What is a Verb?

Verbs are a part of our everyday life! In fact, every sentence must contain a verb. 'Go!' is a sentence because it contains a verb and makes sense on its own.

Verbs can be defined as 'action words' because many verbs express specific physical actions such as 'do', 'eat' and 'walk'.

But some verbs do not express an action. They refer to a cognitive state: 'be', 'enjoy', 'want'. They are not usually used in the continuous form.

In every sentence, a verb has a subject. For example, in the sentence 'I like cats', 'I' is the subject, and 'like' is the verb. Your subject and verb must agree in number. If a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular. If a subject is plural, its verb must also be plural.

In English, verbs have up to five forms: base form, third-person singular, '-ing' form, past, and past participle.

• play, plays, playing, played, played