FINITE VERB USAGE

Introduction

Finiteness is a grammatical feature that affects verbs. Whether a verb is finite or nonfinite
depends on the way it is used. As will become evident later, a given verb can be finite in
one construction and nonfinite in another. In this lesson, we will focus on finite verb
usage.

1.1 WHAT IS A FINITE VERB?

The word finite means limited in some way. A finite verb is one that conveys
information about tense, number, person and mood. We will look at each of these four
grammatical in turns.

1.1.1 TENSE

Tense relates the event or state described by the verb to a time in the past, present
or future. In English we have two tenses: the present and the past since these are
the only two that have a morphological marking (-s for present tense and –ed for
past tense in regular verbs)

If a verb is used in a finite way, we can easily tell whether it is in the present or the
past tense. Let us now test this using the verbs ‘create’ and ‘write’.

EXAMPLES
1a) Drought creates havoc. -present tense
1b) Drought created havoc. - past tense
2a) He writes well. -present tense
2b) He wrote well. -past tense

It is clear that the verbs in the sentences above are finite since we can tell their tenses.
 1.1.2 NUMBER

Number is a grammatical category that refers to the singularity or plurality of verbs

and nouns. In English, the subject and a present tense verb must agree in terms of
number. That is, a singular subject goes with a singular verb. Likewise, a plural
subject goes with a plural verb.

Note: A singular verb always has ‘s’ at the end e.g. talks, is, was, does, has,
goes, behaves. Typically, a plural verb does not end in ‘s’ e.g. talk, are, were, do,
have, go, behave.

A verb is finite if it is used in a context that shows whether it is singular or plural.

Here are examples using the verbs ‘trade’ and ‘are’:

EXAMPLES
2a) Simon trades in Isiolo. -singular verb
2b) Simon and Hassan trade in Isiolo. _plural verb
3a) Ngure is a teacher. -singular verb
3b) Ngure and Ochieng’ are teachers. -plural verb
All the verbs above are therefore finite.
Note: If the verb is a form of BE, it will indicate number even in the past tense.
EXAMPLES

4a Ngure was a teacher. -singular

4b) Ngure and Ochieng were teachers -plural

1.1.3 PERSON

Person is a grammatical category that affects nouns, pronouns and verbs. There are
three persons in English:

a) first person- speaker/ writer e.g. I, we

b) second person –listener/ reader e.g. you

c) third person – the person being talked about e.g. he, she, it, they

In English grammar, a finite verb agrees with the subject in terms of person. The verb
BE provides the best contrast as shown below:

EXAMPLES
5a) I am hungry. (I and am are in the 1st person)
 nd
5b) You are hungry. (You and are are in the 2 person)
5c) He is hungry. (He and is are in the 3rd person)

When the verb is not a form of BE, the person contrast is only evident between the
first and the third person in the present tense.

EXAMPLES
6a) I sleep early on weekdays. (I and sleep are in the 1st person)
rd
6b) She sleeps early on weekdays. (She and sleeps are in the 3 person)
6c) John sleeps early on weekends. (John and sleeps are in the 3rd person)

Note: To determine the person the verb is in, we look at the person of the
subject. All nouns are said to be in the third person.

In the examples above, the fact that the verb changes as we move from one
person to another is proof that the verbs in question are finite.

1.1.4 MOOD

Mood indicates the attitude of the speaker/writer towards what he/she is talking about.
That is, is he/she talking about a factual or a nonfactual way or is he/she giving a
directive. We have three moods: indicative, imperative and subjunctive. A finite verb
will be in any one of these three. We will now discuss them in turns.
(i) Indicative mood- This is the commonest of the three. It makes factual assertions
by giving or seeking information. This information can therefore be expressed in the
form of statements (declaratives), questions (interrogatives) or exclamatives.

EXAMPLES

7a) They arrived late. -statement

7b) Did they arrive late? -question
7c) How late they arrived! -exclamative
Note: As can be seen from the examples above,a verb in the indicative mood
may be inflected (arrived) or uninflected (arrive).

(ii) Imperative mood- This mood is used in making requests, and giving commands
and directives.

EXAMLPES

8a) Open the door please. -request

8b) Open the door immediately! -command
 Although the verb in an imperative construction does not indicate tense, number
and person, it is nonetheless finite because it at least indicates mood.

(iii) Subjunctive mood- This mood is used to express wishes, feelings,

demands, recommendations and so on. Verbs in this mood only occur in subordinate
clauses. There are two types:

a) Present subjunctive.- It uses the base form of the verb and occurs after verbs such
as demand, require, suggest, insist, recommend, ask, propose and request.
EXAMPLES
9a)I insist that she leave soon.

9b) The doctor recommends that he take two tablets daily.

9c) They requested that it go to the next stage.

9d) Past subjunctive. – It is also called the ‘were’ subjunctive because the verb
‘were’ is always used. It expresses a hypothetical (unreal) situation. Verbs in
this mood always occur after the words ‘wish’ and ‘if’.

EXAMPLES

10a) I wish I were the mayor of Nairobi.

10b) If I were the mayor of Nairobi, I would restore its lost glory.

NON FINITE VERB USAGE

1.0 Introduction
In the previous lesson, we talked about finite verb usage. Here, we turn to nonfinite
verb usage. Not surprisingly, a nonfinite verb is one that does not convey
information about tense, number, person and mood. Therefore, such a verb does not
reflect any changes in any of these four grammatical aspects because it is not limited
to expressing a particular tense, number, person or mood.

