CBSE Class 8 English Grammar Verb

1. Verb. The verb is a word that expresses some action, feeling or existence. It tells us something about the subject ; as
Lions roar. (action)
Boys fly kites. (action)
I feel sorry. (feeling)
Ashoka was a great king. (existence)

2. All the verbs (shown above in black) ‘roar’, ‘fly’, ‘feel’, and ‘was’, are limited by the number and person of their subjects. Therefore, ‘roar’, ‘fly’, ‘feel’, and ‘was’, are Main Verbs—main verbs are also called Finite Verbs.

3. Verbs are divided in two parts:
A. Main Verbs (also called lexical verbs)
B. Helping Verbs (Auxiliaries—Primary and Morals)
All verbs in English except the 24 helping verbs are main verbs. Look at the chart below :

I. Main Verbs

Main Verbs are also of two kinds :
(a) Finite verbs
(b) Non-finite verbs
Finite verbs change their forms according to the person and number of the subject and the tense also, e.g.

He reads	I read
They read	She goes
I go
They go

Non-finite verbs do not change their forms according to the number, person or tense of the subject. The infinitives, gerunds and participles are called non-Jinites.

4. Read the following sentences :
Lata sang a song.
I wrote a letter.
Children like sweets.
In each of these sentences the verb takes an object. ‘Song’, ‘letter’ and ‘sweets’ are objects. A verb that takes an object is called a Transitive Verb. The object usually answers the question what ? Or whom ?
Now look at the following sentences :
Birds fly.
The sun shines.
These verbs do not require objects. They express the actions by themselves and make the sense complete. They are called Intransitive Verbs. Some Verbs can be used both Transitively and Intransitively.

Verbs Used Intransitively	Verbs Used Transitively
1. Birds fly	Boys jly kites
2. The horse runs fast	I ran a race

Exercise

Pick out the Transitive and Intransitive Verbs in the following sentences. Name the Object of each Transitive Verb :
1. I killed a snake.
2. The ship sank.
3. She jumped into the well.
4. She spoke slowly.
5. The sun rose in the East.
6. 1 broke the plates.
7. The play lasted an hour.
8. This pen costs five rupees

II. The Conjugation Of Verbs

To Conjugate a Verb means to give its four Principal forms :

Present	Past
Past Participle	Present Participle

If the Past or Past Participle is formed from the Present Tense by changing the Vowel of a Verb ; as—
Take, took, taken and do, did, done the Verb is said to be a Strong Verb.
If the Verb requires the addition of ‘ed\ ‘d’ or ‘f to form their Past and Past Participles, they are called Weak Verbs ; as—
Finish, finished, finished ; die, died, died and build, built, built.

Group I
(Where no ‘n’ is added to the Past Participle)

Present	Past	Past Participle	Present Participle
Abide	abode	abode	abiding
Awake	awoke	awoke	awaking
Become	became	become	becoming
Begin	began	begun	beginning
Dig	dug	dug	digging
Drink	drank	drunk	drinking
Fight	fought	fought	fighting
Find	found	found	finding
Hold	held	held	holding
Lie	lied	lied	lying
Ring	rang	rung	ringing
Run	ran	run	running
Shine	shone	shone	shining
Sing	sang	sung	singing
Sit	sat	sat	sitting
Stand	stood	stood	standing
Swim	swam	swum	swimming
Win	won	won	winning
Wind	wound	wound	winding

Group II
(Where ‘n’ is added to the Past Participle)

Present	Past	Past Participle	Present Participle
Arise	arose	arisen	arising
Bear	bore	born	bearing
Bear	bore	borne	bearing
Bid	bade	bidden	bidding
Blow	blew	blown	blowing
Break	broke	broken	breaking
Choose	chose	chosen	choosing
Draw	drew	drawn	drawing
Drive	drove	driven	driving
Fall	fell	fallen	falling
Fly	flew	flown	flying
Forget	forgot	forgotten	forgetting
Freeze	froze	frozen	freezing
Grow	grew	grown	growing
Hide	hid	hidden	hiding
Know	knew	known	knowing
Lie	lay	lain	lying
Ride	rode	ridden	riding
Shake	shook	shaken	shaking
Sink	sank	sunk, sunken	sinking
Speak	spoke	spoken	speaking
Steal	stole	stolen	stealing
Strike	struck	struck, stricken	striking
Tear	tore	tom	tearing
Throw	threw	thrown	throwing
Wake	waked, woke	waked, woken	waking
Wear	wore	worn	wearing
Write	wrote	written	writing

Note: Since the Present Participle is only the—ing form of the Present, we are giving below only the first three forms.

