In this blog we will clear our conception on one of the part of speech i.e. VERB.

Verb is used to signify the action, processes, conditions, or states of being of people or things. It is basically a word that characteristically is the grammatical center of a predicate and expresses an act, occurrence, or mode of being, that in various languages is inflected for agreement with the subject, for tense, for voice, for mood, or for aspect, and that typically has full descriptive meaning and characterizing quality in it.

Ex. 1.  Priya cleaned the table.

Here cleaned is the verb as it shows the action performed by Priya.

      2.  Maya is an intelligent girl.

Here though no action is being performed here, the state of being is expressed through the verb is.

Kinds of verbs:

1. Finite verbs: it is the main verb of a sentence and has a direct relationship to the subject of a sentence or clauses.  In short, they are those verbs which have a direct relation with the subject or noun.

Ex. She walks home.

Here we can see the finite verb is ‘walks’ and the pronoun is ‘she’.

2. Non-finite Verb: the firm of verb which do not show tense, person or number. They cannot be the main verb of a clause or sentence. They do not indicate any tense, mood or gender.

Infinite verbs have three different forms:

• Infinite
• Gerund
• Participle

• Infinite verbs: It is also known as the base form, and is often introduced by a main verb and the word “to” before the main verb.

Ex. He likes to read.

• Gerund verbs: It is formed by adding –ing to a verb. If functions as a noun.

Ex. Smoking is injurious to health.

Note. We use ‘V + ing’ after ‘to’ with the following verbs/ adjectives/ phrases.

Ex. Verb + used to, accustomed to, averse to, with a view to, addicted to, devoted to, in addition to, object to, taken to, prone to.

Ex. I am looking forward to meeting you.

• Participle Verb: It is usually formed by adding –ing or –ed to a verb. They are verbs that act as adjectives in the sentence. Present participles end in “-ing”. Past participles usually end in “-ed”. But there are many irregular past participles that end in “-en”.

Ex. Can you help fix the leaning column of blocks?

Transitive verb: This describes an action that is happening to someone or something. This person or thing is known as the direct object of the verb.

Ex. He is holding a pen.

      : Here the action of holding is happening to a pen.

      I borrowed the book from the library.

      : here the action reading is happening to an interesting book.

Moreover, transitive verbs can also take indirect objects, which are the people or things receiving the direct object.

Intransitive Verb:  These verbs do not have objects, i.e. no one/ nothing is receiving their action.

Ex. I cannot believe that the riots broke out.

   Here there is no object receiving the action of broke out.

   The morbid scenes in the movie made me puke.

  Here there is no object receiving the action of puke.

Intransitive verbs used as Transitive:

• When an intransitive verb is used in a causative sense it becomes transitive.

Ex. The horse walks. (INTRANSITIVE)

He walks the horse. (TRANSITIVE)

• A few Verb in common use are distinguished as Transitive or Intransitive by their spelling, the Transitive being causative forms of the corresponding Intransitive verbs.

Rise early with the lark. (INTRANSITIVE)

Woodmen fell trees.       (TRANSITIVE)

• There are a few Transitive Verbs which are sometimes used as Intransitive Verbs.

Ex. He broke the glass. (TRANSITIVE)

      The glass broke.    (INTRANSITIVE)

There is another verb important part of verb that you need to keep in mind and i.e. VERB OF IMCOMPLETE PREDICTION.

Let’s have a look to examples,

• The baby sleeps.
• The baby seems happy.

The Verb in both sentences are intransitive.

But when I say ‘the baby sleeps’ I do make a complete sense.

On the other hand, if I say ‘the baby seems’ I do not make complete sense. The intransitive verb seems requires a word (e.g. happy) to make the sense complete such a verb is called as Verb of incomplete prediction.

The word happy which is required to make the sense complete is called Complement of the verb or Completion of the prediction.

