It is important to understand that not all English verbs are the same. Below are the types of verbs in English language.

Semantic verbs
Auxiliary verbs
Linking verbs

Semantic verbs

Main Verbs– these are verbs that convey meaning and carry a semantic load, for example:

He understands everything.
He's everything understands. (Verb understands is semantic.)

Auxiliary verbs

Auxiliary Verbs are used together with semantic verbs and carry grammatical information (for example, they indicate verb tenses, time period, etc.), thus adding some additional meaning to the sentence that is not indicated in the semantic verb.

Examples of auxiliary verbs are to be, to do And to have in various forms. Please note that some auxiliary verbs do not have their own semantic load, and some can be both auxiliary and semantic, for example:

What have you done?
What have you done? ( In this case the verb have plays the role of an auxiliary, and the verb done– semantic.)

Auxiliary verbs will be discussed in more detail in the sections on English times(cm. ).

Linking verbs

Linking verbs (Copula Verbs or Linking Verbs) are verbs that connect the subject with the nominal part of the predicate or object.

Some linking verbs can only be linking verbs, since they themselves do not describe actions, and some of them can be both linking verbs in some sentences and verbs expressing action in other sentences. Verbs to be, to become And to seem and their forms can be only linking verbs.

For example:
He became very popular among his readers.
He became very popular among its readers. ( Verb became connects the subject with the object.)

Among other things, English verbs can be divided into three groups: normal verbs (Normal Verbs), non-continuous verbs (Non-Continuous Verbs) And Mixed Verbs.

Group I. Normal (dynamic) verbs

Most verbs are “normal verbs” (in grammatical terminology, this group of verbs is also called “ dynamic verbs“). Typically, such verbs are action verbs (typically actions that can be seen when someone performs them). These verbs are used in all tenses. Examples of such verbs are: to run, to walk, to eat, to fly, to go, to say, to touch and etc.

For example:
I eat dinner every day.
I I'm having dinner every day.

I am eating dinner now.
I I'm having dinner Now.

Group II. Non-continuous (statal) verbs

There are fewer verbs included in the second group than verbs in the first group. Usually “non-continuous verbs” (in grammatical terminology this group of verbs is also called “ statal verbs“) denote something that cannot be seen. These verbs are almost never used in tenses Continuous groups(which is how they got their name). This includes:

– abstract verbs: to be, to want, to cost, to seem, to need, to care, to contain, to owe, to exist and etc.;

– verbs of possession: to possess, to own, to belong and etc.;

– verbs of feelings: to like, to love, to hate, to dislike, to fear, to envy, to mind and etc.

For example:
He is needing help now. ( Wrong.)
He needs help now. ( Right.)
To him needed help.

He is wanting a drink now. ( Wrong.)
He wants a drink now. ( Right.)
He wants drink.

Group III. Mixed verbs

The third group of verbs, “mixed verbs,” is the smallest of the three. Verbs included in this group have more than one meaning. In a sense, each meaning of such verbs is a kind of unique verb. Some meanings of such verbs may belong to the group of normal verbs, while others may belong to the group of non-continuous verbs.

Below is a table of mixed verbs showing when they are used as normal verbs and when they are used as non-continuous verbs.

At night he see (see, seem) ghosts.I see her.
I'm her I see.to smell I am smelling the flowers.
I I sniff flowers.The coffee smells good.
Coffee is nice smells.to taste I am tasting the cake.
I I try (to taste) cake.The coffee tastes good.
Coffee is nice to taste.to think She is thinking about the question.
She thinks (thinks, ponders) over the question.He thinks the test is easy.
He thinks (thinks, seems to him) that the test is easy. to weigh She is weighing herself.
She weighs himself (determines your weight).The table weighs a lot.
Table a lot weighs (the table is heavy).

