Grammar World 4-- Ch11
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megamind publicationGrammar World 4-- Ch11
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megamind publication11 Verbs
At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
identify verbs in sentences.
recognise different types of verbs.
distinguish between action verbs, helping verbs and being verbs.
Underline the verbs in the following sentences.
1. The boy laughed at the actions of the clown.
2. I watched a film last night.
3. We play every evening in the park.
4. The choir sang a beautiful song.
5. He ate sandwiches for breakfast.
6. The lion ran after the deer.
Read the following sentences:
1. My father is a lawyer.
2. I am a basketball player.
3. She likes to paint.
4. She painted the wall.
In the above sentences, the highlighted words are verbs. The verbs in the first two sentences
indicate a state of being (what a person or an object is) and the verbs in the third and
fourth sentences indicate an action.
A word that indicates an action or a state of being is called a verb.
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A verb is the soul of a sentence. Every complete sentence must have a verb!
Let us now take a look at different types of verbs.
Read the following sentences:
1. I am a student of class four.
2. This is my school.
3. They are my friends.
4. There was a magic show yesterday in our school.
5. There were twenty people who attended the magic show.
In the above sentences, the highlighted verbs have been used without any action verbs.
They show what a person or thing is, was or will be. The words am, is, are, was and were
are used to express a state of being. They are called being verbs.
When a verb shows a state of being and not an action, it is called a being
verb.
Read the following sentences:
1. The dog barks loudly.
2. Birds sing in the morning.
3. She paints beautiful pictures.
In the above sentences, the red-coloured words show what someone or something does.
They are called action verbs.
The verb that shows the main action in a sentence is called the main verb
or action verb.
Now, read the following sentences:
1. I am practising football.
2. My brother is watching a football match on the television.
3. My parents are talking to our grandparents about football.
4. My grandfather was playing football for a club when he was young.
In the above sentences, the red-coloured words are the helping verbs and the blue-
coloured verbs are action verbs. Helping verbs help the action verbs to complete the
meaning of the sentence. Helping verbs are always placed before the action verbs.
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A verb that helps the main verb to complete the meaning in a sentence is
known as a helping verb.
A. Fill in the blanks with being verbs (am, is, are, was and were).
1. My best friend ____________ Karan. He ____________ a good sportsman.
2. I ____________ nine years old. I ____________ the monitor of my class.
3. In January last year, we ____________ in Manali. There ____________ a lot of
snow.
4. How __________ you today? Why __________ you absent for the last two days?
5. ____________ there any students left in the class? We ____________ ready for
the programme to start.
When the verbs am, is, are, was and were are used to show the state of being or
what a person or thing is, they are called being verbs.
However, when the verbs am, is, are, was and were are used to complete the meaning
of or tell us more about the main verb, they are called helping verbs.
B. Underline the being verbs in red, the helping verbs in blue and the main verbs in
green in the following sentences. One has been done for you.
1. I am excited. I am going to my grandparents’ place this weekend.
2. My sister is a good dancer. She is going to perform on television.
3. Sheela is a good cook. She is going to cook all the items for the party.
4. They are going on a picnic tomorrow. They are happy.
5. We were sad. We weren’t going to play the match as it was raining.
6. He was working the entire morning. He was tired.
Let us now, have a look at some more helping verbs.
Read the following sentences:
1. He has completed his homework.
2. They have studied for the exam.
3. I had reached the school on time.
In the above sentences, the verbs in blue colour are the main verbs and the verbs in red
colour are the helping verbs.
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In the above sentences, the helping verbs has, have and had tell us that the action is
complete. Therefore, the past tense of the action verb has been used.
Now, read the following sentences:
1. She has a new car.
2. We have a wonderful family.
3. He had a dog as a pet.
In the above sentences, the highlighted words show ownership or possession. The verbs
has and have speak about the present moment. The verb had speaks about a past moment.
They are called possesive verbs.
Present Tense Present Tense
Subject
Being Verb (am/is/are) Possessive Verb (has/have)
I am have
you/we/they are have
he/she/it/Ram/Radha is has
Past Tense Past Tense
Subject
Being Verb (was/were) Possessive Verb (had)
I was had
you/we/they were had
he/she/it/Ram/Radha was had
Read the following sentences:
1. She has dinner at 8 p.m.
2. They have sandwiches for breakfast.
3. I had pancakes for dinner.
In the above sentences, we see that the verbs has, have and had refer to eating. Therefore,
they act as the action verb here.
Have a quick look at the following table and make a few sentences.
Verbs Tense Number Pronoun
has present singular he, she, it
have present plural I, you, we, they
had past singular and plural singular and plural
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C. Tick () the correct option in the following sentences.
1. They will (have/has/had) dinner at 7 p.m.
2. (Have/Has/Had) you completed your work?
3. There (have/has/had) been a change in the exam date.
4. I (have/has/had) made a painting of my mother.
5. The train (have/has/had) already left when they reached the station.
6. We (have/has/had) noodles last night.
7. They (have/has/had) decorated their classroom.
8. It (have/has/had) rained heavily today.
9. Do you (have/has/had) a pencil?
10. This locality (have/has/had) a beautiful garden.
D. Fill in the blanks with am, is, are, was, were, has, have or had.
1. The boy ____________ bought a new pencil box.
2. My parents ____________ doctors.
3. I ____________ two siblings.
4. Varun ____________ my cousin.
5. The students ____________ preparing for their exam.
6. I ____________ a cheerful person.
7. He ____________ present yesterday in the class.
8. The teacher ____________ asked us to complete the worksheet.
9. She ____________ a busy day yesterday.
10. Do you ____________ a minute?
NCF C-3.1, C-3.2
Creativity Critical Thinking
Write a short story using at least five different verbs. Include being verbs, action verbs
and helping verbs in your story. Read out your story in front of the class.
Your teacher will point out the mistakes if you make any. The best story would be honoured
by the teacher.
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