Verb Phrase
In
simple words, a verb of more than one word is called a verb phrase. It is a
phrase consisting of a verb, its auxiliaries (helping verbs), its complements,
and other modifiers. Auxiliary verbs always come before the main verb.
A
verb phrase is a syntactic unit that corresponds to the predicate. There are
two types of auxiliary verbs. Inflected auxiliary verbs e.g. be, have, do and
Modal auxiliary verbs e.g. will, should, must etc.
Below are some verb phrase examples with explanation:
She has taken the job. (Auxiliary has + main verb taken)
Mom is making the room. (auxiliary is + main
verb make)
He did sing at the party. (auxiliary
do + main verb sing)
He has been coming late
everyday. (auxiliaries has been + main verb take)
Tenses
In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses
are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns.
Basic tenses
found in many languages include the past, present and future. Some
languages have only two distinct tenses, such as past and non-past, or future
and non-future. There
are also tenseless
languages, like Chinese, which do
not have tense at all. On the other hand, some languages make finer tense
distinctions, such as remote vs. recent past, or near vs. remote future.
Tenses
generally express time relative to the moment
of speaking. In some contexts, however, their meaning may be
relativised to a point in the past or future which is established in the
discourse (the moment being spoken about). This is called relative (as opposed to absolute) tense. Some languages have
different verb forms or constructions which manifest relative tense, such as pluperfect ("past-in-the-past") and
"future-in-the-past ".
Subject – Verb Agreement
Subject-Verb agreement is a rule
which states that the number present in a noun must agree with the number shown
in the conjugated form of the verb that is being used, and that the person of
the noun must agree with the person of the conjugated form of the verb that you
are using.
Proper Subject-Verb agreement:
TO BE: I am - you
are - he is - we are - you are - they are
TO WORK: I work -
you work - he works - we work - you work - they work
Where the subject is a pronoun or
complex or modified as part of an adjectival phrase, or modified by parenthetic
expressions, or clarified in meaning by common knowledge or something that
occurs later in the sentence, then subject-verb agreement can become a little
more complicated. Some grammar rules say that the complex part of the subject
closest to verb in the sentence should determine the verbal agreement. However,
many examples can be found that make this sound funny. A better rule is to
consider the entire complex subject phrase as one subject, and then think about
what kind of thing it represents.Whatever the represents can
be considered singular or plural, and that is what the verb should agree with.
The
president and the children (plural) are at the party.
Neither the
president nor the children (plural) are at the party.
Either the
president or the children (plural) are at the party.
Neither the
children nor the president (plural) are at the party.
Somebody
(singular) is at the party.
Nobody
(singular) is at the party.
We (plural
1st person) are at the party.
I (singular
1st person) am at the party.
The Three
Musketeers (singular-book) is a good book.
Ten dollars
(singular) is enough to buy the book.
Ten dollars
(plural) are in my pocket.
Economics
(singular subject of study) is an interesting subject.
Bryans and
Hastings (singular supermarket) is a great place to shop.
The idea of
serving frankfurters (singular idea) is a good one.
My sister is
(singular) with my friend, Roberta, at the party.
My sister
and my friend are (both) at the party.
In many cases, the author decides
whether the subject represents something singular or plural, depending upon
which idea is desired to be expressed. For example, a group can act as a whole
(singular) or as a group of individuals (plural), and despite many attempts at
making rules for this, there is no simple rule that covers all cases:
All of my
family is going camping.
Most of my
family is at the party.
All of my
family are fans.
Some of my
family are fans.
Most of my
family is at the party.
Most of my
family are at the party.
Some of my
family are in their homes.
The sounds the car makes, the ways
they irritate (singular idea stated with 2 phrases)--it is all the same idea no
matter how you say it. Another needed example is one in
which the noun that is clearly singular until the entire sentence is read, and
something near the end changes the meaning of the noun so that it clearly
represents a plural thing.