Pay special attention to the meanings and usage of the following verbs:

Verb to be It is used very rarely for a long time. Usually long time verb to be used when someone's behavior is noticeably different from usual, or when someone behaves inappropriately, and in some other cases.
IN general case into Russian sentences with a verb to be in the long tense can be translated with words such as: at the moment, behaves, right now etc.Joe is American.
Joe is American. ( Joe's nationality is American.)to feel The massage feels great.
This massage is very pleasant. ( Massage gives a pleasant feeling.)I don't feel well today. =I am not feeling well today.
Today I I feel not very good ( V given value can be used both long-term and short-term).

In fact, the article is planned to be even a little broader: I will tell you how to accurately find out the tense form and voice of a verb in a sentence.

Any form of a verb in English is described by 3-4 words that express time, type And bail . For example:

Present Simple Active
Past Perfect Continuous Passive

To correctly determine the form of the verb, use the diagram above. In addition, it is recommended to read the articles: and.

At school they usually talk about 12 / 16 / 26 (underline as appropriate) “times of the English language”... However, in fact, this typestemporary forms verb. There are three tenses in English. As with us: Past, Present and Future.

* Strictly speaking, there are two grammatical tenses in English, but today’s article is not about that. If you are interested in discussing this, write comments or take a look at.

• Past time indicators: verbs did, was, were, had or any verb in the second form (V2, Ved).
• Time indicators Present: verbs do, does, am, is, are, have, has or any verb in the first form (V1, Vs).
• Future time indicators: will.

** would, could, might belong to a special group: .

Step 2: determine the type

This is a little more complicated. Conventions: V1 - first form of the verb, V2 - second form of the verb, V3 - third form of the verb, Ving - verb with the ending -ing.

• Simple: the sentence contains only V1, V2 or will + V1.
• Continuous: corresponds to the structure to be + Ving.
• Perfect: corresponds to the structure to have + V3.
• Perfect Continuous: corresponds to the structure: to have + been + Ving

The above forms are typical for the active voice. Move on to step 3 to identify the passive voice.

Step 3: determine the collateral

The structures for active voice are written above. Formula passive voice: to be + V3. You can try to determine the pledge without formulas. In the case of the passive voice, an action is performed on the object, rather than the object itself performing it.

• Simple Passive: am/is/are/was/were/will be + V3
• Continuous Passive: being + V3.
• Perfect Passive: have/has/had/will have + been + V3.
• Perfect Continuous Passive: not used.

Let's practice and understand with examples

1) I don't eat much ice cream. — Present Simple Active, because contains do + V1.
2) I was sleeping in the tent yesterday at 12 o’clock. — Past Continuous Active, because contains was + Ving.
3) The shop was being visited yesterday at 12 o’clock. — Past Continuous Passive, because contains was + being + V3.
4) What have you been doing? — Present Perfect Continuous Active, because contains have + been + Ving.
5) The missing children have been found. — Present Perfect Passive, because contains have + been + V3.
6) They will be swimming tomorrow at 7 o’clock. — Future Continuous Active, because contains will + be + Ving.

I tried to cover everything complex cases. Pay special attention to examples 4 and 5. If something does not fit into the scope of this article, and you still cannot determine the tense of a verb in English, then either you misunderstood something, or you came across: infinitive, participle or gerund.

When learning English, special attention should be paid to verbs. Firstly, the more verbs you know, the easier it will be for you to express your thoughts in English. After all, if any noun can be replaced by a pronoun, then the verb as a part of speech denoting an action or state cannot be replaced with anything. Secondly, it is impossible to communicate in English without having an understanding of the English verb tense system.

English verbs can be divided into four main groups:

• Semantic - express an action, a process, therefore they are always translated into Russian.
• Auxiliary - do not express actions and are not translated. Serve to form interrogative and negative sentences and complex verb forms.
• Modal - they express not the action itself, but the attitude towards it (should, can, etc.) They, as a rule, are translated.
• Linking verbs - do not express action, serve to connect the subject and the nominal part of the predicate, show tense, number and person.

