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acrosstheuniverse

Verbs!

Author: acrosstheuniverse

To jump - jump - jumped - jumped - jumping - jumps!

The English language is vast! Think of all the things there is to say, without verbs, we wouldn't be able to show any action or tell others what we're doing, done or are about to do! For one verb such as jump, we see that there are 4 forms for the one base word of "jump". For some words like sing, there are 5 forms: sing, sang, sung, singing and sings. In comparison to other languages, we've got it pretty easy. Other languages in the world have more than 20,m sometimes 30 forms for a single word!

English verbs typically have 4, 5 or 6 different forms. The exceptional word "be" has 9 forms. Be aware that verb forms and verb tenses are not the same thing. We use the forms of verbs to make tenses, which we will cover later on.

Forms of Major Verbs (Regular)

Infinitive	Base	Past Simple	Past Participle	Present Participle	Present Simple
(to) go	go	went	gone	going	goes
(to) sing	sing	sang	sung	singing	sings
(to) do	do	did	done	doing	does
(to) have	have	had	had	having	has
(to) live	live	lived	lived	living	lives
(to) work	work	worked	worked	working	works

Forms of Major Verbs (Irregular)

Infinitive	Base	Past Simple	Past Participle	Present Participle	Present Simple
(to) be	be	was, were	been	being	am, are, is

Infinitive

I want to go
She has to work.
The cake was easy to make.
I want to be a dentist.
I have a sister.

Base - Imperative

Play nicely!
Fix this.
Be friendly.
Have one!

Base - Present Simple (except 3rd person singular)

You sing beautifully.
They have many rabbits.
I play soccer.

Past simple

I jumped in the pool.
She corrected his paper last week.
They had to share the donut.

Past participle

I have lived here for 5 months
He wants a cabinet made for his room.
It is made like this.

Present participle

I am living.
Playing tag is pretty fun.
You are being foolish.

3rd person singular, present simple

She makes lots of friends.
It is Japanese food.
He wishes for a car every day.

You can use these verbs and forms of the verbs to come up with endless sentences. Verbs add action and life to sentences, stories and essays. Knowing how to use them in the correct form will make sure that your audience knows what you're talking about.

Image Credit: laurenatclemson, PrASanGaM, labspics