Verbs: The Engine of Every Sentence
Strip a sentence down to its bare bones and you'll always find two things: a subject and a verb. The subject tells you who or what the sentence is about; the verb tells you what that subject does, what it is, or what happens to it. Without a verb, you don't have a sentence — you just have a fragment floating in space.
A verb is a word that expresses an action, a state of being, or an occurrence. "Run," "think," "seem," "become," "is" — these are all verbs, even though they describe very different things. That range is part of what makes verbs so interesting (and occasionally tricky). Some verbs are physical and concrete: throw, build, eat. Others are invisible and abstract: believe, consider, understand. And some don't describe any action at all — they simply link a subject to more information about it.
Understanding the different types of verbs, how they change form, and how tenses work will sharpen your writing considerably. If you've ever struggled with subject-verb agreement, awkward tense shifts, or choosing between active and passive voice, a solid grasp of verbs is the fix. You can also run your sentences through a grammar checker to catch verb errors you might miss on your own.
Action Verbs
Action verbs are the most straightforward type. They describe something a subject does — whether that action is physical or mental. When most people picture a verb, they're picturing an action verb.
Physical Action Verbs
These describe observable, concrete actions. You can see them, hear them, or otherwise perceive them happening.
| Verb | Example Sentence |
|---|---|
| run | She runs five miles every morning. |
| write | He wrote the entire report overnight. |
| throw | The pitcher threw a fastball. |
| cook | My grandmother cooks the best paella. |
| build | They built the cabin from reclaimed wood. |
For a much longer list, take a look at our action verbs list — it's a handy reference when you're looking for more vivid word choices.
Mental Action Verbs
Not all actions are visible. Thinking, wanting, remembering: these are all things you do, even though nobody can watch you do them.
| Verb | Example Sentence |
|---|---|
| think | I think we should leave early. |
| believe | She believes the evidence is strong enough. |
| remember | Do you remember locking the door? |
| consider | He considered every option before deciding. |
| imagine | Just imagine what that must have been like. |
Mental action verbs are sometimes called stative verbs because they describe a state rather than a dynamic action. This matters for tense — many stative verbs sound unnatural in the continuous form. You wouldn't normally say "I am believing you" — you'd say "I believe you." More on that quirk when we get to tenses.
For more examples of action verbs in context, our action verb examples page breaks them down by category.
Linking Verbs
Linking verbs don't describe an action. Instead, they connect the subject to a word or phrase that tells you more about it: a subject complement. The most common linking verb is be (in all its forms: am, is, are, was, were, been, being).
Think of a linking verb as an equals sign. "She is a doctor" means she = doctor. "The soup smells amazing" means the soup = amazing (in terms of smell).
Common Linking Verbs
| Linking Verb | Example |
|---|---|
| be (am, is, are, was, were) | The sky is gray today. |
| become | She became the team captain. |
| seem | That plan seems risky. |
| appear | He appears tired. |
| feel | The fabric feels rough. |
| look | You look great in that jacket. |
| taste | This coffee tastes burnt. |
| remain | The door remained locked. |
Here's the tricky part: several of these verbs can function as either action verbs or linking verbs depending on context. "She looked out the window" — that's an action (she directed her eyes). "She looked exhausted" — that's a linking verb (she = exhausted). The test? Try replacing the verb with a form of "be." If the sentence still makes sense, it's functioning as a linking verb. "She was exhausted" works. "She was out the window" does not.
The word that follows a linking verb is often an adjective (a subject complement that describes the subject) or a noun that renames the subject. This is different from action verbs, which are often modified by adverbs.
Helping (Auxiliary) Verbs
Helping verbs — also called auxiliary verbs — don't work alone. They team up with a main verb to create a verb phrase, and they modify the meaning of that main verb in specific ways: changing the tense, forming a question, creating a negative, or expressing possibility, necessity, or permission.
Primary Auxiliary Verbs
English has three primary auxiliaries: be, have, and do. These are workhorses. They help form tenses and questions.
- Be: used for continuous tenses and passive voice: "She is running." / "The cake was eaten."
- Have: used for perfect tenses: "They have finished the project."
- Do: used for questions, negatives, and emphasis: "Do you understand?" / "I do not agree." / "I do like chocolate."
Modal Auxiliary Verbs
Modals express shades of meaning: ability, permission, obligation, possibility. They always pair with the base form of the main verb (no "to," no "-ing," no "-s").
| Modal | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| can | ability / permission | She can speak three languages. |
| could | past ability / polite request | Could you pass the salt? |
| may | permission / possibility | It may rain later. |
| might | weaker possibility | He might come to the party. |
| must | necessity / strong obligation | You must wear a seatbelt. |
| shall | future / formal suggestion | Shall we begin? |
| should | advice / expectation | You should study for the exam. |
| will | future intention | I will call you tomorrow. |
| would | conditional / polite request | I would help if I could. |
One important detail: modals don't change form. There's no "cans" or "musted" or "shalling." They stay the same regardless of subject or tense, which actually makes them simpler to use than most other verbs.
