VERBS Regular Verbs Verbs can be described by their tense forms as well.

Changing tenses -- from present tense to past tense, for instance -- with regular verbs generally is accomplished by adding a "d" or "ed" ending. For example, the word "aspire" becomes "aspired" by adding "d," while "laugh" becomes "laughed" simply by adding a "ed." There are thousands of regular verbs in the English language.

Irregular Verbs Changing the tense of an irregular verb is another story. Although there are some patterns among groups of words, they are not consistent, which is why they are called irregular. Believe it or not, with irregular verbs, there is no hard and fast rule. Sometimes the word changes completely. For example, the present tense of "ring" changes to "rang" for simple past and "rung" for the past participle tense. For other words, both the past simple and past participle tenses are the same. "Bring" changes to "brought" for both. As if that wasn't confusing enough, some irregular verbs don't change at all when switching tense. Because of the lack of consistent rules, when it comes to learning irregular verbs, the handiest tool is a list of common irregular verbs and their tenses that you can refer to beyond the ones you know from memory.

Main Verbs Verbs express the action performed by the subject or the subject's state of being. Sentences can contain more than one verb, or a verb phrase. Verb phrases contain a main verb, or the main action of a sentence, which is always an action verb that expresses mental or physical action or a linking verb that expresses a state of being, and one or more helping verbs, which help the main verb and cannot exist without it. However, action and linking verbs are infinitive phrases, not main verbs, when they follow the word "to."

Determine whether the sentence contains one verb or multiple verbs by identifying the action the subject is performing or the subject's state of being. For example, the sentence "When Maradona proudly lifted the World Cup for Argentina in 1986,.." contains only the verb "lifted," so there is no need to identify the main verb. However, the sentence "When Maradona pr oudly lifted the World Cup for Argentina in 1986, I watched and was inspired to play football " contains the verb phrase "was inspired." The main verb needs to be identified in this sentence. Identify the main verb in a verb phrase by determining the subject's main action or state of being. For example, in the verb phrase "was inspired," the main action the subject is performing is inspired while the verb "was" merely helps the action verb "inspired" by expressing that this action happened in the past. Thus, "inspired" is the main verb and "was" is a helping verb. Identify the main verb in a sentence containing multiple verbs but no verb phrase by asking yourself which verb is expressing the subject's action or state of being. For example, in the sentence line 166, "He went to show me at each age group," both "went" and "show" are action verbs. However, "show" follows the word "to," so "show" is part of an infinitive phrase and does not express the main action of the sentence. "Went" is the main verb because Rooneys former coach performed the action of going, and showing the group is what he wants to go, not the action he performed. Sentences containing multiple verbs do not always have one main verb. If a sentence contains multiple verbs that all express the subject's action or state of being, not merely help express the action or state of being and none of the verbs are part of an infinitive phrase, then the sentence contains multiple main verbs. For example, the sentence "John tied his shoes and walked out the door" contains the two verbs "tied" and "walked," both of which are action verbs expressing the main actions of the sentence. Thus, the sentence has two main verbs.