Verbs (Lesson 5)

A Read the following passage and notice the underlined words.
I am a student. I have a sister. She is also a student. Both my parents are teachers. They teach at a college. They spend a lot of money on books. We have a family library. There are lots of books in our library. We buy new books every month. We enjoy reading books. Some of my friends borrow books from us.

The underlined words in the passage state something or indicate action. They are called verbs. The words 'teach', 'spend', 'buy', 'enjoy' and 'borrow' in the passage refer to actions and they are called action verbs. On the other hand, 'am', 'is' and 'are' indicate conditions or states. They are called state verbs or 'to be' verbs.

Now identify 'to be' verbs and action verbs in the following passage:
My brother is a banker. He works for a private bank. He also runs a business. Some of his friends help him in his business. He earns a lot of money. He maintains our family very well. We are a happy family.

B Read the following sentences and see the time reference and forms of the verbs in bold:
I invited him to a party. He has also invited me to a dinner at his house.
She entered the class late yesterday but today she has entered the class on time.
Nasir failed in the exam but his younger brother has never failed in any exam.
The verbs refer to past time, and also past action but results of which are still present. 'd' or 'ed' has been added to the base forms of the main verbs to form past tense and past participles of the verbs. They are called regular verbs. On the other hand, there are many verbs which do not take regular 'd' or 'ed' for their past and participle forms. They are called irregular verbs.

Look at the following examples of irregular verbs:
I wrote a letter yesterday.
He has written a lot of books.
He went to Dhaka last week.
She has gone to school.
They bought a car last year.
We have bought a house.

These are examples of irregular verbs, none of these take 'd' or 'ed' for forming past tense and past
Here are some more regular and irregular verbs:

Regular Verbs:

Now fill in the blank spaces with appropriate forms of regular verbs:

Some irregular verbs in different forms:

Now match the past and past participle forms with the base forms of the following irregular verbs. Put the number beside the base form against its past and past participle forms in columns 2 and 3. One is done for you:

Note: You will learn the use of these forms of verbs in the unit on tenses.