Askjagden's Guide to English Grammar: Verb Forms
What is a verb? A verb is a word that either expresses an action or a state of being. In order to be a complete sentence, a sentence must include a verb. A verb describes what the subject of the sentence does.
Verbs have four different forms, known as principal parts. First, there is the present form, which, pertaining to its name, refers to what is happening now. The present form is also called the base form. It is the common form of the verb. The second part is called the present participle. In the same format as a gerund, a present participle is the base form with "-ing" attached to it. Take the word "sleep." The present of the word is "sleep." The present participle of the word is "sleeping." In order to show that the word is a verb and not a verbal, you must add a helping verb before the verb. These include "is," "was," "were," "has," "have," etc. For example, take the word "leave." Look at how it's used in the sentence: The man is leaving the house. The verb is "leaving," which is in its present participle form. Notice it has the word "is" before it. Next is the past form. This form is used when you are referring to something that happened before. For most verbs, all you have to do in order to form the past form is to add "-ed" to the verbs. These verbs are called regular verbs. Now, if the past form of a verb does not include adding "-ed" to it, then the verb is called an irregular verb. Take the irregular verb "sit." Its past form is not "sitted," but "sat." It's the same case with the word "bring." Its past form is "brought," not "bringed." Finally, the last principal part is the past participle. The past participle is the past form with a helping verb, like the present participle. These helping verbs include "had," "have," "has," etc. Take the word "converse." Look at how it's used in this sentence: They have occasionally conversed about politics.
Verbs often change form due to tense. Tense is the time of what happened that is expressed by the verb. For verbs, there are six tenses: present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect. The present tense expresses an action that is continuous or habitual, or something that is happening only right now. Look at this sentence: My grandfather always sends me to go fetch his teeth. See the verb "sends"? It is in the present tense. This is an action that happens continually or habitually. Orchestra is better than band. The verb "is" is in the present tense. That sentence expresses a general "truth" that expresses a continual action. (Except in this case, this is an opinionated statement.) The past tense expresses an action that ended already. For example: Billie ate a sandwich at Subway. The word "ate" is in the past tense because it happened before, and is not happening now or in the future. Next is the future tense, which expresses an action that will happen. A helping verb of "shall" or "will" and a base form composes the future tense verb. I shall leave by dusk tonight. "Shall leave" is the verb in this sentence, and it is in future tense.
Those were the present, past, and future tenses. Next is the present perfect tense. The tense expresses an action that happened at an unspecified time ago. Hence, you cannot use words that define time in a sentence. For example, words like "yesterday," "an hour ago," and "last year" are words/phrases that cannot be in the same sentence as a present perfect verb. These verbs are usually composed of a helping verb of has or have plus a past participle. Here's an example: Sophie has caught a cold. The verb "has caught" is in present perfect tense. There is also the past perfect tense. This tense expresses an action that happened in the past started and ended before another action. These verbs start with "had". They end with a past participle. Take a look at this sentence: Before I was president of the National Honor Society, Jeffrey had held the position for three years. The verb "had held" is in past perfect tense. You may notice the verb "was" in the sentence. However, "was" is not in the past perfect tense. The verb "was" is in the past tense. This is because "was" does not indicate an action that happened before another action. "Had held" indicates that Jeffrey held the office before I did. The last tense is the future perfect tense, which expresses an action that will begin and end before another action. It is composed of will have or shall have plus a past participle. For example: By the time Mom arrives, I will have cleaned this mess up. "Will have cleaned" is the verb in future perfect tense here.
Each of the tenses has a progressive form. These forms express an action that goes on (hence the name). The present progressive form includes a helping verb of "am," "is," or "are" plus a present participle. The past progresive is "was" or "were" plus a present participle. The future progressive is composed of "will be" or "shall be" plus a present participle. The present perfect progressive is composed of "has been" or "have been" plus a present participle. The past perfect progressive is compsoed of "had been" plus a present participle. The future perfect progressive is composed of "will have been" or "shall have been" plus a present participle. The present and past tenses also have forms called emphatic forms. "Emphasis" is stressing of something. These forms place emphasis on the cerbs. The emphatic forms of verbs start with "does", "do", or "did" plus a present participle.
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