THE ENGLISH VERB

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1. DEFINITION
1.1. If form is taken as the basis for the definition of the verb, then the
difference in the expression of the present and the past or the inflection -s
in the third person singular present and the inflection ed or a root vowel
change in the past might seem applicable criteria in defining the class:
love vs. loved
write vs. wrote
love vs. he loves

Criticism:
-ed. and -s are not endings characteristic of the verb only
-ed (-d), may also be added to nouns or noun phrases to form adjectives (e.g.
fair-haired, gifted)
-s may be added to nouns to form the plural (e.g. bird vs. birds)
- the use of this criterion would leave out words like cut, cost, put, which have
the same form for present and past, or must, ought to, which are not
inflected in the third person singular of the present tense and have no form
for the past tense.
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1.2. Such words will be easily recognized as

belonging to the class of verbs if their function in the
sentence is considered:
I must go. Must we go?
I shall go, Shall we go?
Did you cut it ? is parallel to Did you like it ?

the verb could be defined as the sentence forming

element.
Criticism:
- if the combination water boils is a complete
sentence, boiling water or to boil water are not
- only our intuition tells us that boils, boiling, and to
boil are closely related and are different forms of the
same word.
-

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1.3. Consequently, grammar books find it

preferable to define the class of the verb by
meaning or content, although such a
definition is not complete either.
Thus the verb is said to be the part of speech
denoting actions (write, run, answer, make,
build), some state or condition (sleep, remain,
lie, stand, live), existence (be, exist), the
appearance of a characteristic (blossom,
wither, die, rise) the modification of an
attitude or characteristic (awake, harden), an
attitude (please, scorn, doubt, respect) etc.
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2. VERB FORMS
2.1. The finite forms
have tense distinctions to express grammatical time
relations
have mood, which indicates the speaker's attitude
towards the action
can indicate the duration, completeness or
incompleteness of an action
can show whether a person or thing is doing or
receiving an action
can form the predicate of a sentence by themselves
there is person and number agreement between the
subject and the finite verb, which, with most lexical
verbs, is restricted to a contrast between third and noncopyrightpresent.
H.Parlog, L. Frentiu
third person singular

2.2. The non-finite forms of the verb are: the

infinitive, the participle, and the gerund
have aspect and voice distinctions
may enter into predicate relations with a noun, thus
forming syntactic units resembling clauses
(actually called "non-finite clauses" by several
grammars)
do not have the categories of mood, tense, number
and person.
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3. CLASSIFICATION OF
VERBS
3.1. The basic forms of the verb
3.2. Te behaviour of the verb in the
sentence
3.3 The ability of the verb to occur in the
progressive aspect
3.4. Verb complementation

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3.1 The classification of verbs

according to their basic forms
the base form (often referred to as the
infinitive but which also functions as
present indicative, with the exception of the
third person singular, as imperative, and as
present subjunctive)
the past tense (or preterite)
the past participle
the indefinite participle
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3.1.1. Regular verbs

Verbs ending in -ed in the past tense and
past participle are called regular verbs (e.g.
ask, asked, asked, asking; finish, finished,
finished, finishing)
The regular verb class includes the vast
majority of English verbs. If one knows the
basic form of such a verb, one can predict
what its other three forms are
copyright H.Parlog, L. Frentiu

3.1.1.1. The pronunciation of regular

verb inflection -ed
The inflexion -ed, characteristic of the past tense and the past participle
of regular verbs, has three phonetic realizations:
a) [d], after voiced consonants other than [d] and after vowels:
play, played, played [p l e i d]
move, moved, moved [m u: v d]
judge, judged, judged [ddd]

b) [t], after voiceless consonants, other than [t]

stop, stopped, stopped [s t o p t]
push, pushed, pushed [p u t]

c) [id], after the alveolar plosives [t] , [d]

rot, rotted, rotted, [r o t i d]
bud, budded, budded [bdid]

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3.1.1.2. The spelling of past tense, indefinite

participle and past participle forms of regular verbs.
a) The final consonant of the base form is doubled before -ed. if the preceding vowel is stressed
and spelled with a single letter:
bar, barred, barred, barring
beg, begged, begged, begging
chat, chatted, chatted, chatting
clap, clapped, clapped, clapping
rub, rubbed, rubbed, rubbing

