Selamat Berpuasa

Verb Forms: Helping Verbs

Forms of Helping Verbs

All helping verbs are used with a main verb (either expressed or understood*). There are 2 groups of helping verbs:

• Primary helping verbs, used mainly to change the tense or voice of the main verb, and in making questions and negatives.
• Modal helping verbs, used to change the "mood" of the main verb.

Study the table below. It shows the principal forms and uses of helping verbs, and explains the differences between primary and modal helping verbs.

* Sometimes we make a sentence that has a helping verb and seems to have no main verb. In fact, the main verb is "understood". Look at the following examples:

• Question: Can you speak English? (The main verb speak is "expressed".)
• Answer: Yes, I can. (The main verb speak is not expressed. It is "understood" from the context. We understand: Yes, I can speak English.

But if somebody walked into the room and said "Hello. I can", we would understand nothing!

Helping Verbs
Primary		Modal
do	(to make simple tenses, and questions and negatives)	can	could
be	(to make continuous tenses, and the passive voice)	may	might
have	(to make perfect tenses)	will	would
		shall	should
		must
		ought (to)
"Do", "be" and "have" as helping verbs have exactly the same forms as when they are main verbs (except that as helping verbs they are never used in infinitive forms).		Modal helping verbs are invariable. They always have the same form.
Primary helping verbs are followed by the main verb in a particular form: do + V1 (base verb) be + -ing (present participle) have + V3 (past participle)		"Ought" is followed by the main verb in infinitive form. Other modal helping verbs are followed by the main verb in its base form (V1). ought + to... (infinitive) other modals + V1 (base verb)
"Do", "be" and "have" can also function as main verbs.		Modal helping verbs cannot function as main verbs.

Verb Forms: Main Verbs

English verbs come in several forms. For example, the verb to sing can be: to sing, sing, sang, sung, singing or sings. This is a total of 6 forms. Not many, considering that some languages (French, for example) have more than 30 forms for an individual verb. English tenses may be quite complicated, but the forms that we use to make the tenses are actually very simple! With the exception of the verb to be, English main verbs have only 4, 5 or 6 forms. To be has 9 forms. Do not confuse verb forms with tenses. We use the different verb forms to make the tenses, but they are not the same thing.

Forms of Main Verbs

Main verbs (except the verb "be") have only 4, 5 or 6 forms. "Be" has 9 forms.

		V1	V2	V3
	infinitive	base	past simple	past participle	present participle	present simple, 3rd person singular
regular	(to) work	work	worked	worked	working	works
irregular	(to) sing (to) make (to) cut	sing make cut	sang made cut	sung made cut	singing making cutting	sings makes cuts
	(to) do* (to) have*	do have	did had	done had	doing having	does has
	infinitive	base	past simple	past participle	present participle	present simple
	(to) be*	be	was, were	been	being	am, are, is

In the above examples:

• to cut has 4 forms: to cut, cut, cutting, cuts
• to work has 5 forms: to work, work, worked, working, works
• to sing has 6 forms: to sing, sing, sang, sung, singing, sings
• to be has 9 forms: to be, be, was, were, been, being, am, is, are

The infinitive can be with or without to. For example, to sing and sing are both infinitives. We often call the infinitive without to the "bare infinitive".

At school, students usually learn by heart the base, past simple and past participlepresent participle3rd person singular present simple by heart - for another very simple reason: they never change. The present participle is always made by adding "-ing" to the base, and the 3rd person singular present simple is always made by adding "s" to the base (though there are some variations in spelling). (sometimes called V1, V2, V3, meaning Verb 1, Verb 2, Verb 3) for the irregular verbs. They may spend many hours chanting: sing, sang, sung; go, went, gone; have, had, had; etc. They do not learn these for the regular verbs because the past simple and past participle are always the same: they are formed by adding "-ed" to the base. They do not learn the and

* Note that "do", "have" and "be" also function as helping or auxiliary verbs, with exactly the same forms (except that as helping verbs they are never in infinitive form).

Example Sentences

These example sentences use main verbs in different forms.

Infinitive

• I want to work
• He has to sing.
• This exercise is easy to do.
• Let him have one.
• To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Base - Imperative

• Work well!
• Make this.
• Have a nice day.
• Be quiet!