Group III—Mixed Verbs
(Partly Strong and Partly Weak)

Present	Past	Past Participle
Beat	beat	beaten
Do	did	done
Hang	hung, hanged	hung, hanged
Melt	melted	melted, molten
Sew	sewed	sewn
Shave	shaved	shaved, shaven
Show	showed	shown

Group IV
(Conjugation of Weak Verbs)

Present	Past	Past Participle
Bend	bent	bent
Bring	brought	brought
Build	built	built
Bum	burned, burnt	burned, burnt
Catch	caught	caught
Deal	dealt	dealt
Dream	dreamed	dreamed
	dreamt	1 dreamt
Feed	fed	fed
Feel	felt	felt
Have	had	had
Hear	heard	heard
Kneel	knelt	knelt
Lay	laid	laid
Lead	led	led
Leave	left	left
Lend	lent	lent
Light	lighted, lit	lighted, lit
Lose	lost	lost
Make	made	made
Mean	meant	meant
Say	said	said
Seek	sought	sought
Send	sent	sent
Sleep	slept	slept
Smell	smelt	smelt
Spell	spelled, spelt	spelled, spelt
Spend	spent	spent
Stay	stayed	stayed
Teach	taught	taught
Wed	wedded, wed	wedded, wed
Weep	wept	wept

Exceptions

Present	Past	Past Participle
Cleave	cleft	cleft
Have	had	had
Hear	heard	heard
Lay	f laid	J laid
Leave	1 left	lleft
Lose	lost	lost
Make	made	made
Measure	measured	measured
Pay	paid	paid

The Present, Past and Past Participle forms of the following weak Verbs are alike:

Cast	Cut	Hit
Hurt	Let	Put
Set	Shed	Shut
Spread

The Present, Past and Past Participle forms of the following weak Verbs are alike :

come	came	come
run	ran	run

Mark the difference between the following Pairs of Verbs :

	Present	Past	Past Participle
1.	Fall	fell	fallen
	Fell	felled	felled
2.	Find	found	found
	Found	founded	founded
3.	Lie	lay	lain
	Lie	lied	lied
	Lay	laid	laid

Exercise

Give the Past and Past Participle forms of the following Verbs :
(a) Speak lie catch do have fall hang go
draw grow write take sit sing know.
(b) Meet wring weave spring beat hear seek teach
lose smell tell weep shoot put win.

Multiple Choice Questions

Fill in the blanks in the following sentences using one of the options from the brackets :
1. Birds are ………. (fly/flied/flying/flew) in the sky.
2. The play …………. (last/lasted/lost/lasting) an hour.
3. The man was …………. (hang/hung/hanged/hanging) for his crime.
4. As long as he lived, he always ………….. (abide/abiding/abided/obey) by the law.
Answers:
1. flying
2. lasted
3. hanged
4. abided

Exercise 2
The underlined words in the following sentences have been wrongly used. Supply the correct word/words from the options given below each sentence :
Question 1.
After he got a job, he start to live well.
(a) begin
(b) began
(c) begun
(d) beginning song so well.

Question 2.
Do you hear ? The child is
(a) sing
(b) sang
(c) sung
(d) singing great politician.

Question 3.
Mrs. Gandhi is know as a
(a) knowing
(b) knew
(c) known
(d) call

Question 4.
He had his car steal.
(a) stole
(b) stolen
(c) stealing
(d) thief

Answers
1. (b) begin
2 .(d) singing
3. (c) known
4. (b) stolen