Verbs & Tenses
Verbs are the engines of sentences — they tell us what happens and when. Master verb forms, the nine tenses and the rules that make a verb agree with its subject.
1What is a verb?
A verb is a word that shows an action (what someone does) or a state (what someone is or has). Every complete sentence has at least one verb.
Action verbs
show doing: run, sing, write, eat, jump, think, fly.
“The birds sing sweetly in the morning.”
Being verbs
show a state: am, is, are, was, were.
“My mother is a doctor.”
Having verbs
show possession: has, have, had.
“Riya has a blue bicycle.”
Ask “What does the subject do (or is)?” In “The birds sing sweetly in the morning”, what do the birds do? They sing. Sweetly tells how (adverb), morning is a noun. You can also try changing the time: “The birds sang…” — the word that changes is the verb.
Which word is the verb in “Grandma knits warm sweaters every winter.”?
2Main verbs and helping verbs
Often a verb is made of two or more words. The main verb carries the meaning; the helping verb (also called an auxiliary verb) comes before it and helps show time, question or negative.
| Family | Helping verbs | Example |
|---|---|---|
| be | am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been | The baby is sleeping. |
| have | has, have, had | They have eaten lunch. |
| do | do, does, did | Does he play chess? I did not go. |
| modals | can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, might, must | You must wear a helmet. |
Be, have and do can be main verbs too. In “She has finished her work”, has is a helping verb (the main verb is finished). But in “She has a pet parrot”, has is the main verb — there is no other verb. Rule: if another verb follows, has/is/do is helping; if it stands alone, it is the main verb.
Which is the helping verb in “The children were playing in the rain.”?
3Transitive and intransitive verbs
Ask “what?” or “whom?” after the verb.
- If there is an answer (an object), the verb is transitive — the action passes on to something: “Meena kicked the ball.” (kicked what? the ball)
- If there is no answer, the verb is intransitive — the action stays with the doer: “The baby laughed.” “The sun rises in the east.” (rises what? — no answer)
4The three forms of verbs
Every verb has three main forms: V1 (present), V2 (past) and V3 (past participle — used after has / have / had).
Regular verbs: add -d or -ed
| Rule | V1 → V2 → V3 |
|---|---|
| Most verbs: + ed | walk → walked → walked; play → played → played |
| Ends in -e: + d | like → liked → liked; dance → danced → danced |
| Consonant + y: y → ied | cry → cried → cried; carry → carried → carried |
| Short word, one vowel + one consonant: double it | stop → stopped; hop → hopped; plan → planned |
Irregular verbs (learn by heart)
| Group A — all three the same | ||
|---|---|---|
| cut – cut – cut | put – put – put | hit – hit – hit |
| shut – shut – shut | hurt – hurt – hurt | let – let – let |
| cost – cost – cost | set – set – set | read – read – read (V2/V3 said “red”) |
| Group B — V2 and V3 the same | ||
|---|---|---|
| bring – brought – brought | buy – bought – bought | think – thought – thought |
| catch – caught – caught | teach – taught – taught | fight – fought – fought |
| sell – sold – sold | tell – told – told | sit – sat – sat |
| sleep – slept – slept | keep – kept – kept | feel – felt – felt |
| leave – left – left | lose – lost – lost | make – made – made |
| find – found – found | hear – heard – heard | say – said – said |
| meet – met – met | build – built – built | send – sent – sent |
| stand – stood – stood | win – won – won | hold – held – held |
| Group C — all three different | ||
|---|---|---|
| ring – rang – rung | sing – sang – sung | drink – drank – drunk |
| swim – swam – swum | begin – began – begun | fly – flew – flown |
| grow – grew – grown | know – knew – known | throw – threw – thrown |
| draw – drew – drawn | blow – blew – blown | go – went – gone |
| see – saw – seen | eat – ate – eaten | write – wrote – written |
| take – took – taken | give – gave – given | speak – spoke – spoken |
| break – broke – broken | choose – chose – chosen | forget – forgot – forgotten |
| ride – rode – ridden | rise – rose – risen | wear – wore – worn |
| hide – hid – hidden | fall – fell – fallen | do – did – done |
Odd ones: come – came – come, become – became – become, run – ran – run (V1 and V3 the same).
Two classic mix-ups:
1. V2 after has/have: “The bell has already rang.” ✗ → “has already rung” ✓. After has/have/had always use V3.
2. Made-up past forms: bringed, brang, brung ✗ → brought ✓. Also teached → taught, catched → caught, flied → flew.
Fill in the blank: Aditi has ______ a letter to her grandfather.
