Verbs

Verb Conjugation and Verb Infinitive

All clauses must have a conjugated verb to make a complete thought. Recognizing the conjugated verb is essential to identifying the clauses in a complex sentence. The following lesson will cover the various methods of recognizing the conjugated verbs from the infinitive form of a verb.

The Conjugation

A verb is an action word if, and only if, the verb has a subject or actor performing either a physical action such as to walk, a mental action such as to think, or a state of being such as to be. A verb conjugation is the pairing of the subject of the clause with the verb. Consider the following complete simple sentences:

 I walk – conjugates the infinitive – to walk – by joining the first person singular subject pronoun – I – to the infinitive.

You run- conjugates the infinitive – to run – by joining the second person subject pronoun – You – to the infinitive.

He or She swims – conjugates the infinitive – to swim – by joining the third person subject pronoun – He or She – to the infinitive. Notice in this case, an – s – is added to the infinitive. The – s – is added only in the third person singular subject pronoun.

The third person is always used with singular nouns. For

The dog barks – conjugates the infinitive – to bark – by joining the noun – The dog – to the infinitive. The – s – is added because – The dog – is a singular noun.

 

We speak – conjugates the infinitive – to speak – by joining the first person plural subject pronoun – We – to the infinitive.

You (all) walk – conjugates the infinitive – to walk – by joining the second person plural subject pronoun – You (all) – to the infinitive.

They walk – conjugates the infinitive – to walk – by joining the third person plural subject pronoun – They – to the infinitive.

The dogs walk – conjugates the infinitive – to walk – by joining the plural noun – The dogs – to the infinitive. The – s – is NOT added because – The dogs – is a plural NOT a singular noun.

The infinitive form

The Infinitive as The Subject of The Clause

The infinitive form of the verb can be an actor performing an action. This is an infinitive phrase. The infinitive phrase will always be considered a noun in the third person singular.  Consider, for example, the clause – To learn more is my goal in life. In this example, the conjugated verb is – is –, and the subject of the sentence is the infinitive – To learn. Thus, the infinitive phrase – To learn – is the subject of the verb – is – which is the conjugated form of the infinitive – to be.  A future lesson on modifying phrases will cover the infinitive phrase in more detail.

The infinitive as an object of the conjugated verb

The infinitive form of the verb can act as an object of the verb. for example,

I want to learn how to teach.

So, the infinitive- to learn – is the object of the conjugated verb want. In the phrase –  how to teach. – the infinitive – to teach – is the object of the phrase how to teach

The Infinitive as an Adjective

An infinitive can act as an adjective modifying a noun. Consider the following sentence. My desire is to learn more. The infinitive phrase – to learn ­– modifies the noun – My desire.

Transitive Verbs

A transitive verb must transfer the action to an object to complete the thought. for example, the infinitive verb – to want – is a transitive verb because it would not make sense without an object. To simply say – I want – would be incomplete because the verb – to want – is a transitive verb. However, if an object is added to the clause, then it would be complete. for example, the clause – I want more cake – is complete because the object – more cake describes what I want. While the object of the verb is a part of the overall predicate of the clause, it is not a part of the conjugated verb. On the other hand, if the object of the transitive verb is an infinitive form of another verb, then, for the sake of sentence analysis, then the infinitive phrase will also be considered part of the conjugation.

Consider the clause – I want to learn how to teach. In this case, the infinitive – to teach – acts as an adverb that modifies the conjugated verb – want to learn, which is the object of the conjugated verb – want to learn. In this case, the infinitive – to teach – acts as an adverb modifying the complete conjugated verb.

Verb Tense

The tense of the verb refers to the time that the verb occurs. It will be in the present tense, the past tense, or the future tense.

