Verb

shows action or state of being

present past future
go went gone
walk walked walked
     

tense, number, passive, active, helper, object, Regular, irregular, participles, gerunds, infinitives - all words associated with using verbs correctly. Thats sound like a lot and it is.

most confusing

  • types
  • agreement of numbers
  • tense
  • regular

verb action or state of being

action verb

show action: you can visualize some thing being done
I rode to town.

state of being verbs

Link the subject to the rest of the sentence
Is, am, were, was, are, be
I am happy - telling the reader that I am happy state of mind

helping verb + action

I am going to town

steps to using verb correctly

  • Recognize the verb.
  • Identify the action or state of being
  • Make the verb and subject agree in number (if subject singular, verb will be singular. If subject is plural, verb will be plural)

The cat (run or runs) around the house. (run with s is singular, without s is plural).

The stream beyond the hills (flow/flows) gently

Regular

Past and future tense are identical and formed with (-d/-ed).

| present | past | future | regular/irregular | —————————- | walk | walked | walked | regular | talk | talked | talked | regular |

  1. I walk to the store everyday
  2. I walked to the store yesterday
  3. I will have walked to the store three days this week

Irregular

Past, present and future forms may vary.

| present | past | future | regular/irregular | —————————- | go | went | gone| irregular | see | saw | seen| irregular |

  1. I go to town every day
  2. I went to town yesterday
  3. I will have gone to town every day this week.

Present & past column never take helper but Future column always take a helper