English Verbs: Meaning, Examples, Forms, Types, Rules & Exercise in Grammar

A verb is a word that describes an action, a feeling, a state of being or existence, or possession. Simply put, it is a word in a sentence that shows what the subject is doing or what is happening. Verbs can be in different forms, including base form, past simple form, past participle form, and present participle form. Verbs build a relationship between the subject and other parts of an English sentence.

A verb in a sentence expresses:

1. Physical Actions: Some verbs describe the actions performed by the body or using tools.

Examples of Physical Action Verbs: 

• I smell something cooking in the kitchen.
• She heard weird noises from the building.

2. Mental Actions: Some English verbs define the internal process of a human being. These include thinking, knowing, etc.

Examples of Mental Action Verbs:

• I know who won the game.
• I got her number from my friend.

3. State of Being Actions: Some verbs describe conditions or situations without showing action. These verbs often use forms of "to be" like "am" or "is,".

Examples of State of Being Action Verbs:

• I am a student.
• He is a Management Professor.

Verb Definition: Oxford Dictionary

As per the Oxford Dictionary, a verb is "a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence."

Pronunciation: /vɜːb/ (British) | /vɝːb/ (American)

Verb Example:

• She runs fast.
• He goes to the school by bus.

Verb Definition: Collins Dictionary

As per the Collins Dictionary, a verb is “ a word such as ' sing', ' feel', or ' die' which is used with a subject to say what someone or something does or what happens to them, or to give information about them.”

Also Read:

Definition of Prepositions

Conjunction Definition in English

Definition of English Synonyms

Verbs in English Grammar are crucial to write a meaningful sentence. Verbs help express actions and show feelings, conditions, time, and state. There are two main types of verbs. These are main (or principal) verbs and helping (or auxiliary) verbs. 

I. Main Verbs/ Principle Verbs

Main verbs also known as principle verbs. They are the primary verbs in a sentence. The main verbs shows us the core meaning of the sentence, i.e., what the subject is doing or experiencing. These verbs can appear alone or along with a helping verb. 

Main verbs are of nine types:

1. Transitive Verbs

A transitive verb is a types of verb that requires an object to complete its meaning. The action passes from the subject to the object. Without the object, the sentence is incomplete. This object could be a noun, pronoun, or phrase.

Examples of Transitive Verbs:

• The boy kicked the ball.
• She wrote a letter.
• I gave my sister a gift.

How do you know if it is a transitive verb?

If a sentence has a verb + object, then it is a transitive verb.

For example, Shreya is baking a cake. (“baking” is the verb; “cake” is object)

2. Intransitive Verbs

An intransitive verb does not take an object. The action remains with the subject and does not transfer to anything else. However, these verbs still make complete sense on their own.

Examples of Intransitive Verbs:

• The baby cried loudly.
• Birds fly high.
• He sleeps peacefully.

3. Linking Verbs/Copular Verbs

Linking verbs are also known as copular verbs. These verbs do not show action, but connect the subject to additional information about itself. These verbs usually link the subject to a subject complement (a noun, pronoun, or adjective that describes or identifies the subject).

Common linking verbs include: be (am, is, are, was, were), seem, appear, become, look, feel, sound, and taste.

Examples of Linking Verbs:

• She is a doctor.
• The soup smells delicious.
• They were excited about the trip.

4. Dynamic Verbs

In English grammar, dynamic verb (also known as action verbs) describe actions or processes that are changeable or moving. These verbs can be used in progressive tenses to show the ongoing actions.

Structure of Dynamic Verbs:

Subject + Action Verb + The rest of the sentence

Examples of Dynamic Verbs:

• Arpit is painting a picture.
• The kids ran across the field.
• Suhani writes in her journal every day.

5. Stative Verbs

Stative verbs describe a condition or state rather than an actual action. These verbs typically refer to emotions, thoughts, senses, relationships, or possession. Stative Verbs are rarely used in continuous forms.

Note: Stative verbs can be found in a sentence where the subject is doing something without any action.

Examples of Stative Verbs:

• I believe in honesty.
• She owns two houses.
• We feel tired after the hike. 

6. Regular Verbs

Regular verbs follow a consistent rule. They form both their past tense and past participle by adding -ed or -d to the base form.

Base Form	Past Simple	Past Participle
arrive	arrived	arrived
marry	married	married
play	played	played
work	worked	worked
call	called	called
lie	lied	lied

Examples of Regular Verbs:

• He cleaned his room.
• They watched a movie.
• I played chess with my brother.

7. Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs are those that do not follow the standard -ed ending rule. Their past tense and past participle forms vary.

Examples of Irregular Verbs:

• She went to the market.
• They have eaten lunch already.
• Our car cost a lot of money.

8. Finite Verbs

A finite verb agrees with the subject in person and number, and it clearly shows tense. It can act as the main verb in a sentence.

