VERB PHRASES

PRINCIPAL AND AUXILLARY VERBS

Often the verb in a sentence is made up of two or more words. This is called a verb phrase.The word at the end of the verb phrase is always the principal verb. The other words in the verb phrase are called auxillary or helping verbs.
The children play in the park. (verb, one word, play
The children are playing in the park. (Principal verb, playing, auxillary verb, are)
The children must have been playing in the park. (Principal verb, playing auxillary verbs, must have been)

A list of some commonly used auxillary or helping verbs is shown below and may be of help to you in being able to pick out the verb phrase in a sentence. Refer to this list and you will soon become familiar with them.

may	was	do	have been
can	are	does	must
might	were	did	must have been
could	could be	have	must have
should	shall be	has	should have
would	will be	had	should have been
am	shall	has been	would have
is	will	had been	could have been

VERB PHRASES IN SENTENCES

He has said that he will receieve a medal.

Has said and will receive are the verb phrases.

The captain was watching the loading of his ship.

Was watching is the verb phrase.

The house was completed on time.

Was completed is the verb phrase.

The books were read by the students.

Were read is the verb phrase.

A VERB PHRASE IS A GROUP OF WORDS CONSISTING OF

TWO OR MORE VERB FORMS

ADJECTIVES - MODIFIERS

We have so far in our course studied nouns, pronouns, verbs, and verb phrases. A sentence with a noun and a verb, or a pronoun and a verb in it has a complete though, but is very uninteresting. These are sometimes called skeleton sentences and a few examples are shown below:

George works.	He drives.

She sits.	Clocks tick.

Birds sing.	Crickets chirp.

In order to make a more interesting sentence or give a clearer meaning, we often add other parts of speech. Describing words or modifiers are used and these are called Adjectives. Adjectivies modify nouns and pronouns.

The following are some examples of adjectives modifying nouns and showing how, by using adjectives, we give a clearer and more explicit meaning to a sentence.

sour orange.	ten dollars.

sunny day.	beautiful ring.

blue dress.	chocolate cake.

The words a , an , and the are also words which modify nouns and so really function as adjectives but these are called articles.

The word the is called a definite article . In the following example:

The cake on the buffet is gone.

(the specifies a particular cake on a particular buffet)

The words a and an are called indefinite articles.

He ate a cake. ( a does not specify any particular cake)

AN ADJECTIVE IS A WORD USED TO MODIFY

A NOUN OR A PRONOUN

ADVERBS - MODIFERS

Adverbs like adjectives are also modifiers but they modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

For the present we will be concerned only with the adverb as a modifier of a verb, but a later lesson will deal with the other uses of adverbs.

As an aid in recognising adverbs we should keep in mind that they usually answer the questions: when, where, how, in what manner or to what extent or degree.

Note the following examples:

He came yesterday . ( yesterday tells when )

There is the deserted house. ( there tells where)

She works hard. ( hard tells how)

She worked very hard. ( very tells the manner or degree )

POSITION OF THE ADVERB

The position of the adverb in a sentence should be noted. Even though an adverb very often modifies the verb in a sentence, it is not always placed immediately after it. The following sentences show several different positions in which an adverb can be placed.

Sometimes we look at a picture book.	(sometimes introduces the sentence and modifies the verb look )

Mary always forgets her homework.	(always placed before the verb forgets, which it modifies.)

My friend paintsbeautifully.	(beautifully follows the verb paints, which it modifies.)

We attended a meeting recently.	(recently appears at the end of the end sentence and modifies the the verb attended ).

I will always remember him.	(always is placed between parts of the verb phrase, will remember ).

AN ADVERB IS A WORD USED TO MODIFY A VERB.

AN ADJECTIVE, OR ANOTHER ADVERB.

PREPOSITIONS

WORDS THAT SHOW A RELATIONSHIP

Another very important part of speech is the preposition . It is not a modifier. It is used to show relationships between certain words and is placed before a noun or pronoun, and relates that noun or pronoun to some other word in the sentence.

We could give as an example: "a nest for the birds".

The word "for" is the preposition which shows a relationship between nest and birds. The noun birds which follows the preposition is said to be the object for the preposition.

Another example is the sentence: The mechanic was working on the car.

The preposition in this sentence is on and the word car which follows it is called its object .

The group of words "on the car" is called a prepositional phrase .

The following shows the above sentence used with different prepositions, showing a slightly different relationship between the noun "car" and the verb "was working".

The mechanic was working under the car. Under is the preposition.

The mechanic was working near the car. Near is the preposition.

The mechanic was working behind the car. Behind is the preposition.

The mechanic was working above the car. Above is the preposition.

The mechanic was working beneath the car. Beneath is the preposition.

The following are frequently used prepositions, although in some cases some of the words in this list could be used as other parts of speech. If a word shows relationship between its object and some other word in the sentence, this determines it to be a preposition.

up	until	near	during	around

upon	of	like	before	along

with	off	at	beyond	among

within	on	by	behind	against

to	since	for	below	after

toward	in	from	beside	about

through	into	down	beneath	above

under	inside	except	between	across

A PREPOSITION SHOWS THE RELATIONSHIP THAT EXISTS

BETWEEN CERTAIN WORDS IN A SENTENCE

Adjective Game!