One of my favorite English lessons has to do with verb forms and verb tenses. This lesson is particularly special because the verb is definitely the heart of the sentence. I always tell my students that the sentence is the ideal unit to express our ideas. I often make sure that they know that sentences may be formed by at least five basic elements:
1) The subject
2) The verb
3) The object
4) The adjective
5) The adverb
Right now, we are going to focus our attention on the verb. The verb is the action that is produced or suffered by the subject. It is the essential element of the sentence -without a subject there cannot be a sentence. You may not have a subject or an object but you can’t do without a verb.
Verbs are classified in regular (verbs whose past and participle forms end in “ed”) and irregular (no criteria for past or participle forms). There are five forms in English for verbs:
1) the base form
2) the third person form
3) the past form
4) the past participle form
5) the gerund form
Verbs play a fundamental role in sentences since they help establish the tense where we want to communicate. There are 12 basic tenses in English:
If you want to see a few examples, you may want to watch the following video:
Best regards,
Mario
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