What type of verb is the word are

In the English language, the word “are” has a double purpose. It can be used as a noun or a verb depending on the context.

1. Noun

This word is categorized under nouns, if it is used to refer to a unit of measurement that is equivalent to a hundred square meters. In the sample sentence below:

How many ares in one acre?

The word “are” is used as a noun to refer to that particular unit of measure.

Definition:

a. a metric unit of measure, equal to 100 square meters (about 119.6 square yards)

• Example:
• Each paddock is one are in size.

1. Verb

In most cases, the word “are” is classified as a verb, more specifically as a linking verb. When used as a linking verb, it connects the subject with the other parts of the sentence that provides additional information about it. For example, in the sentence below:

The boys are playing in the playground.

The word “are” links the subject “boys” with the predicate “playing in the playground.”

Definition:

a. present 2D singular or present plural of be

• Example:
• There are no easy solutions.

For those interested in a little info about this site: it’s a side project that I developed while working on Describing Words and Related Words. Both of those projects are based around words, but have much grander goals. I had an idea for a website that simply explains the word types of the words that you search for — just like a dictionary, but focussed on the part of speech of the words. And since I already had a lot of the infrastructure in place from the other two sites, I figured it wouldn’t be too much more work to get this up and running.

The dictionary is based on the amazing Wiktionary project by wikimedia. I initially started with WordNet, but then realised that it was missing many types of words/lemma (determiners, pronouns, abbreviations, and many more). This caused me to investigate the 1913 edition of Websters Dictionary — which is now in the public domain. However, after a day’s work wrangling it into a database I realised that there were far too many errors (especially with the part-of-speech tagging) for it to be viable for Word Type.

Finally, I went back to Wiktionary — which I already knew about, but had been avoiding because it’s not properly structured for parsing. That’s when I stumbled across the UBY project — an amazing project which needs more recognition. The researchers have parsed the whole of Wiktionary and other sources, and compiled everything into a single unified resource. I simply extracted the Wiktionary entries and threw them into this interface! So it took a little more work than expected, but I’m happy I kept at it after the first couple of blunders.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source code that was used in this project: the UBY project (mentioned above), @mongodb and express.js.

Currently, this is based on a version of wiktionary which is a few years old. I plan to update it to a newer version soon and that update should bring in a bunch of new word senses for many words (or more accurately, lemma).

There are various types of verbs and verb forms that you need to understand in order to successfully use the English Language. 

Read through the page or click on the verb type in the box to go to the explanation of that particular verb.  The types are:

What are Verbs?

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Most people often tend to think of verbs as ‘action words’ or ‘doing words’ as this is usually how they are first learned at school. 

Many do express actions in relation to the subject of the sentence (e.g. jump, walk, draw) but others express things such as mental conditions (e.g. love, believe, doubt), existence (e.g. exist, become) and relationships (e.g. determine, depend).

And other types of verbs are not directly related to expressing what the subject is doing, instead possibly being used to add more information to a main verb or noun. Or they may be used to form adjectives and nouns.  

Where verbs come in a sentence depends on what types of verbs they are. Take a look at the following text. The verbs are highlighted in blue:

Usually every sentence must have one verb. Some types of verbs (the main verb) follow after the subject but as you can see from the example above, they can vary in their positions depending on the type of verb it is. 

Main Verbs

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The first types of verbs are main verbs. Main verbs are finite, which means they have a subject and a tense form. 

The general structure of a clause is that it has a subject and a main verb, which can take various forms, such as the past, present, or future tense.

A main verb (also known as principle verb, primary verb, or lexical verb) is the most important verb in the sentence.

It can be recognised as it comes after the subject:

• They arrived
• She is coming next week
• Lately, he has been feeling unwell
• The government lost the vote yesterday
• He is going to town later
• Susan thought about it carefully

This type of verb can be an action or stative verb, meaning it expresses the action or state of the subject of the sentence. It can also be a copular (linking) verb. It will also be transitive or intransitive. 

