How Many Verb Forms are There in English

Introduction

Forms of Verbs are a total of five in number. Verbs are modified in sentences in order to give you a more detailed and specific explanation of time. A verb form helps us to identify at what specific time the subject performed the action that is has the action been performed in the past, is being performed in the present, or will be performed in the future. Here, we will see a detailed explanation of verb forms, their examples, and their uses in a sentence.

Verb Forms

When a verb appears in a sentence it is modified to explain the specific time the subject performs the action. This modified verb is termed Verb Form. Verb forms are an important concept to understand tenses. There are typically five Verb forms in English grammar. They are

1. The present form of the verb

2. The simple past form of the verb

3. Present participle form of the verb

4. Third-person Singular Present form

5. Past Participle form of the verb

Verbs Five Forms

There are three commonly known forms of verbs present, past, and past participle. You can also find these forms of verbs explained as V1, V2, and V3. we obtain different forms of verbs by adding either prefixes or suffixes to the root word of the verb. The simple present tense is represented by the root word itself. For example- read, write, walk, play, etc.

The Present form of the Verb: This form is a verb that is used without modifying the root word. The root word which is the base form of the verb represents the present form of the verb. Different forms of verbs are formed by the use of root verbs. This is commonly termed the V1 form of the verb.
Examples of the present form of the verb:
1. Kaushal and his friends play really well. ( base verb- Play)
2. Nisha Loves watching games. ( base verb- Love)
3. Finish the food you take on your plate. ( base verb- Finish)

Simple Past form of the Verb: Simple past form of the verb is the verb used to specify an action that has taken place in the past. An action that has already been completed is specified with the help of the Simple past form of a verb. This is commonly known as the V2 form of the verb.

Example of the simple past form of the verb:
1. She played well. (base verb- play)

2. Rita shouted really loudly. (base verb- shout)

Rules of changing the verb to Simple past form

1. If the word ends with ‘e’ only ‘d’ is added to it to change to the past form else ‘ed’ is added to change the word to the past form. eg . fix- fixed, play- played.

2. There are some words that do not change their form. These are called irregular verbs and they remain in their base forms to specify an action that took place in the past. Eg. Cut, Read, Put

Past Participle form of the Verb: This form of the verb is commonly termed the V3 form of the verb. The past participle form of the verbs can be seen occurring in past, present, and future perfect tense. These forms of verbs are also formed by adding ‘d’ or ‘ed’ to the base verbs. Past participle forms of verbs however are accompanied by an auxiliary verb.

Example of past participle form of the verb:

1. Rumi has left just now. (has is the auxiliary verb accompanying the verb leave.)

2. She has taken money from me. ( has is the auxiliary verb accompanying the verb take. The past form of the sentence is “She took money from me.”)

Present Participle form of the verb: This can also be termed the V4 form f the verb. It is formed by adding an ‘ing’ to the base verb. This form of verbs appears in the past, present, and future continuous verb tenses. Continuous forms are those where an action has already begun and continues to happen till the time being talked of.
Example: She is reading a book. This means she started reading the book some time back and she still continues to do so.

Example of the Present Participle form of the Verb:

1. She is Baking a Cake. ( base verb- baking)

2. She goes Swimming every Sunday. ( base verb- swimming)

Rules of changing the verb to Present Participle

1. If the last two letters of the verb are a vowel followed by a constant, then the constant is doubled and an ‘ing’ is added at the end. Eg: Swim- Swimming.

2. If the last letter of the verb is ‘e’, it is removed and an ‘ing’ is added at the end. Eg: Educate- Educating

Third-Person Singular Present Form: This is used to represent the simple present tense of the verb and is denoted by adding an ‘s’ or ‘es’ at the end of the verb. One can assume this is the V5 form of the verb.

Example of the Third-Person Singular Present Form:

1. She debates really well. ( base verb- Debate)

2. Mohit plays Cricket well. ( base verb- play)

Conclusion

Verbs are action words but they change forms to give correct information to the readers. In this article, we read how many forms of verbs exist, how they are used in sentences, and how some of them can be changed to other forms. Verbs and their forms are an important part of speech in English grammar and are necessary to be understood to understand Tenses.