Questions tagged [verbs]
This tag is for questions about verbs. Verbs are words that express an action, occurrence, or a state of being. Add this tag to single-word-requests if you are looking for a verb. Add the tag word-usage if you are asking about the usage of the verb.
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What is the function of the word "boats" in this sentence? [migrated]
For instance, they can learn that boats float and can practice ways to make boats move across water.
Is it a subject or an object (the bolded word)?
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1
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How common is ellipting '(that/which has) to do'? [closed]
I am wondering how often the structure 'that has to do' is reduced to just 'to do', and what style marker it carries in such a case.
Let's see:
'...and that's how you know how much to pay for your ...
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Modifying a sentence object
In one study, for instance, bar codes were placed on bees, tracking their activities.
Is this correct? Or do we say...
In one study, for instance, bar codes were placed on bees to track their ...
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1
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57
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A linking verb or a part of the verb phrase?
I just came across the following sentences, and it just kept me thinking for hours and searching up grammar rules, but it was in vain. The question is about identifying verbal phrases:
The apples ...
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1
answer
44
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Alternative verb to bullshitting [closed]
I sometimes help a student in school write his essays and responses to the exams since he has a problem in his hands. After dictating what he wants me to write in his essay, he often says "I am ...
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- He is going to plan to move to London to avoid paying high taxes to pay for his medical bills. / - Oh yes, he has to [closed]
Which verb does the responder refer to in this dialogue?
He is going to plan to move to London to avoid paying high taxes to pay for his medical bills.
Oh yes, he has to.
he has to plan
he has to ...
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At weekends they prefer to stay home and visit some friends [migrated]
I am wondering how this sentence is to be paraphrased:
At weekends they prefer to stay home and visit some friends.
I am not sure which ones are close to the original:
They like to remain in their ...
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1
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22
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Verb tense in academic writing [closed]
Consider this sentence.
X studied fault structure using method A. Y studied fault structure
using method B. However, the geometrical complexity of a fault
remained poorly understood.
Do I have to ...
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3
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Is this awkward reuse of a verb between subjects correct?
From a Library of Congress article about Freud:
...patients tended to perform for the camera and doctors to record the most photogenic.
This sentence seems to reuse the verb tended between the ...
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2
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Can verb "seem" be used for non-observable thing?
I want to know if the verb seem can be used only for observable things? For example, if I guess the computer hard disk is failed doing some action and has some logical issues can I say: "It seems ...
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the smoke _____ out from the chimney [closed]
Q. The smoke ____ out from the chimney.
a. left
b. rose
c. went
This question was asked recently in an exam. So which one of the options is the most appropriate option to be filled in the blank ?
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4
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Is verb order significant when someone is [verb1]ing and [verb2]ing?
I came across some interesting dialogue in a tense scene in a novel, Salvation Lost by Peter F Hamilton:
"We'll know exactly what the other [people] are seeing and doing."
"Doing and ...
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4
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Halved, quartered...what's next?
I was going to quarter my daughter's grapes but decided to cut them into six pieces instead. Did I sixth her grapes? I looked all over the net and couldn't find the answer. What's the proper word? ...
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1
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A word for when you ask someone to stop helping even though they have good intentions
I need a verb that describes asking someone to stop helping you, even though you know they mean well, because it's not helpful. So you ask them in a way that is almost pleading. It's stronger than ...
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5
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Can you tell me the difference between the bare infinitive and the base form of a verb?
I heard my teacher stating that the base form of a verb is not an infinitive itself, but it is used to construct one of the two forms of infinitives.
Edit note
This question has been linked to a ...
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71
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What is an ing-form used as what appears to be a participial adjective, but for which there is no corresponding verb? [closed]
After verifying that it was a real word, I just posted a chapter named "Processioning". I have begun to wonder what kind of thing that is. As far as I know there has never been a verb, &...
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Singular or plural verbs for "There has/have been a large number of studies investigating…" [duplicate]
I am writing a thesis in English. After finishing, I used two grammar-checking software programs to pick up grammar errors. However, confusing results for a sentence were given by the two applications....
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1
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"He fought in World War II as an infantryman" - does 'as' change 'fought' into a linking verb?
Can an as-headed prepositional phrase turn an action verb into a linking verb?
Consider the following examples:
With the fall of the Roman Empire, cities were abandoned as centers of administration. [...
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0
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121
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Can verbs of perception have an adjective in the objective complement position?
I know as below.
[verbs of perception + object + bare infinitive / present participle / past participle]
But I found this sentence.
The note was heard loud.
Then can verbs of perception have an ...
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Use of the verb ‘output’ [closed]
I need some advice on the use of output as a verb.
To put it in context, I am working on a desktop app that uses some of the functionality of MS Word. In the app, there is an element called a binding ...
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Is "I gave a hundred dollars to my father, and she did so to her father" grammatical?
Is the following sentence grammatically correct?
I gave a hundred dollars to my father, and she did so to her father.
To me it sounds perfectly fine. According to the unscientific method of asking ...
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Can parts "comprise" the whole? [duplicate]
A quick google search shows that you can use "comprise" in the following ways:
The hotel comprises 58 rooms.
or
A car comprises an engine, a transmission, a body, a chassis, etc.
I know that ...
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1
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Ellipsis of "be" before the passive form of verbs
Google dictionary (based on Oxford dictionary) has an entry for the verb "reveal" as follows:
make (something) known to humans by divine or supernatural means.
And it includes one example:
...
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Meaning of "Bore many gentlemen" in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure"? [closed]
In act I, scene 5, of Measure for Measure, Lucio says:
Lucio. This is the point.
The Duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen (my selfe being one)
In hand, and hope of action: but ...
