Verbs Part 1

Verbs are the most important component of any sentence.  These words talk about the action or the state of any noun or subject. This means  that verbs show what the subject is doing or what is the state or situation of the subject.

For example:

He ran to the store. - Here the verb ran describes the action of the subject ‘he’ 

She is a creative person. - Here there is no action being done. Instead the auxiliary verb ‘is’ shows the state of the subject ‘she’ as being ‘creative’. 

There are different types and classifications of Verbs; some of the most important ones are listed below: 

Action Verbs   

These verbs talk about what the subject is doing in the sentence. Action Verbs are one of the most easily identifiable types of verbs. To recognize them, you simply have to look for the word in the sentence that answers the question ‘What is the subject doing?’  e.g. -

Rose is painting the kitchen walls.

The subject here is Rose, and what is Rose doing? Rose is painting. Hencepainting is our action verb. 

My dog is sleeping on the sofa. 

The subject here is dog, and what is the dog doing? The dog is sleeping. Sosleeping is our action verb.

There are two types of Action Verbs which describe the Verb and the Subject doing the action and the Object on which the action is done, they are -

Transitive Verbs -

These Action Verbs have a definite object on which, or for which the action is being performed. That means that the action has a definite recipient or object.  To identify them you can ask the question what is the/did the subject -verb-?

Rose is painting the kitchen walls.

Here the verb is painting and the subject is Rose.

If we form the question - what is Rose painting?

The answer is- The kitchen walls.

Thus, we see that there was a specific object on which the action of paintingwas being done. 

Hannah gave him a big hug.

Here we see that the action ‘gave’ is being performed by the subject Hannah.  So the question is what did Hannah give? And the answer is - A big hug. 

Here, we also have a indirect object as ‘him’.  This indirect object would be the answer to the question-

Who did the subject (Hannah) -verb- (give) the object (hug) to?   

Intransitive Verbs -

These verbs also show an action but here there is no specific object on which the action is being done. To recognize these verbs, we ask the question what is the/did the subject -verb- ?  If there is no answer present, then the verb in the sentence is an Intransitive Verb.

Rose is painting right now.

Here, if we ask the question what is Rose painting?  There is no answer which means that in this sentence painting is an Intransitive Verb.

It is telling us about the action of the subject but there is no specific object for the action.  

Hannah sneezed repeatedly.

Here, the verb is sneezed. If we ask the question what did Hannah sneeze?There is no answer present for it making sneezed a intransitive verb.