Saturday 23 April 2011

Verb Series – Special Verbs


We’ve seen a basic introduction on verbs, yet there are more sections to be dealt on verbs as it plays a major role in any grammar. Today it is featured on SPECIAL VERBS. It gives an intro to special verbs.

Read the following:
1.      He isn’t reading.
2.      Can you swim?
3.      She has left, hasn’t she?

·         In sentence 1, the verb is combined with n’t.
·         In sentence 2, the verb can make a question form by coming before the subject.
·         In sentence 3, the verb has serves to make a question tag.

These verbs and few others behave in this way. They are called special verbs,* because they behave in a particular or special way. There are 24 such verbs.

List of special verbs:

am
has
can
do
is
had
could
does
are
will
may
did
was
would
might
need
were
shall
must
dare
have
should
ought to
used to
         
      As indicated above, these verbs have a very important in the formation of negatives, question and question tags. They are frequently used in short answers, addition to remarks, etc.
*special verbs are termed as ‘anomalous finites’,' modal verbs' , 'auxiliary verbs'.


Note: This article doesn’t covers the full scope of the above dealt parts of speech. It is better  recommended for a basic understanding only.

Happy Reading !!! Leave your valuable comments and help me grow :)


Source : Wren and Martins'  English Grammar and Composition., image source:Google.

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