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0
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29
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She came home exhausted [closed]
Is it correct to say "She came home exhausted"?
Is it necessary to use the verb "to arrive" here?
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266
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Every cubic inch of air seems 'accounted' for: verb or adjective?
The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Page 1440) has this subsection
Adjectival passives with the negative prefix un
We have noted that such examples as the following are unambiguously ...
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47
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What's the meaning of noun + to + verb? [duplicate]
I can't understand, what does the following sentence mean and other similar sentences: (for example)
France to ban street scooters in Paris.
What does it mean, if we use "to" after the ...
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1
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I am looking for the action verb in "…he having more plenteous ideas of the same order…"
I am reading Middlemarch by George Eliot. I encountered this long sentence and only understood the gist of it. I can't figure out the grammar style and I am looking for the verb of the subject "...
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Meaning of "to appeal to some law"
This Wikipedia's page says that:
David Hume's problem of induction demonstrates that one must appeal to the principle of the uniformity of nature if they seek to justify their implicit assumption ...
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Why did contractions (elimination of “e”) at the end of verbs disappear? [duplicate]
commonly seen in Early Modern English e.g. trimm’d, poliʃh’d
extracted from a passage written in 1737
we are curious about why these verbs used to be spelled this way but aren’t anymore
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Can you link action verbs with verbs of being in a sentence
Can you link action verbs with verbs of being in a sentence? As in say
These are people who think critically, solve problems collaboratively, and are prepared to thrive in a global society.
Lori
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5
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Can an an inanimate object "seek"?
I've searched various grammar sites and can't find an answer to whether an inanimate object can seek to obtain something. For example:
For instance, in 2017, we received over 80 requests for vehicles ...
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Verb particle noun or verb noun particle: to leave out [duplicate]
Which sentence is grammatically correct or sounds more native-like?
Politicians tend to discuss their sources of income nontransparently, leaving the discussions surrounding them out.
Politicians ...
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1
answer
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Disyllabic nouns that differ from their verbs only in which syllable is emphasised [closed]
Some English nouns are identical to their verbs (and their adjectives) both in spelling and pronunciation, for example:
"This is fake"; "to fake"; "this is a fake"
"...
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"Students leaving on campus often complain having roommate problems." [closed]
I came across the following sentence in a corpus called SkELL (Sketch Engine for Language Learning):
(1) Students leaving on campus often complain having roommate problems.
https://skell.sketchengine....
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2
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Will vs want - can they be used interchangeably?
Here are two sentences that sort of mean the same thing, but need your help in identifying which one would be more appropriate.
I do already have an idea as to which phrase would be more appropriate ...
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2
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What does "defend a lawsuit" mean?
The planters sued hundreds of peasants for breaking their indigo
contracts, with over seventeen thousand rupees being spent defending
these lawsuits.
(source)
Does the above sentence mean that the ...
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2
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Bit as a p.p. form of bite (v)
The Merriam-Webster dictionary lists bit as an alternative past participle form of the verb bite, with bitten.
bite (1 of 2) (verb) (ˈbīt); bit (ˈbit); bitten (ˈbi-tᵊn) also bit; biting
As far as I ...
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2
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Is it a generalization?
According to Cambridge Dictionary the verb abhor carries a moral connotation (at least), indicating a strong feeling of detesting something on moral grounds:
abhor: to hate a way of behaving or ...
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1
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Would the verb in this sentence be used transitively or intransitively? [closed]
In the following sentence is "painted" being used transitively or intransitively?
The sunset painted the sky with a tapestry of fiery colors.
I asked ChatGPT about this and it gives ...
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3
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Stative verbs and adjectives/adverbs
Premise:
Verb 'want' is normally (?) stative
We use adverbs when we have an action verb and adjectives when the verb is stative
In sentence "I want it bad(ly)" we would use the adverb '...
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Faced with vs faced by
I am faced with a problem.
I am faced by a problem.
What is the difference between these two sentences? Is there an agent when using “faced with” since it is a passive construction? Or is “faced with”...
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Question regarding the expression ¨One kind of + [plural noun].¨ [closed]
Which one is correct?
There is only one kind of sunglasses, and it´s small.
There is only one kind of sunglasses, and they are small.
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1
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What do 'fain' and 'unfained' mean in this paragraph from Milton's "The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce"?
In book one, chapter VI, of The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, it is written:
Fourthly, Mariage is a cov’nant the very beeing wherof consists, not in a forc’t cohabitation, and counterfet ...
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10
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Verb for "ceasing to like someone/something"
I am looking for a verb with the meaning of ceasing to like something/someone.
To dislike is not fitting here, as it means the opposite of like, not going back from liking something to having a ...
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1
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Unusual conjugation of "to be" [closed]
I encountered several times a certain type of sentences (in colloquial contexts) which were clearly grammatically incorrect but seems to be widely spread and, as a non-native English speaker, I would ...
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much less + (verb)ing (gerund) agreement/concord
Do I need to make sure the gerunds match in the following sentence:
There is not much attention paid to really examining what constitutes this notion, much less scrutinizing the received criteria for ...
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What's the name for saying "no" but not meaning that?
What is it called when someone says no, but actually doesn't mean that?
Imagine this situation: when two lovers have had an argument then one of them is trying to apologise but the other one (usually ...
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2
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you could do worse than + -ing
Merriam-Webster defines "could do worse" as an idiom:
used to say that a particular choice, action, etc., is not a bad one
You could do worse than to vote for her.
Although I would have ...
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Is there a verb to be omitted? [closed]
Every time I go to social media, I get questions about the correctness of the English language and I wonder if there is an omitted verb to be between a noun and the main verb, for example someone ...
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