4. Main Verbs

Main verbs are also called "lexical verbs".

There are thousands of main verbs, and we can classify them in several ways:

1. Transitive and intransitive verbs

A transitive verb takes a direct object: Somebody killed the President. An intransitive verb does not have a direct object: He died. Many verbs, like speak, can be transitive or intransitive:

I saw an elephant. (transitive)

We are watching TV. (transitive)

He has arrived. (intransitive)

John goes to school. (intransitive)

2. Linking verbs

A linking verb does not have much meaning in itself. It "links" the subject to what is said about the subject. Usually, a linking verb shows equality (=) or a change to a different state or place (>).

Linking verbs are always intransitive (but not all intransitive verbs are linking verbs):

Mary is a teacher. (Mary = teacher)

The sky became dark. (the sky > dark)

3. Dynamic and stative verbs

Some verbs describe action. They are called "dynamic", and can be used with continuous tenses. Other verbs describe state (non-action, a situation). They are called "stative", and cannot normally be used with continuous tenses (though some of them can be used with continuous tenses with a change in meaning).

Dynamic verbs (examples):

hit, explode, fight, run, go

Stative verbs (examples):

be

like, love, prefer, wish

impress, please, surprise

hear, see, sound

belong to, consist of, contain, include, need

appear, resemble, seem

4. Regular and irregular verbs

The only real difference between regular and irregular verbs is that they have different endings for their past tense and past participle forms.

For regular verbs, the past tense ending and past participle ending is always the same: -ed:

look, looked, looked; work, worked, worked

For irregular verbs, the past tense ending and the past participle ending is variable, so it is necessary to learn them by heart:

buy, bought, bought; cut, cut, cut; do, did, done

Some verbs can be both regular and irregular, for example:

learn, learned, learned or learn, learnt, learnt

Some verbs change their meaning depending on whether they are regular or irregular, for example "to hang":

regular	hang, hanged, hanged	to kill or die, by dropping with a rope around the neck
irregular	hang, hung, hung	to fix something (for example, a picture) at the top so that the lower part is free

5. Forms of Main Verbs

English verbs come in several forms. For example, the verb to sing can be: to sing, sing, sang, sung, singing or sings. This is a total of 6 forms. English tenses may be quite complicated, but the forms that we use to make the tenses are actually very simple. With the exception of the verb to be, English main verbs have only 4, 5 or 6 forms. To be has 9 forms:

		V1	V2	V3
	infinitive	base-present simple (except 3rd pers. sing.)/ imperative/ base after modal auxiliary verbs	past simple	past participle	present participle	present simple, 3rd person singular
R E G U L A R	I want to work.	I work in London / Work well! / I can work tomorrow.	I worked last week.	I have worked here for five years.	I am working.	He works in London.
I R R E G U L A R	He has to sing.	You sing well / Make this! / You must sing louder.	You made a mistake	He needs a folder made of plastic.	Singing well is not easy.	She sings well.
	(to) do* (to) have*	do have	did had	done had	doing having	does has
	This work is easy to do.	They have a lot of money / Have a nice day / They might do it.	They had a good time.	It is done like this.	Having finished, he went home.	She has a lot of money.
	infinitive	base	past simple	past participle	present participle	present simple
	(to) be*	be	was, were	been	being	am, are, is
	To be, or not to be, that is the question.	Be quiet! / You could be right.	They were asleep.	I have never been so happy.	You are being silly!	It is English.

Do not confuse verb forms with tenses. We use the different verb forms to make the tenses, but they are not the same thing.

The infinitive can be with or without to. For example, to sing and sing are both infinitives. We often call the infinitive without to the "bare infinitive".