Transitive vs. Intransitive Verbs
This distinction is about whether a verb needs a direct object to make sense.
A transitive verb transfers its action to a direct object (called the direct object). Without that object, the sentence feels incomplete.
- "She kicked the ball." (Kicked what? The ball. "She kicked" alone sounds unfinished.)
- "He wrote a letter." (Wrote what? A letter.)
- "The company hired three new engineers."
An intransitive verb doesn't take a direct object. The action doesn't transfer to anything — it just happens.
- "She laughed." (Laughed what? Nothing — you just laugh.)
- "The baby slept."
- "We arrived at noon."
Many verbs can be both, depending on how you use them. "She sang" is intransitive. "She sang a song" is transitive. Context decides.
Why does this matter? Because transitive verbs are the ones that can be flipped into passive voice. "The ball was kicked by her" works because "kick" is transitive. You can't make "She laughed" passive — there's no object to promote to subject. If you're working on active-to-passive conversions or checking for overuse of passive voice, our passive voice checker can help you spot those patterns quickly.
Regular vs. Irregular Verbs
This one is about how verbs change form, specifically how they form the past tense and past participle.
Regular Verbs
Regular verbs follow a predictable pattern: add -ed (or -d) to the base form. Simple, consistent, no surprises.
| Base Form | Past Tense | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|
| walk | walked | walked |
| play | played | played |
| decide | decided | decided |
| hope | hoped | hoped |
| travel | traveled | traveled |
The vast majority of English verbs are regular. When new verbs enter the language — "google," "text," "blog" — they almost always follow the regular pattern ("googled," "texted," "blogged").
Irregular Verbs
Irregular verbs don't follow the -ed rule. Their past forms are unpredictable and simply have to be memorized. Unfortunately, many of the most common verbs in English are irregular.
| Base Form | Past Tense | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|
| go | went | gone |
| eat | ate | eaten |
| write | wrote | written |
| begin | began | begun |
| swim | swam | swum |
| take | took | taken |
| see | saw | seen |
| drink | drank | drunk |
| know | knew | known |
| break | broke | broken |
Common mistakes with irregular verbs include "I seen it" (should be "I saw it" or "I have seen it"), "She has went" (should be "She has gone"), and "He drunk the water" (should be "He drank the water"). These slip into casual speech easily, but they'll stick out in formal writing. A good grammar checker will flag these for you.
Verb Tenses: An Overview
English has twelve main tenses, built from combinations of three time frames (past, present, future) and four aspects (simple, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous). That sounds like a lot, but once you see the logic behind the system, it clicks into place.
Present Tenses
| Tense | Structure | Example | When to Use It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Present | base form (+ s/es for third person) | She writes every day. | Habits, routines, general truths |
| Present Continuous | am/is/are + -ing | She is writing right now. | Actions happening at this moment |
| Present Perfect | have/has + past participle | She has written three books. | Actions completed at an unspecified time before now |
| Present Perfect Continuous | have/has been + -ing | She has been writing since 6 a.m. | Actions that started in the past and continue into the present |
Past Tenses
| Tense | Structure | Example | When to Use It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Past | past form (-ed or irregular) | She wrote a letter. | Completed actions at a definite time in the past |
| Past Continuous | was/were + -ing | She was writing when I called. | Actions in progress at a specific moment in the past |
| Past Perfect | had + past participle | She had written the email before the meeting. | Actions completed before another past action |
| Past Perfect Continuous | had been + -ing | She had been writing for two hours when the power went out. | Ongoing actions that were happening before another past action |
Future Tenses
| Tense | Structure | Example | When to Use It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Future | will + base form | She will write the report tomorrow. | Predictions, promises, decisions made in the moment |
| Future Continuous | will be + -ing | She will be writing at 8 p.m. tonight. | Actions that will be in progress at a specific future time |
| Future Perfect | will have + past participle | She will have written 500 pages by December. | Actions that will be completed before a specific future time |
| Future Perfect Continuous | will have been + -ing | She will have been writing for ten years next month. | Actions that will have been ongoing up to a specific future time |
The most common tense mistake isn't choosing the wrong tense — it's shifting tenses without a good reason. If you start telling a story in the past tense, stay there. "She walked to the store and buys milk" jolts the reader because you jumped from past to present. Consistency is everything.
A Quick Note on Aspect
The four aspects tell you something about the nature of the action, not just its timing:
- Simple: treats the action as a complete whole. "I ate lunch."
- Continuous (Progressive): emphasizes that the action is (or was, or will be) ongoing. "I was eating lunch."
- Perfect: connects the action to a later point in time, highlighting completion or result. "I had eaten lunch (before she arrived)."
- Perfect Continuous: combines duration with connection to another point in time. "I had been eating lunch for 20 minutes (when she arrived)."
