What Are Your Verbs Doing?

Do you remember back in primary school when the teacher said verbs were ‘doing’ words? Doing words? What’s a doing word? A verb is a doing word. Let’s take a closer look at these overactive words.

A verb is a part of speech (one word or a group of words) that shows some sort of action being done with or to the subject of a sentence. Essentially there are three main types of verbs, and we will look at those below.

The main types of verbs are-

• Transitive
• Intransitive
• Auxiliary

Transitive verbs show that the action passes from the main subject to another subject.

Example: The dog chased the tennis ball.

Intransitive verbs show that the action stops, or is retained, by the subject. Sometimes a complement word is needed for completeness.

Example: Julie wept.

Auxiliary verbs are additional words that are added to an existing verb to form a verb group.

Example: Ben will clean his room.

There are many other variations and uses of verbs, including: compound verbs, copulative verbs, process verbs, finite and non-finite verbs, split infinitives, active and passive verbs, mood verbs, parts of a verb, verb tenses, and agreement of subject and verb. We’ll discuss these in another article.

Kristy Taylor is a syndicated freelance journalist with articles and short stories strewn across all forms of media. She has written and published numerous books, and is the executive editor of KT Publishing, which encompasses several web sites. For free listings of short story competitions visit http://www.shortstorycompetitions.com

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