2.1 TYPES OF NONFINITE VERBS

There are four types of nonfinite verbs namely: the present participle, the past
participle, the to-infinitive and the bare infinitive.

2.1.1 The present participle

This is also called the –ing participle. It is simply formed by adding –ing to a base
form of the verb the verb e.g. typing, sitting, washing. Together with an auxiliary
verb, it is used to express the progress aspect. For illustration, we will use the verbs
‘create’ and ‘write’ in a nonfinite way.

EXAMPLES

1a) The artist is creating a masterpiece.

1b) The artist was creating a masterpiece.
2a) Ngugi was writing another book.
2b) Ngugi and Achebe were writing another book.

Observe that ‘creating’ does not change as we move from the present tense (is) in
(1a) to the plural tense (was) in (1b). Therefore while ‘is’ and ‘was’ are finite,
‘creating’ is nonfinite since it is neither in the present nor in the past tense. It is
tenseless.
Equally, the verb ‘writing’ remains constant in form as we change from a singular subject
(Ngugi) in (2a) to a plural one in (2b). Note that the verbs ‘was’ (singular) and ‘were’
(plural) are finite because they agree with their subjects but ‘writing’ does not exhibit any
such agreement. It is therefore neither singular nor plural.

2.1.2 The past participle

It is also called the –ed or –en participle. It is formed by adding the participial –ed
to regular verbs e.g. jumped, roofed and cleaned. Irregular forms include written,
eaten, set, paid and slept. Whatever the case, we can easily recognize a past
participle verb because it is always preceded by a form of the verb ‘HAVE’ or
“BE’. e.g. has/have/had jumped, has/have/had set, is/was/are/were cleaned. We
will retain ‘create’ and ‘write’ and show how they can be used as past participle
nonfinite verbs.

3a) You were created wonderfully.

3b) He was created wonderfully.

4a) I have written a poem.
4b) I had written

In 1a) and b), ‘created’ does not change even as move from a 2nd person subject (you)
rd nd rd
to a 3 person one (he). The verbs ‘were’ (2 person) and ‘was’ (3 person) change
accordingly since they are finite. This means that ‘created’ is not in any person.
Similarly, the verb ‘written’ does not change as we move from the present tense
(have) in 4a) to the past tense (had) in 4b). ‘Have’ and ‘had’ are therefore finite while
‘written’ is not since it does not indicate either the present or the past tense.

2.13 The to- infinitive

It is so called because it is formed by adding the infinitival particle ‘to’ to the base
form of a verb e.g. to bathe, to sing and to refuse. Again, we illustrate with the two
verbs we have been using.

EXAMPLES

5a) The artist wants to create something unique.

5b) The artists want to create something unique.
6a) I intend to write another text.
6b) She intends to write another text.
6c) She intended to write another text.

Do you realize that ‘to create’ does not change as we move from (5a) to (5b) despite
the change in number in the finite verbs?( ‘wants’ is singular in line with its subject
while ‘want’ is plural just as its subject is). Note that there is a change from ‘intend’
in 6a) to ‘intends’ in 6b) to reflect the 1 st and the 3rd person in agreement with the
respective subjects. There is also a change in tense from ‘intends’ in 6b) to
‘intended’ in 6c). We can therefore conclude that while ‘wants, want, intend,
intends, and intended’ are finite, ‘to create and to write’ are nonfinite since they
remain constant.

1.2.4 The bare infinitive

It is so called because it is bare or devoid of suffixes (e.g. –ing and –ed) and
particles. It therefore invariably uses the base form of the verb. However, such a
verb could be preceded by a modal auxiliary or a form of ‘DO’ as in the following
examples:

7a) Patrick could pass very well.

7b) I did pray last night.

Both ‘pass and pray’ are bare infinitives but the auxiliaries in front of them are
finite. The bare infinitive also occurs in sentences containing verbs such as watch,
make, see, hear, let, and witness.

EXAMPLES

8a) The boy watches the artist create a masterpiece.

8b) The boy watched the artist create a masterpiece.

9a) I make him write every day.

9b) She makes him write every day.
Observe that while there is a change from present (watches) to past (watched) and
again from 1st person (make) to 3rd person (makes), there is no such variation in the
verbs ‘create’ and ‘write’ which are bare infinitives.
It is important to note that while a finite verb can be the only verb in a
sentence, a nonfinite one cannot be.

EXAMPLES
10a) Stella -drove- the car. -finite
10b) Stella -has been driving- the car. -present participle
10c) Stella -had driven- the car. -past participle
10d) Stella -refused to drive- the car. -to infinitive.
10e) I -saw- Stella –drive- the car. -bare infinitive.

Also consider these two examples:

11a) The priest has been being ordained.

11b) The priest had been being ordained.

As can be seen, only ‘has’ has changed to ‘had’ to indicate tense. Both are therefore
finite because we can tell the tense of each. Not so with ‘been, being, and ordained’
which remain constant in the two sentences. Significantly, the entire verb phrase
(has/had been being ordained) is considered finite despite having three nonfinite
elements within it. This is because the first verb is finite. Thus a finite verb phrase is
one whose first or only verb is finite.