21.14: Verbs
In a sentence, a verb expresses an action, an occurrence, or a state of being.
Subject-Verb Agreement
In many sentences, making the verb agree with the subject is straightforward: I run every day. My sister runs every other day. Sometimes our brother joins us, and all of us run together . However, subject-verb agreement gets tricky in the following circumstances. (See Editing Focus: Subject-Verb Agreement for more on subject-verb agreement.)
Agreement with Compound Subjects
Two or more subjects joined by and take a plural verb in most sentences:
Yoga and meditation are effective activities for relieving stress.
However, when the parts of the subject form a single idea or unit, the verb is singular:
Macaroni and cheese is my favorite meal.
When compound subjects are joined by or or nor , the verb agrees with the word closest to it:
Either your aunts or your mother remembers where your great-grandmother’s grave is located.
Neither the image nor the words convey the message of the advertisement clearly.
Agreement When Words Come between Subject and Verb
The verb must agree with the subject even when words and phrases come between them:
The cost of the flights is prohibitive.
A box of invitations with stamps and return addresses was on the desk.
Agreement When the Verb Comes Before the Subject
The verb must agree with the subject, even when it comes before the subject:
Are James and Tamara at the front of the line?
There were three people ahead of us in line.
Under the table are a newspaper and a magazine .
Agreement with Everyone and Other Indefinite Pronouns
An indefinite pronoun is general; it does not refer to a specific person, place, or thing. Most indefinite pronouns take a singular verb, but not all. Those that take a singular verb include anybody, anyone, anything, each, everybody, everyone, everything, nobody, no one, nothing, one, somebody, someone, and something .
Everyone in the class has prepared a research proposal.
Nobody among the accused suspects admits to the crime.
The following indefinite pronouns take a plural verb: both, few many, others , and several .
Several of the students in the class have proposed researching hurricanes.
Both of the suspects deny committing the crime.
Several indefinite pronouns take a singular or plural verb depending on whether the word they refer to is singular or plural. These include all, any, enough, more, most, neither, none , and some .
Most of the class has proposed researching a topic related to climate change. ( Most refers to class .)
Most of the students in the class have proposed researching a topic related to climate change. ( Most refers to students .)
Neither the students nor the teachers have proposed a field trip. ( Neither/nor refers to students and teachers .)
Agreement with Collective Nouns
Collective nouns such as audience, band, class, crowd, family, group , or team can take a singular or a plural verb depending on the context. When the group acts as a single unit, which is the most common construction, use a singular verb:
The band rehearses every day.
When the group acts individually, use a plural verb, or to avoid confusion, add the word members and use a plural verb.
The jury do not agree on a verdict.
The jury members do not agree on a verdict.
Agreement with Words Such as News and Statistics
Some nouns that end in -s , such as athletics, economics, measles, news, physics, politics , and statistics seem plural but are usually regarded as singular in meaning. In most situations, these words take a singular verb:
Day after day, the news was bad.
Statistics fulfills a math requirement for many college majors.
When a word like economics, politics , or statistics refers to a specific situation, use a plural verb:
The economics of the situation are hard to comprehend.
Agreement with Titles and Words Used as Words
Whether singular or plural in form, titles and words used as words take singular verbs:
Directed by Spike Lee, Da 5 Bloods centers around four veterans returning to Vietnam to find the remains of their squad leader and the fortune they hid together.
Children is the plural form of child .
Verb Tense
Tense expresses the time of a verb’s action—the past, present, or future. Tense comes naturally in speech, but it can be tricky to control in writing. The following guidelines will help you choose the appropriate tense for your writing and use it consistently. (See Editing Focus: Verb Tense Consistency for a related discussion of consistent verb tense.)
Verb Tense in Narrative Writing
Personal experience stories, such as literacy narratives, memoirs, personal essays, or profiles, can be written in either the past or the present tense. Although the most natural way to tell a story about a past experience is to write in the past tense, the present tense can draw readers into the story and give the illusion that the experience is happening as they are reading it. In the following examples, the writer describes driving with her Native American grandfather to a tribal conference. Notice the difference between the past and present tense.
Narrative Writing Using Past Tense I sat silently next to Grandfather and watched him slowly tear the thin white paper from the tip of the cigarette. He gathered the tobacco in one hand and drove the van with the other. I memorized his every move as he went through the motions of the prayer, which ended when he blew the tobacco out the window and into the wind.
Narrative Writing Using Present Tense I sit silently next to Grandfather and watch him slowly tear the thin white paper from the tip of the cigarette. He gathers the tobacco in one hand and drives the van with the other. I memorize his every move as he goes through the motions of the prayer, which ends when he blows the tobacco out the window and into the wind.