Examples of Finite Verbs:

• He drives to work.
• They watched a play.
• I am reading a book.

9. Non-finite Verbs

Non-finite verbs are those that do not indicate tense or subject agreement. These verbs cannot serve as the main verb of a sentence. There are three types of non-finite verbs; gerunds, infinitives, and participles.

1. Gerunds: A gerund is the present participle form of a verb that functions as a noun. It always ends in –ing.

Example: Writing is tough.

2. Infinitives: An infinitive is the base form of a verb. It is usually preceded by “to”.

Example: She wants to dance.

3. Participles: Participles are verb forms that function as adjectives. They are of three types, present participle (-ing form), past participle (usually -ed or irregular), and perfect participle (having + past participle).

Examples: running water (present), broken vase (past), having finished work (perfect).

Examples of Non-finite Verbs:

• Typing is hard on my wrists.
• I like to read before bed.
• Bored by the lecture, he left early.

Also Read:

Meaning of Paraphrasing in English

II. Helping Verbs/Auxiliary Verbs

Helping verbs, also known as auxiliary verbs, support the main verb in forming tense, mood, or voice. These verbs do not stand alone as the main verb. However, they are essential for creating different verb structures. The major auxiliary verbs are: be, have, and do.

Helping verbs are divided into Primary Auxiliaries and Modal Auxiliaries.

1. Primary Helping Verbs (Primary Auxiliary Verbs)

These include the verbs be, have, and do, along with their various forms:

• Forms of be: am, is, are, was, were, being, been
• Forms of have: has, have, had
• Forms of do: do, does, did

These help form continuous tenses, perfect tenses, and negative or interrogative structures.

Examples of Primary Auxiliary Verbs:

• She is singing a song.
• I have eaten already.
• Do you know the answer?

2. Modal Helping Verbs (Modal Auxiliary Verbs)

Modal verbs express ideas such as possibility, ability, permission, obligation, or necessity. Common modal verbs include: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must, ought to, dare, need, used to

Examples of Modal Auxiliary Verbs:

• You must finish your homework.
• I can solve this easily.
• May I come in?

Verbs tell us what a person is doing or what is happening around us. There are some verbs that we use in our everyday conversation. Here is a list of some commonly used verbs in English:

Verbs
go	eat
come	say
do	get
make	have
take	run
read	play
give	like
tell	walk
bring	talk
see	think

Regular & Irregular Verbs

In English grammar, all verbs are divided into two main types: Regular Verbs and Irregular Verbs. This classification is based on how the verb changes when used in the past tense and past participle forms.

• Regular verbs follow a fixed rule. You simply add -ed or -d to the base form of the verb to make the past forms.
• Irregular verbs do not follow a standard rule. They change differently.

Here is a quick difference table between Regular and Irregular Verbs:

Regular Verbs	Irregular Verbs
Add -ed or -d to form past tenses	Change form entirely or do not follow a pattern
Easy to learn and follow a rule	Must be memorized individually
Example: play → played	Example: go → went → gone

There are about 200 irregular verbs in English. We can divide these into four types:

1. Same Base Form, Past Simple Form, and Past Participle Form

• Cut → cut → cut
• Put → put → put
• Hit → hit → hit

2. Same Past Simple Form and Past Participle Form

• Keep → kept → kept
• Sleep → slept → slept
• Feel → felt → felt

3. Same Base Form and Past Participle Form

• Come → came → come
• Run → ran → run
• Become → became → become

4. Different Base Form, Past Simple Form, and Past Participle Form

• Go → went → gone
• See → saw → seen
• Drink → drank → drunk

Examples of Regular Verbs

Check out the table below for some commonly used regular verbs:

Base Form	Past Simple Form	Past Participle Form
walk	walked	walked
play	played	played
call	called	called
watch	watched	watched
clean	cleaned	cleaned
jump	jumped	jumped
open	opened	opened
close	closed	closed
work	worked	worked
smile	smiled	smiled
dance	danced	danced
climb	climbed	climbed
cook	cooked	cooked
laugh	laughed	laughed
talk	talked	talked

Examples of Irregular Verbs

Check out the table below for some commonly used irregular verbs:

Base Form	Past Simple Form	Past Participle Form
go	went	gone
eat	ate	eaten
write	wrote	written
speak	spoke	spoken
take	took	taken
give	gave	given
see	saw	seen
come	came	come
begin	began	begun
drink	drank	drunk
break	broke	broken
fly	flew	flown
know	knew	known
drive	drove	driven
sing	sang	sung

Also Read: Articles in English Grammar

Verbs are present in different forms in a sentence, depending on their function. To better understand the use of tense in a sentence, it is essential to know about the forms of verbs. In English, there are four major verb forms—Base Form (V1), Past Simple Form (V2), Past Participle Form (V3), and Present Participle Form (V4).

