Action Verbs
Action verbs are words that express physical or mental action, or a state of being. They are essential for conveying action and movement in a sentence. In English grammar, action verbs are used to show what the subject of the sentence is doing. Examples of action verbs include "run," "eat," "think," and "sleep."
3 Key excerpts on "Action Verbs"
eBook - ePub- Yip Po-Ching, Don Rimmington(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 6 Action Verbs Action verb is a portmanteau term used here to cover all the verbs in the language apart from non-Action Verbs such as 是 shì ‘to be’ and 有 yǒu ‘to have’ and verbs of emotion or cognition. Their major distinctive feature is that they generally indicate transient performance. Therefore, they are more narrative or descriptive, recounting past events or depicting ongoing actions, whereas non-Action Verbs tend to register more or less permanent states or characteristics and are therefore more expository. In other words, Action Verbs play a more prominent role in narration or description, while non-Action Verbs focus more on explanation. This, of course, does not imply that Action Verbs cannot be used for purposes other than narration or description, but there is a clear distinction between the subject of an action verb predicate and the topic of a comment expressed by 是 shì ‘to be’, 有 yǒu ‘to have’ or an emotional or cognitive verb. In the former case, the subject either initiates or tolerates the action encoded in the predicate, while in the latter, the topic is linked to further explanations expressed in the comment. Compare the following. subject–predicate structures: 我吃了一碗面。 wǒ chī le yī wǎn miàn (narrative) I ate a bowl of noodles. 他收到了两封信。 tā shōudào le liǎng fēng xìn (narrative) He received two letters. 妹妹在弹钢琴。 mèimei zài tán gāngqín (descriptive) My younger sister is playing the piano. topic–comment structures: 我是大学教师。 wǒ shì dàxué jiàoshī (expository) I am a university teacher. 他有两个弟弟。 tā yǒu liǎng ge dìdi (expository) He has two younger brothers. 哥哥喜欢喝啤酒。 gēge xǐhuan hē píjiǔ (expository) My elder brother likes drinking beer. We will pick up these differences again in later chapters, and, in particular, in Chapter 20, but here, we will focus on the intrinsic features of Action Verbs: their diverse structural categories and their formal and semantic relations with the subject and the object...
eBook - ePub- APS Hundal(Author)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Green Sceptre Publishing Australia(Publisher)
...Verbs A word used to express an action, state or situation of the subject is called verb. It is one of the main parts of the sentence or we can say a sentence is incomplete without a verb. There are two main categories of verb: Action Verbs and State Verbs Further verbs can be categorised as under: • Main verbs • Helping verbs or Auxillary verbs • Regular verbs • Irregular verbs • Transitive verbs • Intransitive verbs Action Verbs Verbs used to express physical activity or action. Example Javanjot is shooting. Karman is climbing. State Verbs Verbs used to express situation or state rather action. Examples Rakesh likes sweets. I smell Omellate in the kitchen. SOME STATE VERBS Agree Equal Promise Appreciate Feel Realise Believe Hate Recognize Concern Hear Doubt Measure Note: State Verbs can’t be used in ‘ing’ form. Main Verb These verbs are used to express main action, nature of action or state of being of the subject. It can stand-alone and gives maximum information about subject. Helping Verb or Auxillary Verb It helps the main verb to express occurrence of action. They are used to show tense of sentence. They can’t stand-alone. Some helping verbs like: • May • Might • Can • Could • Must • Ought to • Should • Would • Used to are used as conjunction with main verb to express time or mood. Regular Verbs Regular verbs follow same conjugation pattern. They make past and past participle tenses by adding – ed or – d. For example: REGULAR PRESENT REGULAR PAST REGULAR PAST PARTICIPLE Help Helped Helped Skip Skipped Skipped Irregular verbs Irregular verbs don’t follow same conjugation pattern. They can have same or different forms for their past and past participle tenses For example: IRREGULAR PRESENT IRREGULAR PAST IRREGULAR PAST PARTICIPLE Beat Beat Beat Awake Awake Awake Build Built Built SOME REGULAR VERBS PRESENT PAST PAST...
eBook - ePub- Mohammed Sawaie(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...CHAPTER 1 The verb system in Arabic الأَفعال Verbs are that part of speech that express action or the occurrence of an event. Verbs are usually the first element in MSA sentences that contain verbs, followed by performers mers of actions, called فاعِل in Arabic. A sentence whose initial element is a verb is known as a verbal sentence. A sentence beginning with a noun is called a nominal sentence. There are grammatical consequences for the choice of placing the verb or the performer of action at the head of the sentence. Examples of verbal and nominal sentences follow: وَصَلَ الصَّديقُ أَمْسِ. The friend (M) arrived yesterday. الصَّديقَةُ وَصَلَت أَمْسِ. The friend (F) arrived yesterday. 1.1 THE PERFORMER OF ACTION فاعِل All verbs have a فاعِل, the performer of action. This element could be expressed as a noun, or nouns, or as a pronoun, explicit or implied. An expressed noun functioning as a performer is always in the nominative case; it can be definite or indefinite. Definite singular nouns must end with a Dhamma in the writing system of formal Arabic, pronounced -u ; indefinite singular nouns end with two Dhamma s in orthography, pronounced -un. Dual definite and indefinite nouns such as فاعِل must have انِ - at their ends; regular masculine plural nouns have ونَ -; irregular plural nouns, like singular nouns, have either a Dhamma or two, depending on their determination (whether they are definite or indefinite). Finally, regular feminine plural nouns must have ات - with either a Dhamma or two, depending on their determination. 1.2 VERB TENSES Verbs can convey a sense of time frame: past, present, or future; whether the action happened in the past or was a single occurrence, or if one action happened before or after another, whether it happens regularly and habitually, or is happening at the present time, or whether it will happen at some future time. These time references of events expressed by verbs are called tenses...