Action and State Verbs

These types of verbs are the primary way that main verbs can be distinguished. Action verbs (also knows as dynamic verbs) express something the subject does. 

In contrast to this, state verbs (also known as stative verbs) express a state of mind or mental process. 

The main differences are set out below. 

Learn more about Stative Verbs >>>

Copular Verbs (Linking Verbs)

As well as action and state verbs, main verbs can also be copular verbs, also commonly known as linking or complementary verbs. These types of verbs are a subset of state verbs as they are ways in which to express a state of being.

The main purpose of them is to identify the subject, in which case they are followed by a noun or noun phrase:

• She is my freind
• John and Sarah are solicitors

Or to describe the subject, in which case they are followed by an adjective or adjective phrase:

• He seems concerned
• Peter was happy about it

Copular verbs cannot be used alone and need a subject complement (i.e. we can’t say ‘He seems’ or Peter was’).

Learn more about Copular Verbs >>

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

Transitive and intransitive verbs are types of action verbs, though linking verbs are also intransitive verbs.

It’s not possible to tell whether a verb is transitive or intransitive just by looking at the verb. It would need to be worked out from the context of the sentence. 

Learn more about transitive and intransitive verbs >>

Ditransitive Verbs

These are verbs that take two objects: a direct object and an indirect object. 

The direct object is the noun that directly receives the action of the verb while the indirect object is the noun that answers questions about the direct object, such as to whom, for whom, or for what?

For example:

• Bob sent a parcel to Mark
• Sent = ditransitive verb
• Parcel = direct object
• Mark = indirect object (the receiver of the action)

Learn more about ditransitive verbs >>

Auxiliary Verbs

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The second types of verbs are auxiliary verbs. They are used to add functional or grammatical meaning to other verbs. So rather than being main verbs, they may be used with a main verb in order to change its function or meaning. 

Auxiliary verbs are also know as helping verbs. The two main types of auxiliary  verb are:

• be, do, have and will 
• Modals  (could, should, must, will etc)

‘be’ ‘do’ ‘have’ ‘will’ Auxiliary Verbs

Be, do, have and will are three auxiliary verbs that have a variety of functions.  

The first of these is to make the various tenses. The key ones used are:

• be — am / is / was / were / been etc
• have — have / had / having etc
• will

Here are some examples:

• They have left (present perfect tense)
• She has been working (present perfect continuous tense)
• I am swimming (present continuous tense)
• She will eat it (future tense)
• He will have arrived by 6pm (future perfect continuous tense)

These auxiliaries are then moved around to make Questions and Negative Forms. We make questions by moving the first auxiliary verb to the start of the clause:

• Statement: He has been cycling 
• Question: Has he been cycling?
• Statement: The boy is dreaming
• Question: Is the boy dreaming?

Negative forms of sentences are made by adding not or ‘nt to the first auxiliary:

• Negative: Hasn’t he been cycling?
• Negative: Isn’t the boy dreaming?

Since the affirmative forms of the present simple and past simple don’t have auxiliaries, we use the following auxiliary verbs to make questions and negative forms:

• Present simple: do / does / don’t / doesn’t 
• Past Simple: did / didn’t 

Here are some examples:

• Does she have a car? (present simple question)
• He doesn’t like fish (present simple negative)
• Did they steal the money? (past simple question)
• I didn’t receive the book you sent (past simple negative)

We also use these types of verbs to make the Passive Voice:

• I was arrested
• The tanks are driven by the soldiers
• I have been treated for pneumonia

Modal Verbs

As modal verbs are auxiliary verbs, they again have to be used along with a main verb, not on their own.

Modal verbs are followed by the main verb in the infinitive form (see below for infinitive verbs). Here are the main modal verbs with an example and their function:

• He can read (ability)
• You ought to be more approachable (obligation/advice)
• You must / have to work harder (necessity)
• The car could break down (possibility)
• He might / may come later (possibility) 
• I think they should be back by midnight (logical deduction)

These types of verbs can also make questions. In this case they come before the subject:

• Would you pass the salt? (request)
• Would you like to come to dinner on Friday? (invitation)
• Could / can I borrow your umbrella? (asking permission)
• May I help you? (offer)

As noted above modal verbs are used with the infinitive for of the verb which is discussed next. 

