Verbs – Transitive & Intransitive, Linking & Auxiliary
Posted by Tom Fasano on May 19, 2013 – 1:16 pmSubscribe
RSS Feed
iTunes
Twitter
Facebook
Vimeo
YouTube
A verb is a word that makes a statement about the subject. For a statement to be made about a subject, two elements are needed: something to make a statement about, and something to say about it. The first element is referred to as the subject of the sentence or clause; the second, as the verb.
A verb expresses one of two qualities:
(1) Action: as, “I sing.” “He eats.” “They are attending the meeting.”
(2) State or condition: as, “He seems quiet.” “The milk turned sour.” “We are happy.”
Some verbs may express action in one sentence and a state or condition in another, depending on their use.
He went to the movies.
His luck went bad.
Verbs are either transitive or intransitive.
(1) A Transitive Verb takes an object.
We saw the dog.
The woman bought a new dress.
He repaired his car.
(2) An Intransitive Verb does not take an object.
The man drove fast.
She is running.
Dogs bark.
The word “transitive” stems from the same Latin root as “transit,”
meaning to “go over” or “pass over.” Therefore, the action performed by the subject of a transitive verb passes from the verb to the object, which receives the action.
Some verbs can be either transitive or intransitive.
|
TRANSITIVE The boy shattered the window. He popped the bottle open. |
INTRANSITIVE The window shattered. The bottle popped. |
A Linking Verb connects the subject with a predicate noun or predicate adjective.
Mark is a sailor.
He will be happy to hear that.
A Linking Verb is sometimes referred to as a Copulative Verb.
By far the most commonly used linking verb is be in its various conjugations: as, am, is, was, were, will be, has been, etc. In addition to be, any verb used to connect the subject with a predicate noun or predicate adjective is a linking verb: as, look, become, appear, seem, etc.
He looks terrible.
She became a doctor.
They appear distrustful.
As the above examples demonstrate, linking verbs do not have objects.
The verb be in its various conjugations is not always a linking verb, for it may be used as an intransitive verb meaning existence: as, “From the day we moved in, we were at home.” “The universe simply is.”
An Auxiliary Verb extends the meaning of another verb.
They are commonly referred to as “helping verbs.” For example, in is running, the auxiliary verb is helps to make a form of the verb run; in have drunk and will sing the auxiliary verbs have and will help to make forms of the verbs drink and sing.
Auxiliary verbs can be classified as Principal Auxiliaries (do, have, be), Modal Auxiliaries (can, may, shall, will, could, might, should, would, must), and Marginal Modal Auxiliaries (ought to, used to, need, dare).
Be, have, and do are not always auxiliary verbs. They are often used as complete verbs: as, ”She is here” “I have the money” “I do the heavy lifting” “I willed my numbers to come up.”
When be and have occur together in a verb phrase the order is have + be. These are the most frequently used verbs in the English language, dating back to the Old English period. Be has the most irregular forms of any English verb, being a combination of the two Old English verbs beom and eom.
Occasionally intervening words come between an auxiliary verb and the main verb. In such cases, students must be careful when identifying the main verb in the sentence: as, “She had already taken the pill.”
Copyright © 2013 Thomas Fasano. Your English Class™ trademark is the property of Thomas Fasano.
Tags: Auxiliary Verbs, Intransitive Verbs, Transitive Verbs, Verbs
Posted in English Grammar | No Comments »
The Indefinite Articles A and An
Posted by Tom Fasano on April 8, 2013 – 7:41 pmSubscribe
RSS Feed
iTunes
Twitter
Facebook
Vimeo
YouTube
Uses of A and An
(1) A precedes a word beginning with a consonant sound; an precedes a word beginning with a vowel sound: a tree, an olive tree.
Besides the common vowels of a, e, i, o, and u, in English a y can have the characteristics of either a vowel or a consonant. That is, an initial y is almost always a consonant (yell, yard); in the middle of a word, it is often a vowel (analysis).
(2) The letter u can have either a vowel or consonant sound. Before a word beginning with a u having a vowel sound, an is used: as, an understanding, an uncle; before a word beginning with a u having a consonant sound, a is used: as, a union (pronounced yunion), a uniform, a use.
(3) An is used before a word beginning with h if the h is silent; a if the h is sounded: as, an honorable profession, a humid day, a house.
There are, however, a few exceptions to the above uses. It’s fairly common practice in formal writing to use a before a word beginning with h when the first syllable is accented and an when it’s unaccented: thus, a his′-tory; an his-tor′-ical event.
Copyright © 2013 Thomas Fasano. Your English Class™ trademark is the property of Thomas Fasano.
Tags: Indefinite Articles
Posted in English Grammar | No Comments »
Adjectives: Pronominal Adjectives and Determiners
Posted by Tom Fasano on February 3, 2013 – 12:11 pmSubscribe
RSS Feed
iTunes
Twitter
Facebook
Vimeo
YouTube
An adjective is a word that describes a noun or modifies its meaning.
An adjective may:
1) Describe a noun: as, brilliant scientist, cold coffee, fast car.
2) Indicate which member or members of a group are denoted by the noun: as, this pen, some people, any woman, three books, second week.
Any word that describes or modifies a noun in this way is an adjective. Thus we normally think of weekend as a noun, but in the sentence, “I enjoy weekend sports,” the word is an adjective because it modifies the noun sports. Seen in this way, the possessive case of a noun is an adjective: as, William’s desk, Harry’s hat, the lady’s dress.
Pronominal Adjectives and Determiners. Pronouns are frequently used to modify nouns. In other words, they determine or indicate a noun and when used in such a manner are called Pronominal Adjectives. They are described as adjectives in traditional grammar and determiners in modern grammar.
Personal Pronouns: “This is my car.” “He found her purse.”
Relative Pronouns: “The neighbor whose dog is barking came home.” “I added money to our savings, which is still too small.” “Whichever music you select, the guests will probably like it.”
Interrogative Pronouns: “Which flavor do you want?” “What decision will the court make?”
Demonstrative Pronouns: “That sort of thing is good to avoid.” “Those apples are delicious.”
Indefinite Pronouns: “Any time off will be good.” “Some situations are best avoided.” “The other clerk was more helpful.”
Negative Determiners “No” and “Neither”
He has no wife/no children/no food.
I was in favor of neither candidate.
Determining if a pronoun is used as a pronominal adjective or as an actual pronoun is a simple matter of determining if it modifies a noun or is used as a noun.
|
That politician is corrupt. Which wine is better? The other car is faster. It is my coat. |
That is a corrupt politician. Which is better? The other is faster. This coat is mine. |
The shorter forms of possessive pronouns (my, our, your, her, their, in contrast to mine, ours, yours, hers, theirs) are always pronominal adjectives because they are always used as modifiers of nouns.
Copyright © 2013 Thomas Fasano. Your English Class™ trademark is the property of Thomas Fasano.
Tags: adjectives, articles, pronominal adjectives
Posted in English Grammar | No Comments »
