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Glossary of English Grammar Terms

Active Voice

In the active voice, the subject of the verb does the action (eg They killed the President).

See also Passive Voice.

Adjective

A word like big, red, easy,French etc. An adjective describes a noun or pronoun.

Adverb

A word like slowly, quietly, well, often etc. An adverb modifies a verb.

Article

The "indefinite" articles are a and an. The "definite article" is the.

Auxiliary Verb

A verb that is used with a main verb.Be, do and have are auxiliary verbs. Can, may, mustetc are modal auxiliary verbs.

Clause

A group of words containing a subject and its verb (for example: It was late when he

arrived).

Conjunction

A word used to connect words, phrases and clauses (for example: and, but, if).

Infinitive

The basic form of a verb as in to work orwork.

Interjection

An exclamation inserted into an utterance without grammatical connection (for example:oh!, ah!, ouch!, well!).

Modal Verb

An auxiliary verb like can, may, mustetc that modifies the main verb and expresses

possibility, probability etc. It is also called "modal auxiliary verb".

Noun

A word like table, dog, teacher,America etc. A noun is the name of an object, concept,person or place. A "concrete noun" is something you can see or touch like aperson orcar. An "abstract noun" is something that you cannot see or touch like a decision orhappiness. A "countable noun" is something that you can count (for example: bottle,

song, dollar). An "uncountable noun" is something that you cannot count (for example:water, music, money).

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Object

In the active voice, a noun or its equivalent that receives the action of the verb. In the

passive voice, a noun or its equivalent that does the action of the verb.

Participle

The -ingand -edforms of verbs. The -ingform is called the "present participle". The -edform is called the "past participle" (for irregular verbs, this is column 3).

Part Of Speech

One of the eight classes of word in English - noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun,

preposition, conjunction and interjection.

Passive Voice

In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb (eg The President was

killed). See also Active Voice.

PhraseA group of words not containing a subject and its verb (eg on the table, the girl in a reddress).

Predicate

Each sentence contains (or implies) two parts: a subject and a predicate. The predicate is

what is said about the subject.

Preposition

A word like at, to, in, overetc. Prepositions usually come before a noun and give

information about things like time, place and direction.

Pronoun

A word likeI, me,you, he, him, itetc. A pronoun replaces a noun.

Sentence

A group of words that express a thought. A sentence conveys a statement, question,

exclamation or command. A sentence contains or implies a subject and a predicate. In

simple terms, a sentence must contain a verb and (usually) a subject. A sentence startswith a capital letter and ends with a full stop (.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark

(!).

SubjectEvery sentence contains (or implies) two parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject isthe main noun (or equivalent) in a sentence about which something is said.

Tense

The form of a verb that shows us when the action or state happens (past, present or

future). Note that the name of a tense is not always a guide to when the action happens.

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The "present continuous tense", for example, can be used to talk about the present or the

future.

Verb

A word like (to) work, (to) love, (to) begin. A verb describes an action or state.

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English Parts of Speech

There are thousands of words in anylanguage. But not all words have the

same job. For example, some words

express "action". Other words express a"thing". Other words "join" one word to

another word. These are the "building

blocks" of the language. Think of themlike the parts of a house. When we want

to build a house, we use concrete to make the foundations or base. We use bricks to make

the walls. We use window frames to make the windows, and door frames to make thedoorways. And we use cement to join them all together. Each part of the house has its

own job. And when we want to build a sentence, we use the different types of word. Each

type of word has its own job.

We can categorize English words into 8 basic types or classes. These classes are called"parts of speech".

It's quite important to recognize parts of speech. This helps you to analyze sentences and

understand them. It also helps you to construct good sentences.

In this lesson, we have an overview of the eight parts of speech, followed by a quiz to

check your understanding:

Parts of Speech Table

Parts of Speech Examples

Words with More than One Job

Some grammar books categorize English into

9 or10 parts of speech. At English Club, weuse the traditional categorization of8 parts of

speech (see Table for more details).
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Parts of Speech Table

This is a summary of the 8 parts of speech*. You can find more detail if you click oneach part of speech.

part of speech function or "job" example words example sentences

Verb action or state (to) be, have, do,like, work, sing,

can, must

EnglishClub.com is a website. I likeEnglishClub.com.

