Is the word for a linking verb

Main Linking Verbs Takeaways:

• Here’s a Comprehensive Linking Verbs .pdf
• Unlike most verbs, a linking verb is not an action word.
• Instead, they connect the subject of a sentence with the rest of the sentence. They join a subject with its predicate noun or adjective.
• There are 12 main and 23 total linking verbs in the English language.
• These are always linking verbs: to seem, to become, and any form of the verbto be.

What is a Linking Verb in English Grammar?

According to traditional English grammar guides, a linking verb describes the subject by connecting it with the rest of a sentence. What’s more, they can be a single word or a group of words. Unlike other verbs, this type of verb does not convey action. Instead, they describe or identify a subject. Think of them as the glue that holds a sentence together.

There are several verbs that are always linking. These are:

• to seem
• to become
• any form of the verb to be

Here are some examples of linking verbs used in sentences:

What is the Difference Between a Linking Verb and an Action Verb?

Typically, verbs are action words. However, linking verbs don’t express action. Instead of acting, they describe and connect. Specifically, this type of verb describes a state of being. Moreover, it connects the subject of a sentence with the subject complements. Subject complements are predicate nouns or predicate adjectives. “To be,” “to become,” and “to seem” are always linking verbs. Words that can function as a linking or an actionverb include smell, appear, look, and sound.

Linking Verb Definition: a word or expression that joins the subject of a sentence with its predicate.

How Many Linking Verbs are There?

There are 23 total linking verbs in the English language. This total is made up of about eight verbs that are always linking. Examples include become, seem, and any form of the verb to be like am, is, are, was, were, and has been. Additionally, this total includes about 15 more verbs that can also be action or helping verbs.

What are the 23 Linking Verbs?

The 23 linking verbs are:

What is the Most Common Linking Verb?

There are 12 popular linking verbs (is, seems, be, am, becomes, been, are, feels, being, was, appears, were).

But, you can transform some of them into other forms, such ashelping verbs.

What Is the Difference Between a Linking Verb and a Helping Verb?

To start with, both linking verbs and helping verbs are not action verbs. However, there’s a big difference between their functions in a sentence. Linking verbs express a state of being or a condition. They connect the subject to the rest of the sentence. On the other hand, helping verbs or auxiliary verbs help the main action verb in a sentence. Consider the following examples:

Linking verbs used in sentences

Helping verbs used in sentence

Here is a list of common helping verbs. Bold verbs are also linking:

To further complicate things, sometimes “is” can be linking, action verb, or a helping verb depending on the sentence’s context.

In these sentences, “is” describes a state of being. The action referenced here is “to be.”

Download:Here’s a Comprehensive .pdf of Linking Verbs

How Do You Identify a Linking Verb?

Here’s are three quick tricks for identifying a linking verb. First, replace your verb with is or are. If the sentence still makes sense, then your verb is most likely a linking verb. This is because is and are can act as linking verbs, but they are also effective substitutes for others. Similarly, another trick is to replace the verb with an equals sign (=). If the sentence still make sense, the verb is almost certainly a linking verb. The final trick is to decide whether the verb describes a state of being or an action. If the verb describes the subject’s state of being, it’s probably a linking verb. However, if the verb describes an action, it’s probably not.

1. Replace the Verb With Is or Are

In the examples above, you can replace each verb in question with “is” or “are.” The sentences still make sense. Therefore, it’s confirmed that the each verb we replaced islinking.

However, in this example, the meaning of the sentence changes when we substitute the verb in question:

The verb dries is an action verb because itdescribes an action the subject takes and not a state of being.

2. Replace the Verb With =

One of my favorite short-hand tactics for taking notes in History class. Replacing the verb in question with an equal sign can also help you determine what kind of verb a word is.

How does Shayla feel? She’s annoyed, and we understand that after reading each example.

3. You Decide: State of Being or Action?

Action verbs express something a person or thing does. Linking verbs do not convey action. However, some are also action verbs.

The example above describes the subject, Daria. What’s more, the word smells connects Daria to the rest of the sentence. The linking category of verbs describes the subject and connects it to the rest of the sentence. Therefore, smells is linking here.

However, this example describes an action that the subject of the sentence took. In other words, this example describes something that Daria did.

What did Daria do? She smelled (the cake. We know you’re fresh as a daisy, Daria).

Therefore, smells is an action verb here.

