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)?
Bubbles's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
69 views

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 ...
Hairsplitter's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
29 views

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 ...
user492032's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
57 views

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 ...
Diala Alothman's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
44 views

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 ...
White's user avatar
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-1 votes
0 answers
21 views

- 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 ...
Quirkier's user avatar
-2 votes
0 answers
57 views

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 ...
Bartender's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
22 views

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 ...
Saint Paul's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
104 views

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 ...
japreiss's user avatar
  • 547
-1 votes
2 answers
43 views

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 ...
VSB's user avatar
  • 171
1 vote
1 answer
71 views

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 ?
akash's user avatar
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1 vote
4 answers
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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 ...
piojo's user avatar
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14 votes
4 answers
3k views

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? ...
Nadine Goudy's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
70 views

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 ...
bearthecat's user avatar
-2 votes
5 answers
162 views

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 ...
Stim Roe's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
71 views

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, &...
RichF's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
64 views

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....
Dong Qu's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
88 views

"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. [...
Matthew Rips's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
121 views

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 ...
Eunjin Park's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
87 views

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 ...
VlasovStanislav's user avatar
15 votes
7 answers
3k views

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 ...
alphabet's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
41 views

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 ...
guangming223's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
53 views

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: ...
Tran Khanh's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
75 views

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 ...
John Smith's user avatar
  • 1,720
1 vote
0 answers
29 views

She came home exhausted [closed]

Is it correct to say "She came home exhausted"? Is it necessary to use the verb "to arrive" here?
waterlily99's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
266 views

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 ...
JK2's user avatar
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0 votes
0 answers
47 views

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 ...
Fedor's user avatar
  • 1
3 votes
1 answer
157 views

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 "...
Dzung Nguyen's user avatar
2 votes
4 answers
467 views

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 ...
Tran Khanh's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
23 views

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
Vicky's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
65 views

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.
user avatar
0 votes
5 answers
109 views

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 ...
TechWriterTen's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
78 views

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 ...
Schneider's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
61 views

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" "...
FShrike's user avatar
  • 113
-2 votes
2 answers
48 views

"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....
yasukotta's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
146 views

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 ...
Shubham Kumar's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
60 views

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 ...
tryingtobeastoic's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
99 views

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 ...
tommyaq's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
99 views

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 ...
Thomas Peng's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
47 views

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 ...
Chris Young's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
254 views

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 '...
Imp's user avatar
  • 21
1 vote
1 answer
218 views

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”...
Kevin's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
0 answers
21 views

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.
Hi101's user avatar
  • 11
0 votes
1 answer
84 views

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 ...
John Smith's user avatar
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7 votes
10 answers
4k views

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 ...
wahok's user avatar
  • 79
2 votes
1 answer
114 views

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 ...
Falcon's user avatar
  • 121
0 votes
1 answer
57 views

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 ...
daci's user avatar
  • 1
-2 votes
1 answer
68 views

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 ...
Mehr's user avatar
  • 3
1 vote
2 answers
153 views

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 ...
JK2's user avatar
  • 6,471
1 vote
0 answers
37 views

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 ...
Mahmet's user avatar
  • 21

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