LEC - Lecture no.

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THE ENGLISH VERB - Definition and Characteristics
The verb is a part of speech denoting
actions (to go, to make),
processes in the form of actions (to stand, to lie, to sleep),
the appearance or modification of a characteristic or attitude (to harden, to weaken).
States
Verbs can be classified under different heads, in accordance with:
a. composition;
b. derivation;
c. basic forms;
d. semantic content;
e. lexical aspect and predication.

Classification of Verbs according to their Composition

When it comes to composition, verbs are:
a. simple verbs;
b. compound verbs;
c. complex verbs (phrasal verbs);
d. verbal phrases (collocations).
a. Simple verbs are those which cannot be decomposed into further morphological elements, e.g. to like, to begin,
to construct, etc.
b. Compound verbs are formed of one or more morphological elements or parts of speech which are written
together and contribute jointly to the respective meaning.
Compound verbs may be:
noun+verb fusions: to waylay;
e.g. Robin Hood would waylay the rich.
adverb+verb fusions: to broadcast;
e.g. The main information is broadcast in the evening.
adjective+verb fusions: to whitewash
e.g. He whitewashes his house every year.
From a semantic point of view, compound verbs have one meaning.
From a grammatical point of view, compound verbs are inflected in the course of their conjugation.
c. Complex verbs (phrasal verbs) are disconnected
verb+adverb
verb+ preposition combinations which may function or may not as a semantic fusion.
From a semantic point of view complex verbs have one meaning.
e.g. He put down (= wrote) everything to be sure he would remember whatever had been said in the
future.
Complex verbs are different from compound verbs in the sense that the former allow for the
introduction of other parts of speech in between the respective verb and its particle (preposition/adverb)
e.g. He put everything down.
A special category of complex verbs is represented by a number of verb+preposition or verb+adverb
combinations called phrasal verbs in which the verb loses its meaning: to look for (= to take care of), look up to (=
to respect), look down on/upon (= to despise) etc.
d. Verbal phrases (collocations)– They are verb + a nominal element combinations in which the respective verb
diminishes its lexical value and the nominal element becomes predominant, e.g. to have a look/drink/try; to
go for a walk.

Classification of Verbs according to their Derivation

a. Verbs formed by prefixation
A large number of English verbs are derived from other parts of speech as follows:
the prefix en- + a noun or an adjective, e.g. to encircle, to enjoy, to endanger, to enslave, to enable, to
enlarge, to ensure.
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b. Verbs formed by suffixation
the suffix –en added to a noun or to an adjective: to broaden, to whiten, to strengthen.
the suffix –ate added to a shortened noun or an adjective: to create (creation), to locate (local).
-ify added to an adjective: to solidify
-ize added to an adjective: to localize.

c. Verbs formed by conversion:

Certain nouns, adjectives, adverbs and pronouns are frequently converted into verbs,
e.g. paper – to paper,
iron – to iron,
black – to black,
blue – to blue,
down – to down (prices),
to thee and thou somebody (to address somebody in a familiar way).

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 Grammatical Categories of the Verb
PERSON – a grammatical category that expresses the relationship between the subject and its verb and indicates
whether the person is speaking about himself/herself (1 st person), whether the person is being spoken to (2nd
person), or whether the person is being spoken about (3rd person).
NUMBER – a grammatical category that expresses counting distinctions. There are two numbers in English:
singular and plural.
MOOD – the grammatical category by which modality is expressed, reflecting the attitude of the speaker towards
the action or state expressed by the verb. There are four finite moods: Indicative, Conditional, Subjunctive,
Imperative and three non-finite moods: Infinitive, Gerund, Participle.
TENSE – represents the correspondence between the form of the verb and our concept of time (time : past,
present, future)
ASPECT (Grammatical aspect) is the verbal form which expresses the duration of the action or state (indefinite
duration, short duration, long duration; frequentative actions or states)
1. Simple / Indefinite Aspect
2. Progressive /Continuous Aspect
3. Frequentative Aspect
4. Perfective Aspect
VOICE - grammatical category which shows the relationship between the grammatical subject and the action.
There are two voices: Active Voice and Passive Voice.

