Types of verb

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Use this template to learn the different types of verb and give examples for each of them to understand in which situations you can use them.

What is a verb?

A verb is a word that expresses an action, that tells you what’s happening in a sentence. They are the main part of speech in a sentence, along with nouns, and show actions made by nouns.

You should always link the subject of a sentence to a verb.

Examples of verbs: run, sing, write, dance, work, walk, stay.

Different types of verb

Depending on the form of the verb and its use, there are several types of verbs. Some of them are transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, participle verbs, conditional verbs, infinitive verbs, auxiliary verbs, modal verbs.

Transitive and intransitive verbs

To determine if a verb is transitive or intransitive, you should take into account the following things:

• A verb is transitive if there is a noun receiving the action
• A verb is intransitive if there is no direct object to receive the action and if it does not make sense without a direct object.

Participle verbs

Participle verbs can be used as an adjective and are combined with the verb to construct different verbs at past or present tenses.

Conditional verbs

As you can see in the template, there are four types of conditionals: Simple, Continuous, Perfect, and Perfect Continuous.

Auxiliary verbs like can/could, will/would, may/might help at the formation of conditional tenses.

Infinitive verbs

Infinitive verbs are the base forms of the verbs, usually used with the particle ‘to’.

Auxiliary verbs

Auxiliary verbs add meaning to the clause in which they occur, to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a participle.

Some examples of auxiliary verbs are: have, be, must, do, can, will, shall.

Modal verbs

Some examples of modal verbs are: can, could, must, should, had better, had to and sometimes need or dare.

The voice of a verb

The voice describes whether a verb is active or passive. In other words, when the subject of the verb is doing the action of the verb or the verb is said to be in the active voice.

The mood of a verb

Verb moods indicate the attitude of the speaker. There are three types of moods: declarative, interrogative and imperative.

After going through this template and practical learning by thinking about examples, it will be easier for you to differentiate between different types of verbs.

Verb Types

As the main word in a sentence, the verb will generally describe an occurrence or an action.

Conditional

Conditional verbs are used to create conditional sentences, which express hypothetical or unlikely situations. Conditional verbs can be used in the past, present, or future tense, and auxiliary verbs like can/could, will/would, and may/might are important in forming conditionals

Perfect continuous

Perfect

Continuous

Simple

Infinitive

An infinitive verb is essentially the base form of a verb with the word 'to' in front of it. When you use an infinitive verb, the 'to' is a part of the verb. It is not acting as a preposition in this case.

To+Verb

Negative

The negative verb forms are made by putting not after an auxiliary verb.

Tells us what does NOT happen

Auxiliary

Auxiliary verbs are verbs such as have, be, may, do, shall, will, can, or must that are used with another verb to show the verb's tense, to form a question, etc.

Helps main verb in clause

Modal

A modal verb is a type of verb that is used to indicate modality. Commonly used modal verbs are can, could, must, should, had better, have to and sometimes need or dare.

Tells us how likely something will happen

Mood

Grammatical mood refers to the quality or form of a verb in a sentence. More specifically, mood denotes the tone of a verb in a sentence, so the intention of the writer or speaker is clear.

Imperative

Interrogative

Declarative

Voice

In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments.

Passive

Active

Participle

A participle is a form of a verb that can be used as an adjective or combined with the verb to be to construct different verb tenses.

Past

Present

Transitive

A transitive verb will only makes sense if it applies its action on an object.

Verb has Object

Intransitive

An intransitive verb has two characteristics:
1.it is an action verb, expressing a doable activity
2.it will not have a direct object receiving the action

Verb has NO Object

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