Transitive or intransitive verbs

Verbs can be classified according to whether they are transitive or intransitive

verbs:

 Intransitive: the verb only has a subject.

For example:
he runs - it falls.
 Transitive: the verb has a subject and a direct object.
For example:
she speaks English - we visit him.

Transitive verbs
Transitive verbs are verbs that require one or more objects.

Examples:

 She cut the cake.

 They climbed the mountain.
 He gave her a flower.

The verbs cut, climbed, and gave have objects.

Transitive verbs Objects

cut the cake

climbed the mountain

gave her and a
flower
Transitive verbs can be categorized into two
types: monotransitive and ditransitive:

1. Monotransitive verbs  are verbs that require exactly one object.

Example:
He wrote a poem
2. Ditransitive verbs  are verbs that may require two objects, a direct object and an
indirect object.
Example:
She offered him (first object) her car  (second object).
Intransitive verbs
By contrast, intransitive verbs do not require an object.

Examples:

 They run.
 He died.
 She slept.
 It snows.

The verbs run, died, slept and snows have no objects. They are intransitive.

What is a finite verb?

A finite verb is a form of a verb that has a subject and exhibit tense and number
in an independent clause or sentence. Finite verbs are distinguished from non-
finite verbs which do not show a distinction in tense and number, and cannot
stand alone as the main verb in an independent clause.

Examples

They watched the match. - They is a subject; watched is a finite verb; the match is

an object.

They are watching the match. - They is a subject; are is a finite verb; watching is a

non-finite verb (which does not exhibit tense and number);  the match is an
object.

What is a non-finite verb?

A non- finite verb is a form of a verb that does not have a subject and and does
not exhibit tense and number in an independent clause or sentence. In English,
the non-finite verb forms are infinitives and gerunds and participles. Non-finite
verbs are distinguished from finite verbs which show a distinction in tense and
number, and may stand alone as the main verb in an independent clause.

Examples

They are writing the letter. - They is a subject; are is a finite; writing  is a non-finite

verb (which does not exhibit tense nor number);  the match is an object.
They wrote  the letter  . - They is a subject;  wrote  is a finite verb; the letter is an
object.

What are auxiliary verbs?

Basically, auxiliary verbs are function words, a type of closed class which is
constituted of words that have a grammatical function as opposed to content
words, which are an open class of lexical words. An auxiliary verb is used to add
functional or grammatical content to the information expressed by another verb,
considered to be the main verb. Auxiliary verbs are also called helping verbs

Examples:

 I am writing a book.
 He has done the work.
 We will be there in a minute.
 Would you help me with this homework?
 Can you open the door?
 Did you visit New York last holiday?
 Do you like chocolate?
 They must get there on time.

List of auxiliary verbs

This is a list of English auxiliary verbs:

 be (am, are, is, was, were, being),
 can,
 could,
 do (did, does, doing),
 have (had, has, having),
 may,
 might,
 must,
 shall,
 should,
 will,
 would
Auxiliary verb or full verb?
To distinguish a full verb from an auxiliary verb, you can carry out the following
test:

If the verb

1. allows subject-auxiliary inversion

2. and can take can take not in the negative form,

then it is an auxiliary verb.

Examples:

 You are going to travel to London. --

Are you going to travel to London?
You are not going to travel to London.
= are is an an auxiliary verb
 You see what I mean. --
*See you what I mean.
*You see not what I mean.
= see is not an auxiliary verb; it is a full verb.
(The asterisk * indicates that the sentence is not grammatical.)

What are linking verbs?

Linking verbs (also referred to as copulas or copular verbs) don't show action
like ordinary verbs. They rather link or connect the subject to a subject
complement, the part of the sentence that follows the verb. This complement
which contains additional information describes and identifies the subject.

Examples:

 Larry looks happy. (looks is a linking verb; happy is a complement that

describes and identifies Larry, the subject)
 The play was good. (was is a linking verb; good is a complement that
describes and identifies the play, the subject
List of linking verbs
This is a list of common linking verbs:

 appear
 be
 become
 feel
 get
 grow
 look
 prove
 remain
 seem
 smell
 stay
 sound
 taste
 turn

Linking verb?
Some of the verbs listed above can function as linking verbs and as ordinary
verbs. One trick that you can use to identify whether a verb is a linking verb or an
ordinary verb is to see the relation between the subject and complement. If the
relation is indicative of an equal sign (=), then it is a linking verb. Consider the
following examples:

 He looks angry. (He = angry | linking verb)

 He looked at the man. (He = at the man | action verb)

Examples:

look:

 Nadia looked happy. (linking verb)

 Nadia looked at the window. (ordinary verb)

taste

 The food tastes delicious. (linking verb)

 They tasted the food. (ordinary verb)

appear

 She appeared quiet. (linking verb)

 She appeared in the room. (ordinary verb)

Causative verbs
Causative structures indicate that one thing or person causes another thing or
person to do something or be something.

