/Morphological structure. Basic forms
The verb is a part of speech which denotes an action. It has the following grammatical categories: person, number, tense,aspect, voice and mood. These categories can be expressed by means of affixes, inner flexion (change of the root vowel) and by form words.
Verbs may be transitive and intransitive.
Verbs have finite forms which can be used as the predicate of sentence and non-finite forms which cannot be used as the predicate of a sentence.
According to their morphological structure verbs are divided into:
1) simple (read, live, hide, speak),
2) derived, i. e. having affixes (magnify, inherit, originate, undo, remarry);
3) compound, i. e. consisting of two stems (daydream, brow-beat);
4) composite (phrasal), consisting of a verb and a postposition of adverbial origin (sit down, look after, give up).
The postposition often changes the meaning of the verb with which it is associated. Thus, there are composite verbs whose meaning is different from the meaning of their components: to give up ,.
The basic forms of the verb in Modern English are: the Infinitive, the Past Indefinite and Participle II: to speak spoke - spoken.
According to the way in which the Past Indefinite and Participle II are formed, verbs are divided into three groups: regular verbs, irregular verbs, and mixed verbs.
Regular verbs. They form the Past Indefinite and Participle II by adding -ed to the stem of the verb, or only -d if the stem of theverb ends in -e.
to want wanted, to open opened, to live lived
The pronunciation of -ed (-d) depends on the sound preceding it. It is pronounced:
/ / after t, d: wanted / /, landed / /;
/d/ after voiced consonants except d and after vowels: opened / /, played / /;
/t/ after voiceless consonants except t: worked / /.
The following spelling rules should be observed:
(a) Final is changed into i before the addition of -ed if it is preceded by a consonant.
to carry carried to reply replied
remains unchanged if it is preceded by a vowel.
to enjoy enjoyed
(b) If a verb ends in a consonant preceded by a short stressed vowel, the final consonant is doubled.
to stop stopped, to plan - planned
to stir stirred, to submit - submitted
Final r is doubledif it is preceded by a stressed vowel.
to occur occurred, to prefer preferred
Final r is not doubled when preceded by a diphthong.
to appear appeared
Final l is doubled if it is preceded by a short vowel, stressed or unstressed:
to compel compelled
Irregular verbs. Here belong the following groups of verbs:
(a) verbs which change their root vowel.
to sing sang - sung to meet met - met
(b) verbs which change their root vowel and add -en for Participle II.
to speak spoke - spoken to write wrote - written
(c) verbs which change their root vowel and add -d or -t.
to sell sold sold to bring brought - brought
(d)verbs which change their final -d into - t.
to send sent sent to build built built
(e) verbs which have the same form for the Infinitive, Past indefinite and Participle II.
to put put put to set set set
(f) verbs whose forms come from different stems.
to be was/were - been to go went gone
(g) special irregular verbs.
to have had had to make - made made to do did -done
(h) defective (anomalous) verbs.
can could, may might, will would
Mixed verbs. Their Past Indefinite is of the regular type, and their Participle II is of the irregular type:
to show showed shown to sow sowed sown
According to the syntactic function of verbs, which depends on the extent to which they retain, weaken or lose their meaning, they are divided into notional verbs, auxiliary verbs and link verbs.
Notional verbs are those which have a full meaning of their own and can be used without any additional words as a simple predicate. Here belong such verbs as to write, to read, to speak, to know, to ask. e.g. Ricky surrounded her with great care and luxury.
Auxiliary verbs are those which have lost their meaning and are used only as form words, thus having only a grammatical function. They are used in analytical forms. Here belong such verbs as to do, to have, to be, shall, will, should, would, may.
e.g. I don't recollect that he ever did anything, at least not in my time.
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Link verbs are verbs which to a smaller or greater extent have lost their meaning and are used in the compound nominal predicate.
e.g. The house was too big.The old face looked worn and hollow again.
In different contexts the same verb can be used as a notional verb and an auxiliary verb or a link verb:
e.g. ... She turned her head sullenly away from me. (notional verb)
She... turned deadly pale. (link verb)
There is a special group of verbs which cannot be used without additional words, though they have a meaning of their own. These are modal verbs such as can, may, must, ought, etc
The same verb in different contexts can be modal and auxiliary.
e.g. I crouched against the wall of the gallery so that I should not be seen. (auxiliary verb)
I don't honestly think Lady Crowan was exaggerating when she said something should be done in your honour. (modal verb)