Verb Tense in Academic Writing
Academic disciplines differ in their tense preferences for signal phrases used in formal essays and reports to introduce and discuss evidence. A signal phrase is a verb that tells readers the words or ideas that follow come from another source. Signal phrases include words such as argues, asserts, claims, comments, denies, discusses, implies, proposes, says, shows, states , and suggests . (For more discussion and a more extensive list of signal phrases, see Editing Focus: Integrating Sources and Quotations .)
| acknowledges | declares | observes |
| admits | endorses | poses |
| agrees | explains | positis |
| argues | finds | proposes |
| asserts | grants | reports |
| believes | illustrates | reveals |
| claims | implies | says |
| comments | insists | shows |
| concedes | maintains | states |
| concludes | notes | suggests |
| thinks | writes |
If you are writing for a course in English, a foreign language, or a related discipline and using MLA documentation style, you generally will use the present tense or the present perfect tense in signal phrases.
Present Tense The film critic Manohla Dargis claims that . . .
Present Perfect Tense The film critic Manohla Dargis has claimed that . . .
When you are analyzing a work of literature, common practice is to use the literary present tense in discussing both the work of the author and the action that occurs in the work:
Being cool is key to the lives of the speakers in “We Real Cool,” a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks. Brooks uses short lines and stanzas in which speakers list what it means to be cool: dropping out of school, staying out late, playing pool, drinking, carousing, and so on. Being cool unites the speakers, and they celebrate their lifestyle, even as they acknowledge in the final line of the poem that their coolness may cause them to die young.
(For more on literary present tense, see Editing Focus: Literary Works Live in the Present .)
If you are writing for a course in history, art history, philosophy, religion, or a related discipline in the humanities, you generally will use the present tense or the present perfect tense in signal phrases.
Present Tense The historian Eduardo Galeano argues that . . .
Present Perfect Tense The historian Eduardo Galeano has argued that . . .
On the other hand, if you are writing for a course in the social sciences, such as psychology, political science, or economics; a course in the natural sciences, such as biology, chemistry, or physics; or a technical field such as engineering, you will generally use past tense or present perfect tense for most signal phrases.
Past Tense The study found that individuals who identify as transgender . . . (past tense)
Present Perfect Tense Several recent studies have found that individuals who identify as transgender . . .
Verb Tense Consistency
Whichever tense you choose, be consistent throughout a piece of writing. You may need to shift tenses to indicate actual changes in time, but the governing tense should remain constant. (See Editing Focus: Verb Tense Consistency for a related discussion of consistent verb tense.)
Inconsistent Blinking back tears, I clutched my two-year-old son to my chest, kiss his forehead, and will gather my things. It is 2003, and I was headed to active duty in Iraq with the National Guard. I hug my spouse, my mom, my dad, my brothers, and my grandma. Then I turn and climbed on the bus that takes me to a future that, in all honesty, was terrifying to me.
Consistent Blinking back tears, I clutched my two-year-old son to my chest, kissed his forehead, and gathered my things. It was 2003, and I was headed to active duty in Iraq with the National Guard. I hugged my spouse, my mom, my dad, my brothers, and my grandma. Then I turned and climbed on the bus that would take me to a future that, in all honesty, was terrifying to me.
Irregular Verbs
Most verbs are regular and form the past tense and past participle forms by adding -d or -ed .
- I bake/I baked/I have baked
- She discovers/she discovered/she has discovered
- They shovel/they shoveled/they have shoveled
Some verbs, however, are irregular and form the past tense and participle in another way. Below are a few of the approximately 200 irregular verbs in English. For a comprehensive list of irregular verbs, see this list ( https://openstax.org/r/this_list ).
- begin/began/begun
- bring/brought/brought
- buy/bought/bought
- do/did/done
- drive/drove/driven
- fall/fell/fallen
- go/went/gone
- have/had/had
- is/was/been
- lead/led/led
- hide/hid/hidden
- ring/rang/rung
- run/ran/run
- see/saw/seen
- sing/sang/sung
- sit/sat/sat
- shake/shook/shaken
- speak/spoke/spoken
- take/took/taken
- wear/wore/worn
- write/wrote/written
Verb Mood
Verbs have three moods: indicative, imperative, and subjunctive. Mood can be said to indicate a speaker’s attitude or intention.
Indicative Mood
Use the indicative mood to state a fact or an opinion or to ask a question:
Thousands of women currently serve in the military.
I think college tuition is expensive.
The weather was awful for much of the winter but will improve soon.
Have you submitted your request for time off?
Imperative Mood
Use the imperative mood to give instructions and commands. The subject, you , is often implied but not stated:
(You) Use the online form to request time off.
(You) Submit your request for time off by Friday.
You must submit your request on time.
Subjunctive Mood
Use the subjunctive mood to express wishes, suggestions, or requirements or to state hypothetical or unlikely conditions:
The rules state that every member be present for the vote.
I wish you were here to see the exhibition.
The governing board could be more effective if all members were active.
Students who failed the class would have passed had they completed all assignments.