VERB
Verbs are words that show action.
Every sentence
must have a verb. A verb is not
always one word. It
may be made up of more than one
word.
Auxiliary verbs
The words: am,
is, are, was, and were are verbs. They
are forms of the
verb ‘to be’. They are helping verbs
called auxiliary
verbs.
If the subject
of a sentence is singular, the verb must
be singular.
If the subject of a sentence is plural, the
verb must be plural.
The verb must agree with the
subject in
number.
Examples of ‘subjects’
and ‘verbs’ being singular:
The man is sleeping.
She goes to the market.
The student
does his homework every day.
The train has
arrived.
‘Man’, ‘she’,
‘student’ and
‘train’ are known as
subjects.The subjects are
all singular.The verbs ‘is’,
‘goes’, ‘does’ and ‘has’ are
all singular too.
Examples of ‘subjects’
and ‘verbs’ being plural:
The men are sleeping.
They go to the market.
The students
do their homework every day.
The trains
have arrived.
‘Men’, ‘they’,
‘students’ and
‘trains’ are known as
subjects. The subjects
are all plural. The verbs ‘are’,
‘go’, ‘do’ and ‘have’ are
all plural too.
Other singular
and plural subjects that take on singular
and plural
verbs:
Subjects with
words like ‘each’, ‘every’, ‘any’, ‘no’,
‘none’ and
‘nobody’ take on the singular verbs.
Examples: Each
student is given a pen.
Every child is happy
watching the show.
Nobody is allowed to walk
on the grass.
Uncountable
nouns always
take singular verbs.
Examples: Rice
is eaten in many countries.
There is oil
on the floor.
Salt is added to make
the food taste better.
Subjects with
words like ‘both’, ‘all’, ‘many’, ‘some’,
‘several’ and ‘a
number of’ take on a plural verb.
Examples: Both
of you have to come home early.
All of us want to
be happy.
Some of my friends are
female.
Two or more
subjects joined by ‘and’ always take a
plural verb.
Examples:
My brother and
his friends like to play
football.
His father and
mother are watching tele
vision.
|
