Language Structures — Part 3: Building Blocks / 5a


 |  | 

3.5 — VERBS

Inside a clause, verbs are most commonly found in the predicate.

Apart from the TO BE + QUALIFIER pattern, verbs either signal:

  • what the subject does(1) (look at, build, walk, wash, pick up, forgive …)
  • or what state the subject is experiencing (lie down, wait, sleep, suffer, relish …).

The shape of English verbs is simple when compared to other languages. Their appearance hardly changes at all: only three suffixes can be added to them:

  • –s to mark the 3rd person singular (he / it / she walk-s),
  • –ed to mark the past form (I walk-ed, you walk-ed),
  • –ing to mark the progressive (continuous) form: walk-ing.
All other forms are obtained by placing particles before the fundamental form of the verb (before the verb root):
      to walk, shall walk, would walk, did walk …
    Correct handling of the English verb is an easy task. But the key elements to work with are surprisingly few and require an innovative approach from the part of a non-native English speaker.

    German, French, Italian, Spanish change the shape of verbs according to personal pronouns performing as subjects.

    Here is how TO WALK (in present tense) looks in those languages.

Subject English French German Italian Spanish
I walk me promène* spaziere passeggio paseo
you walk te promènes spazierest passeggi paseas
he / it / she walks se promène spaziert passeggia pasea
we walk nous promenons spazieren passeggiàmo paseamos
you walk vous promenez spaziert passeggiàte paseais
they walk se promènent spazieren passéggiano pasean
* The French forms have two pronouns because in that language the verb is reflexive.

Verbs shall be reviewed under the following headings:

    Warning — In the examples of verbal modes (especially subjunctive and conditional modes), multi-clause sentences shall be met, which are yet to be introduced.

    For our present purpose, it should be realised that — inside a (complex) multi-clause sentence — one clause is pivotal and all others depend on it. Example:

    • When I saw Charlotte I noticed her loss of weight.

        • This sentence consists of two separate clauses:

      1. I noticed her loss of weight
      2. when I saw Charlotte

        3. Each one of them has its own core:
            subjects: 1) "I", 2) "I";
            predicates: 1) noticed, 2) saw;
            objects: 1) loss of weight, 2) Charlotte

        Clause 1) is pivotal, as it conveys the main message:
            I noticed the loss of weight of somebody.
        Clause 2) is supportive of that: it clarifies who that somebody is and when the loss of weight was noticed.

The table below shows tenses associated with each verbal mode.
    Modes are introduced in the next section, and tenses in the section after that.

    Warning: Alexander's grammar does not mention "verbal modes". For more on this, read the fine print.

Modes 
Indicative
Subjunctive
Conditional
Participle
Gerund
Infinitive
Imperative
Tenses
Present
Past
Present Perfect
Past Perfect
Future
Future Perfect

Click on dots to see an example of tenses associated with each mode.

    All examples are based on verb "to walk", set at the 3rd person(2).
 |  | 
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOOTNOTES

(1) — But in passive clauses, the subject — instead of doing something — receives the effects of actions undertaken by an agent complement.
Do recall that the agent complement may be implicit, i.e. it is not shown but understood to be there:

  • The wrongly parked car has been taken away (... by somebody, by a tow truck).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine print

Standard English dictionaries carry entries for verbal modes as presented here (see for example The Collins Concise Dictionary of the English Language, Collins, London & Glasgow 1982).

Yet Alexander's grammar never mentions the word "mode", nor are such modes as "indicative", "conditional" ever discussed at all. "Subjunctive mode" is only cursorily touched on (see p. 239).

It may be that Alexander views the notion of "mode" as an unnecessary complication for learners.

In fact, English verbs are leaner than those in other languages, partly due to supportive elements such as "should", "shall", "would", "will" ... (to be discussed under the heading modals) which straddle "modes": for example, "should" may be applied to both subjunctive and conditional patterns alike.

    As a result, while in other languages one mode is distinguishable from others because their shapes differs, this is not always the case in English.

In addition, indicative mode is even more dominant in English than in other languages [the only difference vis-a-vis subjunctive is one missing "S": "He speaks" for indicative versus "... that he speak" for subjunctive]. Hence there is no point in singling out the "indicative mode" when 90% of verbs encountered are set in that mode.

Thus, Alexander might have taken it for granted, without even introducing it. And what are called verb tenses in his grammar (Chapter 9) are really the tenses of the indicative mode.

More precisely, he states that verbs vary according to "tenses" (past, present, future) and that basic (simple) tenses are shadowed by progressive tenses. The listing given in Chapter 9 is:

  • simple present alongside progressive present
  • simple present alongside present progressive
  • simple past alongside past progressive
  • simple present perfect alongside present perfect progressive

    • and so forth with remaining tenses: past perfect, future, future perfect.
Imperative, infinitive, participle, and gerund are mentioned, because their forms are distinguishable from the indicative ones.

Subjunctive is also mentioned to account for those rare utterances of the kind:

  • "They expect that he behave"
      [a subjunctive form]
Alternative forms which may replace subjunctive are duly shown, for example:
  • "They expect that he should behave"
      [a modal form]
Conditional mode is not named as such in Alexander's, as English conditional is formed by adding the "would"/"should" modals to the verb, not by changing the verb itself. Still, conditional patterns (IF ... THEN ...) are analysed from p. 273 onward.

The problem with his approach is that learners of English as a second language might struggle to reconcile it with how verbs are introduced in their native language. This is why a more formal approach is being followed here.

Back

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2) — By "verbal persons" we mean the subjects governing verb forms, as represented by personal pronouns:

Using "to walk" as an example, we have three levels of singular persons, i.e.

  1. I,
  2. you [singular "you", former "thou"],
  3. he (or also it, she)
Then there are three levels of plural persons, i.e.
  1. we,
  2. you [plural "you", implied when addressing more than one person],
  3. they
For example, "to float" set at the 3rd person singular ("he" / "it" / "she"), present tense, indicative mode, is:
floats

because we say "he floats" (or "it floats", "she floats")

and "to float" set at the 1st person plural ("we"), past tense, conditional mode, is:

would (or should) have floated