Sentence Skills:

About Verbs
English Skills for Academic Studies
John Langan
(pp 344-348)
 Additional Information about
Verbs
Here are the three areas we’ll discuss
in this section:
• Verb Tense

• Helping Verbs

• Verbals
Verb Tense. . .
. . . tells you the time
of the action.
Let’s start with the
simple
• present,
• past, and
• future.
 Present Tense
The present tense tells ?
you that something is
happening now.

Example:
Tom counts the
sparrows.
 Past Tense
The past tense tells
you that
something
happened before.
Example:
Sally counted
the sparrows
yesterday.
 Future Tense
The future tense tells
you that something
will happen later.

Example:
Tom and Sally will
count the sparrows
next weekend.
 Verb Tense
We can be a little more specific about
time using these other tenses:
•Perfect Tense (Add a form of the
verb “have”)
•Progressive Tense (Add a form of the
verb “be”)
•Perfect Progressive Tense (Add both
the verbs “have” and “be.”)
(See pp 337-338 for examples of 12 verb
tenses)
 Helping Verbs
Which brings us to the
subject of
helping
verbs.
There are three verbs
that can both stand
alone and help other
verbs:
 Helping Verbs
Used Alone Used as Helping
Verbs

I was busy. I was getting tired.

Mary has the floor. Mary has stepped in it.
He did a bad thing. He did love her.
 Helping Verbs
Let’s review for a minute:
I was getting tired.
Analysis: verb “be” used as helper =
progressive, and past tense of verb
“be” = past progressive.
Mary has stepped in it.
Analysis: verb “have” used as helper
= perfect, and present tense of verb
“have” = present perfect.
 Helping Verbs
There are also nine
helping verbs
called
that are always
used together to
help other verbs.
Let’s look at a chart:
 Helping Verbs
Can I can hope, can’t I?
Could I could eat more, I suppose.
May Roger may be detained.
Might You might regret that tattoo, Jerry.
Shall I shall see if there’s another room, sir.
Should John should get his head examined.
Will William will want to wander around a bit.
Would Glasses would help, I think.
Must You must take your feet off that rug, Marty.
Verbals
Verbals are words
formed from verbs.
There are three kinds:
• Infinitives
• Participles
• Gerunds
 Verbals
An is “to” + “steal” =
formed by adding
the word “to” to “to steal”
the base form of
the verb. Example:

What is the infinitive Jesse James loved

to steal money
of the verb “steal”? from bankers.
 Verbals
A is a verb form The past participle
used as an adjective. ends in -ed or is
irregular.
The present participle ends
in -ing. Example:
Looking over her
tax returns, the
weeping
accountant
tugged her
bleached hair.
 Verbals
A is the -ing Let’s make a gerund out of
the verb “bowl.”
form of a verb
used as a noun. “Bowl” + “ing” =
“Bowling”
Example:
Bowling is not a sport,
because you can
smoke while you’re
doing it.