Learn more about modal verbs >>

‘Used to‘ is also a modal verb but a ‘marginal’ modal verb as it is only used in the past tense. It’s therefore only used with the auxiliary verb did for negatives or questions. It’s used to talk about past habits or states that are no longer true.

• She used to learn English but she’s now given up
• He didn’t use to like Italian food though he loves it now
• Didn’t you use to live in Spain?

Learn more about ‘used to’ >>

Infinitives

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The third types of verbs are infinitives.

It was explained above that main verbs are finite, which means they have a subject and a tense form. However, infinitives are non-finite as unlike main verbs they:

• do not have a subject
• do not take a tense form

These are the base form of a verb and their form is the same as the base form of the present simple that follows I, you, we and they.

This illustrates this difference:

‘See‘ is the same as the base form of the present simple (i.e. I see, you see etc) but it is not being used as part of the present simple tense (‘like‘ is the verb with the tense i.e. the main verb).

There are two types of infinitive:

• Infinitive followed by ‘to’ (e.g. to go) as in the above example
• Bare Infinitive (e.g. go) with no ‘to’

Infinitive (with ‘to’)

They have a variety of uses, but these are some of the common uses with examples:

Bare Infinitive

One way we use the bare infinitive (no ‘to’) is after the auxiliaries (do, does, did) in questions and negatives when making the present or past simple tenses:

• Do you want it? (present simple question)
• Please don’t come tonight (present simple negative)
• He didn’t find his wallet (past simple question)
• Did they get their wages last month? (past simple negative)

We also use them after some verb + object combinations, such as ‘make’ and ‘let’ and perception verbs:

• They made the students stay late
• Why don’t we let them eat unhealthy food?
• I think I heard him say something 
• Did you notice them come in?
• I saw her take the tablet

We can though also use the -ing form after these verbs of perception (e.g. …coming in).

We also use the bare infinitive after why…? and why not…?:

• Why let her know her actual score as it will upset her?
• Why not plan the next trip a bit better?

And we use it after try and, come and, and go and:

• Please try and finish the book
• Why don’t you come and see the house?
• Let’s go and find John

-ing

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Another grammatical class are -ing forms of verbs. They are verbs that end in -ing. For example: eating, drinking, sleeping.

Their main uses are:

• In the continuous / progressive tenses e.g. I am leaving tomorrow
• To add more information to certain verbs e.g. I deny taking the money
• When we want to use a verb after a preposition e.g. I’m interested in studying French
• As subjects and complements e.g. Gambling is addictive
• To list activities e.g. Her favourite sports are skiing, running, and hiking

Although -ing forms of verbs can be considered as one grammatical class, they are also often considered as two separate classes:

1. gerunds
2. present participles

Gerunds

The -ing form of the verb can function as a noun, and when it does this is is called a gerund. 

Here are the ways that gerunds are used:

Present Participles

Present participles have various functions but there are two main ones. One is as adjectives and the other is to form the continuous or progressive tenses. 

Adjectives can be spotted as they come before the noun. Forms of -ing in the continuous tenses are evident as they are used with an auxiliary verb such as ‘be’. 

Multiword Verbs

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Multiwords verbs are types of verbs that are created by combining a verb (e.g. come, go, give, look, take) with an adverb and/or a preposition (e.g. back, off, away, out, on).

• give up
• take out
• look away
• look up to

They are also known as phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, or phrasal-prepositional verbs, depending on how they are constructed.

They can be a main verb (i.e. have a subject and verb that takes a tense) but they can also be infinitive: 

• He gave up smoking (main verb)
• He wants to give up smoking (infinitive)

They are treated as a unique grammatical class because when combined they function as inseparable parts of a single unit. In other words, the words have to be placed together to give their particular meaning. 

Here are some examples of each. Note that in some cases the phrasal verb can broken up by the direct object.

Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are formed by combining a main verb and an adverb particle.

