Music swells Siblings squabble Owls hoot I am Grammar is And just like that two words can become a SENTENCE The information in a short sentence can be expanded by adding more words that give vivid descriptions or specific reactions Where should those words be placed How does a writer know what PUNCTUATION to use What does all of that mean anyway Words fall into place more easily when one has an understanding of grammar a system of rules that gives writers the foun dation for producing acceptable formal expression It is that acceptable form that appropriate grammar which helps readers comprehend what has been written We are indebted to the Romans who conquered most of Europe from 75 B C through the first century A D for spreading the term verbum along with the rest of their Latin vocabulary Verbum is the source of our word verb and it means word Truly without a verb every sentence is doomed All sentences have a subject and a verb The verb is the main element of the predicate the part of the sentence that tells something about the subject We define the verb this hub of a sentence as a word or group of words that expresses the action or indicates the state of being of the sentence’s subject That suggests that the verb is either doing some 4
thing acting or it is existing that it just is Even when the subject of a sentence may be understood not written in the sentence a verb is mandatory as in the one-word sentence Think Our word adverb connects the Latin PREFIX ad meaning to expressing an addi tion to with verbum From that association we get the PART OF SPEECH that describes or modifies verbs ADJECTIVES or other adverbs Adverbs add character to the words they describe by restricting or intensifying their meaning as in the words gently yesterday there and ultimately What else makes adverbs important in our sentences Degrees of comparison that give writers ways to expand their descriptions from quieter to loudest and from more nervous to most entertaining these are adverbs too When writers accurately use verbs and the words that describe them readers have no trouble following along 5
IS THE VERB THE WORD V examples of auxiliary verbs used with main erbs have basic PRINCIPAL PARTS that produce all their forms The verbs and Table 2 for specific changes in four principal parts are present present participle past and past participle These parts tell the TENSE of the verb Present tense regular verb forms Even though most verbs are regular the culprits that don’t follow the rules the irregular happens today and the present participle verbs are another story Verbs that are shows something is happening right now irregular do not take the usual form and have Although the past form happened yesterday these considerations 1 They may not change the past participle with an AUXILIARY indicates at all from present to past and past participle what happened at a previous time in the past 2 They may change for only the past and past or will happen in the future Most verbs are participle 3 They may use a different word regular meaning that they form their present entirely for present past and past participle participles with the suffix or ending ing and The best way to keep irregular verb forms their past participles with the suffix ed plus straight is to memorize them Dictionaries an auxiliary verb When an auxiliary verb is list them with each verb’s definition Some used with a main verb it is called a helping examples are shown in Table 3 on page 8 verb Spelling of the main verb may necessarily The verbs in Tables 2 and 3 have this in change when adding ing See Table 1 for common the present and past forms whether 6
AUXILIARY HELPING VERBS am is are was were has have had do does be did being been can could shall should will would may might must ought TABLE 1 REGULAR VERBS PRESENT MAIN VERB FORM PRESENT PARTICIPLE AUXILIARY MAIN ING PAST MAIN ED PAST PARTICIPLE AUXILIARY MAIN ED laugh learn am is are laughing laughed has have had laughed am is are learning learned has have had learned pretend am is are pretending pretended has have had pretended sneak am is are sneaking sneaked has have had sneaked suppose am is are supposing supposed has have had supposed TABLE 2 7
