Verbs

What is Verbs?

Within English, which covers grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, poetry, drama and the skills for clear communication, this topic explains Verbs. English topics help you read closely and write with purpose, so each one here explains a skill and shows how it works in a model text.

Check that you can explain Verbs in your own words and give one example from everyday life. If you can do that, you have understood the core idea.

Understanding Verbs helps you read texts more closely and write with more control, which earns marks in both reading and writing papers.

Verbs in detail

A verb expresses an action (run, write), a state (be, seem) or an occurrence (happen). Every complete sentence needs a verb. Action verbs show what someone does, linking verbs such as "is" and "become" connect the subject with more information, and auxiliary (helping) verbs such as "have" and "will" work with a main verb to form tenses.

Verbs can be regular (walk, walked) or irregular (go, went, gone). Modal verbs such as can, must and might show possibility, ability or obligation. Choosing precise, vivid verbs, such as "sprinted" rather than "went quickly", strengthens writing.

How the interactive helps you understand Verbs

Click a card to flip it and reveal the answer, then move on to the next one.

Before you change anything, predict the result. Then change one value at a time and check whether your prediction was right. This is a quick way to build a correct mental model of Verbs.

Real-life uses and examples

• Spot Verbs when you read a poem, story or speech, then explain the effect it creates.
• Use Verbs to make your own writing more precise and vivid.
• Support a point about Verbs with a short, accurate quotation.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Naming a technique without explaining its effect on the reader.
• Quoting a long passage instead of picking a short, precise phrase.
• Learning the definition without testing it. Use the quiz and the interactive to check that you can apply the idea.