Certain consonants are doubled also after single unstressed vowels or c is doubled by a k:
humbug, humbugged, humbugged, humbugging
traffic, trafficked, trafficked, trafficking
picnic, picnicked, picnicked, picnicking

In British English, but not in American English, there are many other verbs whose final consonant
is doubled after single unstressed vowels as well:
signal, signalled, signalled, signalling
travel, travelled, travelled, travelling
cancel, cancelled, cancelled, cancelling
program(me), programmed, programmed, programming
kidnap, kidnapped, kidnapped, kidnapping
worship, worshipped, worshipped, worshipping
(Most verbs ending in p observe, however, the main rule: develop, developed; gossip, gossiped).

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b) Verbs ending in -y preceded by a consonant change y into i; however y remains unchanged in front of
ing:
study, studied, studied, studying
cry, cried, cried, crying

But :
play, played, played, playing
employ, employed, employed, employing

c) The final -e of the base form is usually dropped

before ed and -ing:
shave, shaved, shaved, shaving
breathe, breathed, breathed, breathing
agree, agreed, agreed, but: agreeing
decree, decreed, decreed but: decreeing

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3. 1.2.

Irregular verbs

Irregular verbs have no ed inflection in the

past tense and the past participle : generally
they are formed by a change of vowel
(gradation or "ablaut)
drive, drove, driven

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the same form for the base form, the past tense and
the past participle
put, put, put
cost, cost, cost
hit, hit, hit

the same form for the past tense and the past
participle only
dig, dug, dug

the same base form and past participle

come, came, come
run, ran, run

keep their root vowel unchanged, adding a -t in their

past tense and past participle
burn, burnt, burnt

changing a final -d of the basic form into t

build built, built
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3.1.2.1.

Verbs having two forms for

the past participle

a) A number of verbs have two past participle forms, of which one with the ending
-en. In many cases, the en forms have only an adjectival function:
drink, drank, drunk / drunken
load, loaded, loaded / laden
melt, melted, melted / molten
rot, rotted, rotted / rotten
shrink, shrank, shrunk / shrunken
sink, sank, sunk / sunken
shave, shaved, shaved / shaven

The drunken man collapsed. He had drunk a lot.

One of the trees has rotted. It is a rotten egg.
Your gums have shrunk since you had your teeth extracted.
His shrunken cheeks showed how ill he was.
The old mans eyes have sunk. The old man has sunken eyes.
He has shaved off his beard. He is clean shaven.

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b) A number of verbs have two participle forms, of which one is

regular and one ends in n. Nearly always, as an attributive
adjective, the n participle is used. In the verbal function both
forms are found:
hew, hewed, hewed / hewn
mow, mowed, mowed / mown
saw, sawed, sawed / sawn
shear, sheared, sheared / shorn
sew, sewed, sewed / sewn
show, showed, showed / shown
sow, sowed, sowed / sown
strew, strewed, strewed / strewn

Hewn timber is in high demand. They have hewed / hewn several

branches.
I like the smell of new-mown hay. The lawn was mown / mowed
yesterday.
This is sown grass. This plot has been sown.
This is hand-sewn. She has sewn /sewed a button on.
You look like a shorn lamb. We have shorn / sheared the sheep.
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c) Some past participles have only a very restricted use:

bend, bent, bent / bended only in on bended knees
bind, bound, bound / bounden only in my bounden
duty
bite, bit, bit / bitten in the biter bit (the biter bitten)
break, broke, broken / broke in Im broke.
bear bore, born / borne born is used in the passive
voice in connection with birth.
He was born in Bucharest.

In all the other cases borne is used:

She has borne him four children.
He has borne the situation courageously.
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3.1.2.2. Verbs having double forms for both the

past tense and the past participle
For certain verbs, the regular -ed form is especially characteristic for
American English, while the irregular form for British English:
bet, bet/betted
burn, burnt/burned
dwell, dwelt/dwelled
kneel, knelt/kneeled
leap, leapt/leaped
learn learnt/learned
smell, smelt/smelled
spell, spelt/spelled
spill, spilt/spilled
spoil, spoilt/spoiled
strive, strove/ strived striven/strived
thrive, throve/thrived, thriven/thrived

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