Verbs Introduction

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In one strip of Calvin and Hobbes, the creepily eloquent little boy Calvin and his even more creepily eloquent stuffed tiger are walking in the woods.

"I like to verb words,"says Calvin. After explaining what he means, he says "Verbing words weirds language."

We do not condone verbing words…or weirding language. Especially in English class.

If you want to weird language, go talk to Gertrude Stein. In this section, we're about making language less weird—but no less fun.

Verbs are words that express action or state of being. A grammatically complete and thoroughly awesome sentence always has at least one verb in it.

Verbs have different types, forms, moods, and tenses, and, just like your great-grandpa, they can even be irregular. Journey further into Verblandia to fill your noggin with information about each of 'em.

Quiz Yourself on Verbs

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Let's keep this one simple—in the simple tense, that is. Which of the following sentences features a simple future tense verb?

I. Pam met her husband, Horatio, at a Baltimore Orioles game.

II. Baseball is one of her favorite sports, along with jai alai and arm wrestling.

III. Pam and Horatio will visit the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer for their first wedding anniversary.

IV. They plan to visit all of the exhibits.

(A) I
(B) II
(C) III
(D) IV
(E) III, IV

Fill in the blank so that this sentence is in the subjunctive:

If Melanie __________ more observant, she would have realized that her fish died three weeks ago.

(A) were
(B) was
(C) had been
(D) both A and C

Choose the answer that correctly describes the mood of the verb listen in the following quote from Ernest Hemingway:

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

(A) indicative, indicative
(B) imperative, indicative
(C) imperative, subjunctive
(D) subjunctive, indicative

Which of these sentences contains a split infinitive?

(A) In her wedding vows, my sister promised to never add chives to her potato salad.
(B) In return, her husband vowed to always leave the toilet seat down.
(C) Though my sister and her fiancé intended them to be funny, most of the wedding guests were too surprised by these vows to laugh.
(D) Both A and B

Fill in the blanks:

By the time Lorne arrived at the theatre, the Artic Monkeys concert had already ___________. If he had not __________ a pedicab, he would not have missed the first four songs.

(A) began, took
(B) began, taken
(C) begun, tooken
(D) begun, taken

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