Classification of Verbs according to their Basic Forms

English verbs have four forms which help one to conjugate them more easily and systematically:
1. the indefinite infinitive
2. the past tense – indicative mood (the preterite)
3. the past participle
4. the present participle
TASK: Give two suitable examples (regular and irregular verbs) for all four verb basic forms

the indefinite infinitive

the past tense – indicative mood (the preterite)

the past participle

the indefinite participle

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 Verbs ending in –ed in the past tense and the past participle are called regular verbs: to like-liked-liked.
Verbs having different other endings in the past tense and the past participle are called irregular verbs,
including here the small group of modal verbs which only have two forms or only one as is the case of must,
ought to and need.
Spelling rules
The regular spelling of the –ed/past tense/past participle form in regular verbs is –ed:
play/played
talk/talked
disturb/disturbed
distinguish/distinguished
Here are additional spelling rules for particular cases.
1. If the base/infinitive form end in –e, drop the –e before adding –ed.
deceive/deceived
save/saved
co-operate/co-operated

BUT, if the first form of the verb ends in –ee, -oe, or –ye, keep the final –e:
disagree/disagreed
hoe/hoed
die/died
dye/dyed
2. If the base/infinitive/first verb form ends in a consonant plus y, change the y to i and then add
-ed:
worry/worried
cry/cried
apply/applied
deny/denied

If a vowel precedes the final y, the spelling is regular:

play/played
annoy/annoyed
3. Double the final consonant letter of the base/infinitive/first verb form before –ed if all these
three conditions apply:
the base/infinitive/first verb form ends in a single consonant letter
a single vowel comes before the consonant letter
the final syllable of the base/first verb form/infinitive is stressed
All three conditions apply in these examples:
rob/robbed
permit/permitted
defer/deferred
Exceptions
If the base ends in -l or for a few words in -m(e) or -p, British English generally doubles the consonant
letter whereas American English generally follows the regular rule:
British English American English
marvelled marveled
modelled modeled
quarreled quarreled
traveled
travelled
programmed
programmed
diagramed
diagrammed
kidnaped
kidnapped
worshiped
worshipped

TASK: Give the past tense form of the following verbs, mentioning each time the rule that you have

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observed.
hop
develop
hope
reply
cry
bar
infer
refer
kidnap
worship
permit
Pronunciation-wise, the following rules are to be observed when adding the –ed ending:
a. Verbs ending in a vowel sound or in voiced consonants: [b], [g], [l], [m], [n], [v], [z], [dʒ], [θ], get the phonetic
[d]:
play – played
call – called
move – moved
change – changed
bathe – bathed
long – longed
b. Verbs ending in the voiceless consonants [f], [k], [p], [s], [ʃ], [tʃ], [] get the phonetic [t], e.g.
to laugh – laughed
to look – looked
to stress – stressed
to wash – washed
to watch – watched]
c. Verbs ending in the consonants [d] or [t] get the phonetic [id], thus forming a new syllable, e.g.
to add – added
to discount – discounted

TASK; Give the phonetic transcriptions of the above verbs.

Peculiarities of the Indefinite Participle according to Spelling

The spelling and pronunciation of the -ing participle is virtually always predictable from the base form of
both regular and irregular verbs.
The inflection is spelled -ing, which is added to the base: pass/passing carry/carrying go/going be/ being.
Here are additional spelling rules for particular cases:

1. If the base ends in -e, drop the -e before the -ing:

make/making
BUT if the base ends in -ee, -oe, or -ye, keep the final letter before adding the -ing
see/seeing
disagree/disagreeing
hoe/hoeing
dye/dyeing
Also, singe keeps the -e in singeing, distinguishing it from singing, the -ing participle of sing.
2.If the base ends in -ie, change the i to y and drop the –e
die/dying
tie/tying
untie/untying
lie/lying
3. In general, double the consonant letter before -ing if all these three conditions apply:
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 the base ends in a single consonant letter
a single vowel comes before that consonant letter
the final syllable of the base is stressed, as it must be if the base is monosyllabic.
All three conditions apply in these examples:
tip/ tipping
permit/permitting
defer/deferring
forget/forgetting
hum/humming
upset/upsetting
bet/betting
forbid/forbidding
BUT There is no doubling if:
the base ends in two or more consonant letters: sing/singing kick/kicking
there are two vowel letters before the final consonant of the base: read/reading
reveal/revealing despair/despairing
the final syllable of the base is not stressed: limit/limiting differ/differing deliver/delivering
Observation: The letters y and w count as vowel letters when they come at the end of the base (and are
pronounced as vowels), and they are therefore not doubled:
fly/flying show/showing

There are some exceptions to the rules for doubling:

(a) British English generally doubles the consonant letter if the base ends in –l even though the final
syllable of the base is not stressed: marvel/marvelling model/modelling quarrel/quarrelling travel/ traveling
(b) American English generally follows the regular rule and does not double the consonant:
marveling modeling quarreling traveling
(c) British and American English differ in the same direction for a few bases ending in -m(e) or -p:
British English
kidnap/kidnapping worship/worshipping
American English
kidnap/ kidnaping worship/worshiping
TASK: Give the present participle form of the following verbs, mentioning each time the rule you have
taken into consideration when adding the –ing.
to rub
to refer
to stop
to cancel
to travel
to dye
to be
to see
to shoe
to singe
to fly
to lie
die
to underlie