Noun thing or person pen, dog, work,

music, town,

London, teacher,

John

This is my dog. He lives

in my house. We live in

London.

Adjective describes a noun a/an, the, 69, some,good, big, red,

well, interesting

My dog is big. I like bigdogs.

Adverb describes a verb,

adjective or adverb

quickly, silently,

well, badly, very,

really

My dog eats quickly.

When he is very hungry,

he eats really quickly.

Pronoun replaces a noun I, you, he, she,

some

Tara is Indian. She is

beautiful.

Preposition links a noun toanother word

to, at, after, on, but We went to school onMonday.

Conjunction joins clauses or

sentences or words

and, but, when I like dogs and I like cats.

I like cats and dogs. I likedogs but I don't like cats.

Interjection short exclamation,

sometimes inserted

into a sentence

oh!, ouch!, hi!, well Ouch! That hurts! Hi!

How are you? Well, I

don't know.

* Some grammar sources categorize English into 9 or10 parts of speech. At

EnglishClub.com, we use the traditional categorization of8 parts of speech. Examples ofother categorizations are:

Verbs may be treated as two different parts of speech:

o Lexical Verbs (work, like, run)

o Auxiliary Verbs (be, have, must)
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Determiners may be treated as a separate part of speech, instead of being

categorized under Adjectives



Here are some sentences made with different English parts of speech:

verb

Stop!

noun verb

John works.

noun verb verb

John is working.

pronoun verb noun

She loves animals.

noun verb adjective noun

Animals like kind people.

noun verb noun adverb

Tara speaks English well.

noun verb adjective noun

Tara speaks good English.

pronoun verb preposition adjective noun adverb

She ran to the station quickly.

pron. verb adj. noun conjunction pron. verb pron.

She likes big snakes but I hate them.

Here is a sentence that contains every part of speech:

interjection pron. conj. adj. noun verb prep. noun adverb

Well, she and young John walk to school slowly.

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Many words in English can have more than one job, or be more than one part of speech.For example, "work" can be a verb and a noun; "but" can be a conjunction and a

preposition; "well" can be an adjective, an adverb and an interjection. In addition, many

nouns can act as adjectives.

To analyze the part of speech, ask yourself: "Whatjob is this word doing in this

sentence?"

In the table below you can see a few examples. Of course, there are more, even for some

of the words in the table. In fact, if you look in a good dictionary you will see that theword but has six jobs to do:

verb, noun, adverb, pronoun, preposition and conjuction!

word part of speech example

work noun My workis easy.

verb I workin London.

but conjunction John came but Mary didn't come.

preposition Everyone came but Mary.

well adjective Are you well?

adverb She speaks well.

interjection Well! That's expensive!

afternoon noun We ate in the afternoon.

noun acting as adjective We had afternoon tea.

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What are Verbs?

The verb is king in English. The shortest sentence contains a verb. You canmake a one-word sentence with a verb, for example: "Stop!" You cannot make a

one-word sentence with any other type of word.

Verbs are sometimes described as "action words". This is partly true. Many verbs givethe idea of action, of "doing" something. For example, words like run, fight, do and work

all convey action.

But some verbs do not give the idea of action; they give the idea of existence, of state, of

"being". For example, verbs like be, exist, seem and belongall convey state.

A verb always has a subject. (In the sentence "John speaks English",John is the subjectandspeaks is the verb.) In simple terms, therefore, we can say that verbs are words that

tell us what a subject does oris; they describe:

action (Ram plays football.)

state (Anthony seems kind.)

There is something very special about verbs in English. Most other words (adjectives,

adverbs, prepositions etc) do not change in form (although nouns can have singular and

plural forms). But almost all verbs change in form. For example, the verb to workhas

five forms:

to work, work, works, worked, working

Of course, this is still very few forms compared to some languages which may have thirtyor more forms for a single verb.

In this lesson we look at the ways in which we classify verbs, followed by a quiz to testyour understanding:

Verb Classification

Helping Verbs

Main Verbs
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Verb Classification

We divide verbs into two broad classifications:

1. Helping Verbs

Imagine that a stranger walks into your room and says:

I can.

