Introduction to English Verbs / 英语动词入门
A verb describes what a subject is doing. They are words or a combination of words that describe:
an action (physical or mental) e.g. to eat, to look, to think
a state of being or occurrence e.g. to be, to exist, to become
Every english sentence must have a verb.
Verbs change their form depending on:
the subject i.e. I, he, she, it, you, we, they
the time i.e. past, present, future
the aspect i.e. simple, progessive, perfect, perfect progressive
the mood i.e. indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional, subjunctive
the voice i.e. active, passive
This change of form is called 'conjugation'.
A verb tense is a combination of time and aspect and indicates when the action takes place (past, present or future) and whether the action is completed or is still continuing.
WARNING: Linguist disagree on how many tenses there are in English. Some linguists say that there are only 3 tenses and the other 'tenses' are only subsets of the main 3 tenses. Others say that there are 12 or 16 tenses. Most teachers consider that there are 12 basic tenses. Some teachers, however, will include 4 Conditional (aka Past Future) Tenses i.e. I would ..., I would be ..., I would have, I would have been .... The number of tenses is not important. Just concentrate on verb conjugation and the use of the tenses, and forget about the number of tenses. .
THere are 6 basic forms created by conjugation:
Infinitive: e.g. to play, to eat, to hide
Base form: e.g. play, eat, hide
Past tense: e.g. played, ate, hid
Past participle: e.g. played, eaten, hidden
Present participle: e.g. playing, eating, hiding
Gerund: e.g. playing, eating, hiding
Each of these forms (components) will be used alone or combined with other verb forms to provide meaning to English verbs.
Note: Although both the present participle and gerund end in -ing, they are not the same. Each has a different function within a sentance. A gerund acts like a noun while a present participle acts like a verb or adjective.
Participles are words derived from a verb (e.g. to hide) which are used as:
an adjective e.g. the hidden dangers, or
as part of a tense e.g. he was hiding.
Mood
The mood of a verb indicates the manner and intension of a sentanence.
There are 5 grammatical moods in English.
Indicative: Expresses a fact e.g. Beijing is the capital of China
Imperative: Expresses a command or a request e.g. Sit down!
Interrogative: Used to ask a question e.g. Are you busy?
Conditional: Expresses a condition e.g. If you run fast, you will win
Subjunctive: Expresses a wish, demand, doubt or hypothetical situaon e.g. If I were rich, I would buy a new car.
Voice
There are two voices in English; an active voice and a passive voice.
An active voice is one where the subject performs the action e.g. 'The boy kicked the ball'. A passive voice is one where the subject is acted on e.g. 'The ball was kicked by the boy'.
The passive voice is used to emphasise the outcome of an action rather than the action itself.