Some of the most common adverb particles used to form phrasal verbs are: at, around, down, away, off, in, on, over, out, round, over, up:

• The film came out in 2014
• The class went on for 3 hours
• The plane took off late
• I can’t make out what she is saying
• We can sort the problems out / sort out the problems
• They had little time to put the scaffolding up / put up the scaffolding

View some more Phrasal Verb Examples >>

Prepositional Verbs

Prepositional verbs consist of a verb and a preposition:

• The house was broken into
• I can’t do without him
• I look after my sister’s children sometimes
• I get on his nerves if I play loud music

Phrasal-prepositional Verbs

Phrasal-prepositional verbs are formed with a verb, a particle and a preposition:

These types of verbs consist of a verb, a particle and a preposition.

• We are going to come up against many issues
• I will look in on my neighbour and check he is ok
• He couldn’t face up to the reality of it
• John hoped to get away with it

Learn more about Multi-word Verbs >>

Summary of Types of Verbs

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The types of verbs we have looked at on this page are:

• Main Verbs
• Auxiliary Verbs
• Infinitives
• -ing Verb forms
• Multiword Verbs

Some of these are specifically verbs but some, such as present participles and gerunds, are formed from verbs. 

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A verb is a word or a combination of words that indicates action or a state of being or condition. A verb is the part of a sentence that tells us what the subject performs. Verbs are the hearts of English sentences.

Examples:

• Jacob walks in the morning. (A usual action)
• Mike is going to school. (A condition of action)
• Albert does not like to walk. (A negative action)
• Anna is a good girl. (A state of being)

Verbs are related to a lot of other factors like the subject, person, number, tense, mood, voice, etc.

Basic Forms of Verbs

There are six basic forms of verbs. These forms are as follows:

• Base form: Children play in the field.
• Infinitive: Tell them not to play
• Past tense: They played football yesterday.
• Past participle: I have eaten a burger.
• Present participle: I saw them playing with him today.
• Gerund: Swimming is the best exercise.

Different Types of Verbs

• Main/Base Verb
• Regular/Weak Verb
• Irregular/Strong Verb
• Transitive Verb
• Intransitive Verb
• Weak Verb
• Strong Verb
• Finite Verbs
• Non-finite Verbs
• Action Verbs
• Linking Verb
• Auxiliary Verbs
• Modal Verbs
• Reflexive Verb
• Ergative Verb
• Phrasal Verb
• Lexical Verb
• Delexical Verb
• Stative/Being Verb
• Dynamic Verb
• Non-continuous Verb
• Participle
• Gerund
• Infinitive

Base Verb

The base verb is the form of a verb where it has no ending (-ing, -ed, -en) added to it. It is also called the Root Verb since it is the very root form of a verb.

Examples:

• I go to school every day.
• You run a mile every morning.
• Do your homework.

Regular Verb

The Verbs that follow the most usual conjugations are considered Regular Verbs. It is regular since it abides by most if not all of the regular grammar rules there are.

Examples:

• Rehan plays cricket.
• Tam called out my name.
• You really walked all the way back? 

Irregular Verb

The Verbs that have irregularities in terms of following grammar rules are Irregular Verbs, in general.

Examples:

• Do the dishes.
• I hardly ever drink enough water in a day.
• She drove all the way back. 

Transitive Verb

The Main Verb that takes a direct object sitting right after it would be a Transitive Verb. They usually construct the most straightforward of sentences.

Examples:

• She went to the fair.
• We do not like being called out loud in crowds.
• I love visiting my village home.

Intransitive Verb

The main Verb that does not take a direct object specified right afterward and rather there is an indirect one mentioned somewhere along the line is called an Intransitive Verb. These verbs often make the corresponding sentences incomplete.

Example:

• I laughed.
• John ran.
• A ghast of cold wind blew.

Weak Verb

Verbs that end with “-d” and “-t” in their Past Indefinite and Past Participle form are Weak Verbs. There is a tendency to associate Weak Verbs with Regular Verbs but not all Weak Verbs are Regular Verbs in the English language.