People must.

The Earth will.

Do you understand anything? Has this person communicated anything to you? Probably

not! That's because these verbs are helping verbs and have no meaning on their own.

They are necessary for the grammatical structure of the sentence, but they do not tell usvery much alone. We usually use helping verbs with main verbs. They "help" the main

verb. (The sentences in the above examples are therefore incomplete. They need at least amain verb to complete them.) There are only about 15 helping verbs.

2. Main Verbs

Now imagine that the same stranger walks into your room and says:

I teach.

People eat.

The Earth rotates.

Do you understand something? Has this person communicated something to you?Probably yes! Not a lot, but something. That's because these verbs are main verbs and

have meaning on their own. They tell us something. Of course, there are thousands of

main verbs.

In the following table we see example sentences with helping verbs and main verbs.Notice that all of these sentences have a main verb. Only some of them have a helping

verb.

helping verb main verb

John likes coffee.

You lied to me.

They are happy.

The children are playing.

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We must go now.

I do not want any.

Helping verbs and main verbs can be further sub-divided, as we shall see on thefollowing pages.

Helping Verbs
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Helping Verbs

Helping verbs have no meaning on theirown. They are necessary for the

grammatical structure of a sentence, but

they do not tell us very much alone. Weusually use helping verbs with main

verbs. They "help" the main verb (which has the real meaning). There are only about 15

helping verbs in English, and we divide them into two basic groups:

Primary helping verbs (3 verbs)

These are the verbs be, do, and have. Note that we can use these three verbs as helping

verbs or as main verbs. On this page we talk about them as helping verbs. We use them

in the following cases:

beo to make continuous tenses (He is watching TV.)

o to make the passive (Small fish are eaten by big fish.)

haveo to make perfect tenses (I have finished my homework.)

do

o to make negatives (I do not like you.)

o to ask questions (Do you want some coffee?)

o to show emphasis (I do want you to pass your exam.)

o to stand for a main verb in some constructions (He speaks faster than she

does.)

Modal helping verbs (10 verbs)

We use modal helping verbs to "modify" the meaning of the main verb in some way. A

modal helping verb expresses necessity or possibility, and changes the main verb in thatsense. These are the modal verbs:

can, could

may, might

will, would,

shall, should

must

Helping verbs are also called "auxiliaryverbs".
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ought to

Here are examples using modal verbs:

I can't speak Chinese.

John may arrive late. Would you like a cup of coffee?

You should see a doctor.

I really must go now.

Main Verbs

Semi-modal verbs (3 verbs)

The following verbs are often called "semi-modals" because they are partly like modal

helping verbs and partly like main verbs:

need

dare

used to
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Main Verbs

Main verbs are also called "lexical verbs".

Main verbs have meaning on their own (unlike helping verbs). There are thousands ofmain verbs, and we can classify them in several ways:

Transitive and intransitive verbs

A transitive verb takes a direct object: Somebody killed the President. An intransitiveverb does not have a direct object:He died. Many verbs, likespeak, can be transitive or

intransitive. Look at these examples:

transitive:

I saw an elephant.

We are watching TV.

He speaks English.

intransitive:

He has arrived.

John goes to school. She speaks fast.

Linking verbs

A linking verb does not have much meaning in itself. It "links" the subject to what is said

about the subject. Usually, a linking verb shows equality (=) or a change to a differentstate or place (>). Linking verbs are always intransitive (but not all intransitive verbs are

linking verbs).

