Verb And Adverb

VERB

WHAT IS A VERB?

A verb is one of the main parts of a sentence or question in English. In fact, you can’t have a sentence or a question without a verb! That’s how important these “action” parts of speech are. The verb signals an action, an occurrence, or a state of being. Whether mental, physical, or mechanical, verbs always express activity.

TYPE OF VERB

How many types of verbs are there? In addition to the main categories of physical verbs, mental verbs, and state of being verbs, there are several other types of verbs. In fact, there are more than ten different types of verbs that are grouped by function.

Action Verbs

Action verbs express specific actions, and are used any time you want to show action or discuss someone doing something.

Transitive Verbs

Transitive verbs are action verbs that always express doable activities. These verbs always have direct objects, meaning someone or something receives the action of the verb.

Intransitive Verbs

Intransitive verbs are action verbs that always express doable activities. No direct object follows an intransitive verb.

Auxiliary Verbs

Auxiliary verbs are also known as helping verbs, and are used together with a main verb to show the verb’s tense or to form a question or negative.

Stative Verbs

Stative verbs can be recognized because they express a state rather than an action. They typically relate to thoughts, emotions, relationships, senses, states of being, and measurements.

Modal Verbs

Modal verbs are auxiliary verbs that are used to express abilities, possibilities, permissions, and obligations.

Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs aren’t single words; instead, they are combinations of words that are used together to take on a different meaning to that of the original verb.

Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs are those that don’t take on the regular spelling patterns of past simple and past participle verbs.

ADVERBS

WHAT IS AN ADVERB?

An adverb is a word that is used to change or qualify the meaning of an adjective, a verb, a clause, another adverb, or any other type of word or phrase with the exception of determiners and adjectives that directly modify nouns.

Traditionally considered to be a single part of speech, adverbs perform a wide variety of functions, which makes it difficult to treat them as a single, unified category. Adverbs normally carry out these functions by answering questions such as:

- When? She always arrives early.

- How? He drives carefully.

- Where? They go everywhere together.

- In what way? She eats slowly.

- To what extent? It is terribly hot.

This is called adverbial function and may be accomplished by adverbial clauses and adverbial phrases as well as by adverbs that stand alone.

There are many rules for using adverbs, and these rules often depend upon which type of adverb you are using. Remember these basics, and using adverbs to make sentences more meaningful will be easier for you. Adverbs can always be used to modify verbs. Notice that the second of these two sentences is much more interesting simply because it contains an adverb:

- The dog ran. (You can picture a dog running, but you don’t really know much more about the scene.)

- The dog ran excitedly. (You can picture a dog running, wagging its tail, panting happily, and looking glad to see its owner. You can paint a much more interesting picture in your head when you know how or why the dog is running.)

Adverbs are often formed by adding the letters “-ly” to adjectives. This makes is very easy to identify adverbs in sentences. There are many exceptions to this rule; everywhere, nowhere, and upstairs are a few examples.

An adverb can be used to modify an adjective and intensify the meaning it conveys. For example:

- He plays tennis well. (He knows how to play tennis and sometimes he wins.)

- He plays tennis extremely well. (He knows how to play tennis so well that he wins often.)

As you read the following adverb examples, you’ll notice how these useful words modify other words and phrases by providing information about the place, time, manner, certainty, frequency, or other circumstances of activity denoted by the verbs or verb phrases in the sentences.

EXAMPLES OF ADVERB

As you read each of the following adverb examples, note that the adverbs have been italicized for easy identification. Consider how replacing the existing adverbs with different ones would change the meaning of each sentence.

- She was walking rapidly.

- The kids love playing together in the sandbox.

- Please come inside now.

- His jokes are always very funny.

- You don’t really care, do you?