Verbs: the basics

You’ve spent ten chapters learning the basics of English sentences and nouns. Hopefully you agree that was time well spent. You know exactly

How to write the subject (or object) of a sentence
How to refer to other nouns (Pronouns)
How to glue them together (Prepositions).

Now let’s learn the other part of the formula: verbs. The actual thing the subject is doing in the sentence.

Verbs describe the action of a sentence. They communicate what the subject does.

How verbs are defined

Verbs consist of a “stem” or a “base”. This part of the verb stays the same, while other parts change. The way a verb changes is called a conjugation.

Why would a verb change?

To match the subject. (If there are multiple nouns in the sentence … to which one does the verb belong?)
To communicate the timing of the action. (Did it happen in the past? Is it a prediction for the future? Is it currently happening?)

If you look up a verb in the dictionary, you find this base form, with the word to before it. That’s called the infinitive.

This version describes the action in general. You might know it from a famous Shakespeare quote …

Example

To be or not to be … 🎭

It talks about “being”. The concept of existing. But there’s no subject, nobody is doing that existing.

Example

To think 🧠, to see 👀, to eat 😋, to hear 👂, …

This syntax is therefore rarely used. (When are you ever talking about the general idea of existing? Or walking? Or eating?)

But if you replace the to with a subject … you’re suddenly creating sentences!

Example

To see => I see a cat. (👀 🐱)

Example

To hear => You hear music. (👂 🎶)

Subject

The verb changes based on the subject.

Why? To show the connection. If you read a noun, and the verb doesn’t match it, you know that noun is not the subject of the sentence!

English, though, has way simpler rules than other languages. The benefits are reduced, but it’s easier to learn.

The verb stem stays identical for all pronouns. (Both 1^st person, 2^nd person, and 3^rd person.)

Except for 3^rd person singular: he / she / it. Then the rules are identical to how you create plural nouns.

The third person gets an -s behind the verb stem.
But if the verb already ended with an s-like sound, add -es instead
And if the verb ends with an -y (with no vowel before it), replace it with -ies

Example

I see a cat => He sees a cat.

Example

You carry books => She carries books.

Example

We see a cat. They carry books. It feels strange.

Time

Actions are closely linked to time. An action might already have been completed. Or it’s currently going on. Or you might say you are going to do something in the future.

All these different formats are called verb tenses.

All examples so far have used the easiest and most used tense: simple present.

Its syntax is indeed simple. And it happens in the present, so not in the past or future. But its meaning is often misunderstood. You will understand this once we get to that chapter.

The other tenses are equally simple. They only need slight changes to the verb stem. English has a very regular grammar … so it must compensate somehow.

It uses auxiliary verbs to do that. Those are “helper verbs” added to other verbs to change their meaning. These are very important—and also very irregular and tough to memorize.

So let’s take a break here. Next chapter will tell you all about them!

Continue with this course