Mary is a teacher. (mary = teacher)

Tara is beautiful. (tara = beautiful) That sounds interesting. (that = interesting)

The sky became dark. (the sky > dark)

The bread has gone bad. (bread > bad)

Dynamic and stative verbs

Some verbs describe action. They are called "dynamic", and can be used with continuous

tenses. Other verbs describe state (non-action, a situation). They are called "stative", and

cannot normally be used with continuous tenses (though some of them can be used withcontinuous tenses with a change in meaning).
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dynamic verbs (examples):

hit, explode, fight, run, go

stative verbs (examples):

be

like, love, prefer, wish impress, please, surprise

hear, see, sound

belong to, consist of, contain, include, need

appear, resemble, seem

Regular and irregular verbs

This is more a question of vocabulary than of grammar. The only real difference between

regular and irregular verbs is that they have different endings for their past tense and pastparticiple forms. For regular verbs, the past tense ending and past participle ending is

always the same: -ed. For irregular verbs, the past tense ending and the past participle

ending is variable, so it is necessary to learn them by heart.

regular verbs: base, past tense, past participle

look, looked, looked

work, worked, worked

irregular verbs: base, past tense, past participle

buy, bought, bought

cut, cut, cut

do, did, done

Here are lists ofregular verbsand irregular verbs.

One way to think of regular and irregularverbs is like this: all verbs are irregular and

the so-called regular verbs are simply one

very large group of irregular verbs.

Often the above divisions can be mixed. For example, one verb could be irregular,transitive and dynamic; another verb could be regular, transitive and stative.
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Verb Forms

English verbs come in several forms. For example, the verb to singcan be: to sing, sing,sang, sung, singing or sings. This is a total of 6 forms. Not many, considering that some

languages (French, for example) have more than 30 forms for an individual verb. English

tensesmay be quite complicated, but the forms that we use to make the tenses areactually very simple! With the exception of the verb to be, English main verbs have only

4, 5 or 6 forms. To be has 9 forms. Do not confuse verb forms with tenses. We use the

different verb forms to make the tenses, but they are not the same thing.

In this lesson we look at the forms of main verbs and helping (auxiliary) verbs, followedby a quiz to check your understanding:

Forms of Main Verbs

Forms of Helping Verbs
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Forms of Main Verbs

Main verbs (except the verb "be") haveonly 4, 5 or 6 forms. "Be" has 9 forms.

V1 V2 V3

infinitive basepast

simple

past

participle

present

participle

present simple,

3rd person

singular

regular (to) work work worked worked working works

irregular

(to) sing(to) make

(to) cut

singmake

cut

sangmade

cut

sungmade

cut

singingmaking

cutting

singsmakes

cuts

(to) do*

(to) have*

do

have

did

had

done

had

doing

having

does

has

infinitive basepast

simple

past

participle

present

participlepresent simple

(to) be* bewas,

werebeen being am, are, is

In the above examples:

to cut has 4 forms: to cut, cut, cutting, cuts

to workhas 5 forms: to work, work, worked, working, works

to sing has 6 forms: to sing, sing, sang, sung, singing, sings

to be has 9 forms: to be, be, was, were, been, being, am, is, are

The infinitive can be with or without to. Forexample, to sing and sing are both

infinitives. We often call the infinitive

without to the "bare infinitive".

At school, students usually learn by heart the base, past simple and past participle(sometimes called V1, V2, V3, meaning Verb 1, Verb 2, Verb 3) for the irregular verbs.

They may spend many hours chanting: sing, sang, sung; go, went, gone; have, had, had;

etc. They do not learn these for the regular verbs because the past simple and pastparticiple are always the same: they are formed by adding "-ed" to the base. They do not

learn the present participle and 3rd person singular present simple by heartfor

Main verbs are also called "lexical verbs".

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another very simple reason: they never change. The present participle is always made by

adding "-ing" to the base, and the 3rd person singular present simple is always made by

adding "s" to the base (though there are some variations in spelling).

* Note that "do", "have" and "be" also function ashelping or auxiliary verbs, with exactly

the same forms (except that as helping verbs they are never in infinitive form).

Example Sentences

These example sentences use main verbs in different forms.

Infinitive

I want to work

He has to sing.

This exercise is easy to do.

Let him have one. To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Base - Imperative

Workwell!

Make this.

Have a nice day.

Be quiet!

Base - Present simple

(except 3rd person singular)

I workin London.

You sing well.

They have a lot of money.

Base - After modal auxiliary verbs

I can worktomorrow.

You must sing louder.

They might do it.

You could be right.

Past simple

I worked yesterday.

She cut his hair last week.

They had a good time.

They were surprised, but I was not.
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Past participle

I have worked here for five years.

