The Discussion of Verb Classification as the Part of Speech

According to Pandey and Pandey (2006:82), “a verb is a word that expresses action, feeling or existence.”  According to Wren and Martin (2011), “a verb is a word or group of words that tells or asserts something about a person or thing.” According to McDougal (1985:391), a verb is a word or group of words that expresses an action, a condition or a state of being. And Murthy (2010:86) defines a verb as “a word which is used to indicate an action, a state of being of existence of possession.”

Therefore, the verb is the most essential part of speech in English language. You can think of a sentence without a subject or an object, but you cannot think of a sentence without a verb. Even the shortest sentence contains a verb. You can also make a one-word sentence with the verb, for example in a day-to-day life; you use some of the following expressions: Stop! Come! And Eat!

VERB CLASSIFICATION

There are two main classes of verbs which are main verbs and helping verbs as well illustrated bellow;

Verb Classification

A.  MAIN VERBS

Main verbs are verbs which denote action and have meaning when stand on their own. Sometimes they are called full or lexical verbs. Main verbs are more classified in the following ways:

• Transitive/intransitive (based on object).
• Dynamic/stative (based on action/state).
• Regular/irregular (based on past form).

(i)   Transitive/intransitive

Transitive verb; this is the verb which requires an object to complete its sense or meaning. For instance;

•  I read a book.     

   Object

•       Stella cooked rice.

                               Object

Intransitive verb; this is the verb which does not require an object to complete its sense. Examples:

• It smells good.
• John collapsed.

Note; transitive verbs and intransitive verbs are also called ordinary verbs.

(ii) Dynamic/stative verb.

Dynamic verbs; these are verbs which describe actions. These can be used with continuous tenses.

Examples; -He goes to school.

                  - They are throwing stones to them.

Stative verb; these are verbs which describe a state or a situation. They cannot be used with continuous tense though some of them can be used with continuous tense with a changing in meaning.

Examples; -The drum sounds good.

-He hates Hosea.

(iii) Regular/irregular verb.

Regular verb; for regular verbs, the past tense ending and past participle ending is always the same: “-ed.” Examples;

Present	Past	Past participle
I open	I opened	I have opened
Diana works	Diana worked	Diana has worked

Irregular verb; Irregular verbs form their past tense and past participle in different ways from adding “-ed.” That is to say, the past tense ending and the past participle ending are variable.

Example;

Present	Past	Past participle
He goes	He went	He has gone
Diana steals	Diana stole	Diana has stolen

B.  HELPING VERBS

Auxiliary/linking verbs

Auxiliary verbs: Auxiliary verbs are used to help main/ordinary verbs. However, they cannot form a complete sentence on their own hence require main verbs to indicate the action. The principle auxiliaries are;

• “be” (is, was, are, were, am, being, been, be,)
• “have” (have, has, had,)
• “Do” (do, does, did)

Examples; -Maki is swimming.

-Lupenza has to go.

Therefore, models and semi-models also form auxiliaries since they combine with the main verb to convey a distinct sense.

Examples: -She can swim across the river      (model)

-They used to visit us quite often (semi model)

Linking verbs: Linking verbs are used to show equality or a change to different state. Linking verbs such as “be” link subject to a noun of adjective.

Examples; -Catherine is the lecturer.

-She became sick.

VERB INFLECTION

Verb inflection is technically called verb conjugation which is simple in English language than in most other languages. Conjugation simply means involve changes of form according to;

1. Tense- the verb expresses when the action was performed or received.
2. Mood- indicates the frame of mind of the doer of the action. In English language there are three moods; (i) indicative mood which express actuality (ii) subjunctive mood – which express contingency and (iii) imperative mood- which express commands.
3. Voice of verb (passive or active) Active and passive voice construction of verb are two familiar ways of expressing the same idea. For example her friend will see her there (active). She will be seen there by her friend (Passive).
4. Person and number (who and how many performed the action).

HOW VERB INFLECTS TENSE

According to Paton and Talbot (1955:246), the tense or time of verb; the word “tense” comes from the old French word “tens” derived from the Latin word for time “tempus”. And according to Reitman, (1976), all verbs have tense which means time.

Therefore, there are three of basic tenses which are;

• The present tense, (present time).
• The past tense, (past time).
• The future tense, (future time).

Each of these basic tenses is divided into four classes which are simple, continuous or progressive, perfect and perfect continuous forms as described beneath;

                       I.     Present tense

Present tense is formed from the present infinite of the verb, which tells something that exists at the present moment. Therefore, a verb that refers to a time in the present is said to be in present tense. The following are the classes of present tense.

a)   Simple present tense

Simple present is used to express a habitual action in everyday life, general facts as well as universal truths or facts. In this tense there is an addition of the suffix –es, -s or – ies to the base form of the verb when a third person singular or a noun in singular is used, the rest person pronouns and nouns in plural the verb remains in base form.

Examples: -Juma always lies.

- He comes here every morning.

- We learn English every Monday.

On the other hand, for interrogative and negative sentences, there is no addition of -s, or -es to the base form of verbs.