Examples:

Present Indefinite	Past Indefinite
Spend	Spent
Walk	Walked
Book	Booked
Learn	Learnt
Want	Wanted

 Strong Verb

Strong Verbs are those in which the vowels in the verb stem changes from “i” to “a” to “u” in the Present Indefinite to Past Indefinite to Past Participle form of Verbs.

Examples:

Present Indefinite	Past Indefinite	Past Participle
Ring	Rang	Rung
Drink	Drank	Drunk
Cling	Clang	Clung
Swim	Swam	Swum
Sing	Sang	Sung
Wring	Wrang	Wrung

Finite Verbs

Finite verbs are the actual verbs that are called the roots of sentences. It is a form of a verb that is performed by or refers to a subject and uses one of the twelve forms of tense and changes according to the number/person of the subject.

Example:

• Alex went to school. (Subject – Alex – performed the action in the past. This information is evident only by the verb ‘went’.)
• Robert plays hockey.
• He is playing for Australia.
• He is one of the best players. (Here, the verb ‘is’ directly refers to the subject itself.)

Non-finite Verbs

Non-finite Verbs are not actual verbs. They do not work as verbs in the sentence rather they work as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc. Non-finite verbs do not change according to the number/person of the subject because these verbs, also called verbals, do not have any direct relation to the subject. Sometimes they become the subject themselves.

The forms of non-finite verbs are – infinitive, gerund, and participle (participles become finite verbs when they take auxiliary verbs.)

Example:

• Alex went abroad to play (Infinitives)
• Playing cricket is his only job. (Present participle)
• I have a broken bat. (Past participle)
• Walking is a good habit. (Gerund)

Action Verbs

Action verbs indicate what the subject of a sentence performs. Action verbs can make the listener/reader feel emotions, see scenes more vividly and accurately.

Action verbs can be transitive or intransitive.

Transitive verbs must have a direct object. A transitive verb demands something/someone to be acted upon.

Example:

• I painted the car. (The verb ‘paint’ demands an object to be painted)
• She is reading the newspaper. (The verb ‘read’ asks the question “what is she reading?” – the answer is the object)

Intransitive verbs do not act upon anything. They may be followed by an adjective, adverb, preposition, or another part of speech.

Example:

• She smiled. (The verb ‘smile’ cannot have any object since the action of ‘smiling’ does not fall upon anything/anyone)
• I wake up at 6 AM. (No object is needed for this verb)

Note: {Subject + Intransitive verb} is sufficient to make a complete sentence but {Subject + Transitive verb} is not sufficient because transitive verbs demand a direct object.

Linking Verb

A linking verb adds details about the subject of a sentence. In its simplest form, it connects the subject and the complement — that is, the words that follow the linking verb. It creates a link between them instead of showing action.

Often, what is on each side of a linking verb is equivalent; the complement redefines or restates the subject.

Generally, linking verbs are called ‘be’ verbs which are — am, is, are, was, were. However, there are some other verbs that can work as linking verbs. Those verbs are:

Act, feel, remain, appear, become, seem, smell, sound, grow, look, prove, stay, taste, turn.

Some verbs in this list can also be action verbs. To figure out if they are linking verbs, you should try replacing them with forms of the be verbs. If the changed sentence makes sense, that verb is a linking verb.

Example:

• She appears ready for the game. (She is ready for the game.)
• The food seemed delicious. (The food was delicious.)
• You look happy. (You are happy.)

Auxiliary Verbs

Auxiliary verbs are also called helping verbs. An auxiliary verb extends the main verb by helping to show time, tense, and possibility. The auxiliary verbs are – be verbs, have, and do.

They are used in the continuous (progressive) and perfect tenses.

Linking verbs work as main verbs in the sentence, but auxiliary verbs help main verbs.

Do is an auxiliary verb that is used to ask questions, to express negation, to provide emphasis, and more.

Example:

• Alex is going to school.
• They are walking in the park.
• I have seen a movie.
• Do you drink tea?
• Don’t waste your time.
• Please, do submit your assignments.