He needs a foldermade of plastic.

It is done like this.

I have neverbeen so happy.

Present participle

I am working.

Singing well is not easy.

Having finished, he went home.

You are being silly!

3rd person singular, present simple

He works in London. She sings well.

She has a lot of money.

It is Vietnamese.

Forms of Helping Verbs
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Primary helping verbs are followed by the

main verb in a particularform:

do + V1 (base verb)

be + -ing (present participle)

have + V3 (past participle)

"Ought" is followed by the main verb in

infinitive form. Other modal helping

verbs are followed by the main verb in

its base form (V1).

ought + to... (infinitive)

other modals + V1 (base verb)

"Do", "be" and "have" can also function as

main verbs.

Modal helping verbs cannot function as

main verbs
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What is Tense?

tense (noun): a form of a verb used to indicate the time, and sometimes the continuation or completeness,of an action in relation to the time of speaking. (From Latin tempus = time).

Tense is a method that we use in English to refer to timepast, present and future. Manylanguages use tenses to talk about time. Other languages have no tenses, but of coursethey can still talk about time, using different methods.

So, we talk about time in English with tenses. But, and this is a very big but:

we can also talk about time without using tenses (for example,going tois a

special construction to talk about the future, it is not a tense)

one tense does not always talk about one time (see Tense & Time for more aboutthis)

Here are some of the terms used in discussing verbs and tenses.

Mood

indicative mood expresses a simple statement of fact, which can be positive (affirmative)

or negative

I like coffee.

I do not like coffee.

interrogative mood expresses a question

Why do you like coffee?

imperative mood expresses a command

Sit down!

subjunctive mood expresses what is imagined or wished or possible

The President ordered that he attend the meeting.

Voice

Voice shows the relationship of the subject to the action. In the active voice, the subject

does the action (cats eat mice). In the passive voice, the subject receives the action (miceare eaten by cats). Among other things, we can use voice to help us change the focus of

attention.
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Aspect

Aspect expresses a feature of the action related to time, such as completion or duration.

Present simple and past simple tenses have no aspect, but if we wish we can stress withother tenses that:

the action or state referred to by the verb is completed (and often still relevant),

for example:

I have emailed the report to Jane. (so now she has the report)(This is called perfective aspect, using perfect tenses.)

the action or state referred to by the verb is in progress or continuing (that is,uncompleted), for example:

We are eating.

(This is called progressive aspect, using progressive [continuous] tenses.)

Tense & Time
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Past Perfect SimpleI had not eaten for

24 hours.

Past Perfect

Continuous

We had been

working for 3hours.

If I had beenworking now, I

would have missedyou.

If I had beenworking tomorrow, I

could not haveagreed.

Future SimpleHold on. I'll do it

now.I'll see youtomorrow.

Future ContinuousI will be working at

9pm tonight.

Future Perfect

Simple

I will have finished

by 9pm tonight.

We will have been married for ten years next month.

Future Perfect

Continuous

They may be tiredwhen you arrive

because they will

have been working.

In 30 minutes, we will have been working for four hours.

Basic Tenses
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Basic Tenses

For past and present, there are 2 simple tenses + 6 complex tenses (using auxiliary verbs).To these, we can add 4 "modal tenses" for the future (using modal auxiliary verbs

will/shall). This makes a total of 12 tenses in the active voice. Another 12 tenses are

available in the passive voice. So now we have 24 tenses.

24 Tenses past present future*

ACTIVE

simple tenses past present future

complex tenses

formed withauxiliary verbs

past perfect present perfect future perfect

past continuouspresent

continuousfuture continuous

past perfect

continuous

present perfect

continuous

future perfect

continuous

PASSIVE

past present future

past perfect present perfect future perfect

past continuouspresent

continuousfuture continuous

past perfect

continuous

present perfect

continuous

future perfect

continuous

Some grammar books use the word

progressive instead ofcontinuous. They areexactly the same.

The use of tenses in English may be quite complicated, but the structure of English

tenses is actually very simple. The basic structure for a positive sentence is:

subject + auxiliary verb + main verb

An auxiliary verb is used in all tenses. (In the simple present and simple past tenses, theauxiliary verb is usually suppressed for the affirmative, but it does exist for

intensification.) The following table shows the 12 tenses for the verb to workin the

active voice.

