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Verbs
Structure and Written Expression Skills 30-36
Longman Preparation Course for the TOEFL Test
Tutorial prepared by Marla Yoshida
Forms of verbs
Every verb can have several different forms. In grammar
books, we often see lists of irregular verbs that include these
three forms: base form, past form, and past participle. (For
example, go went gone, come came come, eat ate eaten,
or walk walked walked.
The base form can also be called the plain form or the
present form.
For regular verbs, the past and past participle forms add ed
to the verb. However, there are many irregular verbs whose
forms are hard to predict. We just have to memorize those.
Verbs also have a present participle form that ends in ing
(going, coming, eating).
Forms of verbs
For example, here are the main forms of a few verbs:
Base form
Past
Past Participle
Present Participle
Regular:
walk
love
rob
explain
walked
loved
robbed
explained
walked
loved
robbed
explained
walking
loving
robbing
explaining
Irregular:
be
have
do
sing
cut
was, were
had
did
sang
cut
been
had
done
sung
cut
being
having
doing
singing
cutting
3
Verb tenses
We can combine these forms with helping verbs like be and
have to make all the verb tenses of English. Here are the verb
tenses related to present time:
Verb Tense
Simple present
Present progressive
(present continuous)
Example
Meaning*
A habitual or repeating
action.
A current action.
Verb tenses
Here are the verb tenses related to past time:
Verb Tense
Simple past
Past progressive
(past continuous)
Past perfect
Example
I walked to school
yesterday.
He walked to school
yesterday.
While I was walking to
school, I stopped at
Starbucks.
I had walked to school
many times before I bought
a car.
I had been walking for two
hours by the time I
stopped.
Meaning*
A single past event.
A past action that was
happening (when it was
interrupted by another).
A past action that was
completed before a second
past action.
An action that began in the
past before a second past
action (with emphasis on
the duration of the action).
Verb tenses
Here are the verb tenses related to future time:
Verb Tense
Example
Future progressive
(future continuous)
Future perfect
Meaning*
will
would
shall
should
may
might
must
had
better
Present Perfect or
Pres. Perf. Progressive
Past Perfect or
Past Perf. Progressive
since (1920)
by now
lately
recently
for (ten years)
Noun clause
tense
Example
Present
Past
Present
Will + VERB
Past
Past perfect
Past
Would +
VERB
Dont use will in a noun clause when the main verb is past:
We all thought [that the party will be a lot of fun].
Dont use would in a noun clause when the main verb is
present:
We all think [that the party would be a lot of fun].
Summary
In this section, you have learned about these things:
Verbs have several different forms.
Verbs can be used in many different tenses.
Its important to form verb tenses correctly and to
use them with appropriate time expressions.