Once you internalize this system, choosing the right tense becomes much more intuitive. You stop thinking about twelve separate tenses and start thinking about two questions: When? and What's the nature of the action?
Verb Forms: The Five Essential Shapes
Every English verb has up to five forms. Knowing what they are helps you construct tenses correctly.
| Form | Name | Example (regular: "walk") | Example (irregular: "write") |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Base / Infinitive | walk | write |
| 2 | Third-person singular present | walks | writes |
| 3 | Past tense | walked | wrote |
| 4 | Past participle | walked | written |
| 5 | Present participle / gerund | walking | writing |
For regular verbs, forms 3 and 4 are identical (both end in -ed). For irregular verbs, they're often different — "wrote" vs. "written," "sang" vs. "sung." This is exactly where those common mistakes creep in: mixing up form 3 and form 4. "I have wrote" uses the past tense where the past participle should go. The correct version is "I have written."
Subject-Verb Agreement
A verb has to match its subject in number — singular subjects get singular verbs, plural subjects get plural verbs. Most of the time this is automatic, but a few situations trip people up.
Words between the subject and verb: "The box of chocolates is on the table" — not "are," because the subject is "box," not "chocolates."
Compound subjects with "and": "Tom and Sarah are coming" — two people, plural verb.
Either/or and neither/nor: The verb matches the subject closer to it. "Neither the students nor the teacher was ready." "Neither the teacher nor the students were ready."
Collective nouns: Words like "team," "family," and "committee" can be singular or plural depending on whether you're thinking of the group as a unit or as individuals. "The team is winning" (one unit). "The team are arguing among themselves" (acting as individuals — more common in British English).
Active Voice vs. Passive Voice
Voice describes the relationship between the verb and its subject. In active voice, the subject performs the action: "The dog bit the mail carrier." In passive voice, the subject receives the action: "The mail carrier was bitten by the dog."
Active voice is generally stronger, clearer, and more direct. Passive voice isn't grammatically wrong — it has legitimate uses, like when you want to emphasize the receiver of the action or when the performer is unknown. "The building was constructed in 1892" is perfectly natural because the builders aren't the point.
The real problem is overusing passive voice, which makes writing feel vague and sluggish. If you're not sure whether you're leaning too heavily on passive constructions, try running your text through a passive voice checker to see the balance.
Common Verb Mistakes to Watch For
Even experienced writers make verb errors. Here are the ones that come up most often:
- Tense shifting: Switching between past and present without a reason. "She walked into the room and sees the mess." Pick one and stick with it.
- Confusing past tense and past participle: "I have went" (wrong) vs. "I have gone" (right). "She has drank" (wrong) vs. "She has drunk" (right).
- Subject-verb disagreement: "The list of items are long" (wrong) vs. "The list of items is long" (right).
- Double negatives with "do": "I don't want nothing" (wrong) vs. "I don't want anything" (right).
- Misusing stative verbs in continuous form: "I am knowing the answer" (wrong) vs. "I know the answer" (right). Verbs like know, believe, own, and prefer typically resist the -ing form.
- Dangling infinitives and gerunds: "To succeed, hard work is necessary" sounds off because "hard work" isn't the one trying to succeed. Better: "To succeed, you need to work hard."
Frequently Asked Questions About Verbs
What is the difference between a verb and an adverb?
A verb expresses an action or state of being — it's the core of what's happening in a sentence. An adverb modifies a verb (or an adjective, or another adverb) and tells you how, when, where, or to what extent that action happens. In "She runs quickly," "runs" is the verb and "quickly" is the adverb modifying it.
How many verb tenses are there in English?
English has twelve main tenses, formed by combining three time frames (past, present, future) with four aspects (simple, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous). Some grammarians also count additional constructions like "used to" and "going to" as tense-like structures, but the core system has twelve.
What is the easiest way to identify a verb in a sentence?
Ask yourself: what is the subject doing, or what is the subject being? The word that answers that question is the verb. You can also try changing the tense of the sentence: the word that changes form is your verb. "She walks to school" becomes "She walked to school." The word that shifted is the verb.
Can a sentence have more than one verb?
Absolutely. Compound sentences and complex sentences regularly contain two or more verbs. "She cooked dinner and watched a movie" has two verbs. Verb phrases — like "has been running" — also contain multiple verb words working together as a single unit.
What is the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs?
A transitive verb requires a direct object to complete its meaning: "She threw the ball." An intransitive verb does not take a direct object: "She laughed." Many verbs can function as either transitive or intransitive depending on the sentence. "He eats breakfast" (transitive) vs. "He eats at noon" (intransitive).
Why are irregular verbs irregular?
Most irregular verbs come from Old English, where verbs changed form through vowel shifts (a system linguists call "ablaut"). Over centuries, while newer and less common verbs settled into the regular -ed pattern, the most frequently used verbs retained their older, irregular forms. That's why the verbs you use every day — go, be, have, do, say, make, take — are almost all irregular. Frequent use kept them "frozen" in their old patterns.