1. Base Form (V1)

The base form of verb is also known as the root verb. It is the simplest form of the verb and does not have any prefixes. When we look for a word in dictionary, it is in the base form. The base verb form is used in the present tense, imperatives, and infinitives.

Examples of Base Form of Verb:

• I play football every evening.
• She wants to learn Spanish.

2. Past Simple Form (V2)

The second form of the verb is past simple form. It is used in a sentence to describe an action that has already happened in the past. These actions are finished at present. In case of regular verbs, the past simple form means a verb ending with '-ed'. In case of irregular verbs, we have unique past simple verb forms.

Examples:

• He watched a movie last night.
• They went to the zoo yesterday.

3. Past Participle Form (V3)

The past participle form of verb is usually used in perfect tenses and passive voice. Just like past simple verb form, in this form of verb also, the regular verbs eds with '-ed' and irregular verbs have different verb forms. The past participle verb forms are often used with the helping verbs (has, had, have, been).

Examples:

• She has finished her homework.
• The cake was eaten by the children. 

4. Present Participle Form (V4/Gerund)

The present participle form of verb is made by adding '-ing' to the base verb form. With the help of present participle verb form, continuous tenses are framed. However, sometimes this verb form also acts as an adjective or gerund.

Examples:

1. He is running in the park. (continuous tense)
2. The shining stars lit up the sky. (adjective)

Tenses are a fundamental part of English grammar. They inform us when an action occurs, what stage it is in, and whether it’s ongoing, completed, or still pending. Since verbs are the words that express actions, feelings, or states of being, tenses and verbs are connected. Without the right verb tense, it’s difficult to understand the time and meaning of a sentence.

There are three main types of tenses in English:

1. Present Tense

Tenses that describes actions happening now or things that happen regularly are known as present tenses. In English, present tenses are classified into four types, namely, Simple Present Tense, Present Perfect Tense, Present Continuous Tense, and Present Perfect Continuous Tense.

Example:

• She plays the guitar every day.
• I work on my project daily for an hour.

2. Past Tense

Tenses that talks about actions that have already happened are known as past tense. In layman terms, if we want to talk about an action or event that has already happened in the past, we will use English past tense. These tenses are further classified into four types; Simple Past Tense, Past Perfect Tense, Past Continuous Tense, and Past Perfect Continuous Tense.

Example:

• They watched a movie yesterday.
• I went to National Craft Musuem with my friends yesterday.

3. Future Tense

The future tenses refers to actions that will happen later. The future tense in English is divided into four types; Simple Future Tense, Future Perfect Tense, Future Continuous Tense, and Future Perfect Continous Tense.

Example:

• I will call you tomorrow.
• We will go for shopping on next Sunday.

Why are Verb Tenses important?

Using correct verb tense is important because of the reasons mentioned as follows:

1. Verbs change their form to reflect the time of the action, i.e., past, present, or future. The correct verb form help the listener or reader understand when something happened.

Example:

• She walks to school. (present)

• She walked to school. (past)

2. The correct tense helps show the correct order of actions or events. This is important when we are describing multiple actions in a sentence or paragraph.

Example:

• After I had eaten, I went to bed.

• We went for a walk after having lunch.

3. Using the correct verb tense helps others understand exactly what you mean. Whether you're writing a school essay, telling a story, or having a chat with someone, the right tense shows when something happened.

Example:

• I am going to the market. 

• I went to the market.

4. Use of correct tense in a sentence help convey the required message to the listener or reader. It allows to have a proper conversation with others without creating any confusion.

• She will goes to the market yesterday. (Wrong tense: fuure used instead of past)

• She went to the market yesterday. (Correct: past tense 'went' matches the time expression yesterday)

Also Read: Nouns in English Grammar

Subject-Verb Agreement means that the verb must match the subject in number (singular or plural) and sometimes in person. If the subject is singular, the verb must also be singular. If the subject is plural, the verb must be plural, too. This rule helps make sentences grammatically correct and easy to understand. It’s one of the most important rules in English grammar because every sentence needs a subject and a verb that go together correctly.

Sometimes, it’s easy to follow this rule, but in longer or more complex sentences, students often make mistakes. That’s why learning subject-verb agreement is important.

A Few Helpful Rules:

• Add -s or -es to the verb when the subject is a singular noun or he/she/it (in the present tense).
  Example: She runs
• Do not add -s or -es when the subject is plural or when using I or you.
  Example: They run.
• Be careful with subjects that may sound plural but are actually singular, like "each," "everyone," or "the team."
  Example: Everyone wants to win.

Examples:

1. The boy reads a book every night.

(‘Boy’ is singular, so the verb ‘reads’ is singular.)

2. My cousins are waiting for me.

(‘Cousins’ is plural, so we use the plural verb ‘are’.)

3. The list of items is on the table.

(‘List’ is singular, even though ‘items’ is plural. The verb agrees with ‘list’.)