Is the word would 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

A verb shows the power of action, and it also can connect ideas. And these verbs are called «Linking Verbs«, and if we want to call it vastly then we consider them as «a state of being verbs«.

To know more about linking verbs, we need to talk about action verbs. These verbs express some physical or mental action that a person, animal, object or even nature can do. Action verbs are words like drink dance, eat and swim. Action verbs are different from linking verbs, which we can think of as «states of being» verbs.

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

So we come to the point that linking verb is not an action verb. It tells about what the subject is not what it’s doing. For example: Sneha’s cat is tired, here shows the condition of Sneha’s cat, not what it’s doing. So here “is” is working as a linking verb.

Examples of linking verbs in sentences:

There are so many linking verbs. It depends on how we do the counting, but there are about a dozen and a half common linking verbs.

• The tomato smells rotten.
• The professor is absolutely sure.
• My brother gets mad when he’s hungry.
• Lean was tired until the caffeine kicked in.
• The company stays true to its founding principles.

The underlined words are linking verbs. They’re all examples of states of being. In fact, we could replace the verbs smell, gets and stays with the verb «is» and the meaning would remain the same.

• The tomato is rotten.
• My brother is mad when he’s hungry.
• The company is true to its founding principles.

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

But sometimes they’re not expressing themselves as linking verbs. When they’re transitive verbs, meaning that they take an object. Let’s consider the following examples:

• You should stop and smell the roses.
• Get me a roast beef sandwich, please.
• The judge stayed the execution.

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

List of linking verbs:

We tried to bring up most of the linking verbs into this very list.

Forms of be:

The “Five Sense” verbs:

Feel: This sweater feels itchy.

Look: The sculpture looks strange.

Smell: The dinner smells wonderful.

Sound: That doorbell sounds broken.

Taste: This soup tastes delicious.

The “States of Being” verbs:

Act                              Grow                           Stay

Appear                        Prove                           Turn

Become                       Remain

Get                              Some

Now we need to know about the differences between linking and helping verbs to have a constructive idea of linking verb.

A linking verb doesn’t always act like a linking verb. Well, that’s because a word like “is” can also play an auxiliary or helping role in a sentence.

For example, in the sentence, Malcom 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).

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

If it’s followed by a predicate adjective or predicate noun, then it’s a linking verb. But if it’s next to an “-ing” verb, then it’s a helping verb.

For example:

• My friends are dancing at Stella’s tonight.

Here, “-are” is a helping verb because the –ing verb follows it.

• The girls are happy because they’re eating all together.

Here “-are” is a linking verb because a predicate adjective follows it.