Base - Present simple
(except 3rd person singular)

• I work in Kuala Lumpur.
• You sing well.
• They have a lot of money.

Base - After modal auxiliary verbs

• I can work tomorrow.
• You must sing louder.
• They might do it.
• You could be right.

Past simple

• I worked yesterday.
• She cut his hair last week.
• They had a good time.
• They were surprised, but I was not.

Past participle

• I have worked here for five years.
• He needs a folder made of plastic.
• It is done like this.
• I have never been so happy.

Present participle

• I am working.
• Singing well is not easy.
• Having finished, he went home.
• You are being silly!

3rd person singular, present simple

• He works in Kuala Lumpur.
• She sings well.
• She has a lot of money.
• It is Vietnamese.

What are verbs

The verb is king in English. The shortest sentence contains a verb. You can make a one-word sentence with a verb, for example: "Stop!" You cannot make a one-word sentence with any other type of word.

Verbs are sometimes described as "action words". This is partly true. Many verbs give the idea of action, of "doing" something. For example, words like run, fight, do and work all convey action.

But some verbs do not give the idea of action; they give the idea of existence, of state, of "being". For example, verbs like be, exist, seem and belong all convey state.

A verb always has a subject. (In the sentence "Halim speaks English", Halim is the subject and speaks is the verb.) In simple terms, therefore, we can say that verbs are words that tell us what a subject does or is; they describe:

• action (Lokman plays football.)
• state (Salbiah seems kind.)

There is something very special about verbs in English. Most other words (adjectives, adverbs, prepositions etc) do not change in form (although nouns can have singular and plural forms). But almost all verbs change in form. For example, the verb to work has five forms:

• to work, work, works, worked, working

Of course, this is still very few forms compared to some languages which may have thirty or more forms for a single verb.

Verb Classification

We divide verbs into two broad classifications:

1. Helping Verbs

Imagine that a stranger walks into your room and says:

• I can.
• People must.
• The Earth will.

Do you understand anything? Has this person communicated anything to you? Probably not! That's because these verbs are helping verbs and have no meaning on their own. They are necessary for the grammatical structure of the sentence, but they do not tell us very much alone. We usually use helping verbs with main verbs. They "help" the main verb. (The sentences in the above examples are therefore incomplete. They need at least a main verb to complete them.) There are only about 15 helping verbs.

2. Main Verbs

Now imagine that the same stranger walks into your room and says:

• I teach.
• People eat.
• The Earth rotates.

Do you understand something? Has this person communicated something to you? Probably yes! Not a lot, but something. That's because these verbs are main verbs and have meaning on their own. They tell us something. Of course, there are thousands of main verbs.

In the following table we see example sentences with helping verbs and main verbs. Notice that all of these sentences have a main verb. Only some of them have a helping verb.

	helping verb		main verb
Amin			likes	coffee.
You			lied	to me.
They			are	happy.
The children	are		playing.
We	must		go	now.
I	do	not	want	any.

Helping verbs and main verbs can be further sub-divided.

Helping verbs have no meaning on their own. They are necessary for the grammatical structure of a sentence, but they do not tell us very much alone. We usually use helping verbs with main verb. They "help" the main verb (which has the real meaning). There are only about 15 helping verbs in English, and we divide them into two basic groups:

Primary helping verbs (3 verbs)

These are the verbs be, do, and have. Note that we can use these three verbs as helping verbs or as main verbs. On this page we talk about them as helping verbs. We use them in the following cases:

• be
  • to make continuous tenses (He is watching TV.)
  • to make the passive (Small fish are eaten by big fish.)
  
  
  
• have
  • to make perfect tenses (I have finished my homework.)
  
  
  
• do
  • to make negatives (I do not like you.)
  • to ask questions (Do you want some coffee?)
  • to show emphasis (I do want you to pass your exam.)
  • to stand for a main verb in some constructions (He speaks faster than she does.)

Modal helping verbs (10 verbs)

We use modal helping verbs to "modify" the meaning of the main verb in some way. A modal helping verb expresses necessity or possibility, and changes the main verb in that sense. These are the modal verbs:

• can, could
• may, might
• will, would,
• shall, should
• must
• ought to

Here are examples using modal verbs:

• I can't speak Chinese.
• Yatie may arrive late.
• Would you like a cup of coffee?
• You should see a doctor.
• I really must go now.