Regular and Irregular Past tense Verbs

In the past tense, the ending – ed – is added to regular verbs. However, some past tense verbs are irregular and do not follow any patterns. for example:

The child wanted to play in the street. He asked his parents for permission. They said, “No!” So, he ran to his room and cried. He thought crying would help. It did not help. So, he watched TV for the rest of the day. Someday, he will understand why his parents would not let him play in the streets.

The child wanted to play in the street.

Instead of the present tense – The child wants to play in the street – the – s – is replaced with – ed – to form the past tense. This is a regular construction of the past tense. Thus, the entire conjugated verb is – wanted to play.

He asked his parents for permission.

the conjugated verb – asked – is regular. Thus, it is formed by adding – ed.

They said, “No!”

The conjugated verb – said – is irregular. It is the past tense of – to say.

• So, he ran to his room and

The conjugated verb – ran – is the irregular form of – to run. The conjugated verb –  – appears to be irregular, but it follows a regular pattern. Whenever a verb ends with – y – the y is changed to – i. Thus, cry becomes – cried.

He thought crying would help.

The conjugated verb – thought – is the irregular form of – to think. The conjugated verb – would help – is an auxiliary verb which will be discussed below. This verb is the predicate of a subordinate clause which will be discussed in a future lesson.

It did not help.

The conjugated verb – did – is the irregular form of – to do.  This use of the – to do – verb is unique to the English language. A special discussion on this unique use of the – to do – verb is available in the next lesson.

So, he watched TV for the rest of the day.

The conjugated verb – watched – is the regular form of – to watch.

Someday, he will understand why his parents would not let him play in the streets.

This is a complex sentence with two clauses containing two conjugated verbs. The first conjugated verb uses an auxiliary verb – will understand and a second conjugated verb would not let. Auxiliary verbs do not have infinitives. They only help the main verbs by indicating tense or mood. (The next section will discuss auxiliary verbs).  The conjugated verb -will understand- is the future tense of the infinitive – to understand. The conjugated verb -would not let- is the past imperfect negative verb – to not let.

Auxiliary Verbs or Helping Verbs

Auxiliary verbs, or helping verbs, are verbs that add tense or mood to the infinitive verb. They do not have infinitive forms. The helping verb – used – indicates the past imperfect tense (describing an action that occurred over a period of time) for example,

I used to work for that company. Notice that the preposition is added to the infinitive form.

Oftentimes, the helping verb – would – indicates a usual habit that occurred in the past. for example,

He would wear a suit on occasions.

This helping verb indicates a past action that occurred over time and was a usual occurrence.

The helping verb – would – can also be used to indicate a condition. The conditional helping verb – would – appears as a condition to another verb in a subordinate. for example,
I would help you if I could (help you). The text in parenthesis could be implied. Either way, the helping verb along with the conjugated verb will be identified as the complete conjugated verb.

Other helping verbs include the following:

I will walk.

You will work.

He or she will study. Notice that unlike in the present case, the – s- is not added to the end of the third person singular verb.

The dog will bark.

We will go.

You (all) will swim.

They will sing.

The dogs will fight.

All helping verbs will be considered a part of the verb conjugation.

Split Infinitives

Oftentimes, an adverb is inserted between a helping verb and the main verb This can constitute a split infinitive.  for example.

I would occasionally go to the beach.

In this case, the adverb – occasionally – along with the helping verb – would – and the main verb – go – will be considered a part of the conjugated verb.

Now that we have a good understanding of the distinction between the infinitive form of the verb and the conjugated form of the verb, the next lesson will focus on the subject and the action of the sentence, which will be the subject/predicate pair.

Phrasal Verbs

Split Phrase

It is cold.  You should put on your coat.

Yes, I will put it on.

I take out the trash every morning. But this morning, I forgot to take it out.

You cannot say:

I forgot to take out it this morning.

The preposition must follow the pronoun. Thus, you have to say:

I take it out this morning

But you can say:

I take the trash out every morning.

Three-word verbal phrases

To put up with

I put up with a loud neighbor.

©Derreck Sunderland 2024