Examples of causatives

Have (give someone the responsibility to do something)

 I had John fix the car

 I had my hair cut

Make (force someone to do something)

 The teacher made the students work in groups

 Our boss made us work extra hours

Get (convince or trick someone into doing something)

 He got the mechanic to repair the machine.

 She got him to read more.

Let (allow someone do something)

 Jane let her son go out

 They let the children play in the yard

Other causative verbs

Other causative verbs include:

allow, help, enable, keep, hold, force, require, persuade

Stative verbs and dynamic verbs

Stative verbs

Stative verbs have undefined duration. they denote states rather than actions.

Examples of statives are:

want, know, have (when it means possession), think (when it means opinion), like,
love, hate, need, prefer, agree, sound, hear disagree, wish, look (when it mean
seem), smell, seem, include...

You cannot say:

 I am knowing the truth.

 I am liking pizza.
 It is sounding like a great idea.

But you must say:

 I know the truth.

 I like pizza.
 It sounds like a great idea.

Dynamic verbs

As opposed to a stative verb, a dynamic (or action) verb shows continued or

progressive action on the part of the subject.

Examples of dynamic verbs (dynamic verbs) are:

act, build, complete, design, develop, draw, fix, gather, handle, head, help,
improve, interview, introduce, justify, listen, lead, measure, narrate, negotiate,
orchestrate, originate, outline, perform, persuade, predict, regulate, record, save,
show, study, target, transform, travel, treat, uncover, unveil, use, validate, value,
visualize, widen, write, zap, zoom...

These verbs can be used both in the simple and continuous forms.
 Look at her! She is acting foolishly.
OR
She acts as a teacher in this movie.
 The company is targeting young customers with this new product.
OR
We targeted a new market with that product.

Dynamic and stative

Some verbs can be both action verbs and dynamic verbs depending on their
meaning:

1. Be

 be = it is usually used as a stative verb - stative

He's an excellent guitarist.
 be = when it means behave or act, it can be used as a an action verb in the
continuous form. - dynamic
You are being silly.

2. Think

 think = to express an opinion, to believe - stative

I think it's a fantastic idea.
 think = consider, to reason about or reflect on, ponder, to have or formulate in
the mind - dynamic
I am thinking about my friend

3. Have

 have = to possess, to own - stative

He has a beautiful car
 have = when it doesn't mean own or possess - dynamic
He's having lunch.

4. See

 see = to perceive with the eye, to understand - stative

I see what you mean.
 see = to meet, to be in the company of, to escort, to attend - dynamic
He's been seeing the same woman for eight years.
What are phrasal verbs?
Phrasal verbs are phrases that indicate actions. They are generally used in spoken
English and informal texts. Examples of such verbs include: turn down, come
across  and run into.

Phrasal verbs consist of a verb and a preposition or an adverb:

Ver
Preposition/adverb
b

get up

go through

write down

take after
Sometimes phrasal verbs consist of three elements:

Ver Preposition / adverb

Preposition / adverb 2
b 1

look forward to

put up with

sit in for
When added to the verb the preposition or adverb may change completely the
meaning of the verb. Here are some examples:

Phrasal
Meaning Example
verb

look for search/seek He is looking for his keys

look up to have a great deal of respect for a person His father is his model. He is the
person he looks up to.

look await eagerly/anticipate with pleasure She is looking forward to visiting

forward to Paris.

look up to try to find a piece of information by She didn't understand the word.
looking in a book or on a computer: So she looked it up in her
 dictionary

The meaning of phrasal verbs

Sometimes, it is difficult to understand the meaning of phrasal verbs. Before
looking them up in a dictionary, it would be helpful to use the context to
understand them.

Literal meaning

Some phrasal verbs have a literal meaning. They can be easily understood.

 She opened the door and looked outside.

 She was walking across the street when she heard the sound of an explosion.

Idiomatic meaning

Phrasal verbs can also have a figurative or idiomatic meaning which makes them
difficult to understand.

 Can you put me up for tonight?

The phrasal verb 'put up' here does not mean to build (as in putting a fence up). It
has, however, an idiomatic/figurative meaning. It means to let someone stay in
your house.

Separable or inseparable?
1. Sometimes, the preposition/adverb is placed either after the verb or after the
object.

Examples:

 Mary made up a really entertaining story.

 Mary made the story up.

2. If the object is a pronoun, however, the preposition/adverb has to be placed

after the pronoun (object).

Examples:

 She made it up.
 Put it down.
 Take it off.

3. Some phrasal verbs are always inseparable.

Example:

 I came across some old photos in a drawer.

NOT

 I came some old photos across in a drawer.

What are irregular verbs?

Regular verbs have ed at the end of the simple past and past participle forms:

Base verb + ed
Examples of regular verbs:

Infinitive Simple past Past participle

play played played

visit visited visited

work worked worked

In contrast to the above examples of regular verbs, irregular verbs are verbs
which don't follow the above pattern of conjugation.

