Disclaimer!
This is a free trial of our service, if you wish to buy our course, follow the Pricing and Services section for more information about our programs.
Hello and welcome to your first class! In here, you will learn all about subjects and verbs used in sentences in the English language.
To start off,
What is a verb?
What is a subject?
What do we use this for?
Do not worry! Let's take it step by step:
A verb is a word we use to describe an action, an ocurrance or state of being; For example, the verb "write" refers to the physical act of writing. Here are some examples, in their respective order: To work, to write, to look.
Continuing, a subject is the thing or person that is being refered to, for example:
In the context of the situation, the person we are talking about is the girl on the picture, Naomi.
In most cases, the subject is the first word you'll encounter in a basic sentence. The most common subjects are pronuns, but subjects aren't limited to these only:
I
You
She
He
It
We
You
They
Now that these concepts are all cleared up, we enter the most interesting part of both of these subjects: Conjugations.
When we use verbs, we use them to refer to an action, and these action may or may not use the infinite form, which is the "basic" way it is usually presented as. There are many grammatical tenses we use in daily conversations, such as: present simple, past simple and present continuous.
Present simple
Present simple is used to describe actions that are happening right now, or regularly happen (habits), facts or generalizations and instructions or directions. In this tense, the verbs are changed to their present simple conjugation. For most verbs, it is only neccesary to add "-s" at the end of the verb, such as these:
Play-plays
End- ends
Write- writes
Sing- sings
Read- reads
Look- looks
Although, there are some verbs that due to their ending form they have different conjugations. If the verb ends in a consonant+"y", then we change the "y" for an "-i" and we add "-es" as shown below:
Study- studies
Notify- notifies
Verify- verifies
Cry- cries
Try- tries
Reply- replies
For the last, when the verb ends in "-o", "-sh", "-tch","-x" or "-ss", we add the "-es" conjugation form:
Go- goes
Watch- watches
Fix- fixes
Stitch- Stitches
Wash- washes
Fuss- fusses
Past simple
Past simple is used to speak about things that ocurred in the past, or a series of events that already happened. For this tense, we add to most verbs "-ed", like this ones:
Play-played
Ask-asked
Dress-dressed
Finish-finished
Answer-answered
Look-looked
But, if the verb ends in "-e", then we only add "-d":
Investigate-investigated
Participate-participated
Use-used
Like-liked
Move-moved
Change-changed
Or if the verb ends in a consonant and "-y", the "-y" changes to "-i" and we add "-ed" right after:
Study-studied
Carry-carried
Try-tried
Apply-applied
Copy-copied
Hurry-hurried
And last but not least, if the verb ends in a single consonant and a vowel before it, then double the last letter and add "-ed", just like:
Stop-stopped
Plan-planned
Spot-spotted
Jog-jogged
Chop-chopped
Flip-flipped
Important: Not all of the verbs follow the aforementioned rules, these verbs are called irregular verbs because they do not follow any sort of conjugation rule, and you will have to learn them by memory and practise:
Run-ran
Read-read
Write-wrote
Buy-bought
Tell-told
Understand-understood
Present continuous
Present continuous is used to describe an action ocurring at this instant, frequently or that it may still happen in the future. For this, we use the verb to be depending on the subject as seen below:
Then, whatever verb you're using is conjugated with an "-ing" adittion, such as the examples above.
Excited to learn even more? Continue your journey with us in the next class! In it, you can learn how to apply this knowledge to share ideas, communicate thoughts and process information.
Comments