What is a verb?

Action verbs show what someone or something does, like jump, write or eat. Linking verbs, like be, seem and become, connect the subject to more information about it, as in She is tired. Helping verbs, also called auxiliary verbs, such as have, do and will, work with main verbs to form tenses and questions.

Verbs change form to show tense, the time of an action. Regular verbs add -ed for the past tense, like walk and walked. Irregular verbs change in other ways, like go and went or eat and ate. English has about 200 common irregular verbs, which learners must memorize.

Transitive and intransitive

Transitive verbs need an object, as in She kicked the ball. Intransitive verbs do not, as in He slept. Some verbs can be both, like read in She reads books and She reads every night.

Did You Know?

The verb to be is the most irregular in English, with forms including am, is, are, was, were, been and being.