VERBVERB

This article is about the

part of speech. For the

physical activity program,

seeVERB (program). For

English usage of verbs,

seeEnglish verbs.

"Verbs" redirects here. For

the Christian gospel

rapper, seeVerbs (rapper)

.

Examples

I washed the car

yesterday.

The dog ate the

homework.

John studies English

and French.

A verb, from the Latin

verbum meaning word, is

aword (part of speech)

that in syntax conveys an

action (bring, read, walk,

run, learn), or a state of

being (be, exist, stand). In

the usual description of

English, the basic form,

with or without the

particle to, is the infinitive.

In many languages, verbs

are inflected (modified in

form) to encode tense,

aspect, mood and voice.

A verb may also agree

with theperson, gender,

and/or number of some

of its arguments, such as

itssubject, or object.

Agreement

Main article: Verb

conjugation

In languages where the

verb is inflected, it often

agrees with its primary

argument (the subject) in

person, number and/or

gender. With the

exception of the verb to

be, English shows

distinctive agreement only

in the third person

singular, present tense

form of verbs, which is

marked by adding "-s" (I

walk, he walks) or "-

es" (he fishes). The rest of

the persons are not

distinguished in the verb (I

walk, you walk, they

walk, etc.).

Latin and the Romance

languages inflect verbs for

tense/mood/aspect and

they agree in person and

number (but not in

gender, as for example in

Polish) with the subject.

Japanese, like many

languages with SOV word

order, inflects verbs for

tense/mood/aspect as

well as other categories

such as negation, but

shows absolutely no

agreement with the

subject - it is a strictly

dependent-marking

language. On the other

hand,Basque, Georgian,

and some other

languages, have

polypersonal agreement:

the verb agrees with the

subject, the direct object

and even the secondary

object if present, a greater

degree ofhead-marking

than is found in most

European languages.

Valency

Main article: Valency

(linguistics)

The number of

arguments that a verb

takes is called its valency

or valence. Verbs can be

classified according to

their valency:

Avalent (valency = 0):

the verb has neither a

subject nor an object.

Zero valency does not

occur in English; in

some languages such

asMandarin Chinese,

weather verbs like

snow(s) take no

subject or object.

Intransitive (valency

= 1, monovalent): the

verb only has a

subject. For example:

"he runs", "it falls".

Transitive (valency =

2, divalent): the verb

has a subject and a

direct object. For

example: "she eats

fish", "we hunt

nothing".

Ditransitive (valency =

3, trivalent): the verb

has a subject , a direct

object, and an indirect

object. For example:

"He gives her a

flower."

Weather verbs are often

impersonal (subjectless,

or avalent) in null-subject

languages like Spanish,

where the verb llueve

means "It rains". In

English, they require a

dummy pronoun, and

therefore formally have a

valency of 1.

Intransitive and transitive

verbs are the most

common, but the

impersonal and

objective verbs are

somewhat different from

the norm. In the objective

the verb takes an object

but no subject; the

nonreferent subject in

some uses may be

marked in the verb by an

incorporated dummy

pronoun similar to that

used with the English

weather verbs.

Impersonal verbs in null

subject languages take

neither subject nor object,

as is true of other verbs,

but again the verb may

show incorporated

dummy pronouns despite

the lack of subject and

object phrases.Tlingit

lacks a ditransitive, so the

indirect object is described

by a separate, extraposed

clause.[citation needed]

English verbs are often

flexible with regard to

valency. A transitive verb

can often drop its object

and become intransitive;

or an intransitive verb can

take an object and

become transitive. For

example, the verb move

has no grammatical

object in he moves

(though in this case, the

subject itself may be an

implied object, also

expressible explicitly as in

he moves himself); but in

he moves the car, the

subject and object are

distinct and the verb has a

different valency.

In many languages other

than English, such valency

changes are not possible;

the verb must instead be

inflected in order to

change the valency.

[citation needed]

Tense, aspect, and

modality

A single-word verb in

Spanish contains

information about time

(past, present, future),

person and number. The

process of grammatically

modifying a verb to

express this information is

called conjugation.

Main articles: Grammatical

tense, Aspect (linguistics),

Linguistic modality, and

Tense-aspect-mood

Depending on the

language, verbs may

express grammatical

tense, aspect, or modality.

Grammatical tense[1][2][3]

is the use of auxiliary

verbs or inflections to

convey whether the

action or state is before,

simultaneous with, or

after some reference

point. The reference point

could be thetime of

utterance, in which case

the verb expresses

absolute tense, or it could

be a past, present, or

future time of reference

previously established in

the sentence, in which

case the verb expresses

relative tense.

Aspect[2][4] expresses

how the action or state

occurs through time.

Important examples

include:

perfective aspect, in

which the action is

viewed in its

entirety though

completion (as in "I

saw the car")

imperfective

aspect, in which

the action is viewed

as ongoing; in

some languages a

verb could express

imperfective aspect

more narrowly as:

habitual aspect,

in which the

action occurs

repeatedly (as in

"I used to go

there every

day"), or

continuous

aspect

, in which the

action occurs

without pause;

continuous

aspect can be

further

subdivided into

stative

aspect, in

which the

situation is a

fixed,

unevolving

state (as in "I

know

French"), and

progressive

aspect

, in which the

situation

continuously

evolves (as in

"I am

running")

perfect, which

combines elements

of both aspect and

tense, and in which

both a prior event

and the state

resulting from it are

expressed (as in "I

have studied well")

Aspect can either be

lexical, in which case the

aspect is embedded in the

verb's meaning (as in "the

sun shines", where

"shines" is lexically stative);

or it can be grammatically

expressed, as in "I am

running".

Modality[5] expresses the

speaker's attitude toward

the action or state given

by the verb, especially

with regard to degree of

necessity, obligation, or

permission ("You must

go", "You should go",

"You may go"),

determination or

willingness ("I will do this

no matter what"), degree

of probability ("It must be

raining by now", "It may

be raining", "It might be

raining"), or ability ("I can

speak French"). All

languages can express

modality withadverbs,

but some also use verbal

forms as in the given

examples. If the verbal

expression of modality

involves the use of an

auxiliary verb, that

auxiliary is called a modal

verb. If the verbal

expression of modality

involves inflection, we

have the special case of

mood; moods include the

indicative (as in "I am

there"), the subjunctive

(as in "I wish I were

there"), and theimperative

("Be there!").

Voice

The voice[6] of a verb

expresses whether the

subject of the verb is

performing the action of

the verb or whether the

action is being performed

on the subject. The two

most common voices are

theactive voice (as in "I

saw the car") and the

passive voice (as in "The

car was seen by me" or

simply "The car was

seen").

Main article: Non-finite

verb

Most languages have a

number ofverbal nouns

that describe the action of

the verb.

In the Indo-European

languages, verbal

adjectives are generally

calledparticiples. English

has an active participle,

also called a present

participle; and apassive

participle, also called a

past participle. The active

participle of break is

breaking, and the passive

participle is broken. Other

languages haveattributive

verb forms with tense

and aspect. This is

especially common

amongverb-final

languages, where

attributive verb phrases

act asrelative clauses.