1. What a Verb Is, and What Verbs Aren’t. English Grammar Lesson
Monday, March 15th, 2010 at
10:31 am
Yossarian the Grammarian explains why you should think of a verb as something with a subject, rather than as an “action word”. English grammar, English Language.
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In the sentence in question, “contested” and “thinking” are both participles functioning as adjectives (as is “functioning” in this sentence). My video on participles might clear this up.
It’s interesting. I’ve watched all of your lessons and this is the only one which I struggle with. It may come from the fact that I’ve studied Japanese for many years an in cases such as this ‘thinking’ would have been identified as a verb.
I still face huge challenges when trying to identify grammatical elements in English sentences. If only they’d taught us this stuff in school! Then again, I never would have listened.
thank you so much you real are a great teacher you tough me something that confused me for a long time
wat is a verb?
if you’ve just started learning english how the hell do you understand what this guy is saying
Are we talking here about verbs in general or about predicates? I’m not sure if these are the same concepts.Like in the sentence ‘He wants me to go’. Here there are two verbs but one predicate, am I right? The lesson is a lit bit confusing to me.
This lesson is about verbs, not about predicates. “He wants me to go” contains one verb: “wants.” A verb is something with a subject (as in “he wants”). “To go” is an infinitive; it cannot have a subject and so is not a verb. (One cannot say, “He to want.”) Infinitives (like “to go”), participles (like “going” and “gone”), and gerunds (like “going”) are called verbals. Gerunds and infinitives can never have verb as their part of speech, and participles can be verbs or adjectives.
Are we talking about parts of speech or parts of sentences?
Every sentence has at least one verb, and the part of speech of that verb is always verb. So in the case of verbs, there is no difference between part of speech and part of sentence. “Subject” is part of a sentence, but “subject” is not a part of speech. A verb is part of a sentence, and “verb” is always its part of speech. So when you have identified something as a verb, you have identified both what part of the sentence it is and its part of speech.
i have learned alot about the grammar from your videos. i wish to see more of new videos on english grammar. Thanks for the great lessions.
would it be sense to?
Hi
I really appreciate the time and effort you have put into this video course, I have watched them all many times.
Could you explain to me please why it is incorrect to say “I better get a move on ” I know it should be “I had better get a move on ”
Many thanks
In “I had better go,” “go” in actually not a verb, but an infinitive with the “to” dropped off, just as it is in “He made me go.” (The “to” reappears in “He forced me to go”). “I had better go” is like the more formal sounding “I had rather hear your voice than any other,” in which “hear,” too, is an infinitive with the “to” left out. As to WHY the “to” is left out of “you’d better go” or “he made me go,” but not left out of “he forced me to go,” there’s really no answer.
A bit more on this. “I had better go” is not a simple statement of fact. (“I get headaches” is a simple statement of fact.) “I’d better go” is a conditional statement meaning, “It would be better for me to go than to stay.” That’s why it’s not weird to say, “I’d better go,” and then to stay put. However, it would be weird to say, “I am now in the act of leaving,” and not to move. That’s because “I’d better go” isn’t actually a statement of fact, whereas “I am now leaving” is.
Many thanks for your reply, if I understand you correctly then in the sentence “I had better get a move on” the only verb is “had”. “Get” is a part of the infinitive “to get” and so the sentence “I better get a move on” is incorrect because it does not contain a finite verb.
I am very grateful to you for your time and patience.
Happy Christmas to you and yours.
You’ve expressed the point in precisely the right way, it seems to me. Thanks for tuning in, and Merry Christmas to you!
Thanks a lot
Thanks.
I LIKE IT…………………
Thank you!
I thought the shortest sentence is “STOP!” because it implies “you,” as in “you stop”
nice you posting this
this is useful
“it’s not english!”..lol
OMG.. I never knew this… Thank you for helping me out.. im kinda struggling with my english grammar…
anyway, im from the Philippines… this tutorial is a lot of help.
English, you mean.