1. Verbs are words that express action, being or state of being.
Example – went, are, sing

2. Verb Phrases Consists of a main verb and one or more other verbs
Example – The women are singing. Where have you been?

3. Helping Verbs
The last word of a verb phrase is the main verb. The other words are helping verbs.
Examples:Beth & Jon were sitting on the bench.
H.V. M.V.
Helping verbs: am, are, is, was, were, be, being, been, has, have, had. do, does, did, can, could, must, may, might, shall, should, will, would

4. More Helping Verbs A verb phrase may have more than one helping verb.
The helping verb can be separated from the main verb.
Example: should have taken
have been growing
H.V M.V.

5. Is/Are Was/Were Use IS with a singular subject
Use ARE with a plural subject
Always use ARE with the pronoun you
Use WAS with a singular subject to tell about the past
Use WERE with a plural subject to tell about the past
Always use WERE with the pronoun you.

6. Verb Tense Tells time of the action or being
Present tense tells something is happening now
Ex. Amanda dances in the show.
Past tense tells something happened in the past
Ex.Amanda danced in the show.
Future tense tells something WILL happen in the future.
Ex. Amanda will dance tomorrow in the show.

7. Principle Parts of Verbs
present, present participle, past, past participle
For regular verbs – present participle is formed by adding –ing
Used with a form of helping verb (be)
Past & past participles – formed by adding –ed to the present
Uses the form of the helping verb (have)

8. Examples Present Present Participle Past Past Participle walk
(is) walking
walked
(have, has, had) walked
point
(is) pointing
pointed
(have, has, had) pointed
cook
(is) cooking
cooked
(have, has, had) cooked

9. Additional Examples Tense Subject Auxiliary Past Participle Singular
Plural
Present
The car/cars is
are
designed.
Present perfect
has been
have been
Past
was
were
Past perfect
had been
Future
will be
Future perfect
will have been
Present progressive
is being
are being
Past progressive
was being
were being
designed

10. Past tenses Never use a helping verb with:
Saw, did, came, ate, drank, sang, rang, froze, chose, spoke, broke, knew, grew, threw, blew, flew, took, wrote, gave, went
Always use a helping verb with:
Seen, done, come, eaten, drunk, sung, rung, frozen, chosen, spoken, broken, known, grown, thrown, blown, flown, taken, written, given, gone