Main Verbs

Main verbs are also called "lexical verbs".

Main verbs have meaning on their own (unlike helping verbs). There are thousands of main verbs, and we can classify them in several ways:

Transitive and intransitive verbs

A transitive verb takes a direct object: Somebody killed the President. An intransitive verb does not have a direct object: He died. Many verbs, like speak, can be transitive or intransitive. Look at these examples:

transitive:

• I saw an elephant.
• We are watching TV.
• He speaks English.

intransitive:

• He has arrived.
• Haziqah goes to school.
• She speaks fast.

Linking verbs

A linking verb does not have much meaning in itself. It "links" the subject to what is said about the subject. Usually, a linking verb shows equality (=) or a change to a different state or place (>). Linking verbs are always intransitive (but not all intransitive verbs are linking verbs).

• Fatin is a teacher. (Fatin = teacher)
• Zizi is beautiful. (Zizi = beautiful)
• That sounds interesting. (that = interesting)
• The sky became dark. (the sky > dark)
• The bread has gone bad. (bread > bad)

Dynamic and stative verbs

Some verbs describe action. They are called "dynamic", and can be used with continuous tenses. Other verbs describe state (non-action, a situation). They are called "stative", and cannot normally be used with continuous tenses (though some of them can be used with continuous tenses with a change in meaning).

dynamic verbs (examples):

• hit, explode, fight, run, go

stative verbs (examples):

• be
• like, love, prefer, wish
• impress, please, surprise
• hear, see, sound
• belong to, consist of, contain, include, need
• appear, resemble, seem

Regular and irregular verbs

This is more a question of vocabulary than of grammar. The only real difference between regular and irregular verbs is that they have different endings for their past tense and past participle forms. For regular verbs, the past tense ending and past participle ending is always the same: -ed. For irregular verbs, the past tense ending and the past participle ending is variable, so it is necessary to learn them by heart.

regular verbs: base, past tense, past participle

• look, looked, looked
• work, worked, worked

irregular verbs: base, past tense, past participle

• buy, bought, bought
• cut, cut, cut
• do, did, done

Here are lists of regular verbs and irregular verbs.

One way to think of regular and irregular verbs is like this: all verbs are irregular and the so-called regular verbs are simply one very large group of irregular verbs.

Often the above divisions can be mixed. For example, one verb could be irregular, transitive and dynamic; another verb could be regular, transitive and stative.

Muet Tips

Normally, Candidates do not pass or fail the MUET. They are classified into six bands ranging from Band 1 to band 6.here are some tips...

Familiarisation

• Be familiar with the examination format - the time allocated for each section, the number of questions in each section, the types of questions, etc.
• Get acquainted with the kinds of topics covered in the different sections.
• Read the notes given in this book on the ways to prepare for the examination, the strategies to use when answering questions and the analysis of how candidates score in the examinations.

Preparation

Three months before the examination

• Attempt the model questions for Paper 1 (Listening) and Paper 3 (Reading)
• Check your answers
• Practise writing the summaries and essays for Paper 4 (Writing) in Model Tests given.
• Edit your summaries using the answer key as a guide.
• Ask a friend who is proficient in English to read and edit your essays.
• Practise the tasks in Paper 2 (Speaking) with a firend /groups of friends who are willing to work with you.
• Try to adhere to the time allotted for each of the questions.

One week before the examination

• Make sure you have attempted every type ofd question given in the MUET Tests.
• Re-attempt the questions which you may not have performed well.

One day before the examination

• Check to make sure you remember the examination format.
• Read again the notes given on these strategies to use when answering questions.
• Sleep early so that you are well rested on the day of the examination.

On the day of the examination

• Glance through one of the Model Test papers you have attempted.
• Make sure you have all the stationery that you may need - 2B pencils, sharpener, eraser, ballpoint pens (preferably black) stapler with stapler with staples and ruler.
• Eat a good breakfast so that you have the energy to sit through the whole exam.
• Compose yourself, be calm and try not to panic.

Good luck!