1. General characteristics

Grammatically the verb is the most complex part of speech. First of all it performs the central role in realizing predication - connection between situation in the utterance and reality. That is why the verb is of primary informative significance in an utterance. Besides, the verb possesses quite a lot of grammatical categories. Furthermore, within the class of verb various subclass divisions based on different principles of classification can be found.

Semantic features of the verb. The verb possesses the grammatical meaning of verbiality - the ability to denote a process developing in time. This meaning is inherent not only in the verbs denoting processes, but also in those denoting states, forms of existence, evaluations, etc.

Morphological features of the verb. The verb possesses the following grammatical categories: tense, aspect, voice, mood, person, number, finitude and phase. The common categories for finite and non-finite forms are voice, aspect, phase and finitude. The grammatical categories of the English verb find their expression in synthetical and analytical forms. The formative elements expressing these categories are grammatical affixes, inner inflexion and function words. Some categories have only synthetical forms (person, number), others - only analytical (voice). There are also categories expressed by both synthetical and analytical forms (mood, tense, aspect).

Syntactic features. The most universal syntactic feature of verbs is their ability to be modified by adverbs. The second important syntactic criterion is the ability of the verb to perform the syntactic function of the predicate. However, this criterion is not absolute because only finite forms can perform this function while non-finite forms can be used in any function but predicate. And finally, any verb in the form of the infinitive can be combined with a modal verb.

2. Verb Classification

We divide verbs into two broad classifications:

1. Helping Verbs have no meaning on their own:

I can.

People must.

These verbs are helping verbs and 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 have meaning on their own. They tell us something:

I teach.

The Earth rotates.

There are thousands of main verbs.

3. Helping Verbs

Helping verbs are also called "auxiliary verbs".

There are only about 15 helping verbs in English, and we divide them into 3 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.

We use helping verbs in the following cases:

1. be

   • to make continuous tenses (He is watching TV.)

   • to make the passive (Small fish are eaten by big fish.)

2. have

   • to make perfect tenses (I have finished my homework.)

3. 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 (I can't speak Chinese.)

• may, might (John may arrive late.)

• will, would (Would you like a cup of coffee?)

• shall, should (You should see a doctor.)

• must, ought to (I really must go now.)

Semi-modal verbs (3 verbs)

The following verbs are often called "semi-modals" because they are partly like modal helping verbs and partly like main verbs:

• need

• dare

• used to