Avoiding General Verb Problems

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Verbs are crucial to expressing a sentence's meaning, so it is
important to use them correctly. Several factors affect verb
usage.
KEY POINTS
There are grammatical rules that describe how to use verbs properly.
Following grammatical rules will make sentences easier for readers to
understand.
There is not always one way to change a word to change it's tense. For
example, adding -ed to most words will change them to the past tense, but
this is obviously not always the case. For example, build does not change to
builded when written in the past tense.
TERMS
tense
Any of the forms of a verb which distinguish when an action or state of being
occurs or exists. The three simple tenses are past, present, and future tense.
direct object
A direct object answers the question: "What? " In "Danielle ate fruit," fruit is
a direct object of the verb ate. It corresponds to the accusative of languages
with grammatical cases.
Aspect
Related to verb tense, aspect describes the action's degree of progress or
completion. The three main aspects are indefinite, progressive, and perfect.
EXAMPLES
Additional examples:
Present tense: I build
Past tense: I built
Future tense: I will build
Present progressive: I am building
Past progressive: I was building
Future progressive: I will be building
Present perfect: I have built
Past perfect: I had built
Future perfect: I will have built
Linking verb: Julie appears motivated.
Linking verb: This soup tastes salty.
Linking verb: I am the president.
Intransitive verb: Frankie jumped over the fence.
Intransitive verb: Lucia dived into the pool.
Transitive verb: Frankie jumped his car when the battery died.
Transitive verb: Lucia carried the bag of groceries into the house.
An old man lives near the river. (Subject = "old man")
Near the river lives an old man. (Subject = "old man")
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Avoiding General Verb Problems
A verb is a word that expresses an action, describes an occurrence, or
establishes a state of being. Every sentence needs at least one verb, which is
paired with the subject to form the sentence's predicate. Verbs are crucial to
expressing a sentences meaning, so it is important to use them correctly.
Verbs can vary according to several factors:
tense
aspect
transitivity
number
person
If you understand what these terms mean and how they can affect what verb
form you should use, it will be easier to write clearly and correctly.
Verb Tense
Tense indicates when the action expressed by a verb takes place. The three
simple tenses are past, present, and future.
Present tense expresses unchanging actions and states of being. It is also used
with recurring actions and with universal or widespread truths.
Past tense is used for actions that started and finished in the past.
Future tense expresses an action or event that will take place in the future.
Different tenses take different verb forms, either by changing the word itself or
by adding helping verbs. Here are a few examples:
Root Form
To read
To think
To like
To be
Present Tense
I read
I think
I like
I am
Past Tense
I read
I thought
I liked
I was
Future Tense
I will read
I will think
I will like
I will be
As you can see, there is no single formula for how to change verb tenses. In
general, adding -ed makes a verb past tense and adding will makes a verb
future tense. However, many verbs do not follow this pattern, especially with
past tense. In the examples above, only like can add -ed in the past tense, while
the others are irregular verbs. Two of them, think and be, take completely
different forms. Another word tense, read, changes pronunciation but not
spelling. It is helpful to learn as many irregular verbs as you can. Doing so will
help you avoid grammatical errors because you assume a word takes the -
ed form when it does not.
Sometimes, you can use the wrong tense of a verb and still construct a
grammatically correct sentence. However, your reader will probably
misunderstand when the action of the sentence is supposed to occur. The
phrase,I am going to college means something different than I went to
college or I will go to college. So make sure that you always use the proper
tenseit will make your paper much clearer for a reader.
Aspect
Aspect is related to tense because both describe something about when a verbs
action occurs. Tense describes the time when the action happens, while aspect
describes the action's degree of progress or completion. There are three main
aspects: indefinite, progressive, and perfect. Combinations of certain tenses
and aspects, such as past progressive, are also possible.
Indefinite
Indefinite aspect is the aspect used in the simple tenses of past, present, and
future. It describes an action but does not state definitively whether the action
has finished.
Progressive
The progressive form expresses actions that are continuing to occur in the
present moment.
Perfect
The perfect form refers to events in the past that are either ongoing or that
have been finished but are still relevant to the speaker in the present moment.
Past Progressive
If you want to describe an action that began in the past and may be or may not
be ongoing, you can use the past progressive aspect:
Rootverb
To go
To write
To be
Past
I went
I wrote
I was
Present
I go
I write
I am
Future
I will go
I will write
I will be
Progressive
I am going
I am writing
I am being
Past Progressive
I was going
I was writing
I was being
Perfect
I have gone
I have written
I have been
Progressive, past progressive, and perfect aspects are formed by combining
helping verbs, usually to be or to have, with the main verb's non-
finite participleform. These forms are usually denoted by -en or -ing, but there
are some irregular forms (such as gone in the example of perfect aspect).
The gerund is a non-finite verb form used to make a verb phrase that can serve
in place of a noun phrase. Gerunds end in -ing (as in I enjoy playing football).
Special Types of Verbs
Linking Verbs
Linking verbs are used to connect subjects with their complements. They may
be the main verb in a sentence even if they express a description rather than
an action:
This tea is hot.
There are many books in his library.
The most common linking verb is to be. Other common linking verbs include
the following:
appear
become
seem
taste
continue
remain
Linking verbs take no direct objects. Consequently, if a sentence's main verb is
a linking verb it cannot be written in the passive voice.
Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
Transitive
Transitive verbs describe actions that are done to a specific thing, called the
verb's direct object.
She cut her hair. Subject: she, verb: cut, object: her hair.
Romeo kissed Juliet. Subject: Romeo, verb: kissed, object: Juliet.
All of the verbs are performed by the subject, to something or someone else.
Intransitive
Intransitive verbs are actions that are complete on their own and do not
require any object:
Sally ran fast.
The bird flew.
Most verbs can be transitive or intransitive, depending on their context. The
main thing to remember with transitivity is that whenever a verb takes an
object, that object needs to be clear to the reader. If you just write Romeo
kissed, but omit the object, there is not enough information for the reader to
understand the objective of the verb.

He walked the wire.
The verb tense in the title signals that this action took place in the past. It is not only important to have subject and
verb agreement, but also to utilize the correct verb tense to ensure that a sentence contains its intended meaning.