Common verbs

📄️ Appear

Appear: how something looks

📄️ Arrive

We use the verb arrive with at or in to talk about ‘coming to’, ‘getting to’ or ‘reaching’ a place where a journey ends. If we see the destination as a point, we say arrive at. If we see it as a larger area, we say arrive in:

📄️ Ask and ask for

Ask

📄️ Come

Come describing movement

📄️ Do

Do: forms

📄️ Enable

When you enable something, you make it possible for something to happen:

📄️ Enjoy

The regular verb enjoy means ‘get pleasure from something’. It usually has an object:

📄️ Explain

We use the verb explain to mean ‘make something clear or easy to understand, by describing or giving information about it’.

📄️ Get

Get is an irregular verb. Its three parts are get, got, got. In American English, the -ed form gotten is common.

📄️ Go

We use go to refer to movement, most commonly away from the speaker or listener to another place. We normally use go without an object:

📄️ Happen

Happen means ‘occur’ and most commonly ‘occur by chance’:

📄️ Hate, like, love and prefer

We can use hate, like, love and prefer with an -ing form or with a to\-infinitive:

📄️ Have

Have: forms

📄️ Have got and have

Have got and have mean the same. Have got is more informal. We use have (got) here to refer to both verbs:

📄️ Have got to and have to

Have got to and have to mean the same. Have got to is more informal. We use have (got) to here to refer to both verbs.

📄️ Hope

Hope is a verb and a noun.

📄️ Know

We commonly use the verb know with a noun phrase, with a that\-clause or with a wh-clause (e.g. who, where, why):

📄️ Let, let’s

Let: permission

📄️ Like

Like has a number of meanings and uses.

📄️ Look

We use the verb look to mean ‘turn our eyes in a particular direction to see something’. It is followed by at to refer to the person or thing which we see:

📄️ Made from, made of, made out of, made with

Made from

📄️ Make

The verb make can be used in a number of ways.

📄️ Marry and divorce

We usually use marry and divorce with an object:

📄️ Matter

We can use matter as a verb or a noun. It is a very common word with a number of different uses and grammatical patterns.

📄️ Mean

Understanding

📄️ Mind

📄️ Miss

We use miss as a verb to mean ‘not hit or reach something’:

📄️ Need

Need is a semi-modal verb because in some ways it is like a modal verb and in other ways like a main verb.

📄️ Own

Own is a determiner and a pronoun.

📄️ Prefer

Expressing preference

📄️ Put

The irregular verb put means ‘move something into a particular place’. The past simple form is put and the \-ed form is put:

📄️ See

We use the verb see to talk about using our eyes to be aware of what is around us:

📄️ Seem

Seem means ‘appear in a particular way’. We can use it as a linking verb (like be) or with a to\-infinitive. We do not normally use seem in the continuous form:

📄️ Suggest

We can use the verb suggest with a noun phrase, a that\-clause, the -ing form of a verb or a wh\-question word (where, what).

📄️ Take

Take means ‘move with something or someone from where the speaker or listener is to a different place’:

📄️ Think

Think meaning ‘have an opinion’

📄️ Want

We use the verb want to talk about wishes and needs, and to give advice:

📄️ Wish

Wish \+ to\-infinitive