English Grammar: Verb Categories

Verb Categories

• Verbs have several categories, including mood, voice, aspect, tense, number and person.

Functional Classification of the Verb

• Verbs are classified into finite and non-finite categories.

Full Verb vs Auxiliary Verb

• Full verbs form the predicate of a sentence.
• Auxiliary verbs help in building compound verb forms.
  • Auxiliary verbs (temporals/tense-formers): "to be," "to have," "to do" used for inflectional forms
  • Auxiliary verbs (modals/mood-formers) : "can-could", "may-might," "shall-should", "will-would," "must," "ought to," "have to", "need," etc.
• Note: "to be," "to have," "to do," "to need," and "to dare" can also be full verbs.

Finite vs Non-finite

• Finite verbs are connected to the subject of a sentence, expressing tense.
• Non-finite verbs include infinitives, gerunds (present participles), and participles (past participles).

Anomalous Finite Verbs

• Irregular verbs.
• Negative form ends in "n't."
• Examples: "am," "is," "are," "was," "were," "have," "has," "had," "do," "does," "did," "used to," "will," "would," "shall," "should," "can," "could," "may," "might," "must," "ought to," "need," and "dare."

Structures With Anomalous Finites

• Emphatic affirmatives: use "do" to emphasize a statement
• Negative statements
• Interrogative questions
• Short answers
• Question tags
• Examples of minor patterns: "so/nor/neither" clauses, "so" with a subject, "but" with a subject and a verb, negative clause with a subject.

Anomalous Finite and Full Verbs

• Examples of anomalous finites ("He does drink a lot," "He has arrived")
• Examples of full verbs ("He does a lot of work," "She had a good time")

The Infinitive

• Simple Infinitives: "to write"
  • Appear after auxiliary verbs or modal auxiliaries
  • Can be subject, complement, object, or part of a noun phrase or adjective clause
• Progressive Infinitives: "to be writing"
• Perfect Infinitives: "to have written"
• Passive Infinitives: "to be done"
• Combination Infinitives: "to have been sitting"
• Negative Infinitives: starting with "not" (e.g., Try not to be late.)
• Split Infinitives: "to really understand"

Infinitives Without "to"

• After modal auxiliaries
• After "let," "make," "hear," "feel," "watch," "notice"
• After "why (not)"
• After "and," "or," "except," "but," "than," "like"
• After "do"

Use of Participles

• Word forms of verbs acting as adjectives
• Explain actions, states, or conditions
• Examples: "raining," "falling rain," "screaming," "sitting."

The Gerund and Participle

• Active and passive forms
• Present tense
• Perfect tense

Falling Leaves/ Broken Hearts

• Examples of past participles acting as adjectives with active meanings ("falling leaves," "broken heart")

Interested vs Interesting

• Past participle shows how people feel, or the experience of a feeling ("I was very interested")
• Present participle describes entities or things that cause the feeling ("Boring teachers make bored students")

Active Past Participles

• Intransitive verbs used as adjectives
• Examples: "fallen leaf," "advanced students," "developed countries," "well-read person," "much-travelled man"

Participles as Adjectives

• Appear before nouns or after linking verbs
• Examples: "interesting book," "falling leaf," "screaming child," "broken window"
• Used with prepositional phrases e.g., "fox-hunting man," "English-speaking country"
• Also used with nouns e.g., quick-growing trees, home-made cake

Participles After Nouns

• Used to describe/explain nouns
• Define or identify the main noun
• Examples: "We couldn't agree on any of the problems discussed;" "The people questioned have a different opinion;" "I watched the match because I knew some of the people playing."

Difference of Meaning

• Some participles change meaning depending on their position in the sentence

Very + Past Participles

• When used with gradable adjectives which denote feelings or mental states.

Special Past Participle Forms

• Some older verbs have different participle forms (e.g. "drunken driving", "shrunken head")