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structure

past present future*auxiliary main verb

simple

normal I worked I work I will work

intensive do base I did work I do work

perfect havepast

participle

I had

worked

I have

worked

I will have

worked

continuous be

present

participle

-ing

I was

working

I am

working

I will be

working

continuous

perfect

havebeen

present

participle-ing

I had beenworking

I have beenworking

I will havebeen working

* Technically, there are no future tenses in English. The word will is a modal auxiliaryverb and future tenses are sometimes called "modal tenses". The examples are included

here for convenience and comparison.

Regular Verbs
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Basic Tenses: Regular Verb

Regular verbs list

This page shows the basic tenses with the regular verb work. It includes the affirmative

or positive form (+), the negative form (-) and the interrogative or question form (?).

The basic structure is:

positive: + subject + auxiliary verb + main verbnegative: - subject + auxiliary verb + not+ main verbquestion: ? auxiliary verb + subject + main verb

These are the forms of the main verb that we use to construct the tenses:

base verb past past participle present participle -ing

work worked worked working

past present future

SIMPLEdo + base verb(except future:

will + base verb)

+I did workI worked

I do workI work

I will work

- I did notwork I do notwork I will notwork

? Did I work? Do I work? Will I work?

SIMPLE PERFECT

have + past participle+ I had worked I have worked I will have worked

-I had not

worked

I have not

worked

I will nothave

worked

? Had I worked? Have I worked?Will I have

worked?

CONTINUOUS

be + ing+ I was working I am working I will be working

- I was notworking

I am not

working

I will notbe

working

? Was I working? Am I working? Will I be working?
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CONTINUOUS

PERFECT

have been + ing

+I had been

working

I have been

working

I will have been

working

-I had notbeen

working

I have notbeen

working

I will nothave been

working

?Had I been

working?

Have I been

working?

Will I have been

working?

Irregular Verbs

Regular Verbs List
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There are thousands of regular verbs in English. This is a list of 600 of the more common

regular verbs. Note that there are some spelling variations in American English (for

example, "practise" becomes "practice" in American English).