Linking, Helping, Action, or All of the Above? Set a new High Quiz Score

Read More: First, Second, and Third Person: Points of View in Writing

What are linking verbs? Well, they’re sort of like those boring but reliable friends you have. They’re not particularly flashy, but boy are they dependable!

However, unlike boring friends, linking verbs are everywhere. Seriously, they flood our daily speech and appear often in our writing.

So sit back, relax, and check out what linking verbs are, see a few examples, and read our list of linking verbs. (I would say Fasten your seatbelt, but there’s really no need. Linking verbs are tame.)

What Are Linking Verbs Exactly?

To understand linking verbs, let’s first talk about action verbs. These are verbs that, as the name implies, express some kind of physical or mental action that a person, animal, object—or even nature—can do.

Action verbs are words like drink, dance, eat, and swim. (Don’t try all of these at once. It’s very hard, to say nothing of the drowning risk…)

Action verbs are different from linking verbs, which you can think of as “states of being” verbs.

All forms of be are linking verbs: is, am, are, was, were, etc. In addition, verbs that have to do with the five senses are linking verbs: feel, look, smell, sound, and taste.

Is that clear as mud? OK, then try this linking verb definition on for size:

A linking verb is not an action verb. It tells you something about what the subject is, not what it’s doing.

For example, the word is in the sentence Sarah’s dog is tired is a linking verb.

Contrast this with the word chewed in Sarah’s dog chewed the furniture. (The action verb, ladies and gentlemen!)

But any list of linking verbs ought to come with a disclaimer. And that is that a linking verb isn’t always what it seems to be.

For examples of linking verbs, see the section below.

Examples of Linking Verbs in Sentences

How many English linking verbs are there? Well, I don’t really know—and it depends on how you do the counting—but there are about a dozen and a half common linking verbs.

Examples of linking verbs (and examples of when those same verbs aren’t linking verbs) are below.

This tomato smells rotten.

The professor is absolutely certain.

My brother gets mad when he’s hungry.

Leah was tired until the caffeine kicked in.

The company stays true to its founding principles.

In each sentence above, the word highlighted in blue is a linking verb. They’re all examples of states of being. (Notice, too, that each linking verb is followed by a  predicate adjective in bold.)

In fact, speaking of being, you could replace the verbs smells, gets, and stays with the verb is and the core meaning would stay the same. Try it!

This tomato is rotten.

My brother is mad when he’s hungry.

The company is true to its founding principles.

See?

Of course, there’s certainly a nuance in meaning when you say that a tomato smells rotten instead of that it is rotten, but you get the idea.

So when are verbs such as smell, get, and stay not linking verbs?

When they’re transitive verbs, meaning that they take an object. Consider the following:

You should stop and smell the roses.

Get me a roast beef sandwich, please.

The judge stayed the execution.

In each case above, the verbs smell, get, and stay have a direct object (roses, sandwich, and execution, respectively). There’s no state of being involved.

Memorizing a list of linking verbs isn’t enough. You have to understand how they work in order to recognize them.

List of Linking Verbs

Below is a decent list of linking verbs. (Note that the list doesn’t include all possible forms of be.)

What’s the Difference Between Linking and Helping Verbs?

Remember when I wrote that a linking verb doesn’t always act like a linking verb? Well, that’s because a word like is can play an auxiliary (or helping) role in a sentence.

For example, in the sentence Malcolm is drawing a picture, the word is isn’t a linking verb. It’s a helping verb. It’s there to “help” the main verb in the sentence (drawing).

English uses  helping verbs (there’s even a song for them!), but many other languages don’t. The continuous form of the verb (the -ing form) just doesn’t exist in French, for example. The -ing meaning comes from context.

So how do you tell whether a word on our list of linking verbs above is playing the part in a given sentence?

Easy. Just look at what comes after it. If it’s followed by a predicate adjective or predicate noun, then you’ve got a linking verb. If it’s next to an -ing verb, though, you’ve got a helping verb.

The girls are eating at Stella’s tonight.
(are is a helping verb because the -ing verb follows it)

The girls are happy because they’re eating at Stella’s tonight.
(are is a linking verb because a  predicate adjective follows it)

For more information on English grammar, read about restrictive clauses (they sound trickier than they are) or parallel structure in sentences.

If you need help with your writing, check out our post on good word choice and then read “8 Easy Steps to Better Web Content.”

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