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Verbs

Verbs are one of the four major word classes, along with nouns, adjectives and adverbs. A verb refers to an action, event or state.

These are verbs:

actionseventsstates
godiebe
singhappenhave
takerainknow

She always sings at parties.

It rained yesterday.

I only know his first name. I don’t know his surname.

Using verbs​

Some verbs can change their meaning or function depending on how they are used and what they combine with. Some verbs, such as get, make and take have many different meanings. Others, such as be, do or have can be used as main verbs or auxiliary verbs. (Read more on common verbs.)

Verb forms​

Main verbs in English have five different forms:

  • the base form, also known as the infinitive, e.g. work, take;
  • the past form, e.g. worked, took;
  • the past participle or -ed form, e.g. worked, taken (in regular verbs this takes the same form as the past, but in irregular verbs it can be different, e.g. took, taken.);
  • the -ing form, e.g. working, taking;
  • the third person singular present simple , or -s form, e.g. works, takes

(Read more on verb forms.)