First You Write a Sentence.: The Elements of Reading, Writing … and Life.

by Joe Moran

Nouns and verbs are the two poles of the sentence. Nouns keep it still; verbs make it move. But nouns and verbs also live on a continuum. At one end, the nouniest nouns are the nominalizations, the names for abstract, inert things. At the other end, the verbiest verbs are finite and transitive, showing animated subjects acting on the world. In the middle, the nouny verbs mix with the verby nouns. To be is nouny because it says that something is equal to or has the quality of something else. To have is almost as nouny – its literal meaning, ‘to hold’, having long been submerged by its abstract meanings, such as ‘to relate to’ or ‘to own as a trait’. Linking verbs are nouny when they form phrases ending in nouns, like remain a mystery or make a decision. Gerunds are nouny – actual nouns, in fact, albeit ones with verbs buried inside them. Participles are verby because beneath the adjective burns the verbal heat of an action. Infinitives are nouny when they form the subject: To cry is to know that you are alive. But they are verby when they form the predicate: I started to cry. The bare infinitive (without the to) adds a one-word boost of verbiness, often at the sentence’s end. You did nothing but cry. You’d better leave. I will return. You needn’t bother.