Verbs make good writing sizzle, snap, sparkle and scald. And those are just some of the -s verbs. Think what your writing can do using the entire alphabet.
In fact, put a good concrete noun to work with a strong verb and often you can dump everything else in the sentence.
Of course, you have to use the right verb -- not only a strong one, but one in the right tense and form.
Another very important skill is to use the right number of the verb, but we'll pick that up for the next exam -- under subject-verb agreement.
There are other characteristics of verbs (person, mood and voice) but let's just start with tense and form.
USE THE RIGHT TENSE
You know present, past and future, but there are many more ways time can be told using verb tense.
We'll just throw a few at you right now:
Writing the news
Generally, news stories for newspapers and the Web are written in the past tense, because they happened in the past. However, use your head to spot exceptions.
CORRECT: "I don't like the way the bypass is coming," Williams said. "It looks as if it will ruin our environment."
But if the reporter paraphrases using the basic rule of past tense, a problem occurs:
INCORRECT: Williams did not like the way the bypass was coming because, he said, it looked as if it would ruin the area's environment.
The verbs should be changed to does, is, looks. Using past tense where logic calls for present tense could confuse the reader.
Broadcast uses many more present tense verbs (for instance, use says instead of said) but, again, use your head. You can end up sounding pretty silly if you force the present tense.
Reports and studies
The tense problem often comes up when journalists write about reports and studies:
INCORRECT: The study said housing for the elderly is not needed for a majority of the region's senior citizens.
Long after the story appears, the study will still be saying the same thing. The correct tense is "The study says ..."
Present perfect tense
The perfect tenses are created with the words has, had or have combined with a verb's participial form (called past participle in the handbook) of the verb.
The present perfect tense (using has and have) is used to describe an action that has already been completed but still affects the present.
EXAMPLE: The Interior Department has estimated that more than a million tourists will visit the monument this summer. (The department has already done the estimating, but the tourists are still coming.)
The use of present perfect also indicates an indefinite time:
EXAMPLE: The Virginia highway department has approved a contract for the construction of the new road.
If the approval was part of the news value, the reporter might write: "The Virginia highway department today approved a contract ...." But in subsequent stories, the date that approval was granted would not be timely.
Notice the difference: The arson case has never been solved. (The investigation is ongoing.) The arson case was never solved. (The case has been closed.)
Past Perfect Tense
The past perfect tense (using had with the verb) refers to two things that have already happened and shows which was completed first and which was done second.
The Steelers' defense had not permitted a touchdown in 22 quarters until the Houston Oilers scored on Sunday.
USE THE RIGHT FORM
When you know what tense of the verb to use for the predicate, you will have to know the right form -- in other words, how to spell each tense. When the verb is an irregular verb, the form can be tricky. Know where to find these in your book's appendix.
The three forms are present, past and past participle.
Regular Verbs
A regular verb forms its past tense and past participle by adding -d, or -ed to its present form.
|
PRESENT |
PAST |
PAST PARTICIPLE |
|
walk |
walked |
(had) walked |
|
taste |
tasted |
( had) tasted |
Irregular Verbs
An irregular verb forms its past tense and past participle in one of five other ways:
1. Vowel changes (swim, swam, swum)
2. Vowel shortens (feel, felt, felt)
3. -en added (beat, beat, beaten)
4. -d changes to -t (send, sent, sent)
5. No change (set, set, set)
They swim every day. He swam yesterday. He had swum all day.
Set the drink down. He set the drink there yesterday. He had set the drink on the piano even after she told
him not to.
Troublesome Verb Pairs
The trickiest of the irregular verbs give student fits. To learn how to know when to use lie and when to use
lay, you have to learn some more grammar words:
Transitive verbs pass the action of the subject to a direct object receiver:
He lays the book on the desk. (present tense)
He set the glass on the table. (past tense)
He has raised the flag each morning. (past participle)
Notice that in each of these cases, something (book, glass, flag) is receiving the action. Something is happening
to those things. Those things are called direct objects.
Intransitive verbs do not need a direct object receiver. The words and phrases following the verbs usually are
modifiers. They do not "receive the action"; they are not direct objects.
She sits quietly in the corner. (present)
She lay in bed, crying. (past)
She has risen late every morning this week. (past participle)
The words following these intransitive verbs are not receiving the action; they are describing where, how and
when. They are modifiers.
Transitive:
|
PRESENT |
PAST |
PAST PARTICIPLE |
|
lay |
laid |
(has) laid |
|
set, sets |
set |
(has) set |
|
raise, raises |
raised |
(has) raised |
Intransitive:
|
PRESENT |
PAST |
PAST PARTICIPLE |
|
lie, lies |
lay |
(has) lain |
|
sit, sits |
sat |
(has) sat |
|
rise, rises |
rose |
(has) risen |
VERBALS
What really confuses students about verbals is that they look like verbs. Well, duh. They ARE verbs -- they just
aren't predicates.
In other words, they start out as verbs but are turned into other parts of speech by where they are put in the
sentence -- by the function that they are made to serve.
Verbals function as nouns, adjectives or adverbs. There are three kinds of verbals:
Gerunds -- These always end in -ing. They always function as nouns.
So, they can be:
Subjects: Driving on ice is dangerous.
Direct objects: He hated driving on ice.
Indirect objects: He gave driving his best effort.
Objects of the preposition: His tires were designed for driving on ice.
Participle -- These forms end in -ing, -ed, -t or -en. They function as adjectives.
Driving to school, he ran off the road.
He was a driving teacher in high school.
He was a driven man.
Infinitive -- These forms are always preceded by "to." They are used as nouns, adjectives or adverbs.
Noun: To drive on ice is crazy.
Adjective : Waiting to drive is always a problem for a teen-ager. (modifies the gerund-noun "waiting")
Adverb: He left the house to drive her to school. (answers "why?")
The tricky part
The use that creates the most trouble with verbals is when a gerund has a pronoun before it.
She hated his singing.
She hated his running around on her. (NOT him running)
If you remember that "running around" is a gerund (a noun) then it's easier to remember that the possessive
form of the pronoun goes before it. You wouldn't write "She hated him car." Car is a noun, and running
around is a noun, so you use his before both.