Verbs

Verbs are the most important component of any sentence. These words talk about the action or the state of any noun or subject. This means that verbs show what the subject is doing or what is the state or situation of the subject.

For example:

- He ran to the store. - Here the verb ran describes the action of the subject ‘he’

- She is a creative person. - Here there is no action being done. Instead the auxiliary verb ‘is’ shows the state of the subject ‘she’ as being ‘creative’.

Action Verbs
These verbs talk about what the subject is doing in the sentence. Action Verbs are one of the most easily identifiable types of verbs. To recognize them, you simply have to look for the word in the sentence that answers the question ‘What is the subject doing?’

e.g. :-

Renu is painting the kitchen walls.

The subject here is Renu, and what is Renu doing? Renu is painting. Hence painting is our action verb.

My dog is sleeping on the sofa.

The subject here is dog, and what is the dog doing? The dog is sleeping. So sleepingis our action verb.

There are two types of Action Verbs which describe the Verb and the Subject doing the action and the Object on which the action is done, they are.

Transitive Verbs
These Action Verbs have a definite object on which, or for which the action is being performed. That means that the action has a definite recipient or object. To identify them you can ask the question what is the/did the subject -verb-?

Renu is painting the kitchen walls.

Here the verb is painting and the subject is Renu.

If we form the question - what is Renu painting?

The answer is- The kitchen walls.

Thus, we see that there was a specific object on which the action of painting was being done.

Shilpa gave him a big hug.

Here we see that the action ‘gave’ is being performed by the subject Shilpa. So the question is what did Shilpa give? And the answer is - A big hug.

Here, we also have a indirect object as ‘him’. This indirect object would be the answer to the question-

Who did the subject (Shilpa) - verb - (give) the object (hug) to?

Intransitive Verbs
These verbs also show an action but here there is no specific object on which the action is being done. To recognize these verbs, we ask the question what is the/did the subject -verb- ? If there is no answer present, then the verb in the sentence is an Intransitive Verb.

Renu is painting right now.

Here, if we ask the question what is Renu painting? There is no answer which means that in this sentence painting is an Intransitive Verb.

It is telling us about the action of the subject but there is no specific object for the action.

Ram sneezed repeatedly.

Here, the verb is sneezed. If we ask the question what did Ram sneeze? There is no answer present for it making sneezed an intransitive verb.

Auxiliary Verbs
These verbs are also called Helping Verbs, as they ‘help’ the main verb to denote the actions of the subject. They help in making compound tenses of the main verb and also help in making negative statements, questions and passive voice statements. There are primarily 3 auxiliary verbs - Be, Have, and Do.

Be – is, am, are, was, were, be, been, and being

Do – do, does, and did

Have – has, have, had

Modal Verbs
A modal is a type of auxiliary (helping) verb that is used to express: ability, possibility, permission or obligation. Modal phrases (or semi-modals) are used to express the same things as modals, but are a combination of auxiliary verbs and the preposition to.

The modals and semi-modals in English are:can, could, shall, should, may, might, will, would etc.