What Are Verbs?

What Are Verbs?

A verb is a "doing" word. A verb can express:

• A physical action (e.g., to swim, to write, to climb).


• A mental action (e.g., to think, to guess, to consider).


• A state of being (e.g., to be, to exist, to appear).

Verbs Can Express Physical Actions

Here are some sentences with verbs that express physical actions. (In each example, the

verb is highlighted.)

• She sells pegs and lucky heather.

(In this example, the word sells is a verb. It expresses the physical activity to sell.)

• The doctor wrote the prescription.

(In this example, the word wrote is a verb. It expresses the physical activity to write.)

• Alison bought a ticket.

(The word bought is a verb. It expresses the physical activity to buy.)

Verbs Can Express Mental Actions

While many verbs express physical actions (e.g., to jump, to dance, to sing), verbs can also express mental actions. For example:

• She considers the job done.

(The word considers is a verb. It expresses the mental activity to consider.)

• Peter guessed the right number.

(The word guessed is a verb. It expresses the mental activity to guess.)

• I thought the same thing.

(The word thought is a verb. It expresses the mental activity to think.)

Verbs Can Express a State of Being

A small but extremely important group of verbs do not express any activity at all. The most important verb in this group (arguably of all) is the verb to be.



Here is the verb to be in the different tenses:

Subject	Verb to be
	past tense	present tense	future tense
I	was	am	will be
You	were	are	will be
He / She / It	was	is	will be
We	were	are	will be
You	were	are	will be
They	were	are	will be

Here are some real examples with the verb to be:

• Edwina is the largest elephant in this area.

(The word is is a verb from the verb to be.)

• It was a joke.

(The word was is a verb from the verb to be.)

• I am.

(The word am is a verb from the verb to be.)
(Point of interest: I am is the shortest sentence in English.)

Related Page:

What Are Verbs? Types of Verbs ACTION VERB Auxiliary Verb  Lexical Verb Dynamic Verb Stative Verb Finite Verb Nonfinite Verb

Regular Verb Irregular Verb Transitive Verb Intransitive Verb Linking verbs Modal Verb Causative verb Phrasal verbs