Verb: expresses action or links a subject & predicate

Britta burnt her baked goods. ACTION VERBS Fred found his folder. Rudolph wrote a riddle. Britta burnt her baked goods.

LINKING VERBS Some form of the BE verb (am, are, is, was, were) or words like seems, appears, becomes, tastes, smells, looks, etc.

LINKING VERBS Sam is silly. The soup smells good. Larry looks upset.

HELPING VERBS Verbs attached the main verb to help show tense

HELPING VERBS: am, are, is, was, were, be, being, been have, had, having do, does, did will, would can, could may, might, must shall, should

HELPING VERBS: I am running late. He will have had four cups of coffee by now. We shall leave early. They were answering the question. You should have eaten that. I do believe you.

TENSE-SHIFT TEST FOR VERBS: Shift the word into either the past-tense or future-tense form. If the result is grammatical (and the meaning of the sentence has not been otherwise changed), then the word must be a verb.

TENSE-SHIFT TEST FOR VERBS: The chain is rusty. (Is “chain” a verb?) The chained is rusty. The will chain is rusty. Not a verb!

TENSE-SHIFT TEST FOR VERBS: We chain the dog every night. (Is “chain” a verb?) We chained the dog every night We will chain the dog every night VERB!