Verbs

Verbs can also be fiddly because sometimes verbs aren’t doing anything. There are three different types of verbs.

Action Verbs

These are the verbs we think of when we think of verbs. These are the “doing something” verbs. When they are in their unconjugated form, they are what we call infinitives. Infinitives begin with the word to and look like this:

to run

to sit

to fight

to love

“to sleep, perchance to dream . . .”1

When we pair verbs with a subject, we conjugate them. To sit becomes she sits. If it happened yesterday, sit becomes sat.

Linking Verbs

Linking verbs are what we call “existence verbs,” and they come in two categories.

  1. The first is the to be verbs. Any form of to be (am, is, are, was, etc.) is a linking verb if it is used to connect the subject of the sentence with a description or restating of the subject.

    2. I am excited.

    He is my brother.

  2. The second category is sensory linking verbs. These are the sensory verbs that are describing the state of something. These are tricky because sometimes a word can be an action verb (I smell a flower), and sometimes that same word, used a different way, is a linking verb (you smell like flowers). In the second example, I’m not saying that you smell with your nose in the same way that a flower smells with its nose (because that would be silly), but rather I am describing the state of you (you are flowery smelling). Other examples of these sensory linking verbs would be:

    You look great.

    He sounded tired.

    That feels soft.

In none of these is the subject doing the action of looking, sounding, or feeling. Make sense?

Click here for a Khan Academy explanation of "to be" and sensory linking verbs.

Helping/Auxiliary Verbs

The last type of verb has to be paired with either an action verb or a linking verb, and helps to create the more complicated tenses, progressive and perfect. In these tenses, the to be verbs can also be helping verbs, if they are paired with an action or linking verb. Take the following, for instance:

I was thinking about that.

I am thinking about that.

The action verb in that sentence is thinking, but the use of am or was changes the tense.

They also communicate meanings such as expectation, permission, and obligation, among others. These are the “shoulda-woulda-coulda” verbs.

If someone says, “I went to the movies,” it means just that. But if someone says, “I should have gone to the movies,” the action verb is gone, but then what are the words should and have? They are helping verbs, used to change the meaning of gone. Now the sentence implies that I didn’t go to the movies and that I regret it. Here is additional information on helping verbs.

Now that you have a handle on nouns and verbs, let’s practice.

1. Shakespeare, Hamlet 3.1.65