5The nine tenses
Tense tells us when an action happens: past, present or future. Each time has three kinds: simple (plain fact or habit), continuous (going on — uses -ing) and perfect (completed — uses has/have/had + V3).
| Tense | Pattern | Use it for | Clue words | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple present | V1 / V1+s | habits, facts, universal truths | always, usually, every day, often | The sun rises in the east. She walks to school. |
| Present continuous | am/is/are + V-ing | happening right now | now, Look!, Listen!, at the moment | Look! The baby is sleeping. |
| Present perfect | has/have + V3 | just finished; started in the past and still true | just, already, yet, ever, never, since, for | Priya has studied here since 2022. |
| Simple past | V2 | finished in the past | yesterday, last week, ago, in 2020 | Yesterday Ankit flew a kite. |
| Past continuous | was/were + V-ing | going on in the past, often interrupted | when, while | I was doing my homework when the lights went out. |
| Past perfect | had + V3 | the earlier of two past actions | before, after, already | The train had left before we reached. |
| Simple future | will/shall + V1 | later actions | tomorrow, next week, soon | We will visit Shimla next summer. |
| Future continuous | will be + V-ing | going on at a future time | at this time tomorrow | At 8 tomorrow, I will be travelling. |
| Future perfect | will have + V3 | finished before a future time | by tomorrow, by then | By noon we will have reached Agra. |
Simple present: he/she/it takes -s
With he, she, it or one person/thing, add -s or -es: he plays, she watches, it goes, he tries, she has, he does. With I, you, we, they or plural nouns, use V1: they play, the dogs bark.
Universal truths always use the simple present, even inside a past story: “The sun rises in the east” (not rose or is rising). “Water boils at 100 °C.” And since / for with “started in the past and still going” need the present perfect: “Priya has studied here since 2022” — not “studies since 2022”.
since + a point of time (since Monday, since 2022, since 9 o’clock). for + a length of time (for two hours, for three years, for a week).
Fill in the blank: Listen! Somebody ______ the doorbell.
Fill in the blank: We ______ in this house for six years.
6Subject–verb agreement
The verb must agree with its subject: a singular subject takes a singular verb, a plural subject takes a plural verb.
| Subject | be (present) | be (past) | have | do |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | am | was | have | do |
| he / she / it / one person or thing | is | was | has | does |
| you / we / they / plural nouns | are | were | have | do |
The special rules
| Rule | Example |
|---|---|
| Two subjects joined by and → plural | Ravi and Mohan are friends. |
| each, every, everyone, everybody, nobody, someone → singular | Each of the students has a new book. Every child likes sweets. |
| one of the + plural noun → singular (the subject is one) | One of my friends lives in Goa. |
| either…or / neither…nor → verb agrees with the nearer subject | Neither Ravi nor his friends are coming. Neither his friends nor Ravi is coming. |
| Collective noun acting as one group → singular | The team is practising. The herd was grazing. |
| Noun + of + noun → the verb follows the first noun | The box of pencils is missing. The pair of scissors is on the table. |
| along with / as well as / with → verb follows the first subject | The teacher, along with her students, is going on a trip. |
| Words that look plural but are singular | Mathematics is my favourite subject. The news is true. |
| Always-plural nouns (without “a pair of”) | My scissors are blunt. These trousers are long. |
| There is / There are → look at the noun after it | There is a cat. There are two cats. |
“Each of the students have a book.” ✗ Your ear hears students and wants have — but the real subject is each (one at a time). Correct: “Each of the students has a book.” ✓ Same trick with “One of the boys is absent.” Cross out the of… phrase and look at what is left.
Fill in the blank: Either my sisters or my brother ______ the dishes every night.
Which sentence is correct?
7Spot the error: common verb mistakes
| ✗ Wrong | ✓ Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| He don’t like milk. | He doesn’t like milk. | he → does |
| She have two brothers. | She has two brothers. | she → has |
| They was late. | They were late. | they → were |
| I goes to school by bus. | I go to school by bus. | I → V1 without -s |
| Did you saw the rainbow? | Did you see the rainbow? | after did/does/do use V1 |
| She has went home. | She has gone home. | has + V3 |
| I am knowing the answer. | I know the answer. | know, like, want, love are not used in -ing form for states |
| He is going to school daily. | He goes to school daily. | habits → simple present |
| I have seen him yesterday. | I saw him yesterday. | a finished past time (yesterday) → simple past |
| The dogs barks loudly. | The dogs bark loudly. | plural subject → plural verb |
English has a few hundred irregular verbs — and they include the verbs we use most — be, have, do, say, go, get, make, see, come, take are all irregular!
Watch and explore
- 📖Matching the verbs to the subjectbbc.co.uk/bitesize · subject–verb agreement with an activity
- 📖What is the present perfect?bbc.co.uk/bitesize · has/have + past participle explained
- 🎮Parts of speech: the verbkhanacademy.org · practise tenses and irregular verbs
- 📖List of English irregular verbswikipedia.org · the full table to look things up
- 📖Verbsimple.wikipedia.org · an easy-English overview
8Quick recap
- A verb shows an action (run, sing) or a state (is, has).
- Helping verbs (am/is/are/was/were, has/have/had, do/does/did, can/will/must…) come before the main verb.
- has, is, do are main verbs when no other verb follows: “She has a cat.”
- Transitive verbs have an object (kicked the ball); intransitive verbs do not (the baby laughed).
- Three forms: V1 – V2 – V3. After has/have/had use V3 (has rung, has written, has gone).
- bring–brought–brought; fly–flew–flown; ring–rang–rung; sing–sang–sung; go–went–gone.
- Simple present for habits and universal truths: The sun rises in the east.
- Present continuous for now: Look! The baby is sleeping.
- Past continuous + simple past for an interrupted action: I was doing homework when the lights went out.
- Present perfect with since/for: has studied since 2022; have lived for six years.
- Future: will + V1 — We will visit Shimla next summer.
- Each / every / one of the… → singular verb; either/or, neither/nor → nearer subject decides.
- Collective nouns, “a pair of…”, mathematics and news take singular verbs.