Verbs are the heart of a sentence. They express the action or state of being of the subject and indicate what the subject is doing, thinking, or feeling: She y elled out the window. (action) I am happy to be here. (state of being) We f eel very lucky to be alive. (state of being) I sho uld ask Winston what he thinks. (action) Verbs have five basic forms: infinitive, present tense, present participle, past tense, and past participle. These five forms are used with other helping verbs to form other verb tenses, including the future, conditional, and subjunctive mood (see pages 150 — 151). ■ Infinitive base: the base form of the verb plus the word to. to go to be to dream to admire CHAPTER Verb Forms 9 143 To indicate tenses of regular verbs (when the action of the verb did occur, is occurring, or will occur), use the base form of the verb and add the appropriate tense endings. ■ Present tense: the verb form that expresses what is happening now. I am sorry you do not play tennis. Jessica e njoys yoga every morning. The present tense of regular verbs is formed as follows: SINGULAR PLURAL first person (I/we) base form (believe) base form (believe) I believe we believe second person (you) base form (believe) base form (believe) you believe you believe third person (he/she/it, they) base form ؉ -s/-es (believes) base form (believe) she believes/he believes they believe ■ Present participle: the verb form that describes what is happening now. It ends in -ing and is accompa- nied by a helping verb, such as is. Jessica is doing a difficult yoga pose. The leaves ar e falling from the trees. NOTE: Words that end in -ing don’t always function as verbs. Sometimes they act as nouns called gerunds. They can also function as adjectives called participial phrases. Present participle (verb): He is loading the boxes into the car. Gerund (noun): This parking area is for loading only. Participial phrase (adjective): The loading dock is littered with paper. You will learn more about gerunds later in this section. ■ Past tense: the verb form that expresses what happened in the past. It sno wed yesterday in the mountains. I f elt better after I stretched and did some deep breathing. ■ Past participle: the verb form that describes an action that happened in the past and is used with a helping verb, such as has, have, or had. It has not snowed all winter. I ha ve waited as long as I can. – VERB FORMS– 144 Regular Verbs Most English verbs are regular — they follow a standard set of rules for forming the present participle, past tense, and past participle: ■ The present participle is formed by adding -ing. ■ The past and past participle are formed by adding -ed. ■ If the verb ends with the letter e, just add d. ■ If the verb ends with the letter y, for the past tense, change the y to an i and add -ed. Here are some examples: PRESENT PRESENT PARTICIPLE PAST PAST PARTICIPLE ask asking asked asked dream dreaming dreamed dreamed protect protecting protected protected spell spelling spelled spelled whistle whistling whistled whistled A handful of English verbs have the same present, past, and past participle form. Here is a partial list of those verbs and two examples: SAME PRESENT, PAST, AND PAST PARTICIPLE FORM bet hit set bid hurt shut burst put pread cost quit upset cut read Present: I read the newspaper every morning. Past: I r ead the newspaper yesterday morning. Past participle: I ha ve read the newspaper every morning since 1992. Present: Please s et the table for dinner. Past: He s et the table for dinner. Past participle: He had already set the table for dinner. – VERB FORMS– 145 Irregular Verbs About 150 English verbs are irregular. They don’t follow the standard rules for changing tense. These irreg- ular verbs can be divided into three categories: ■ irregular verbs with the same past and past participle forms ■ irregular verbs with three distinct forms ■ irregular verbs with the same present and past participle forms The following table lists the most common irregular verbs. SAME PAST AND PAST PARTICIPLE FORMS PRESENT PAST PAST PARTICIPLE bite bit bit dig dug dug bleed bled bled hear heard heard hold held held light lit lit meet met met pay paid paid say said said sell sold sold tell told told shine shone shone shoot shot shot sit sat sat spin spun spun spit spat spat creep crept crept – VERB FORMS– 146 PRESENT PAST PAST PARTICIPLE deal dealt dealt keep kept kept kneel knelt knelt leave left left mean meant meant send sent sent sleep slept slept spend spent spent bring brought brought buy bought bought catch caught caught fight fought fought teach taught taught think thought thought feed fed fed flee fled fled find found found grind ground ground THREE DISTINCT FORMS PRESENT PAST PAST PARTICIPLE begin began begun ring rang rung sing sang sung spring sprang sprung – VERB FORMS– 147 PRESENT PAST PAST PARTICIPLE do did done go went gone am was been is was been see saw seen drink drank drunk shrink shrank shrunk sink sank sunk stink stank stunk swear swore sworn tear tore torn wear wore worn blow blew blown draw drew drawn fly flew flown grow grew grown know knew known throw threw thrown drive drove driven strive strove striven choose chose chosen rise rose risen break broke broken speak spoke spoken fall fell fallen – VERB FORMS– 148 . newspaper yesterday morning. Past participle: I ha ve read the newspaper every morning since 19 92. Present: Please s et the table for dinner. Past: He s et the table for dinner. Past participle: