Verbs

A verb is a type of word that’s used to describe an action.

In addition to actions, verbs in English can also be used to describe a state of being (specifically the verb “to be”) or an occurrence (e.g. “to happen” or “to occur”).

Alongside nouns, verbs form the most important part of speech and are found in almost all sentences. In English, verbs alone constitute around 25 per cent of all vocabulary items in the entire language.

In English, verbs are a rather complex category that can be understood in a variety of ways. For example, they can be broken down into the following:

Tense, Mood, and Aspect

In English, this is often (although not always) expressed via multiple words.

• Simple past
• Past progressive/continuous
• Past perfect
• Past perfect progressive
• Simple present
• Present progressive
• Present perfect
• Present perfect progressive/continuous
• Simple future
• Future progressive
• Future perfect
• Future perfect progressive
• Simple conditional
• Conditional progressive
• Conditional perfect
• Conditional perfect progressive
• Indicative
• Subjunctive
• Imperative
• Conditional

Types of Verb

In addition to the above, English verbs fall into a number of distinct categories which can be divided thusly:

• Main verbs
• Auxiliary verbs
• Transitive vs intransitive verbs
• Modal verbs
• Phrasal verbs