Verbs, nouns, pronouns, and gerunds are trickier than you think, the difference between verbs without tense and verbs with tense can puzzle even the most experienced teachers, writers and even editors. What if we say that now you can bravely venture into an unexplored world of grammar using the convenient guide with samples of usage and relevant examples? This topic is aimed to uncover you the most popular grammar questions that puzzle the students at classes, all of which related to right verb usage. Get ready to start, learn top 8 verb-related issues searchable via the Internet, now you know how to use them right, remember that you can always fix them with special verb checker online.
1. What’s Verb Used Without Object?
Some verbs don’t exist without an object and that’s okay because they are called transitive verbs. The others are independent, they don’t need an object to fit and the third group of verbs can be equally used with objects or without. The intransitive verbs (those that are used without an object) mostly look like the bunch of verbs listed below:
Examples:
- “Did you enjoy the movie?”
- “I can’t find my socks under the bad.”
- “Anna took my car.”
These are the sentences featuring direct objects.
Warning: Sometimes we don’t need to use prepositions after verbs:
“She clearly emphasizes the topic in the essay.” (Right)
“She clearly emphasizes on the topic in the essay.” (Wrong)
2. How to Deal with Verb Without Noun
Sometimes it is an infinitive or a second verb that follows the verb in the sentence. The verbs listed here are followed by a to-infinitive in case the infinitive is used. The marked verbs at the table can be followed by that-clause and those that are marked with double asterix are only followed by a that-clause when the subject of the main verb appears to be “it”.
Examples
- “I hope to find my socks today.”
- “I hope that I’ll see them today.”
- “He claimed to be the plumber.”
- “She claimed that he was a plumber.”
- “I managed to reach the end of the Internet.”
- “Would you care to drink?”
3. Is There a Verb Without Action?
Sure enough, officially the verbs are separated into 2 categories in English language. You might have already guessed from the name that action verbs are suggesting some kind of dynamic action whereas non-action verbs are not describing the active action in the moment of speaking.
Examples
- “You are seeming like a good person.” (Wrong)
- “You seem like a nice fellow.” (Right)
- “This is smelling like an onion.” (Wrong)
- “This smells like an onion.” (Right)
- “I’m liking his new banana costume.” (Wrong)
- “I like his new banana costume.” (Right)
There are also verbs that take both action and nonaction forms where the meaning will be decisive:
Example: To think sometimes rather means to believe or to have an opinion, in this case, it qualifies as a non-action verb.
- “I think I found my sock.”(Right)
- “I am thinking I found my sock.”(Wrong).
- “What do you think of him.?” (Right)
- “What are you thinking of him.?” (Wrong)
4. When to Use Verb Without Pronoun
A reflexive pronoun is followed or preceded by the referring noun, adverb, adjective or a pronoun with the same clause. A reflexive pronoun in the English language ends with self or -selves, referring to the previous noun or pronoun (myself, yourself, ourselves, etc.)., just the same form is taken by the intensive pronouns.
When to use a reflexive pronoun?
When the subject of the verb=object of the verb, like in the following examples:
- “I am learning myself to play the guitar.”
- “Be careful with fire. You might burn yourself.”
The reflexive pronouns can be used as direct objects and with the majority of transitive verbs, here you can find the most popular:
Some verbs, however, can change the meaning in case the reflexive pronoun comes as a direct object.
Examples:
- “Would you care to help yourself get another drink?=Would you like to take another drink.”
- “The children will behave themselves=The children will behave well.”
- “He found himself reading the new book=The fact that he started reading the new book surprised him.”
- “I saw myself as greatest scientist=I imagined myself to be a scientist.”
5. Verb Without Tense Common Words
Those verbs that are typically not used with continuous tenses called “non-continuous verbs”. Those verbs are rather depicting the state than the action, take a look at the most common non-continuous verbs:
Examples
- “I want a tee.”(Right)
- “I am wanting a tee.” (Wrong)
- “I don’t believe she is here.” (Right)
- “I am not believing she is here.” (Wrong)
- “Does that car belong to you?” (Right)
- “Is that car belonging to you?” (Wrong)
- “It seemed right.” (Right)
- “It was seeming right.” (Wrong)
- “I don’t hear the music.” (Right)
- “I am not hearing the music.” (Wrong)
6. Why We Use Verbs Infinitives
When the verb is not acting like a preposition it is infinitive and the “to” is a part of the verb, it is irreplaceable, no -ed, no -ing, no -s on is coming to the end. Infinitives never have an -ing endings. The infinitive form of a verb is the verb in its basic form, such ones are found in the dictionary.
There are common verbs that usually are followed by the infinitive:
Examples:
- “Sandy agreed to come over.”
- “She appeared to be nicer than they thought.”
- “They arranged to stay party at his house tonight.”
- “They asked to bring some wine.”
7. Verbs Tenses, Use Them Right
The verbs in the past tenses are used to show things that happened in the past. The time that is mentioned in the sentence usually includes (“earlier in the day”, “yesterday”, “last week”, “years ago”). The verbs of the present tense describe the real-time happening events or continuous courses of actions. Verbs of the future tense describe the future events, those that have not happened yet. You can get the easy understanding by looking at the grammarly online book, describing each of them via examples.
The Present Tenses
The Past Tenses
The Future Tenses
8. Gerund Verb Usage
A gerund is a verb that exists in the form of present participle and functions rather as a noun that depicts the activity, any action verb can be convertible into a gerund. When used instead of subjects gerunds appear at the beginning of the sentence.
Examples:
- “Swimming is my hobby.”
- “Frank quit drinking a year ago.”
- “I look forward to helping you with a design.”
- “Julia avoids growing vegetables on chemicals.”
There are Verbs that always Followed by Gerunds.
Grammar rules are not the rocket science, just once you get the hang of them you will be able to use them in the right time in the right place just remember the main rule – practice makes perfect, go ahead try and test your knowledge in the real-life surroundings.
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