ENGLISH GRAMMAR
What is a verb?
A verb has two definitions: one, A verb is an ‘action word’ or a ‘doing word’. Example, dance, sit, sing, walk, read and so on.
The second definition: A verb is a word which indicates the state of being of a noun. Examples are; is, are, am, has, have and so on.
A verb can be singular or plural:
Singular verbs has ‘s’ added to it. It is used with a singular person (noun or pronoun) except with you or I. It is the subject of the verb or sentence that determines whether a verb will be singular or plural.
Examples: is, has, sings, dances, comes
Tunde goes to school.
– Tunde is the subject and it is singular. So it goes with a singular verb
She buys snacks for her children
– She is the subject and it is singular. So it goes with a singular verb
Plural Verbs do not have ‘s’ at the end. It is used with plural persons (noun or pronoun) and it is also used with ‘I’ or ‘You’.
Examples: are, have, sing, dance, come
Tunde and Bola go to school late
– ‘Tunde and Bola’ is subject and they are plural. So, it goes with a plural verb
They buy snacks for their children
– ‘They’ is the subject and being plural, it goes with a plural verb
I dance to the music
You read the newspaper daily
‘I’ is a singular person however it is followed by a plural verb
– I go to school always
‘You’ may be singular or plural. So it is also followed by a plural verb.
– You do your homework always
(These are the only two exceptions to the general rule on the agreement of singular and plural pronouns with singular and plural verbs)
Simple Exercises:
1. I ____________ to school with my friends (go goes)
2. The children ___________ by the school gate every afternoon (play plays)
3. Tayo __________ snacks from the school shop every morning (buy buys)
4. The cat ___________ three kittens (has have)
Verb Tenses:
Present Tense Past Tense Perfect Tense
go went gone
sing sang sung
put put put
say said said
cast cast cast
play played played
Basically there are three categories of tenses which are:
1. Present tense:
a. Simple Present go
b. Present Continuous tense is going
c. Present perfect tense has gone
2. Past tense
a. Simple past tense went
b. Past Continuous tense was going
c. Past Perfect tense had gone
3. Future tense
a. Simple future tense will go
b. Present future tense will be going,
c. Perfect future tense would have gone
TENSES WITH EXPLANATION AND EXAMPLES:
Present tense (a) Bola goes to school.
It happens everyday.
Present continuous tense: (b) Bola is going to school.
It is happening now.
Present Perfect Tense: (c) Bola has gone to school.
It is an already completed action. It indicates that presently, Bola is not here due to that already perfected action.
Past Tense: (a) Bola went to school.
It happened in the past.
Past Continuous Tense: (b) Bola was going to school…..
This sentence is a subordinate clause because it is not complete. It suggests that something happened when Bola was going to school.
Thus it may be complete as….
Bola was going to school when she saw the old man
Past Perfect Tense: (c) Bola had gone to school.
This is another incomplete clause. It suggests that an already completed action took place when Bola was not around.
It can be written to make a complete sense thus:
Bola had gone to school before the mail man arrived.
Future Tense (a) Bola will go to school
It has not happened yet. It will still happen
(b) Bola will be going to school
(c) Bola would have gone to school.
This sentence is not a complete clause. It suggests that by the time you are set to carry out the next action which has not been carried out, Bola would have left for school.
So, it can be fully written as:
Bola would have gone to school before the food is ready.
Verb Phrase or Phrasal Verbs:
This is a combination of a verb and a preposition to make a different meaning from the normal verb if it stands alone:
Example:
Break means to fracture or crack an item apart by a process that cannot easily be reversed
Break in means to forcefully enter an apartment
Break up means to end a relationship
Break away means to cut oneself away from a group
Break off means to disconnect something or someone from a source or a whole.
All these have capacity of having different meanings depending on the circumstances of each.
Write out ten phrasal verbs of:
1. ‘give’
2. ‘take’
3. ‘bring’
Unprecedented 