Importance and classifications of verbs, the real sense makers
In the topic, SENTENCE, we have studied that the general pattern or structure of a sentence is
‘S + V+ O’, that is, Subject + Verb + Object.
eg: Robert spent all the time for watching base ball,
Here, in this topic, Verbs, the real sense makers, we try to find out which one is most important, whether the ‘ subject‘, or ‘verb’, or ‘object’.
To understand it, let’s look at the following sentence.
James played Tennis yesterday
Here we can say that ‘James’ is the subject, ‘ played’ is the verb and ‘Tennis’ is the object in the sentence.
Now, let’s try to read the sentence avoiding the object of the sentence. Then we get,
James played ….. yesterday,
Here there is no problem in the sense of the sentence, even if there is no object.
So object is not an important factor to make a sentence complete in sense.
Then, if we try to avoid the subject, we get the sentence as,
….. played Tennis yesterday.
Here, the sentence makes an incomplete sense but convincing for us to get an idea. So, we can understand that without a subject we can guess the sense that the sentence makes.
Then look at the sentence without the verb as follows,
James …. Tennis yesterday.
Here, we don’t get even a mere idea and also we are shocked at the sense of the sentence that makes.
So, here, the sentence can no longer be called as a sentence, but only as a group of separated words. Also it can’t be called as a phrase, because even a phrase can give a some what meaning.
eg: Reading the book…
Hence, we can say that, if we avoid verb from a sentence, it loses its complete meaning and remains merely as a group of words giving no idea.
That’s, Verb is the most important part of a sentence and it is the verb that gives a complete sense to the sentence.
In this back ground, we are going to study verbs in detail.
Verbs can mainly be classified into two.
Finite verbs and Infinitive verbs/ non- finites
FINITE VERBS
As we studied earlier in the topic VERBS , we can say that, ‘verbs having a particular tense form’ are called Finite verbs.
eg: ‘worked’, ‘wrote’, ‘played’ etc....
INFINITIVE VERBS
The verbs ‘without having a particular tense form’ are called infinitive verbs
eg: ‘go’, ‘read’, ‘study’ etc..
Infinitives can be categorised into two, ‘ To’ – Infinitives’ and ‘Bare – Infinitives’
To — Infinitives
The verbs with a ‘to’ in front of it, or, simply say, verbs followed by ‘to’ are known as ‘to – infinitives.’
eg:‘ to read’, ‘to sing’, ‘to drink etc’ ..
Bare- Infinitives
Verbs without the ‘ to ‘ are known as Bare infinitives.
eg: ‘read’, ‘sing’, ‘drink’ etc….
( ‘Verb’ without ‘ a particular tense form’ can commonly be termed as ‘Non-finite’ or ‘Infinitive.’)
eg: ‘to go’, ‘come’, ‘drinking’, ‘having played’, ‘to have sung’, ‘broken’, etc…
From the above example, we can’t find out a particular tense form
We studied in the topic Verbs, the real sense makers that there are mainly two forms of verbs, that is ‘verbs without a particular tense form’ ( Main verbs / infinitives etc ) and ‘verbs with a particular tense form‘ ( Finite Verbs ).
That means, Finite verbs are always confined in a particular tense form, but infinitives don’t belong to any tense. That is, they are free from tenses as long as they are not confined in a particular tense form. In this sense, infinitives may also be called as FREE VERBS.
The verbs in most of the sentences except imperative sentences are Finite verbs and only this finite verbs can give a sentence its complete sense. So, if we want to make an infinitive verb as finite, we have to seek the help of some factors that lead to which tense the infinitives are to be confined. These factors that help infinitives for becoming finite verbs are called Helping verbs most commonly Auxiliary verbs.
So, ‘Auxiliary verbs’ or ‘Helping verbs’ are a type of verbs that helps the ‘ Infinitive verbs’ or ‘Non- finite verbs’ or ‘Main verbs’ or ‘Ordinary verbs’ or ‘Normal verbs’ or ‘Principal verbs’ or ‘Free verbs’ or ‘Base/ Root form of the verbs’ to get a particular tense form.
To understand more about these helping factors, we have to go to the topic Auxiliary verbs/ helping Verbs