Breaking A Sweat! #Writer's Tool

All about verbs, and the most basic level of verb knowing is that a verb is a doing word and often ends in '-ing'.



First off, let's start by stripping verbs down--here they're called infinitives, they normally follow after 'to -' EX. 'to be', 'to go', 'to feel', 'to think' etc.



Splitting infinitives is just placing a word between 'to' and the verb. Some people think it's okay and some people will chastise you. At the end of the day, it's your writing and you might be doing it for stylistic effect. A very famous example of a split infinitive is from Star Trek - 'to boldly go...' however going back to my previous post on Adverbs (Finicky Adverbs) where I address how to pack a tight punch with using them correctly.



Some other verb terms you might need to know if ever asked to point them out say for an analytical piece in an exam or critique--it's always nice to be in the know.



Main Verb--this guy here identifies the action of the sentence.

EX. 'He GAVE me a chocolate bar.' or 'She VISITS me daily.'

And also know that the most common sentence is SVO: Subject Verb Object--more on that in another blog post.



Auxiliary Verbs

These verbs go before the main verb in a sentence, giving extra information.



Primary Auxiliaries: There are three of these--do, have, and be.



Model Auxiliaries: These can only occur when in reference to a main verb and there are nine of these--can, could, will, would, must, may, might, shall, and should.



Conjugating Your Verb

Conjugate: "Give the different forms of (a verb in an inflected language) as they vary according to voice, mood, tense, number, and person."



I remember having to do this in French lessons--copying down all the French verbs and changing their tenses. It's just like that for the English language, except a little less complex considering it isn't foreign.



You always start with the infinitive. EX. to write

Then you can work out the past, present and future tenses of this word.

You get these five forms: write, writes, written, writing, and wrote.

(past, present, future, past participle)



Often used with an auxiliary verb, EX. I am writing a book (am is the first person singular present form of to be and writing the present of to write)



It's All About the Voice



Verbs are said to be of either voice, ACTIVE or PASSIVE.



Active EX. "Jeff mailed the parcel."

Jeff (subject) is doing the mailing (verb).



Passive EX. "The parcel was mailed by Jeff"

The parcel (subject) was being mailed (verb).



If you spot passive voice and can change it then do so because it will strengthen your syntax and gives it more of a kick.



I hope this blog post was educational!



~Joseph Eastwood



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Published on July 28, 2011 07:38
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