Irregular verbs
Irregular verb forms can not be predicted, that's why you should learn them by
heart. The best way to deal with them is as follows:

 Use them in appropriate contexts (in your writing or in your conversation)

 Write down examples in your exercise book.
 Always keep a list of irregular verbs at your disposal. (Note that most language
books include a section at the end for irregular verbs.)

A list of irregular verbs

Infinitive Simple Past Tense Past Participle
awake awoke awoken

be was, were been

bear bore born

beat beat beat

become became become

Say' and 'tell' (meaning)
Say and tell are irregular reporting verbs. Both have fairly the same meaning and
are used in reported speech.

'Say' means:

To utter words in order to communicate information, an opinion, or a feeling.

Example: "I am fed up with this life," he said

'Tell' means:

To communicate something to someone in spoken or written forms.

Example: I told her you passed the exam!

The difference between say and tell

Although the verbs 'tell' and 'say' share some meanings, they are used in different
ways. Here are the main differences.

1. Say something vs tell someone something

Generally speaking, you can use say and tell as follows:

You say  something BUT you tell  someone  something.

You say something. You tell someone something.

She said he was her best friend. She told me he was her best friend.
He said that he couldn't do the job by himself. He told them the truth, but they didn't
The speaker said that the world would be facing believe him.
a financial crisis very soon. The politician told the journalist that
he would resign soon.

2. Say something to someone

 Tell is used with an indirect object (e.g. tell me something,

tell John something...)
 'Say' is usually used without an indirect object. In case we want to add an
indirect object after say, we introduce it with ' to'

Examples:

 I told her the story
 Why don't you tell him the truth?

BUT

 John said to Sara that she was beautiful in her red dress.

 "I've just finished doing my homework," he said to his Mom.

Some collocations with 'say' and 'tell'

Here are some collocations that are used with the verbs 'tell' and 'say'.

Say Tell

 hi, hello,  the truth

goodbye  a lie
 yes, no  a secret
 a word  a story
 something  for sure
 a prayer  the time
 no more  one's name
 sorry  someone
 thank you the way

What is the infinitive?

The infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to:

Examples:

 'do' or 'to do'
 'be' or 'to be'

The infinitive without to is called bare infinitive ('do', 'be')

The infinitive with to is called full infinitive ('to do', 'to be')

The bare infinitive

1. The bare infinitive is used as the main verb after the dummy auxiliary verb do, or
most modal auxiliary verbs (such as will, can, or should..)
Examples:
I do know him
I do like you.
I can do  it  .
2. Several common verbs of perception, including see, watch, hear, feel,
and sense take a direct object and a bare infinitive.
Examples:
I saw it happen
I watched it happen
3. The bare infinitive is also used with several common verbs of permission or
causation, including make, bid, let, and have.
Example:
I made/bade/let/had him do it.
(However, make takes a to-infinitive in the passive voice.
I was made to do it.
4. The bare infinitive is also used after had better.
Example:
You had better leave now
5. The verb help  is followed by the bare infinitive.
Example:
He helped them do it. ("He helped them to do" is also possible)
6. With the word why.
Example:
Why say it?
The full infinitive
The full infinitive is used as follows:

 The full infinitive can function as a noun phrase. In this case it is used as
follows.

 as a subject.
Examples:
To err is human, to forgive is divine.
 as an object.
Examples:
I intended to marry  her.
He wanted to know the whole truth.
 It can also be used like an adjective or adverb.
Examples:
This is the game  to watch. (to watch  functions as an adjective,
modifying the  noun  game)
This is the problem to think about. (to think about functions as an adjective
modifying the noun 'the problem')
He went to his friend's house to study. (to study  functions as an adverb answering
the question why he went to his friend's house)
He is ready to go. (to go functions as an adverb, modifying the adjective 'ready'.)
 It is used to mean "in order to" to express purpose
Examples:
You need to exercise regularly to lose weight. (...in order to lose weight)
He works hard to earn a lot of money. (...in order to earn a lot of money)

What is a gerund?
The gerund always ends in ing.

Example:

 Swimming is my hobby
 Writing is more difficult than reading

However, it should be noted that the present participle also ends in ing.

Example:
 They were watching TV when I arrived.
 John will be teaching in that school for the next two years.

What is the difference between a gerund and the present

participle?
You can differentiate between the gerund and the present participle as follows:

 Gerunds function as nouns.

 Gerunds can be a subject, direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of
prepositions.
 Present participles, on the other hand, complete progressive verbs or act as
modifiers.

Examples of gerund:

 Cycling is fun. (subject)
 I like cycling. (direct object)
 He gives fishing all his time.( indirect object)
 He has devoted all his life to fishing. (object of the preposition  to)

Examples of present participle:

 They were eating when the bell rang. (eating is a present participle which is

part of the past progressive tense "were eating")
 I bought a fishing  book. (writing is a present participle modifying book)