For example: -Susan reads a book. (Affirmative)

- Does Susan read a book? (Interrogative)

- Susan does not read a book. (Negative).

     b)   Present continuous or progressive tense

Present continuous or progressive tense is used for an action going on at the time of speaking or for an action that has already been arranged to take place in the near future.

For example; -We are dancing (now)

    -Your wife is coming today (planned action)

The general structure which can be use to form present continuous tense is;

Subject + is /are /am + base form of verb + - ing + object.

The singular subject takes is, plural subjects take are and the subject “I” takes am.

For example;      - I am playing football.

-James is running away.

-We are studying together.

    c)    Present perfect tense

Present perfect tense refers to a tense marked by has/have and the past participle form of the main verb. We use present perfect tense to show that the action of the verb has been completed in the past but linked to the present.

For example; -I have passed my examination.

-She has played netball.

    d)   Present perfect continuous tense

In present perfect continuous tense the action has been taking place for some time and is still on going. We use present perfect continuous to emphasize that something has been in progress throughout the period. The basic structure of present perfect continuous tense is as follows

Subject + has/have been + base form of verb + -ing + object/compliment.

Example;   - They have been playing since four o’clock.

- We have been building the bridge several months.

                        II.      Past tense

Past tense is used for an action completed in the past. When the past tense is used, frequently a word, a phrase, or clause in the sentence or in preceding sentence places the action at a time in the past. Past tense can be divided into four classes such as simple past tense, past continuous tense, past perfect tense and past perfect continuous tense.

   a)   Simple past tense

In simple past tense, the action is simply mentioned and understood to have taken place in the past. In simple past tense;

Regular verbs always end with –ed.

For example; - Clean- Cleaned       (She cleaned a room).

                      - Jump- Jumped   (She jumped over the wall).

Irregular verbs have different changes of form.

For example; Sweep –swept (Anna swept the class).

                   Make- made        (Martin made a chair).

                   Ring- rang (He rang the bell twice).

Note: The simple past tense is used with adverbs of time such as yesterday, previous, last (night, week, year) a long time ago.

    b)   Past continuous tense

In past continuous, the action was ongoing till a certain time in the past. It also shows action which was in progress when something else happened. Past continuous tense is formed by the auxiliary verbs; was /were + verb in -ing form.

Was– for first and third person singulars and a noun in singular,

Were– second person singular plural pronouns and nouns in plural.

Examples; -I was looking for my lost key.

-They were building a big house when the thief entered the room.

    c)    Past perfect tense

Past perfect is used to express something that happened before another action in the past. This tense is formed by using “had” with past participle form of the verb. So the basic structure of this tense is as follows:

Subject + had + past participle form of the verb+ object/compliment.

Example;   - They revised what they had read.

- You had sung a song when he arrived.

    d)   Past perfect continuous tense

Past perfect continuous tense is used to express an action that started in the past and continued until another in the past. This tense has the construction;

Subject + had been +base form of verb + ing + object/complement.

Example; -He had been reading English.

-They had been looking for the blackberry.

         III.    Future tense

Future tense is used to express an action which is expected to happen (in the future). It expresses the probability or intent of the event expected to happen. This tense can be expressed by will, shall and going to. Future tense can be divided into four groups; simple future perfect tense and future perfect continuous tense.

     a)   Simple future tense

The simple future tense is used for prediction (saying something we think will happen). This tense is formed by using will/shall with the base form of the verb. So the basic structure for simple future tense is as follows;

Subject + will/shall + (base form of the verb) + object/complement.

Example;   -I will fetch water.

                   -My wife shall bear a child after two weeks.

                   -I am going to do climatology test tomorrow.

Note; going to is normally followed by infinitive verb.

    b)   Future continuous tense

The future progressive tense is used for planned action which will be taking place in the future. It can also be used to indicate that an activity or state will be going on over a period of future time. Future progressive has the following structure;

Subject + will /shall be + base form of a verb + ing + object /complement.

Examples; - We will be doing our test next Monday.

- I shall be praying in the temple.

    c)    Future perfect tense

Future perfect tense describes an action that will occur in future before some other action. The basic structure of the future perfect;

Subject + will /shall have + past participle form of verb+ object /complement.

We often use the future perfect with by to show that an action will already be completed by a certain time in the future.

Examples; -I shall have read a letter.

                   -I will have gone to Mwanza when he comes.

d)   Future perfect continuous tense

Future perfect continuous is used to talk about an ongoing action before some point in the future. The basic structure of future perfect;

Subject+ will /shall +have been +base form of verb + ing +object/complement.

Examples; - I will have been teaching for twenty years next July.

                  - By next year we shall have been living here for four years.

REFERENCES

Christ H.J. (1979), Modern English in Action, Boston; D.C. and Company.

Kumar S. (2011), Communication Skills, Britain; Oxford and University Press.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Murthy J. D. (2010), Contemporary English Grammar, New Delhi; Book Palace.

Pandey A. R. (2006), Advanced English Grammar and Composition, Delhi; Sahni Publications.

Paton, J.M (1955), Using Our Language, Toronto; McCorquodale and Baldes Printers Ltd.

Wren P. C. and Martin H. (2009), High School English Grammar and Composition, Bombay; S. Chandi and Company Ltd.