The verb. General characteristics. Classifications of english verbs. Categories of tense, aspect, mood, voice, person, and number. Method: discussion. Reja: Introduction to Verbs: Tense, Aspect, and Mood

Key Terms

• 
  aspect: Describes the action’s degree of progress or completion. The three main aspects are indefinite, progressive, and perfect.
  
• 
  direct object: A word that answers the question, “What is being acted upon?” In “Danielle ate fruit,” fruit is a direct object of the verb ate.
  
• 
  verb: A word that expresses an action, describes an occurrence, or establishes a state of being.
  
• 
  tense: Any of the forms of a verb that distinguish when an action or state of being occurs or exists. The three simple tenses are past, present, and future.
  

A verb is a word that expresses an action, describes an occurrence, or establishes a state of being. Every sentence needs at least one verb, which is paired with the subject. All verbs have tense, aspect, and mood, of which there is a wide variety of combinations. These concepts are part of the foundation of accurately expressing your thoughts in writing.

Verb Tense

Tense indicates when the action expressed by a verb takes place. The three simple tenses are past, present, and future.

Different tenses take different verb forms, either by changing the word itself or by adding helping verbs. There is no single formula for how to change verb tenses. Here are a few examples:

Present Tense

Present tense expresses unchanging actions and states of being. It is also used with recurring actions and with universal or widespread truths.

• 
  I walk
  
• 
  She runs
  

Past Tense

Past tense is used for actions that started and finished in the past.

• 
  I walked
  
• 
  She ran
  

Future Tense

Future tense expresses an action or event that will take place in the future.

• 
  I will walk
  
• 
  She will run
  

Verbal Aspect

“Verbal aspect” refers to the timing of the verb. More specifically, it addresses whether the action occurs in a single block of time, continuously, or repetitively. All verbs have both tense and aspect. Verbal aspect consists of simple, progressive, perfect, or perfect progressive, where each refers to a different fabric of time.

Simple

The simple aspect is used to express a single action, a repeated action, or a permanent state.

• 
  Permanent state: David lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.
  
• 
  Repeated or habitual action: He runs every morning.
  
• 
  Single action: He graduated from the University of North Carolina.
  

Progressive

The progressive aspect is used to talk about continuous events.

• 
  Dr. Jones was lecturing about grammar.
  
• 
  Jane is reading a novel.
  

Perfect

The perfect aspect is used to discuss completed actions. It is often formed by the verb have combined with a past tense verb.

• 
  My family had left before the flooding reached our home.
  
• 
  She has visited their mountain home.