In addition, verbs are divided into regular and irregular. Not regular verbs - these are verbs in which the past tense form (Past tense form), as well as the past participle form (Past participle), is formed differently from regular verbs. Regular verbs form these forms by adding –ed to the first form. Forms of irregular verbs need to be learned by heart, especially since they include the most common verbs of everyday speech. As a rule, these verbs are in English-Russian dictionaries, where they are often presented in the form of special lists.

The initial form of all verbs is infinitive, i.e. indefinite form of the verb (answers the question “what to do?”, “what to do?”). Before undef. The form of the verb usually includes the particle to, which is not translated in any way. Example: to read - to read.

The peculiarity of an English sentence is that it always contains a verb. Example: He is a student. - He (is) a student. We see that if there is no verb in a Russian sentence, then in its English version there is a verb is - a linking verb.

Linking verb TO BE

The most common copula verb is the verb to be(to be, to be) This verb has several forms that depend on tense, number, person. Forms of the verb to be:

shall, will – auxiliary verbs of the future tense. The above verb forms must be learned by heart. The linking verb to be means “to be”, “to appear” and is most often not translated. Example: I am a pupil. - I (am) a student. I was a pupil. – I was a student.

Modal verbs (can, may, must)

Modal verbs express not an action, but an attitude towards an action (necessity, probability of some action). These verbs are usually not used independently and are usually placed before the semantic verb. Let's look at three main modal verbs.

Modal verb can(could – past tense form) – be able, be able, can, can, etc.
Examples: He can speak English. - He can (can) speak English.
Modal verb may(might – past tense form) – can, I can, you can, etc.
Examples: You may take the book. – You can take this book.

The verbs can and may should not be confused. The verb can implies the physical ability to do something, the ability to do something. The verb may means possibility, assumption. It is used to ask for permission or to give permission.

Modal verb must(there is no past tense form) – should, should, must, etc.
Examples: I must stop smoking. – I have to stop smoking.

Features of these modal verbs

• The particle to is not placed before modal verbs, and the particle to is not placed after modal verbs before semantic verbs in indefinite form. Example: We must read. - We must read.
• The modal verb comes before the form of the main verb.
• Modal verbs do not receive the ending -s in the 3rd person singular form of the Present Simple.
• These modal verbs are used without the participation of any auxiliary verbs.
• When forming interrogative and negative sentences, the use of modal verbs has its own characteristics, which I will discuss in the appropriate section.

There are several other modal verbs in English that I am not covering here.

Everyone who studies a foreign language needs to speak quickly and does not want to deal with theory and boring rules. And this is a common mistake that slows down progress in learning and creates a “language barrier.”

A proven fact: without understanding the basic theoretical foundations and elements of the language, learning English is much more difficult, especially if you do it on your own. Choosing words to express your thoughts on foreign language, it is very important to know what part of speech you need, what properties it has, how you can change it, what its function is, and what place in the sentence to put it.

We have already become acquainted with the parts of speech in English and the basic concepts that every student should know in the article. Now it's time to focus on each part of speech.

In English, as in any other language, the central element of a sentence is usually a verb. That is why it has so many forms and times, and special attention is paid to it.

Almost anyone who visited secondary school, must remember the rote definition of what a verb is. The simplest one is: A verb is a word that denotes an action and answers the question “What to do”?.

But in practice it turns out that not every verb answers this question, but still remains a verb. There are many classifications of verbs: by structure, by meaning, but, as I promised, we will not go into unnecessary theoretical details.

We will conditionally divide all the verbs that you will encounter in English into five categories:

1. Semantic verbs.
2. Phrasal verbs.
3. Modal verbs.
4. Auxiliary verbs.

1. Semantic verbs.

Semantic verbs - the most numerous category of verbs. These are exactly the words that answer the question: What to do?

All actions that we perform convey semantic verbs:

Semantic verbs cannot appear before the subject in an affirmative sentence; they can be used with modal verbs and auxiliary verbs to form different tenses:

I can work. - I can work. (modal + semantic)
He is sleeping. - He's sleeping. (auxiliary + semantic)

Semantic verbs cannot independently form negations and questions, so they always need auxiliary verbs, which are placed at the beginning of the sentence in questions and have a negative particle not in negations:

Do you read in English? - Do you read in English?
I do not read in English. - I don't read English.

