G RAMMAR R OCKS : PART II Verbs, Verbs and More Verbs

B EFORE WE B EGIN, A FEW G OOD QUESTIONS : What is a modal verb? How can you tell the difference between a linking and helping verb? What is the purpose of a helping verb? Are there more linking verbs than to be? How do you diagram compound predicates if there are more than two?

R EMEMBER THAT VERBS State action Ms. K drank twenty liters of lemonade and ate nineteen boxes of Coco Puffs. State being Ms. K is bloated and very tired from her binge.

T HERE ARE 4 KINDS OF VERBS But instead of listing them all here (which is very, very scary) lets discuss one at a time. Look what happened when this person heard all four verb types at once:

1. O KAY, I LIED, 1 AND 2 1. I NTRANSITIVE VS. 2. T RANSITIVE Does not carry an action to a receiver in = not Carries action to a receiver Think of the transit stationit carries people ACTION RECEIVER Transitive Verb

I NTRANSITIVE Simplest type of verb to understand and diagram i.e. Rex barks. Has action but no receiver of the action Rex barks, but he doesnt bark something. Nothing gets barked. Can have helping verbs: Rex was barking. Rex has barked, might have been barking. The subject DOES the action The action has NO RECEIVER

Rex lay in the kennel. The rat had died in the trap. He existed in a coma. We had been sleeping on the porch. Not very exciting, but still ACTION verbs (with some helping and linking thrown in for fun!) S OMETIMES, THE ACTION DESCRIBED ISN T VERY LIVELY …

A LSO, SOMETIMES THERE IS A SORT OF RECEIVER, AT LEAST IN REAL LIFE Rex barks at Joe. Joe receives some sort of action from the barking. He must hear it! But not GRAMMATICALLY!!! at Joe is a prepositional phrase telling how or where or possibly why Rex barks. (But you knew that already, didnt you? Smarties.)

A S YOU HAVE BEEN DOING, Continue to place the verb with all its helpers on the verb line to the right of the subject. But now check to make sure the subject is doing the action and that there is no receiver of the action. Then label such verbs I for Intransitive. And smile. Cause this is good stuff. Delicious stuff, even! I Youhave been learning about verbs those easy intransitive

A ND NOW, FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT :

T RANSITIVE (A CTIVE ) V ERBS If I say to you Rex bit, you do not feel I have made a complete sentence, do you? Yet there is a subject (Rex) and a verb (bit). But the thought is not complete. You wait for me to answer the question ____________?

S O I SAY … Rex bit Joe. Now the idea is complete. Here we definitely have a verb of ACTION. The subject (Rex) DID the action. The action, as poor Joe will quickly agree, has been RECEIVED. So, we have a TRANSITIVE VERB : T DO RexbitJoe

D IRECT O BJECTS The noun that receives the action of a transitive verb T DO RexbitJoe You will NEVER have a TV without a DO; you will NEVER have a DO without a TV Draw an arrow from the verb to the object that receives the action. Did the subject really DO THIS VERB to the DIRECT OBJECT? Did Joe RECEIVE the biting? Yes, he did. Poor guy. Okay, then, TV and DO!

L ET S P RACTICE : F ILL IN THE MISSING ELEMENT AND LABEL ALL TV S AND DO S. T HEN DIAGRAM THE SENTENCES. 1. Nellie _______________ the dishes in the sink. 2. Have you seen the cats ________________? 3. On Friday all the _____________ quit their jobs. 4. I do not believe those ____________. 5. Otto __________food to the squirrels.

N OW WE KNOW 2 OF THE 4 VERB TYPES ! 1.Intransitive Verbs 2.Transitive Verbs Your excitement is burning holes in my retinas.

One of the strengths of the English language is that it is flexible. We may bend a single word into many different uses. And so, you should not be surprised to learn that some verbs can be, in different sentences, EITHER transitive or intransitive. Check out the difference between these two verbs: Rex has been running in the woods. Rex ran the cat up the tree. Whats the difference between the two?

has been running shows the action Rex did Did anything receive the action? No, Rex just did it. in the woods is an adverbial preposition showing where he did it Rexhas been running Rex ran SOMETHING Something received the action of his running; something got run Rex ran cat Rex ran the cat up the tree. Rex has been running in the woods. in woods the up tree

L OOK UP THE WORD R UN IN THE DICTIONARY GO AHEAD, I LL WAIT.

Notice the little letters in italics, usually placed right after the pronunciation guide. See how run is followed by v.i.? There will be a long definition which may begin: to move swiftly. Read on through that definition and you should come to v.t. Then another definition follows, perhaps: to cause to run. Remember, Rex has been running in the woods. Rex ran the cat up the tree. In the first sentence (intransitive) Rex has indeed been moving swiftly through the woods. In the second Rex has caused the cat to run (transitive).

E XAMINE, D IAGRAM AND LABEL THESE SENTENCES, WHICH GIVE FURTHER EXAMPLES OF VERBS USED BOTH TRANSITIVELY ( RECEIVER OF THE ACTION ) AND INTRANSITIVELY ( NO RECEIVER OF THE ACTION.) 1. Birds sing. Birds sing songs. 2. Bill was fighting. Ali was fighting Joe for the title. 3. Dawn broke over the mountain. Did you break that cup? 4. She swept through the room like a queen. I swept the porch.

N OW YOU T RY : Find three verbs that can function as both transitive and intransitive verbs.

W HAT I LEFT OUT WAS THIS : The INTRANSITIVE verb we studied was called INTRANSITIVE COMPLETE (IC) (it stands all by itself.) The TRANSITIVE VERB we studied was called TRANSITIVE ACTIVE (TA)

ACTION Transitive Active (TA) Rex bit Joe Subject does action. Direct Object receives action (TA ALWAYS has DO) Intransitive Complete (IC) Rex barks Action, but no receiver Subject does action ACTION BEING Transitive Passive (TP) at Joe