, going over subject-verb agreement. Confession: this is a tough issue. It trips up even the most experienced writers. But what is it? It’s sounds simple. Singular subjects must be paired with singular verbs. Plural subjects must be paired with plural verbs.

24. Subject-Verb Agreement Examples of subject-verb agreement He lives in Cleveland. He is a singular subject. Lives is a singular verb. They live in Cleveland. They refers to a plural subject. Live is a plural verb. Simple enough, correct? Difficulties occur when words come between the subject and the verb. One instance would be when a prepositional phrase(s) is/are used in the sentence. For example, “The map of the Ozarks is in a small suitcase.” You can tell that the verb and the subject agree of you cross out the prepositional phrase to see how it is written. “The map of the Ozarks is in a small suitcase.” Since the subject map is singular, you use a singular verb.

25. Subject-Verb Agreement Here’s another example. “Classes at my college begin in August.” Let’s cross out the prepositional phrases. “Classes at my college begin in August.” Classes is a plural noun, and begin is a plural verb. So the subject and the verb agree here. Another issue arises when there’s more than one subject in the sentence. There’s three rules for figuring this out: When the compound subjects are joined by “and,” use a plural verb. The heat and humidity were hard on Simone. Heat and humidity is the compound subject.

26. Subject-Verb Agreement There’s three rules for determining subject-verb agreement when there’s a compound subject in a sentence. When the compound subjects are joined by “and,” use a plural verb. The heat and humidity were hard on Simone. Heat and humidity is the compound subject. When the subject appears to have more than one part, but the parts are referring to a single unit, use a singular verb. Peanut butter and jelly is Mindy’s favorite sandwich. In this case, “peanut butter and jelly” functions as one unit.

27. Subject-Verb Agreement When the compound subjects are joined by “or” or “nor,” make the verb agree with the subject located closest to the verb. “Neither leeches nor miserable weather was enough to keep her from her goal.” Leeches is plural, but weather is singular, and weather is the word closest in location to the verb. So therefore it is singular. Another issue that causes confusion in subject-verb agreement is when the verb of a sentence appears before the subject. This usually happens when you ask a question and the sentence begins with who, what, where, when, why or how, or when the sentence begins with here or there.

28. Subject-Verb Agreement Sentence examples include: Here are the decorations for the party. There is iced tea in the refrigerator. When this happens, do the trick of eliminating the prepositional phrase to determine subject-verb agreement. “Here are the decorations for the party.”—The subject is plural, so the verb is plural. There is iced tea in the refrigerator.—The subject is singular, so the verb is singular.

29. Subject-Verb Agreement Now onto collective nouns—it gets tougher here. Collective nouns name a group of people or things. Examples include army, audience, band, class, committee, crew, crowd, family, flock, gang, jury, orchestra—essentially one word referring to a group. Collective nouns can be singular or plural. They are singular when they refer to a group as a single unit. They are plural when they refer to the individual actions or feelings of the group members.

30. Subject-Verb Agreement Examples “The marching band plays at all of the home games.” Because the subject “marching band” refers to a group, the verb is singular “The marching band get their new uniforms today.” In this sentence, band refers to individual members (because each member is getting a uniform), so the verb form is plural. Now let’s go over indefinite pronouns. You’ll recall that they do not refer to anyone or anything specific.

31. Subject-Verb Agreement Indefinite pronoun can be always plural (both, few, many, others, several) Indefinite pronouns can be always singular (another, anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, little, much, neither, nobody, none, no one, nothing, one, other, somebody, someone, something) Or either singular or plural (all, any, more, most, some). These pronouns are singular when they refer to singular words, and plural when they refer to plural words.

32. Subject-Verb Agreement A few sample sentences “No one answers the phone when a customer calls.” “No one” is an indefinite pronoun that is always singular, so therefore the verb is singular (“answers”). “Many get up and walk away.” “Many” is an indefinite pronoun that is always plural, and therefore the verb is plural (“get”). “Some of Lamar’s time was spent daydreaming.” “Time” here is singular, so the verb is singular. “Some of Lamar’s friends were late.” “Some” here is plural because it refers to friends; therefore the verb is plural.

33. The Last Word(s) on Verbs We have two more issues to go over before we put verbs to rest. Consistent verb tense. As we discussed, verb tense refers to the time an action takes place (past, present, future). The verb tenses you use in a sentence must be consistent with each other. In other words, if you begin your sentence in the past tense, it needs to stay in the past tense. Example: “When the sun sits high in the sky, and the cloud cover is just right, we saw the water glistening.” Here the verb “is” is present tense, and the word “saw” is past tense. This is incorrect.

34. The Last Word(s) on Verbs Another important part of writing is the “voice” of the you use in your writing. There’s two voices Passive—in which the subject receives the action. “The employees were charged with disturbing the peace by the police.” The employees received the action of being arrested. Active—in which the subject performs the action. “The police charged the employees with disturbing the peace.” The police perform the action of arresting.

35. Active Voice vs Passive Voice If you haven’t guessed by now, it’s the active voice that is preferred in your writing. It adds energy to your writing, and makes it more interesting to read. A few more examples-which sound better to you? The mail was opened by Sarah. Sarah opened the mail. My purse was stolen. Someone stole my purse. The criminal was sentenced to five years. The judge sentenced the criminal to five years.

36. Verbs The end! (for now) Questions? Comments?