Semantic verbs can add different endings. In it -s/es when talking about a third person (he reads, she sleeps, it works). The ending is added -ing(sitting, sleeping, working) . In the past tense (), (worked, looked) is added to regular semantic verbs, and irregular ones have three forms that need to be remembered (sit - sat - sat, write - wrote - written). By the way, if you still don't know how to learn Irregular Verbs or are constantly confused by them, keep studying them.

2. Phrasal verbs.

Phrasal verbs differ from semantic ones in that they have two or three parts. First- an ordinary semantic verb, and rest: prepositions or adverbs that give a verb a different meaning.

For example:

Sit - sit
sit down - sit down
get - receive
get up - get out of bed

Often the meaning of a phrasal verb can be determined by a preposition in combination with the context, but in many cases the meaning of a phrasal verb cannot be guessed from these signs, since many phrasal verbs have more than one meaning.

At first, it seems that remembering phrasal verbs is simply unrealistic. But that's not true. Some phrasal verbs are used more often, some less frequently, and some have a narrow scope of use. Textbooks begin to introduce us to the most popular phrasal verbs from the level pre-intermediate. To level upper-intermediate there are many more of them. IN colloquial speech It’s difficult to do without phrasal verbs, so you will need to learn them one way or another.

If you are already faced with the problem of learning phrasal verbs, then I have something for you, from which you will learn several ways to determine the meaning of a phrasal verb. In addition, on the separate blog pages dedicated to phrasal verbs, you can find many articles in which phrasal verbs are divided into topics to make it easier for you to remember them.

3. Auxiliary verbs.

The essence and function of this linguistic phenomenon is already explained by its name. It serves to form various types of utterances. In English textbooks it is called auxiliary verb, and in my classes for convenience I use the name helping verb or assistant verb. These are not scientific terms, but you don’t need them, the main thing is to make it clear.

There is more than one auxiliary verb in English. There are three of them: do, be And have. And also their forms, of which there are many more. Verbs and forms vary depending on the tense in which you are speaking and the person you are speaking about. The verb do and its forms does And did- auxiliary in Simple group tenses, verb to be (am, is, are, was, were) used as an auxiliary in the Continuous tenses, and have (with forms has And had) is a required attribute of tenses of the Perfect group.

Below is a table of auxiliary verbs by tense and person.

Auxiliary verbs are not translated into Russian, but this does not free us from the need to remember and use them. It is with the help of auxiliary verbs that we show the time to which our statement refers.

In all tenses, without exception, negations and questions are formed using auxiliary verbs. In negatives, the particle not is added to the auxiliary verb, and in questions it is auxiliary comes first in the sentence.

As for statements, auxiliary verbs are used in all tenses, with the exception of and.

It is important to note that in English sentence The auxiliary verb has its place, and the place depends on. In an affirmative sentence the verb must be after the subject(actor):

I am reading a book. (Present Continuous)
We have done the task. (Present Perfect)
They will call you. (Future Simple)
She was sleeping. (Past Continuous)

In negation, all verbs are also found after the actor. The particle not is added to the auxiliary and modal verbs, followed by a semantic or phrasal verb:

I am not reading a book. (Present Continuous)
We have not done the task. (Present Perfect)
They will not call you. (Future Simple)
She was not sleeping. (Past Continuous)

In a question, the verb comes in front of the subject (auxiliary verb, modal verb, verb to be), and the semantic and phrasal verbs remain after the subject:

Am I reading a book? (Present Continuous)
Have we done the task? (Present Perfect)
Will they call you? (Future Simple)
Was she sleeping? (Past Continuous)

Auxiliaries are also used to form the passive voice and have shortened forms.

4. Verb to be.

This verb is so unique that I highlight it in separate category. It can be both semantic and auxiliary. By itself, it acts as a semantic one in the present, past and future tense, and means “to be, to appear, to be,” although it is not translated into Russian in the present tense:

I am happy. - I (am) happy.
I was happy. - I was happy.
I will be happy. - I will be happy.

