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Introduction

As stated in lesson one, this content is designed to help steemians who in one way or the other have challenges in grammar, effective use of English and communication skills, spellings and vocabularies. Reading this with undivided attention will be of great benefit to us all.
It will help us improve our writing and communication skills as bloggers.

VERBS

Verbs are obligatory element in the English sentences. They are simply word class that denotes action or state of being. This is the only element which belongs to both the open and closed items. That is to say that the verb plays the role of lexical as well as structural in a sentence. The verb can be FINITE and NON-FINITE

TYPES OF VERBS

LEXICAL VERBS: They are also called main verbs. They are those verbs that have meanings as individual words. The words under this category have their definitions entrenched in our dictionaries.
Example. I will return after sunset.

There are two verbs in the above sentence, will and return but the verb that gives meaning to the sentence is return not will. Thus, return is a lexical verb in that sentence. Will is a structural item whereas return is the lexical item in that sentence.

TRANSITIVE VERBS: Transitive verbs are those whose actions are passed on to the object in sentence.

e.g
☆ The man ate the food
☆ Students obey their lecturers
☆ She loves her dress
☆ Stephen hits the boy.

INTRANSITIVE VERBS: Here the actions of the verbs remain with
them in a sentence, that is to say it has no object.

• Ann sings
• Alloy drives
• The man sneezed

The finite verbs can further be discussed under stative, action, causative.

STATIC VERBS: They include such word as see, own, love, hear, know, hate, etc. Static verbs have rules guiding them. Such rules include:

(a) They are not used to introduce activity

(b) They must not be used in the imperative

(c) They are not used in the progressive aspect

Consider the following usages:

Wrong Usage	Correct Usage
I am seeing you	I can see you
He is loving you	He loves you
Are you hearing me?	Can you hear me?
I am understanding you	I understand you

ACTION VERBS: They include such verbs as work, watch, listen, look, dance and any other verb which is not stative. Most of them can be used
the progressive as well as in imperative sentences
Eg

☆ We are watching them
☆ Listen to me very carefully.
☆ Look at me
☆ I am listening to you

CAUSATIVE VERBS: They are those that shows that the subject of sentence causes an action to be performed or causes a certain agent in the sentence to perform an action
E.g.
The music stopped
I convinced him to go
I made him surrender

AUXILIARY VERBS: The auxiliary verbs are sometimes called helping verbs because they go with the main verbs in the sentence to show grammatical functions.

They are two types of auxiliary verbs

(1) Primary auxiliary do, have, has, had, be, am, is, was, are, being, been.

(2) Modal auxiliary can, could, shall, will, need, dare, etc.

*Consider the following sentences and make some distinctions:

☆ Diamond is a precious ornament

☆ She is traveling tomorrow

☆ The woman has a degree in English

☆ The president has retired

☆ We shall see tomorrow

☆ I shall go there tomorrow

INFINITIVE VERBS: These are verbs which begin with the "to" infinitive. They are divided into FULL and BARE infinitive. The bare infinitive does not operate with to.
Note the following examples

Full Infinitive to go, to eat, to walk, to do, to etc

Bare Infinitive dare, hear, help, watch, see, make.

Can you identify full or bare infinitive in the following:

☆ I would love to see her

☆ She heard him quite well

☆ They are going to walk home

☆ I shall make him pay the bill

☆ She wants to travel

☆ I shall help her do it

GERUND: Gerund ends in ing. They are sometimes called verbal noun because they are often used as nouns. They can occupy the positions of the noun of noun equivalent in sentences e.g.

☆ Exercising is good for the body
☆ Dancing is her hobby
☆ Modeling is a virtue these days
☆ Seeing is believing

IRREGULAR VERBS: These verbs have no consistent pattern regarding its past and past participle forms.

VERB AND TENSES: When we talk about tenses in grammar, we are referring to the different forms verbs take to enable us know different times of an action; whether (past tense) or present tense. It is important to note that English has only two tenses past and present. Some students and teachers take verb forms and aspect for tenses, this is wrong. The verb forms and aspect will be discussed later.

present tense	past tense
I eat always	I ate always
He eats always	He ate always
He kicks the ball	He kicked the ball
I write everyday	He wrote always

It should be noted that the past tense simply take "ed" while the present tense takes 's' or remain unchanged from the base depending on the persons (ie. 1 person, 2" person or 3" person pronoun).

VERB FORM AND ASPECT

Verb form is a grammatical term that describes all the changes a verb undergoes in various contexts to show tenses, time and the state of action. All verbs have present forms, past and continuous form. Aspect specifically refer to the state of the action shown in the verb whether the action is completed, going or has just been completed. Note the following:

1. They learn everyday (Simple present form)
2. They are learning everyday (Present continuous form)
3. They have just eaten (Present perfect form)
4. They told him lies (Simple past form)
5. They were eating (Past continuous form)
6. They had gone before he arrived (Past perfect aspect).

EXPRESSING FUTURE TIME/ACTION

The auxiliary verbs shall and will are used variously to express future event or action as well as strong promise or determination. These are shown in the following examples:

(a) To show the future
Shall is used with the first person singular and plural to show futurity in the sentence. E.g.

We shall go there next week
I shall be there on Tuesday
On the other hand, will is used with the second and third persons to express futurity. E.g.
You will be there on Tuesday
He will travel to Ukraine tomorrow

The modals should and would are the past forms of shall and will. They are usually used to indicate past especially in reported or indirect speech.

(b) To express a strong promise or determination.

When what is meant is to express a strong promise or determination will is used in the first person singular and plural, and shall in the other two persons. Eg

• I/We will (first person)

• You shall (second person)

• He She They It shall (third person)

MOOD IN THE VERB

The mood of the verb indicates the contrast signaled by certain forms of verbs. It shows more exactly the mood of the speaker. Under this category, we can identify three modes.

1. Indicative Mood:
This is generally unmarked and is the commonest because it is used to state a fact or to ask a question which answer to a factual answer. E.g.

• Jesus Christ is Lord
• Is Jesus Christ Lord?

2. Imperative Mood:
It is used to give orders and commands and is often marked. It is also used to relate to strong request, or polite request. E.g.

• Go away
• Calm down
• Hold your peace
• Be quiet!

3. The Subjunctive Mood:
The subjective mood is the mood used for imagined situation, doubt, wish, condition, imagination, etc.

• I wish I could see you next week
• If I were you, I would attend the party.
• It is high time we went home now.
• I'd rather you wrote the note tomorrow.
• I wish I had seen you yesterday
• It is time we went.

THE VERB AND VOICE

The English verb recognizes two contrast: active and passive voice.

• The soldier slapped the cyclist (active)
• The cyclist was slapped by the soldier (passive)
• Regina wrote the letter (Active)
• The letter was written by Regina (Passive)

From the four examples above, we can notice the transformation that goes on in the sentence. The subject and object position changes position and the verb moves to the past participle and also take an auxiliary.

Conclusion

That is the end of the lesson presented in this contest. I believe you have learned something in this lesson. Please drop your questions and suggestions at the comment section. I am inviting @manuelhooks, @eliany and @goodybest to take part in this contest. I will be glad to hear from you and don't forget to read lesson 1 below.

Effective Communication and Language Skills: Lesson 1 (Word Class)