Learn how to find the verb, recognise a complete verb phrase and choose the form that fits the subject and sentence.
A tells us what happens or describes a situation. Every complete sentence needs a finite verb.
Action verbs show what somebody or something does: study, write, improve. Event verbs describe something that happens: begin, change, fall. State verbs describe situations, thoughts, possession or feelings: be, know, need, believe, own. A verb does not need to describe a visible movement.
The main verb carries the central meaning. A helping verb supports it to form a tense, question, negative, passive or other meaning. Compare She studies, She is studying, She has studied and She might study. The complete combination is called a verb phrase.
Be, have and do can be main verbs or helping verbs. In They have two lessons, have is the main verb. In They have finished, it helps finished. Modal verbs—including can, could, may, might, must, should, will and would—are followed by the base form: can improve, not can improves.
The verb must agree with its subject. Compare I study, she studies, the student works and the students work. Words such as everyone, each and neither are grammatically singular. Read the detailed agreement explanation below.
Ask what the subject does, what happens to it or what situation it is in.
In may have been affected, all four words belong to the verb phrase.
The same word can change jobs: record your score uses a verb; keep a record uses a noun.
The past participle follows helpers such as has, have and had. The -ing form follows a form of be in continuous structures.
| Base | He/she/it | Past | Past participle | -ing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| study | studies | studied | studied | studying |
| work | works | worked | worked | working |
| plan | plans | planned | planned | planning |
| use | uses | used | used | using |
| try | tries | tried | tried | trying |
| Base | He/she/it | Past | Past participle | -ing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| be | is | was/were | been | being |
| write | writes | wrote | written | writing |
| go | goes | went | gone | going |
| take | takes | took | taken | taking |
| speak | speaks | spoke | spoken | speaking |
Regular does not mean unchanged: regular verbs use an -ed past, but spelling may change in forms such as studied, planned and travelling.
Recognise verbs, separate main and helping verbs, choose accurate forms and then analyse mixed real-world sentences.
Recognise action, state and being verbs in complete sentences.
Separate the main verb from auxiliary and modal helping verbs.
Choose forms that agree with the subject and fit common verb structures.
Apply verb recognition, helping verbs, forms and agreement together.
Apply all four verb skills to mostly new words, forms and sentence patterns.
The subject tells us who or what the clause is about. The finite verb must match that subject. First find the subject, then choose the verb form.
Use the base form with I, you, we and they: I like apples. They like oranges. With he, she, it or a singular name, usually add -s or -es: My son likes apples. Majo watches films.
I am; she is; they are. He has; we have. In the past: I was; they were. Most other past-tense verbs stay the same: She walked. They walked.
The helping verb carries the agreement. Use the base form after does, can or should: She does not like apples. Does he like oranges? She can swim. Avoid does not likes and can swims.
The box of apples is heavy. The subject is box, not apples. My son and my daughter like fruit. Two people joined by and normally take a plural verb. Everyone likes fruit. Everyone is grammatically singular.
My son likes apples, and my daughter likes oranges. Each subject is singular, so each verb is likes. The comma belongs before and because it joins two complete independent clauses.
For a regular habit, write I walk on the beach every weekend. For an action in progress, write I am walking on the beach now. I going walking is incomplete: going alone does not supply a finite verb.
Australian and British English can use singular or plural agreement with collective nouns depending on meaning: The team is ready treats it as one unit; The team are discussing their roles focuses on its members.
A gerund is an -ing form used in a noun-like role: Swimming is fun. An infinitive is the base verb, often with to: I want to swim. The verb before it often determines which pattern to use.
I enjoy eating pizza. Use -ing after enjoy, avoid and finish: She finished studying. Avoid I enjoy to eat.
I want to eat pizza. Want, hope, decide and plan commonly take a to-infinitive: We decided to leave.
Use -ing after a preposition: She is interested in learning English. In I look forward to meeting you, to is a preposition, so meeting follows it.
I like swimming and I like to swim can both be correct. Sometimes the meaning changes: I stopped smoking means I quit; I stopped to smoke means I paused another activity to smoke.
Not every -ing form is a gerund. In She is swimming, swimming belongs to a continuous verb phrase. After modal verbs use the bare infinitive: She can swim, without to.
