What Is a Verb?

Everything You Need to Know

What is a verb?

As you can see from the above definition, there are two main categories of verbs: those that express action and those that express a state of being, also called linking verbs. Click here to see a list of all 13 linking verbs

Because action verbs and linking verbs are strong enough to be used in sentences all by themselves, they are called main verbs.

But wait! There is also a third category of verbs which does not get any glory. They are the helping verbs. Click here to see a list of all 24 helping verbs and to hear the helping verbs song!

The reason that these guys don't get any of the fame that action and linking verbs get is because they cannot stand alone like the main verbs. They always have to be helping either an action verb or a linking verb.

Here are the three categories of verbs.

Examples of Verbs

When you have a helping verb along with an action or linking verb, all of those verbs together are called a verb phrase.

Here are some examples of sentences with verb phrases.

Example 1:

Example 2:

What is a verb? Got it all? Here's a summary:

• There are three categories of verbs (action, linking, helping).
• Only two are main verbs (action, linking). Main means that the verb is strong enough to be the only verb in the sentence.
• Helping verbs are not main verbs. They help action and linking verbs.
• A helping verb and a main verb working together are called a verb phrase.

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Verb Types

So, you now know the answer to the question, "What is a verb?" (It's a word that expresses action or a state of being!) You also know that there are three categories of verbs (action verbs, linking verbs, and helping verbs).

For the next little while, we are going to focus on main verbs. So, forget about those poor little helping verbs for a bit, and let's turn our attention to action verbs and linking verbs.

These two main types of verbs can act in four different ways.




Transitive Active Action Verb John kicked Jen.	Intransitive Complete Action Verb Jen cried.
Transitive Passive Action Verb John was kicked.	Intransitive Linking Linking Verb Jen felt happy.




Intransitive Linking

Linking verbs differ from the three other verb types because they are the only verb type that does not express any action.

What do linking verbs do? It's pretty simple. Linking verbs link.

They will always link the subject of a sentence to either a noun (which renames the subject) or an adjective (which describes the subject).

Nouns that rename the subject are called predicate nouns. Adjectives that describe the subject are called predicate adjectives.

It may help you to think of linking verbs as an equal sign between the subject and a predicate noun or a predicate adjective.

Example:

I am a teacher.	I = teacher
The soup is salty.	soup = salty

Am is linking the subject I with the predicate noun teacher.

Is is linking the subject soup with the predicate adjective salty.

Transitive Active

These action verbs transfer their action to a receiver. That means that something or someone is always being acted upon. In our example sentence, Jen is receiving the action kicked - even though she probably doesn't want to be receiving it.

The receiver of the action is called the direct object. In our example sentence, Jen is the direct object.

Every single transitive active sentence must have a direct object, and the direct object always receives the action.

Transitive Passive

These action verbs also transfer their action to a receiver. Only the receiver of the action is always the subject.

Check out the example. Who is receiving the action? John is. John is the subject of the sentence, and he is receiving the action was kicked.

The subject always receives the action in a transitive passive sentence.

Notice that we may not actually know who initiated the action. (Who kicked John?) Sometimes we find this out in a prepositional phrase, such as: John was kicked by Jen. But, it doesn't change anything. The subject is still receiving the action.

Intransitive Complete

Again, these are action verbs. Unlike the two verb types above that transfer their action, this type does not. Since it does not transfer action, there can be no receiver of any action.




What is a verb? Here are a few more example sentences.

Transitive Active Cats drink milk. Clocks make noise. I lost my ticket.	Intransitive Complete Cats drink. Clocks tick. Buses move.
Transitive Passive Milk was drunk. The clocks were wound. My ticket was lost.	Intransitive Linking Milk tastes delicious. Clocks are helpful. I am the bus driver!




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Start Basic Sentence Diagramming!

What is a verb? When you see how verbs are diagrammed, it will be easy to see how they name actions or show states of being.

Click here to learn how to diagram verbs.

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Back to Parts of Speech

Still asking "What is a verb?" Click here to see a list of verbs.

Back to English Grammar Home Page



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