Verb | English Grammar Class 8 PDF Download

What are Verbs?

Verbs are words that express either an action or a state of being. They are crucial parts of English sentences because they help convey meaning clearly.

Here are some key points about verbs:

1. Action Verbs

Action verbs describe activities that a person or an object can do.  
For example:

• Physical Actions. run, jump, swim, eat, play.
• Mental Actions. think, believe, dream, imagine, understand.

2. Linking Verbs

Linking verbs serve the purpose of connecting the subject of a sentence to a word that describes or identifies it. Unlike action verbs, linking verbs do not convey action; instead, they establish a link between the subject and a subject complement, which can be a noun, pronoun, or adjective. Additionally, linking verbs can indicate a state of being.

• Common linking verbs include: am, is, are, was, were, seem, appear, become, feel, look, sound, taste.

3. Helping Verbs (Auxiliary Verbs)

These verbs work together with main verbs to express various shades of meaning related to tense, mood, and voice. They help to convey the timing of an action or indicate the possibility, necessity, or permission of an action. 

• Examples of helping verbs include: do, does, did, have, has, had, may, might, must, can, could, shall, should, will, would.

4. Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

• Transitive Verbs: These verbs require a direct object to convey a complete thought. For instance: "She reads a book," where "book" is the direct object.
• Intransitive Verbs: These verbs do not need a direct object to make sense, although they may require a subject. For example: "The baby laughed," where there is no direct object needed.

5. Regular and Irregular Verbs

• Regular Verbs: These verbs form their past tense and past participle by adding "-ed" to the base form. Examples include: "walk" becoming "walked" and "talk" becoming "talked."
• Irregular Verbs: These verbs do not follow the regular pattern for forming their past tense and past participle. Each irregular verb has its own unique forms. For instance: "go" becomes "went" in the past tense and "gone" as the past participle, while "eat" becomes "ate" in the past tense and "eaten" as the past participle.

6. Tenses

Verbs can indicate the time of an action or state through different tenses, such as:

• Present Tense: Expresses actions happening now or habitual actions.
• Past Tense: Expresses actions that have already happened.
• Future Tense: Expresses actions that will happen in the future.
• Present Continuous Tense: Expresses actions that are happening at the moment or ongoing actions.
• Past Continuous Tense: Expresses actions that were happening at a specific time in the past.

Understanding verbs and their various forms is essential for constructing grammatically correct sentences and effectively communicating ideas in writing and speech.

Subject-Verb Agreement

Verbs must agree with their subjects in number (singular or plural).

Example: The dog barks. (singular subject)

The dogs bark. (plural subject)

Using Verbs in Sentences

Verbs can be used to make sentences in various forms:

• Simple Sentences: They consist of a subject and a verb. Example: The cat sleeps.
• Compound Sentences: They consist of two or more independent clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions. Example: The sun is shining, and the birds are singing.
• Complex Sentences: They consist of an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. Example: After I finish my homework, I will go out to play.