Grammar: Word classes: Verbs: Verb formation

Overview

How are verbs formed?

These files focus on the possible components within the verb group, ie base form and auxiliaries, as well as different forms of the verb, including participles. Here is an example which illustrates some of the different forms possible with the verb play:

The verb play can appear in a number of different forms:

The base form can occur by itself, or it may follow a modal auxiliary:

                           play      
                        base form

      will                play      
modal auxiliary        base form

When one of the main auxiliaries (be, do, have) is used it is typically followed by a participle:

     have               played  
    auxiliary             past participle

    was                 playing  
   auxiliary             present participle

The form of the verb depends on whether the verb is regular or irregular. 

Here is a summary which shows the different forms:

When dealing with language in the classroom, it is useful to be able to identify different verb forms, especially participles and auxiliaries, because these often cause problems for students.

If you would like some practice identifying verb forms, click here:

The base form is the 'basic' form of the verb. It is used in the infinitive, after auxiliary verbs, for the present simple (except for third person singular) and for the imperative.

There are two types of participles in English: the present participle (-ing) and the past participle (-ed). Participles can function as adjectives, and are used in forming certain tenses.

Auxiliary verbs are 'helping verbs'. The main auxiliary verbs (be, do, have) provide us with information about the action or event, they influence the way we interact with each other, and they allow us to organise information in different ways in the clause.

Modal auxiliary verbs (can, could, may, must, etc) are used to indicate likelihood, obligation and willingness. Some modal verbs are used when we want to be polite. The modal verb will is used to form the future tense.

Multi-word verbs such as 'phrasal verbs' are made up of two or three words which form a short phrase (bring back, hand over). Phrasal verbs can usually be replaced by a single verb with similar meaning (bring back > return, hand over > give). Sometimes the meaning can be guessed (bring back), but not always (call off = cancel) and they therefore need to be learned as a single, multi-word unit. Other multi-word verbs are 'double-verb constructions' such as started smoking/stopped smoking.

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