In combination with the ing form of the semantic verb, the verb to be forms group times Continuous, and its future tense form will participates in the formation of all future tenses of the English language.

5. Modal verbs.

Modal verbs - this is a separate group of verbs that are not used by themselves, but only in combination with semantic verbs. Modal verbs add some additional, modal meaning to the semantic verb: I can, I can, I will, I must do something. You probably know examples of modal verbs. Here they are: can, could, must, may, might, will, would, shall, should, ought. Often a modal verb cannot be translated without combining it with a semantic verb.

What do modal verbs have in common? They are all used with the infinitive without a particle to(Bare infinitive). There is one exception: verb ought to .

In addition, characteristic feature of modal verbs- the fact that they independently form interrogative and negative forms; they do not need auxiliary verbs.

The hardest part about learning modal verbs is understanding their meanings and functions. So that you can always accurately express your thought and the interlocutor understands you correctly, the choice of a modal verb plays a big role. Modal verbs usually have several meanings, and it would be very tedious to consider them all in one article, so I recommend that you get acquainted with each modal verb separately, which you can do on the pages of our blog Enginform.

If, after reading this material about verbs, you find gaps in your knowledge, then do not rush to bury yourself in textbooks; you do not need to cram all the rules that you find. It is enough to start classes, which will help you understand the intricacies of English grammar gradually, in parallel with practice. There is absolutely no need to go somewhere and waste your time. You can study comfortably at home or from the office whenever it suits you. If you want to try, leave it in Enginform.

In conclusion, I would like to remind you once again that the language you are learning is different from the one you are used to speaking, because each language is a unique and original system. Pay attention to the differences, do not forget about a minimum of theory and this will make your process of learning English easier!

Greetings to all lovers of English and grammar in particular:-P. Today you will find an interesting and useful selection again. Anyone might think that important for correct speech irregular, modal and phrasal verbs, that's all you need to know. You are deeply mistaken if you think that studying regular verbs is a useless task, since everyone knows the simple mechanism when a word in the past is added [-ed]. Regular verbs of the English language In fact, regular verbs are just like irregular verbs and any others. They display the noun. If you have a noun Cook, then you also have a verb to cook. Just like when there was an ordinary word “google”, which was used to mean “search engine”, but today the English language has given us “to google”, which has come to mean “search in the google search engine”.

Thus, by studying regular English verbs, you learn this unit, the noun, and the grammar of the formation of the past tense - three in one. Any English language course includes the study of these words in its program. Therefore, having studied difficult irregular, modal, phrasal verbs, you should not ignore ordinary regular verbs. These words are an important part of expressing emotions and feelings and constructing sentences.

Everyone knows that regular verbs are formed by adding the ending to the second participle and the past tense [-ed]: Paint - painted - drawish b, however, following this rule, it is necessary to take into account several important nuances:

• If the word ends in “e”, then we do not duplicate it and add only the ending [-d]: Like - liked - like
• If the lexeme ends with a voiceless or hissing consonant, then the ending [-ed] is pronounced like “t”: Polish - polished - ["pɒlɪʃt] - polish,S top — stopped — - stop. Please note that when forming the Past Simple in one-syllable verbs, the last consonant is doubled
• In the case when a unit ends with a voiced consonant or vowel, the familiar [-ed] takes on the sound “d”: Destroy - destroyed - - to destroy. By the way, when a lexeme ends in “y” and is preceded by a consonant letter, then when [-ed] is added, the sound “y” is reduced and “i” appears in its place: Study - studied - ["stʌdɪd] - to study. In the case when there is a vowel before “y”, no additional changes occur
• If the word ends in “d” or “t”, then [-ed] is pronounced as “id”: Pretend - pretended - pretend, Start - Started - - start, begin

Regular English verbs do not cause any particular difficulties, since the scheme of their formation is quite simple and transparent.

Table of 50 regular English verbs

You can download and print this table