Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Additional Information about Verbs College Writing Skills, 5E and College Writing Skills with Readings, 5E John Langan Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Additional Information about Verbs Here are the three areas we’ll discuss in this section: Verb Tense Helping Verbs Verbals

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Verb Tense tells you the time of the action. Let’s start with the simple present, past, and future.

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Present Tense The present tense tells you that something is happening now. Example: Tom counts the sparrows. ?

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Past Tense The past tense tells you that something happened before. Example: Sally counted the sparrows yesterday.

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Future Tense The future tense tells you that something will happen later. Example: Tom and Sally will count the sparrows next weekend.

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Verb Tense time We can be a little more specific about time using these other tenses: Perfect Tense (Add a form of the verb “have”)Perfect Tense (Add a form of the verb “have”) Progressive Tense (Add a form of the verb “be”)Progressive Tense (Add a form of the verb “be”) Perfect Progressive Tense (Add both the verbs “have” and “be.”)Perfect Progressive Tense (Add both the verbs “have” and “be.”)

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Helping Verbs helping verbs. Which brings us to the subject of helping verbs. There are three verbs that can both stand alone and help other verbs:

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Helping Verbs Used AloneUsed as Helping Verbs I was busy.I was getting tired. Mary has the floor.Mary has stepped in it. He did a bad thing.He did love her.

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Helping Verbs Let’s review for a minute: I was getting tired. Mary has stepped in it. Analysis: verb “be” used as helper = progressive, and past tense of verb “be” = past progressive. Analysis: verb “have” used as helper = perfect, and present tense of verb “have” = present perfect.

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Helping Verbs There are also nine helping verbs called that are always used together to help other verbs. Let’s look at a chart:

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Helping Verbs CanI can hope, can’t I? CouldI could eat more, I suppose. MayRoger may be detained. MightYou might regret that tattoo, Jerry. ShallI shall see if there’s another room, sir. ShouldJohn should get his head examined. WillWilliam will want to wander around a bit. WouldGlasses would help, I think. MustYou must take your feet off that rug, Marty.

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Verbals Verbals are words formed from verbs. There are three kinds: Infinitives Participles Gerunds

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Verbals An is formed by adding the word “to” to the base form of the verb. What is the infinitive of the verb “steal”? Example: Jesse James loved to steal money from bankers. “to” + “steal” = “to steal”

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Verbals A is a verb form used as an adjective. The present participle ends in - ing. The past participle ends in -ed or is irregular. Example: Looking over her tax returns, the weeping accountant tugged her bleached hair.

Chapter 28 College Writing Skills / CWS with Readings, 5E ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Verbals A is the -ing form of a verb used as a noun. Example: Bowling is not a sport, because you can smoke while you’re doing it. Let’s make a gerund out of the verb “bowl.” “Bowl” + “ing” = “Bowling”