FAQs about verbs

What is the most common linking verb?

The most common linking verb is “be” (e.g., “Abel is a painter,” “the McKays were at the party”). It’s one of three “true linking verbs” along with “become” and “seem.” These are always linking verbs when used as the main verb, and “be” is the most commonly used of the three.

Read this FAQ: What is the most common linking verb?

What is the past perfect form of “go”?

The past perfect tense is used for verbs describing past actions that took place before another past action or up to a certain point in the past.

To form the past perfect tense, place the auxiliary verb “had” before the past participle of the main verb.

The past participle of “go” is “gone,” and the past perfect form of “go” is “had gone” (e.g., “he had gone”).

Read this FAQ: What is the past perfect form of “go”?

What is the past perfect continuous?

The past perfect continuous is a past tense verb form used to describe actions that started in the past and continued until another point in the past. For example, “she had been running for an hour and was feeling exhausted.”

To form the past perfect continuous, place the auxiliary verbs “had” and “been” before the present participle (the “-ing” form) of the main verb (e.g., “They had been cooking”).

There are three other past tense forms: the simple past, past continuous (aka past progressive), and past perfect.

QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker can help you with correct spellings and endings when you’re using different verb tenses.

Read this FAQ: What is the past perfect continuous?

What is the simple present form of “be”?

“Be” is a stative verb and linking verb and is the most irregular verb in English. It has three simple present tense forms: “am,” “is,” and “are.”

“Am” is used for a first person subject (e.g., “I am Spanish”).

“Are” is used for plural subjects (e.g., “we are Spanish”) and for both singular and plural second person subjects (e.g., “you are Spanish”).

“Is” is used for a third person singular subject (e.g., “he/she/it is Spanish”).

Read this FAQ: What is the simple present form of “be”?

What is the present participle of “lie”?

“Lying” is the present participle form of the verb “lie.”

Verbs with “-ie” endings typically drop the “ie” and take a “y” + “ing” ending in present participle form (e.g., “vie” becomes “vying,” and “die” becomes “dying”).

Read this FAQ: What is the present participle of “lie”?

What is the present participle of “be”?

“Being” is the present participle of “be” (e.g., “They were being watched”). “Been” is the past participle.

Read this FAQ: What is the present participle of “be”?

What is the difference between a participle and a gerund?

Gerunds and present participles look the same but serve different grammatical purposes.

• Gerunds are nouns (e.g., “She loves teaching”).
• Present participles can be used as adjectives (e.g., “the crashing waves”) and as part of continuous verb tenses (e.g., “We are studying,” “He has been traveling”).

Read this FAQ: What is the difference between a participle and a gerund?

What’s the difference between infinitives and prepositional phrases?

Both infinitives and prepositional phrases can begin with to. However, an infinitive is “to” plus a verb, while “to” in a prepositional phrase is followed by a noun or pronoun.

For example, in “I want to take her to the cinema,” “to take” is an infinitive and “to the cinema” is a prepositional phrase.

Read this FAQ: What’s the difference between infinitives and prepositional phrases?

What is a full infinitive?

A full infinitive is the base form of the verb preceded by “to” (e.g., “to drink”). A bare infinitive, on the other hand, is simply the base form of the verb without “to” (e.g., “drink”).

Infinitives can be used as subjects, direct objects, adverbs, and adjectives. Full infinitives are more common than bare infinitives, and several verbs can only be followed by full infinitives (e.g., “I promise to visit” not “I promise visit”).

Read this FAQ: What is a full infinitive?

What is a bare infinitive?

A bare infinitive is the same as the base or dictionary form of the verb (e.g., “eat”), while a full infinitive is the base form of the verb preceded by “to” (e.g., “to eat”).

Bare infinitives often follow modal verbs (e.g., “we can fly”), the auxiliary verb “do” (e.g., “don’t touch”), and sense verbs (e.g., “I saw him run”).

There are a few verbs, such as “let” and “make,” that must be followed by bare infinitives instead of full infinitives (e.g., “let me try” not “let me to try”).

Infinitives have many uses, including functioning as subjects, direct objects, adjectives, and adverbs.

Read this FAQ: What is a bare infinitive?