accept

add admire

admit

advise

afford

agree

alert

allow

amuse analyse

announce

annoy

answer

apologise

appear

applaud

appreciate approve

argue

arrange

arrest

arrive

ask

attach

attack attempt

attend

attract

avoid

back

bake

balance

ban bang

bare

bat

bathe

battle

beam

beg

behave

belong

bleach bless

blind

blink

blot

blush

boast

boil

bolt

bomb

book bore

borrow

bounce

bow

box

brake

brake

branch

breathe

bruise brush

bubble

bump

burn

bury

buzz

calculate

call

camp

care carry

carve

cause challenge

change

charge

chase

cheat

check

cheer

chew

choke

chop

claim

clap clean

clear

clip close

coach

coil

collect

colour

comb

command

communicate

compare

compete

complain

complete concentrate

concern

confess confuse

connect

consider

consist

contain

continue

copy

correct

cough

count

cover

crack crash

crawl

cross crush

cry

cure

curl

curve

cycle

dam

damage

dance

dare

decay

deceive

deliver

depend

describe

desert

deserve

destroy

disapprove

disarm

discover

dislike

divide

double

dress

drip

drop

drown

drum

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decide

decorate

delay

delight

detect

develop

disagree

disappear

doubt

drag

drain

dream

dry

dust

earn educate

embarrass employ

empty

encourage

end enjoy

enter entertain

escape

examine

excite excuse

exercise exist

expand

expect

explain explode

extend

face fade

fail

fancy

fasten fax

fear

fence

fetch file

fill

film

fire fit

fix

flap

flash float

flood

flow

flower fold

follow

fool

force form

found

frame

frighten

fry

gather

gaze

glow

glue

grab

grate

grease

greet

grin

grip

groan

guarantee

guard

guess

guide

hammer

hand handle

hang

happen

harass

harm

hate haunt

head

heal

heap

heat

help hook

hop

hope

hover

hug

hum hunt

hurry

identify

ignore

imagine

impress

improve

include

increase

influence

inform

inject

injure

instruct

intend

interest

interfere

interrupt

introduce

invent

invite

irritate

itch

jail

jam

jog

join

joke

judge

juggle

jump

kick kiss knit knot

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kill kneel knock

label

land

last

laugh

launch

learn

level

license

lick

lie

lighten

like

list

listen

live

load

lock

long

look

love

man

manage

march

mark

marry match

mate

matter

measure

meddle

melt

memorise mend

mess up

milk

mine

miss

mix

moan moor

mourn

move

muddle

mug

multiply

murder

nail

name

need

nest

nod

note

notice

number

obey

object

observe

obtain

occur

offend

offer

open

order

overflow

owe

own

pack

paddle

paint

park

part pass

paste

pat

pause

peck

pedal

peel

peep

perform

permit

phone

pick

pinch

pine place

plan

plant

play

please

plug

point

poke

polish

pop

possess

post

pour

practise pray

preach

precede

prefer

prepare

present

preserve

press

pretend

prevent

prick

print

produce

program promise

protect

provide

pull

pump

punch

puncture

punish

push

question queue

race

radiate

rain

raise reach

realise

receive

refuse

regret

reign

reject rejoice

relax

release

remove

repair

repeat

replace reply

report

reproduce

rhyme

rinse

risk

rob rock

roll

rot

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recognise

record

reduce

reflect

rely

remain

remember

remind

request

rescue

retire

return

rub

ruin

rule

rush

sack sail

satisfy save

saw

scare

scatter

scold

scorch

scrape

scratch

scream screw

scribble

scrub

seal search

separate

serve

settle

shade

share

shave

shelter

shiver shock

shop shrug

sigh

sign

signal

sin

sip

ski

skip

slap slip

slow

smash

smell smile

smoke

snatch

sneeze

sniff

snore

snow

soak

soothe sound

spare spark

sparkle

spell

spill

spoil

spot

spray

sprout

squash squeak

squeal

squeeze

stain stamp

stare

start

stay

steer

step

stir

stitch

stop store

strap strengthen

stretch

strip

stroke

stuff

subtract

succeed

suck

suffer suggest

suit

supply

support suppose

surprise

surround

suspect

suspend

switch

talk

tame

tap

taste

tease

telephone tempt

terrify

test

thank

thaw

tick

tickle

tie

time

tip tire

touch

tour

tow

trace

trade

train

transport

trap

travel treat

tremble

trick

trip

trot

trouble

trust

try

tug

tumble turn

twist

type

undress

unfasten

unite

unlock

unpack

untidy

use

vanish visit

wail waste whirl work

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wait

walk

wander want

warm

warn

wash

watch

water

wave weigh

welcome

whine

whip

whisper

whistle

wink wipe

wish

wobble

wonder

worry

wrap

wreck wrestle

wriggle

x-ray

yawn yell

zip zoom

Basic Tenses: Irregular Verb

Irregular verbs list

This page shows the basic tenses with the irregular verb sing. It includes the affirmative

or positive form (+), the negative form (-) and the interrogative or question form (?).


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These are the forms of the main verb that we use to construct the tenses:

base verb past past participle present participle -ing

sing sang sung singing

past present future

SIMPLE

do + base verb(except future:

will + base verb)

+ I did singI sang

I do sing

I sing

I will sing

- I did notsing I do notsing I will notsing

? Did I sing? Do I sing? Will I sing?

SIMPLE PERFECT

have + past participle+ I had sung I have sung I will have sung

- I had notsung I have notsung I will nothave sung

? Had I sung? Have I sung? Will I have sung?

CONTINUOUSbe + -ing

+ I was singing I am singing I will be singing

-I was not

singingI am notsinging

I will notbe

singing

? Was I singing? Am I singing? Will I be singing?

CONTINUOUS

PERFECThave been + -ing

+ I had beensinging

I have been

singing

I will have been

singing

-I had notbeen

singing

I have notbeen

singing

I will nothave been

singing

? Had I beensinging?

Have I been

singing?

Will I have been

singing?

