Class 7 – English (Verbs)

Main Verbs, Helping Verbs and Modal Auxiliaries

What are Main and Helping Verbs?

Let us read the following sentences.

The word which represents action in Sentence 1 is brought; however, in Sentence 2, one word alone does not represent the action. The phrase is serving functions as the verb.

When we inspect this phrase, we see it is made of two elements. One word actually carries the main idea of the action, and the other word tells us more about the nature of the action. In the phrase, serving is the main verb. The word is tells us more about the nature of the main action; hence, it is a helping verb.

Main Verbs

• Main verbs are words which represent the primary or main action of the subject.
• They contain the main meaning.

Helping Verbs

• Helping verbs are words which support main verbs.
• They are important to the structure of sentences.
• They also tell us about the nature of the main verb with respect to tense and form.
• They have little or no meaning as compared to the main verb.

Primary Helping Verbs

Grammer | Verbs

Primary helping verbs are helping verbs which can also function as main verbs. They can be divided into three categories.

• Be forms (progressive helping verbs): Verbs like is, are, am, was, were are known as Be forms of helping verbs or progressive helping verbs. They tell us that the action expressed by the main verb is still in progression.

• Present progressive: Rashid is writing an essay for English class.
• Past progressive: Greta was complaining to me about Greg.
• Future progressive: His friends will be creating a ruckus in the college library.

• Have forms or perfect forms: Verbs like has, have, had are known as perfect forms of helping verbs. They tell us that the action expressed by the main verb is finished, complete or perfected.

• Present perfect: Dr Pavlov has fed his dog.
• Past perfect: Kavita had informed the authorities.
• Future perfect: Bianca will have completed three years in the office.

• Do forms: Helping verbs like do, does, did, done are known as do forms of helping verbs. They are used for

• Emphasis: She does remember you.
• Negation: Karim didn’t call me back as promised.
• Forming questions: Did you park the car on the wrong side?

Modal Auxiliaries

Grammer | Verbs

• Modal auxiliaries or modal verbs are helping verbs which tell us about the modality or intent behind the verb’s performance.
• These modalities include permission, suggestion, ability, probability or obligation.
• Without the main verb, the auxiliary will not make sense at all.

Modal	Tense	Meaning	Usage
Can	Present	Ability	Diana can play the piano.
Can	Present	Permission	Can I come in?
Could	Past	Ability	Houdini could free himself from the box hewas locked in.
Will	Future	Certainty	Gerald will visit us in London.
Would	Future	Probability	Ravi would be the inheritor of his father’sriches.
Shall (used with Iand We)	Future	Certainty	We shall contact you.
Shall	–	Permission	Shall I accompany you?
Should	–	Suggestion	You should wear your pink sweater.
Should	–	Obligation	You should complete your work beforeleaving.
May	Future	Possibility(likely)	It may rain today since the skies turned grey.
May	–	Permission	May I? Yes, you may.
Might	Future	Possibility(unlikely)	Though the sky looks clear today, there is apossibility it might rain.
Must	–	Obligation	You must complete the journal on time.
Must	–	Speculation	Where is Sneha? She must be in the kitchen.
Ought	–	Moral Obligation	One ought to donate some money to theneedy.
Ought	–	Probability	Three cups of flour ought to be enough forthis cake.

Grammer | Verbs

Subject-Verb Agreement, Finite and Non-Finite Verbs

Subject-Verb Agreement

What is Subject-Verb Agreement?

Read the following sentences:

In Sentence 1, the subject ‘The bear cub’ agrees with the verb crawls. In Sentence 2, the subject The bear cubs agrees with the verb crawl. In Sentence 1, the subject is singular; hence, the verb is singular. In Sentence 2, the subject is plural; hence, the verb is also plural.

This agreement between the subject and the verb is known as subject verb agreement or subject verb concord. In simple words, we can say that when the subject is singular, the verb is singular; when the subject is plural, the verb is also plural.

Let us observe more examples.

Subject	Verb
The dog	barks
The girl	hates
The clowns	juggle
Bianca	tells
The labourers	work
Vijay	approves
The groups	decide

In the above examples, we can see that the subjects agree with their verbs with respect to number.

Grammer | Verbs

The subject of a sentence can be a noun, a pronoun or a gerund. The rules of agreement can be different for each.

Rules for Nouns

• Uncountable nouns will always agree with singular verbs.

• Material nouns will also agree with singular verbs.

• In a collective noun phrase, the headword will agree with the verb and not the noun which follows the preposition ‘of’.

• However, some collective nouns will always agree with plural verbs.

Subject	Predicate
The police	have arrived.
The public	know.
The clergy	appoint.
The cattle	graze.

• Sometimes, it is the actions of the nouns in the collective noun which decides whether it agrees   with a singular verb or a plural verb.

• if the actions are united the collective nouns agree with the singular verb

• If the actions are individualistic (each member in the group performs separately) or if there is a

disagreement or discord within the group, the collective noun will agree with a plural verb.

• If the noun is preceded by the phrase ‘a pair of’ or ‘pairs of’, the verb will agree with the headword ‘pair’ or ‘pairs’.

Rules for Pronouns

• When the subject of the sentence is a pronoun, the verb agrees with the pronoun not only in

number but also in person.