Modal Verbs

A modal verb is a kind of auxiliary verb. It assists the main verb to indicate possibility, potentiality, ability, permission, expectation, and obligation.

The modal verbs are can, could, must, may, might, ought to, shall, should, will, would.

 Example:

• I may want to talk to you again.
• They must play their best game to win.
• She should call him.
• I will go there.

Reflexive Verb

When the Subject and the Object are the same and the Verb reflects on the Subject, that is the Reflexive Verb. These Verbs are often used with Reflexive Pronouns like — myself, himself, herself, itself etc.

Examples: 

• He has done it himself.
• I’ll watch it myself. 

Ergative Verb

Ergative Verbs can be used as Transitive and Intransitive Verb. They are also called Labile Verb in English.

Examples:

Intransitive Verbs	Transitive Verbs
The door opens.	I opened the door.
The bell rang.	She rang the bell.
The light is fused.	They fused the lights.
The whistle blew.	Tom blew the whistle.

 Phrasal Verb

An idiomatic phrase consisting of a Verb and another element, most likely an Adverb or a Preposition is called a Phrasal Verb.

Examples:

• She broke down in tears.
• Don’t look down upon the poor.
• I’ll see to it. 

Lexical Verb

Lexical Verb is the main or principal verb of a sentence which typically takes the major responsibility of a Verb that represents the action of the Noun or Pronoun.

Examples:

• He ran to his father.
• I laughed out loud.
• Rina tried her best. 

DE-Lexical Verb

Delexical Verbs lack importance when it comes to meaning since these Verbs hardly have meanings of their own when used individually. The meaning is taken out of the Verbs and put into the Noun. Take, have, make, give etc. are Delexical Verbs.

Examples:

• He took a shower.
• I had a cold drink.
• She made some arrangements. 

Stative Verb

The Verbs that describe the state of being are called Stative or Being Verbs.

Examples:

• I need some boxes.
• You belong to the pomp and power.
• He smells danger.
• They remember what happened that day. 

Dynamic Verb

The Verbs that entail continuous or progressive action of the Subject are called Dynamic or Fientive Verbs. They express the Subject’s state of being on the move.

Examples:

• He’s running fast.
• Keep hitting the ball hard.
• The dog goes for a walk every afternoon.

Non-continuous Verb

The Verbs that are usually never used in their continuous forms are called Non-continuous Verbs.

Examples:

I like to swim.	I’m liking to swim.
I love to do the chords.	I’m loving to do the chords.
He does not hate you.	He’s hating you.
She just feels a bit dizzy, no need to worry.	She’s just feeling a bit dizzy.

 Intensive Verb

The Verbs that focus intensely on just the Subject are called Intensive Verbs. Intensive Verbs are also called Linking or Copular Verbs.

Examples:

• You seem happy.
• It appears to be just perfect.
• She looks stunning.
• He’s become rather irritable. 

Extensive Verb

All the Verbs that do not focus intensively on just the Subject (as the Intensive Verbs) of the sentence are Extensive Verbs.

Examples:

• He loves her.
• She runs too fast.
• Ron sells fish. 

Participle

A participle is a Verb form where they retain some of the characteristics and functions of both Verbs and adopt those of the Adjectives.

Examples:

Present Participle (Verb + -ing)

• Have I become a laughing stock?
• Cycling is a well-rounded exercise.

Past Participle

• I have taken a hint.
• Have you given it enough thought?

Perfect Participle (Having + Past Participle)

• Having said that, I was quite worried.
• Having stepped out of my comfort zone, I saw a whole new world.

Gerund

The Verbs having -ing endings that function like Nouns in sentences are called Gerunds.

Examples:

• Smoking is injurious to health.
• Walking is good for health.
• I love swimming.

Infinitive

The ‘to + Verb’ forms where the Verbs are at their base or stem forms while they function as Nouns, Adjectives or Adverbs instead of Verbs.

Examples:

• I wanted to help you out.
• Are you trying to go there?
• I just love to flaunt my new Ferarri.