Verb Classification
We divide verbs into two broad classifications:
1. Helping Verbs
Imagine that a stranger walks into your room and says:
- I can.
- People must.
- The Earth will.
Do you understand anything? Has this person communicated anything
to you? Probably not! That's because these verbs are helping verbs and
have no meaning on their own. They are necessary for the grammatical structure
of the sentence, but they do not tell us very much alone. We usually use
helping verbs with main verbs. They "help" the main verb. (The sentences in the
above examples are therefore incomplete. They need at least a main verb to
complete them.) There are only about 15 helping verbs.
2. Main Verbs
Now imagine that the same stranger walks into your room and
says:
- I teach.
- People eat.
- The Earth rotates.
Do you understand anything? Has this person communicated something
to you? Probably yes! Not a lot, but something. That's because these verbs are
main verbs and have meaning on their own. They tell us something. Of
course, there are thousands of main verbs.
In the following table we see example sentences with helping verbs
and main verbs. Notice that all of these sentences have a main verb. Only some
of them have a helping verb.
| |
helping verb |
|
main verb |
|
| John |
|
|
likes |
coffee. |
| You |
|
|
lied |
to me. |
| They |
|
|
are |
happy. |
| The children |
are |
|
playing. |
|
| We |
must |
|
go |
now. |
| I |
do |
not |
want |
any. |
Helping verbs and main verbs can be further sub-divided, as we
shall see on the following pages.
Helping Verbs
>> |
