Forms of Main Verbs
| EnglishClub.com Tip |
| Main verbs are also called
"lexical verbs". |
English main verbs—except the verb "to be"—have only 4,
5 or 6 forms. "To be" has 9 forms.
| |
|
V1 |
V2 |
V3 |
|
|
| |
infinitive |
base |
past simple |
past participle |
present participle |
present simple, 3rd person singular |
| regular |
(to) work |
work |
worked |
worked |
working |
works |
| irregular |
(to) sing
(to) make
(to) cut |
sing
make
cut |
sang
made
cut |
sung
made
cut |
singing
making
cutting |
sings
makes
cuts |
(to) do*
(to) have* |
do
have |
did
had |
done
had |
doing
having |
does
has |
| infinitive |
base |
past simple |
past participle |
present participle |
present simple |
| (to) be* |
be |
was, were |
been |
being |
am, are, is |
In the above examples:
- to cut has 4 forms: to cut, cut, cutting,
cuts
- to work has 5 forms: to work, work, worked,
working, works
- to sing has 6 forms: to sing, sing, sang, sung,
singing, sings
- to be has 9 forms: to be, be, was, were, been,
being, am, is, are
Note that the infinitive can be with or without to. For
example, to sing and sing are both infinitives. We often call the
infinitive without to the "bare infinitive".
| EnglishClub.com Tip |
| The verb to be is
always an exception, in many ways! |
At school, students usually learn by heart the base,
past simple and past participle (sometimes called V1, V2, V3,
meaning Verb 1, Verb 2, Verb 3) for the irregular verbs. They may spend many
hours chanting: sing, sang, sung; go, went, gone; have, had, had; etc. They do
not learn these for the regular verbs because the past simple and past
participle are always the same: they are formed by adding "-ed" to the base.
They do not learn the past participle and 3rd person singular present
simple by heart—for another very simple reason: they never change. The
present participle is always made by adding "-ing" to the base, and the 3rd
person singular present simple is always made by adding "s" to the base (though
there are some variations in spelling).
* Note that "do", "have" and "be" also function as
helping or auxiliary verbs, with
exactly the same forms (except that as helping verbs they are never in
infinitive form).
Example sentences with main
verbs in different forms >> |
