Correct Use of Verb 6

1. Verb comes from the Latin verbum, meaning, a word. It is so called because it is the most important word in a sentence. A verb is a word used to assert something about some person or thing.
A verb may tell us –

  1. What a person or thing does; as;
    He sings a song.
    The clock ticks.
  2. What is done to a person or thing; as:
    The teacher scolded him.
    The window pane is broken.
  3. What a person or thing is; as:
    The lion is dead.
    I feel sorry for what I did.

2. A verb often consists of more than one word; as;
I have read the book.
The ball has been lost.

3. Forms of Verbs:
There are three forms of verb: Infinitive, Past Simple and Past Participle For example:

Infinitive

Past Simple

Past Participle

be

was/were

been

blow

blew

blown

drink

drank

drunk

feed

fed

fed

hang

hung

hung

know

knew

known

lead

led

led

teach

taught

taught

4. Regular and Irregular Verbs
Regular Verbs
If a verb is regular, the Past Simple and Past Participle end in -ed; as:

Infinitive          clean            finish            use           point            stop           carry
Past simple,    cleaned        finished        used         pointed        stopped    carried
Past participle

Spelling tips:

  1. If a word ends in the consonant -y (baby, carry, easy etc.) y changes to i before the ending -ed, e.g. hurry – hurried; study – studied; apply – applied; try – tried, (a, e, i, o and u are vowel letters. The other letters b, c, d, f, g etc. are consonant letters)
  2. If a verb ends in -e, we add -d for the past of regular verbs; e.g. hope/hoped;
    smile/smiled; dance/danced and confuse/confused.
  3. Sometimes a word ends in vowel + consonant, e.g. stop, plan, rub etc.
    In such cases before the endings –ed, we double the consonant at the end. So, p becomes ppn becomes nn; as in:
    stop – stopped; plan – planned; rub – rubbed.
    1. When the past simple/past participle do not end in -ed (for example, I saw/ I have seen etc.) the verb is irregular.
      With some irregular verbs, all three forms (infinitive, past simple and past participle) are the same, for example hit:
      Don’t hit me. (infinitive)
      Somebody hit me when I went to market.
      I have never hit anybody in my life, (past participle – present perfect) Mohan was hit on the head by a stone, (past participle – passive)
    2. With other irregular verbs, the past simple is the same as the past participle (but different from the infinitive). For example, tell – told:
      Can you tell me about Sharan?
      She told me to come back the next day. (past simple)
      Have you told anybody about changing your school? (past participle – present perfect)
      I was told to come back the next day (past participle – passive)
    3. With other irregular verbs, all three forms are different, for example, wake – woke/woken:
      I will wake you up. (infinitive)
      woke up in the middle of the night, (past simple)
      The baby has woken up. (past participle – present perfect)
      I was woken up by a loud noise (past participle – passive)
    4. The following verbs can be regular or irregular:
      bum – burned or burnt                  smell – smelled or smelt
      dream – dreamed or dreamt         spell – spelled or spelt
      lean – leaned or leant                   spill – spilled or spilt
      learn – learned or learnt               spoil – spoiled or spoilt

Exercise 1

Write the past simple / past participle of these verbs, (the past simple and past participle are the same for all the verbs in this exercise.)

1. make            6. enjoy               11. hear
2. cut                7. buy                  12. put
3. get                8. sit                    13. catch
4. bring             9. leave               14. watch
5. pay               10. happen          15. understand

Аnswers:

1. made            6. enjoyed                 11. heard
2. cut                7. bought                  12. put
3. got                8. sat                        13. caught
4. brought         9. left                        14. watched
5. paid              10. happened           15. understood

Exercise 2

Write the past simple and past participle of these verbs:

1. break            6. run              11. take
2. begin            7. speak          12. go
3. eat                8. write            13. give
4. drink             9. come           14. throw
5. drive            10. know          15. forget

Аnswers:

1. break – broke, broken                         2. begin – began, begun
3. eat – ate, eaten                                   4. drink – drank, drunk
5. drive – drove, driven                           6. run – ran, run
7. speak – spoke, spoken                       8. write – wrote, written
9. come – came, come                           10. know – knew, known
11. take – took, taken                             12. go – went, gone
13. give – gave, given                            14. throw – threw, thrown
15. forget – forgot, forgotten

Exercise 3

Put the verb in the right form:

  1. I …………………………….. my hands because they were dirty, (wash)
  2. Somebody has …………………………….. this window pane, (break)
  3. I feel good. I …………………………….. very well last night, (sleep)
  4. We …………………………….. a very good film yesterday, (see)
  5. It …………………………….. a lot while we were on holiday, (rain)
  6. I have …………………………….. my bag. (lose). Have you    it? (see)
  7. Harish’s bicycle was …………………………….. last week, (steal)
  8. I …………………………….. to bed early because I was tired, (go)
  9. Have you …………………………….. your work yet? (finish)
  10. This house was …………………………….. about 15 years ago. (build)
  11. Parth …………………………….. to drive when he was 18. (learn)
  12. I have never …………………………….. a horse, (ride)
  13. Sushma is a good friend of mine. I have …………………………….. her for a long time, (know)
  14. Yesterday I …………………………….. (fall) and    my leg. (hurt)

Аnswers:

  1. washed.
  2. broken.
  3. slept.
  4. saw.
  5. rained.
  6. lost, seen.
  7. stolen
  8. went.
  9. finished.
  10. built
  11. learnt.
  12. ridden.
  13. known.
  14. fell, hurt.

Exercise 4

Complete these sentences. Choose from the box and put the verb into the correct form.

cost            drive        fly        make        meet            sell
speak        swim        tell        think        wake up        win

  1. I have …………………………….. some coffee. Would you like some?
  2. Have you …………………………….. Mr. Jain about the book you wanted?
  3. We played cricket on Sunday. We did not play very well but we ……………………………..
  4. I know Sohan but I have never …………………………….. his sister.
  5. We were …………………………….. by loud music in the middle of the night.
  6. Mohan jumped into the river and …………………………….. to the other side.
  7. ‘Did you like the film?’ Yes. I …………………………….. it was very good.’
  8. Many different languages are …………………………….. in India.
  9. Our holiday …………………………….. a lot of money because we stayed in an expensive hotel.
  10. Have you ever …………………………….. a very fast car?
  11. All the tickets for the show were …………………………….. very quickly. .
  12. A bird …………………………….. in through the open window while we were having our dinner.

Аnswers:

  1. made.
  2. told.
  3. won.
  4. met.
  5. woken up.
  6. swam.
  7. thought.
  8. spoken.
  9. cost.
  10. driven.
  11. sold.
  12. flew

Exercise 5

Complete the sentences. Choose from the list and put the verb into the correct form.

damage        eat        enjoy                go        go away
listen            open     pronounce        rain       understand        use

  1. I am going to take an umbrella with me. It is ………………………….
  2. Why are you so tired? Did you …………………………. to bed late last night?
  3. Where are the chocolates? Have you …………………………. them all?
  4. How is your new job? Are you…………………………. it?
  5. My uncle’s car was badly…………………………. in the accident but I was OK.
  6. Mrs. Kapur has got a car but she does not …………………………. it very often.
  7. Shalini is not at home. She has …………………………. for a few days.
  8. I don’t …………………………. the problem. Can you explain it again?
  9. Nikhil is in his room. He’s …………………………. to music.
  10. I don’t know how to say this word. How is it …………………………. ?
  11. How do you …………………………. this window? Can you show me?

Аnswers:

  1. raining.
  2. go.
  3. eaten.
  4. enjoying.
  5. damaged.
  6. use.
  7. gone away.
  8. understand.
  9. listening.
  10. pronounced.
  11. open.

Exercise 6

Put the verb into the correct form, to … or -ing:

  1. When I am tired, I enjoy …………………… television, (watch)
  2. It was a nice day, so we decided …………………… for a walk, (go)
  3. It’s a nice day. Does anyone fancy …………………… for a walk, (go)
  4. I’m not in a hurry. I don’t mind …………………… (wait)
  5. They don’t have much money. They can’t afford …………………… out. (go)
  6. I wish that dog would stop …………………… It is driving me mad. (bark)
  7. Our neigbour threatened …………………… the police if we did not stop fighting (call)
  8. We were hungry, so I suggested …………………… dinner early, (have)
  9. Hurry up! I don’t want to risk …………………… the train, (miss)
  10. I’m still looking for a job but I hope …………………… something soon, (find)

Аnswers:

  1. watching.
  2. to go.
  3. going.
  4. waiting.
  5. to go.
  6. barking.
  7. to call.
  8. having.
  9. missing.
  10. to find.
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