Some forms of verbs as a Part of Speech:

1. Tenses: The different forms of verbs show different meanings with respect to time. Such forms are known as tenses and there are three types of tenses as we know: Present, Past, future.
2.  Auxiliary Verb: These are also called as helping verbs, and they are used to complete the meaning of other primary or “main” verbs in a sentence. The different tense forms of “be”, ‘have’ and “do” verb form the auxiliary verb.
3. Have you seen Geeta?
4. Maya is singing a song.
5. Modal Verbs: It expresses the possibility, likelihood or a future intention. These are can, could, will, should, shall, must, may and might. There are only followed by a verb in its base form.
6. May I sit down?
7. I can study the whole night.
8. Phrasal Verbs: These are the verbs which pair with prepositions to form unique meanings. Most of the meanings are idiomatic expressions.
9. Ultimately, she gave up.
10. I have been looking for my watch since an hour.
11. Causative Verbs: These are the verbs which are used to indicate that a person or thing is causing another action or an event to happen. They are usually followed by a noun or pronouns and an infinitive verb that is not causative.
12. She let her hair loose.
13. The hearing lid enabled Sona to listen clearly.

Subject Verb agreement refers to a thing where Subjects and Verbs must agree with one another in number (singular or plural) thus, if a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular. If a subject is plural, its verb must also be plural.

In present tenses, nouns and verbs form plural in opposite ways:

Nouns ADD an S to the singular form

                      But

Verbs REMOVE an S from the singular form.

Ex. She writes every day.

Here we can see that the subject is singular and similarly the verb is also singular.

They write every day.

Here we can see the subject is plural, and similarly the verb is also plural.

I think these examples have given you idea about how is subject verb agreement is done.

Now let’s have a look to some of the rules of verb which will help you all in solving questions in banking exam:

Rule No. 1: When two nouns in a sentence refers to the same thing or person, the verb that follow is singular.

Example: The dramatist and the politician, are presiding over the function.

Here ‘the dramatist’ and ‘the politician’ are the two-noun referring to the same thing (i.e. the meeting) and hence, the verb used is ‘are’.

Note that, had the sentence been as follows, the verb would have been ‘is’ as in that case, politician and dramatist would be considered as a single noun.

Rule No. 2: The verb that follows a relative pronoun, takes its number from the noun that precede the relative pronoun.

Example: This is the best decision that has been made by the council.

Here, ‘that’ is the relative pronoun so according to the rule the verb (has) will take its number from the noun (decision) that precedes ‘that’.

Rule No. 3: if the sentence ha a positive and a negative subject where one is plural and the other singular, than the verb follows the positive subject.

Example:  it’s not the teachers but the chairman who ultimately takes all the decisions. (“Chairman” is the positive subject)

Rule No. 4: when two subjects are joined with phrases such as: as well as, together with, along with, accompanied with, association with, with all, in addition to etc. then the verb agree with the primary subject.

 Example: The captain, as well as his soldiers, plays polo at the local club. (Primary subject is “captain”)

Rule. No 5: Each, every, either, everybody, neither, everyone, anybody, anyone, someone, somebody, etc. are example of indefinite pronouns. And we know that indefinite pronouns are singular and that’s why they take singular verbs.

Example:

1. Either of the boys is a member of the local church choir. (“Either” is singular in nature)

2. Each of my friends readily believes whatever I say. (“Each” is singular in nature)

Rule No. 6:  nouns such as civics, mathematics, rupees and news require singular verbs.

Example: The news is on at eight.

When talking about an amount of money. It requires a singular verb, but when referring to the rupees themselves, a plural verb is required.

Example: Five hundred rupees is a lot of money.

Rupees are often used instead or Rupiahs in Nepal.

Rule No. 7: there are certain nouns in English language which are considered as plurals. Therefore, plural verbs need to be used when these nouns appear as the subject in a sentence. Example of these nouns are spectacles, scissors, jeans, trousers, forceps, tongs etc.

Example: These spectacles need to be repaired as soon as possible (“spectacles” is a plural subject.)

Rule No. 8: In sentences that begin with “here” and “there” the subject comes after the verb; however, it still determines whether the verb used will be singular or plural.

Example: Here are my friends who also happen to be my partners in crime. (“Friends” is a plural subject)

There goes the man responsible for this crime. (“Man” is a singular subject.)

Rule No. 9: When two subjects are joined together using ‘and’ a plural verb should be used.

Example: Bread and Butter are sold at my shop. (Plural verb has been used)

John and Mary are my classmates. (Plural verb has been used)

Rule No. 10: When two subjects are joined using ‘and’ but they convey a singular meaning, then a singular verb is used.

Example: Fish and Chips is my favorite dish. (Singular verb has been used)