Verbs
"I Want Action"
To be or not to be? When Hamlet asked that age-old question, did he know he was using one of the most common verbs? This verb rap song covers the verb “to be,” “could, should and would,” as well as verb tenses. It might seem like second nature to say I took instead of I taked, but this song reminds students when to add an “-ed” for past tense, and when to use a tricky exception.
V to the E to the R to the Bs,
Everywhere I go that's all I see.
I want action and I want it free.
I grab some verbs; that's all I need. (x2)
I think, I dance, I move,
I sleep, yes sir that's an action, too.
My favorite verb would have to be
The verb “to be,” it works masterfully.
I am, you are, it is, yep!
He was, we were, she has been,
They're being, you will be soon,
With no verbs, what would we do?
Some verbs help you know more--that's good,
Like could, should, would.
I could have gone to the little pond.
I should have planned for it all along, but I did it wrong.
I would have have fun playing in the pond with the swans.
Ya, I coulda, shoulda, woulda, but instead I wrote a little song.
These words don't mean you did it:
But if you say, "I'll do it" - then you're committed,
V to the E to the R to the Bs,
Everywhere I go that's all I see.
I want action and I want it free.
I grab some verbs; that's all I need. (x2)
Verbs move, verbs chill,
Verbs can give you life, and verbs can kill.
My verbs tell me when,
Will it be in the future? Or was it in the past tense?
I ran down the block, I was running,
I run a lot, right now I'm running.
I will run tomorrow, you copy?
I ran through the tenses, and nobody could stop me.
In the past tense some verbs aren't easy,
Usually to make it past add an “-ed,”
Like: he slips, you can say he slipped,
She flips, yeah, say she flipped.
But take this word: the word "take,"
If you say “I taked,” you would make a mistake,
I took, he didn't shaked, he shook,
Not selled, it’s sold, not telled, it’s told, c'mon!
V to the E to the R to the Bs,
Everywhere I go that's all I see.
I want action and I want it free.
I grab some verbs; that's all I need. (x2)
No matter how you dance, it's still a verb.
Verbs are words that describe actions. Every single complete sentence needs a verb. Otherwise, nothing would be happening. Some actions are physical, like "dance" or "move." But other actions happen even if you can't see them, like "think" or "like." And even when you're sleeping, and it seems like you aren't doing anything, that's still an action. So "sleep" is also a verb.
To be or not to be, that is the... verb?!
The verb "to be" is one of the most commonly used verbs in English. It is irregular and changes its form a lot depending on who is doing an action and when the action happened.
In the present tense, the verb "to be" is: I am, You/We/They are and He/She/It is. In the past tense, the verb to be is: I/He/She/They was and You/We/They were. More complex tenses include have been, is being and will be. You just can't avoid the verb "to be."
Handy helpers
"Could," "should" and "would" are three auxiliary verbs. But they are more commonly known as "helping verbs." If you see any of these words before a verb, it means that the verb won't or didn't necessarily happen. For instance, if you said, "I could help you feel the dog," it doesn't mean you will definitely help feed the dog. It just means you can.
Verbs can tell the future.
Verbs change their form based on when the action is happening. "Verb tense" is the term used to describe this way the verb changes. Let's take the verb "to run." Yesterday, you ran. That is known as the past tense. Today, you run. That's the present tense. At this very moment, you are running. That's the present progressive tense. Tomorrow, you will run. That's the future tense. Can you write all the tenses for the verb "to walk"?
There are other more complex tenses, like the present, past and future perfect tenses: I have run, I had run, and I will have run.
He slipped.
To change many verbs to the past tense, you just have to add -ed to the end. For example, the present-tense "he slips" becomes the past-tense "he slipped." Change the following present-tense verbs to the past by adding "-ed": I play, He jumps, The horse gallops, We dance.
The bird flies today. But it flew yesterday.
Some irregular verbs can't get changed into the past tense by adding "-ed," though. If you are taking medicine, and you take a pill today, you didn't taked it yesterday. Instead, you took it yesterday.
Here are some other irregular verbs. Can you think of how to say them in the past tense? Run, spin, fly, bend and fight.
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