Primary School English Quiz - Verbs 01 - Choose the Verbs (Questions)

Eight parts of speech define the English language, one of which is the Verb. Two essential parts of speech that a sentence cannot do without are Verbs and Nouns. For instance, “Mustaq studies” is a complete sentence on its own and it contains just a noun and a verb where 'Mustaq' is the noun and 'studies' is the verb. Here 'studies' is called an action verb.

Verbs are ‘doing’ or ‘action’ words that tell us what persons or things do. Verbs can be of different types and classifications such as Main Verbs, Helping or Auxiliary Verbs, Transitive and Intransitive Verbs and Regular and Irregular Verbs. Verbs can be confusing as they appear in every conceivable form. However, there are rules and conventions to be followed and if you learn them it is easy to understand verbs.

The way to identify a verb is to ask what the subject is doing. For instance, look at the sentence ‘the child rode.’ Here, when we ask the question ‘what is the child doing,’ we get the answer ‘rode’. Rode is the verb and it is called an action verb. In this example, the verb is also called an intransitive verb because when you ask the question ‘what is the child riding’ the sentence does not contain an answer. However, if the sentence were ‘the child rode the bicycle’, then in this case ‘rode’ becomes a transitive verb.

Verbs are a vast category of words and there are many rules and conventions to be followed. Verbs referring to a state in which the subject is found are called stative verbs. There are verbs which are known as linking verbs, which link the subject of the verb with additional information about the subject, without expressing action. There are verbs which are known as dynamic verbs which describe an actual action and verbs such as finite verb which has a subject, can stand alone and can be used as the main verb. Finite verb also displays tense and number. In the quizzes that follow you will learn about these verbs and maybe reduce your confusion.