The basic structure of tenses for regular verbs

and irregular verbs is exactly the same(except to be). The only difference is that

with regular verbs the past and past participle

are always the same (worked, worked), while

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with irregular verbs the past and past

participle are not always the same (sang,

sung). But the structure is the same! It willhelp you a great deal to really understand

that.

Be

Irregular Verbs List

This is a list of some irregular verbs in English. Of course, there are many others, but

these are the more common irregular verbs.

Base Form Past Simple Past Participle

awake awoke awoken

be was, were been

beat beat beaten

become became become
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begin began begun

bend bent bent

bet bet bet

bid bid bid

bite bit bitten

blow blew blown

break broke broken

bring brought brought

broadcast broadcast broadcast

build built built

burn burned/burnt burned/burnt

buy bought bought

catch caught caught

choose chose chosen

come came come

cost cost cost

cut cut cut

dig dug dug

do did done

draw drew drawn

dream dreamed/dreamt dreamed/dreamt

drive drove driven

drink drank drunk

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eat ate eaten

fall fell fallen

feel felt felt

fight fought fought

find found found

fly flew flown

forget forgot forgotten

forgive forgave forgiven

freeze froze frozen

get got gotten

give gave given

go went gone

grow grew grown

hang hung hung

have had had

hear heard heard

hide hid hidden

hit hit hit

hold held held

hurt hurt hurt

keep kept kept

know knew known

lay laid laid

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lead led led

learn learned/learnt learned/learnt

leave left left

lend lent lent

let let let

lie lay lain

lose lost lost

make made made

mean meant meant

meet met met

pay paid paid

put put put

read read read

ride rode ridden

ring rang rung

rise rose risen

run ran run

say said said

see saw seen

sell sold sold

send sent sent

show showed showed/shown

shut shut shut

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sing sang sung

sit sat sat

sleep slept slept

speak spoke spoken

spend spent spent

stand stood stood

swim swam swum

take took taken

teach taught taught

tear tore torn

tell told told

think thought thought

throw threw thrown

understand understood understood

wake woke woken

wear wore worn

win won won

write wrote written

Basic Tenses: Be

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This page shows the basic tenses with the verb be. It includes the affirmative or positive

form (+), the negative form (-) and the interrogative or question form (?).



But for simple past and simple present tenses, the structure is not the same. In fact,it's even easier. There is no auxiliary verb. Here is the structure:

positive: + subject + main verbnegative: - subject + main verb + not

question: ? main verb + subject

These are the forms of the main verb be that we use to construct the tenses:

base past simple past participle present participle present simple

be was, were been being am, are, is

past present future

SIMPLE

present simple or

past simple

(except future: will + be)

+ I was I am I will be

- I wasnot I amnot I will notbe

? Was I? Am I? Will I be?

SIMPLE PERFECThave + been

+ I had been I have been I will have been

- I had notbeen I have notbeen I will nothave been

? Had I been? Have I been? Will I have been?

CONTINUOUS

be + being+ I was being I am being I will be being

- I was notbeing I am notbeing I will notbe being

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? Was I being? Am I being? Will I be being?

CONTINUOUSPERFECT

have been + being

+ I had beenbeing

I have been

being

I will have been

being

-I had notbeen

being

I have notbeen

being

I will nothave been

being

? Had I beenbeing?

Have I been

being?Will I have been

being?

In the following table, we see be conjugated for 12 basic tenses.

SIMPLE past present future

singular

I was am will be

you were are will be

he/she/it was is will be

plural

we were are will be

you were are will be

they were are will be

PERFECT past present future

singular

I had been have been will have been

you had been have been will have been

he/she/it had been has been will have been

plural

we had been have been will have been

you had been have been will have been

they had been have been will have been

CONTINUOUS past present future

singular I was being am being will be being

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you were being are being will be being

he/she/it was being is being will be being

plural

we were being are being will be being

you were being are being will be being

they were being are being will be being

CONTINUOUS PERFECT past present future

singular

I had been being have been being will have been being

you had been being have been being will have been being

he/she/it had been being has been being will have been being

plural

we had been being have been being will have been being

you had been being have been being will have been being

they had been being have been being will have been being

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19361314-Grammer

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