• First person pronouns always agree with plural verbs.

• Second person pronouns also agree with plural verbs.

• Singular third person pronouns agree with singular verbs.

• Plural third person pronouns agree with plural verbs.

• Indefinite pronouns take singular verbs.

Subject	Predicate
Something	is missing.
Someone	has forgotten his luggage.
Nothing	is impossible for him.
Everything	was stolen.
Either of the boys	is the thief.
Much	was left desired.
None	is more powerful than him.

• Gerunds usually agree with singular verbs.

Miscellaneous Rules for Agreement

And

• Two nouns joined by the conjunction ‘and’ agree with a plural verb.

• If there is no article with the second noun, it means both the nouns function as a single subject. In that case, the verb is singular.

• In the above example, the subject is singular.
• This is because there is no article with the second noun ‘philosopher’.
• It means the political leader is also a philosopher.

• Phrases like ‘along with’ and ‘as well as’ and ‘together with’ connect two nouns like the conjunction ‘and’.
• But the verbs in these cases will agree with the first noun.

 Either…or, Neither…nor

• When two nouns are connected by correlatives either…or and neither…nor, the verb agrees with the noun which is closest to it.

What are Finite and Nonfinite Verbs?

Read the following sentence.

Paul loves to read.

The verb highlighted in green in the sentence is loves; its tense is the present tense. However, the highlighted phrase in red, to read, has no tense of its own despite having a verb in it.

Verbs like loves are called finite verbs because they have a tense.

Verbs like to read are called nonfinite verbs because they have no tense.

Examples of finite verbs:

The highlighted verbs in the above examples have tenses.

Examples of infinite verbs:

The highlighted verbs in the above examples do not have tenses.

Verbals

What are Verbals?

• Verbals come under the category of nonfinite verbs.
• These are words formed out of verbs but function differently from them.
• They perform fuctions of other parts of speech.
• There are three main types of verbals in English.
  • Gerunds
  • Infinitives
  • Participles
    1. Present participle
    2. Past participle

The Gerund

A gerund is a verbal which ends in –ing and functions like a noun.

• It can play the role of a subject.

• It can also play the role of the object.

• Gerunds can be single words.

• Or they can be gerund phrases.

The Infinitive

• Infinitives are verbals which are usually formed when the preposition ‘to’ is added to a simple present tense of a verb.

To talk

To make

To sleep

To run

To do

• Infinitives are used to express ideas such as purpose.

• They can function like nouns as a replacement for gerunds.

• They can sometimes take an object.

• Or be objects of verbs themselves.

• They can be complements to objects.

• Sometimes, an infinitive can function without the preposition to in it.

• Participles are words which are formed from verbs but have the qualities of adjectives.
• Participles are of two types.

• Present participle: Formed out of present tense verbs or -ing verbs.

• Past participle: Formed out of past tense verbs ending in -ed or -en.

• They can be used as complements for subjects.

• They can also be used as complements for objects.

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

What are Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

Object

What is an object?

• An object is the word which follows a verb.
• It can be a noun, a pronoun or a gerund which gets affected by the action expressed by the verb.
• It is a part of the predicate.

The words highlighted in red are the objects of the verbs which are highlighted in green.

Now let us read the following sentences.

Observe the verbs in the sentences.

• Complained, baked, smiled and threw
• Add the interrogative pronoun ‘what’ to the verb (verb + what?)
  • complained what? – ?
  • baked what? – bread
  • smiled what? – ?
  • threw what? – stone

• Verbs like complained and smiled are called intransitive verbs because they do not have objects.
• Verbs like baked and threw are called transitive verbs because they have objects.

Some verbs have to depend on their objects for the completion of meaning, while some verbs can express meaning on their own. The verbs which need the support of their objects are known as transitive verbs and the ones which can stand on their own are called intransitive verbs. The actions expressed through transitive verbs affect their objects, whereas intransitive verbs do not have objects to affect.

Read the following verbs and add the interrogative pronoun ‘what’ or ‘whom’ to them. Make two columns and write the transitive verbs in one and the intransitive ones in the other.

beat	sleep	hold	try	swim	make	cough	kick
arrive	die	help	pull	live	go	kill	jump

Transitive verbs	beat, hold, try, make, kick, help, pull, kill
Intransitive verbs	sleep, swim, cough, arrive, die, live, go, jump

• Let us see how these verbs are used in sentences.

• However, some verbs can function transitively or intransitively depending on the context. Here are a few examples:

Direct and Indirect Objects

When it comes to transitive verbs, there are two types of objects.

• Direct objects
• Indirect objects

What are Direct Objects?

• Direct objects are those that appear immediately after the verbs.
• They are directly affected by the actions of the verbs. They answer the question ‘what?’ or ‘whom?’.

What are Indirect Objects?

• Indirect objects are those that do not appear immediately after verbs, but they are separated from the verbs by direct objects.
• They are not immediately affected by the actions of the verbs.
• They answer the question Preposition + what?/Preposition + whom? (to what?/to whom?).
• They are usually associated with verbs of giving or communicating like give, offer, show and ask.
• Indirect objects are either nouns or pronouns and do not form a part of the main predicate unlike direct objects.

Sometimes, the prepositions before the indirect object may not be evident in the sentence. They may be implied.