Verbs and Action Types
Unlike regular verbs that add 'ed' to form past tense, verbs like go, sing, and break change form and belong to this group.
Irregular verbs
The primary auxiliary verbs in English consist of different conjugated forms of these three base verbs.
Be, do, and have
In Harry Potter, when describing "a big, beefy man," the main noun (man) that all the describing words are around is called this.
Headword
Vroom sent the linguist an email," email is the direct object, so linguist is this.
Indirect object
Words like pickup, grass, and sunburn belong to this open group of words that easily gets new words added over time.
Open Class
This type of action verb requires a direct object to complete its meaning, like in Kacen Callender's King and the Dragonflies: "Mikey flicks his cigarette".
Transitive Verb
In academic writing, modal verbs like might, should, and must allow writers to adjust this specific tone.
Nuance
In Harry Potter, when describing "a very large mustache," size words come before the main noun because of this English rule.
Adjective Order
"Tears can become a problem," the word problem follows a linking verb to rename the subject.
Subject Compliment
Prepositions like into and behind belong to this closed group that almost never adds new words.
Closed Class
In Callender's passage, "I flinch," the verb takes no direct object, making it this verb type.
Intransitive Verb
When a subject performs the action directly ("The linguist thwacked the robot"), the sentence uses this voice.
Active Voice
In "a dangerous, unpredictable arena," you can swap the order of the adjectives or stick "and" between them, making them this type.
Coordinate Adjectives
In "People call him Vroom," the name Vroom renames the direct object him.
Object Complement
Turning an action verb like analyze into an abstract noun like analysis is called this.
Nominalization
"kicking up" or "figure out" consist of a base verb plus a particle and can be replaced by a single formal verb in academic writing.
Phrasal Verbs
When the subject receives the action ("The robot was thwacked by the linguist"), a be verb and past participle form this voice
Passive Voice
In the story about Vroom the BGSU Robot, the phrase "his cute little head" builds words in a natural order without commas.
Cumulative Adjectives
In "Linguist, stop it!" the word Linguist is set off by commas because you are talking directly to them.
Vocative
Using the word 'pickup' as a noun instead of a verb without changing its spelling is an example of this.
Conversion
In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, "The Dursleys were proud," the verb "were" links the subject to a subject complement, functioning as this.
Linking verb
English uses this (adding a form of do) to form negative statements or questions when no other auxiliary verb is present.
Do support
In King and the Dragonflies, when it mentions "the browning grass," the 'ing' word acts like an adjective to describe the grass.
Participle
In "Vroom worries about rust," you can't put a number in front of rust or make it plural
Non Count Noun
Changing the sentence "After the state decided..." into an abstract noun phrase turns it into this.
The state's decision