Next stop on our parts of speech journey is verbs and examples. Verbs are another frequent visitor in your child’s English homework and classwork. They are a part of speech alongside nouns, adjectives and adverbs. (Don’t worry, I will be explaining what each of these are in upcoming blog posts.) If you would like a recap on what nouns are, check out my blog post, Nouns Different Types : 6 Essential Types of Nouns your Brilliant Child Should Learn. Now let’s get started and discuss all things verbs and examples.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of verbs, let’s have a quick chat about the transfer test. Is your child planning on sitting the transfer test? If so, I have got the thing just for you! Check out my FREE SEAG Practice Paper and Teaching Guide for Parents here! This free resource also comes with topic lists, a learning tracker and a pupil evaluation for the test paper. And all for a bargain price of £0.00! Now let’s get back to verbs!
What are verbs and examples?
Verbs are action words or doing words. They are things that we do on a daily basis. Some examples of verbs are ‘singing,’ ‘dancing,’ ‘eating,’ ‘sleeping’ and ‘talking.’ If it is something a person, place or thing does, then it is a verb.
If you take a look online, you will see that there are lots of different types of verbs such as linking verbs or transitive verbs. However, usually, when your child gets to Primary 7 they should be learning basic verbs, ‘bossy’ verbs and the different verb tenses. So that is what we are going to discuss in this blog post. Now you have some verb examples and definition, let’s talk about the different verb tenses.
Verb Tenses and Examples
As we talked about above, verbs are action words. So why do we need verb tenses? The verb tenses are used to tell us when the action took place, whether it happened in the past, present or future. Once again, if you ‘Google’ the verb tenses you will come across simple, perfect, continuous and perfect continuous tenses. The Northern Ireland Curriculum states that your child needs to learn the verb tenses, past, present and future. Therefore, we do not need to delve into these different types of tenses. But if you would like to learn a bit about them, I’ve linked a blog post at the bottom of this post.
Let’s take a look at the verbs tenses and examples of each one.
Past Tense
Past tense verbs tell us that the action took place…you’ve guessed it, in the past. The action has already happened. Most of the time with past tense verbs, we just need to add the letters ‘ed’ onto the end of the verb to transform it into the past tense verb. Some past tenses of verbs and examples are ‘cook’ becomes ‘cooked,’ ‘walk’ becomes ‘walked,’ and ‘wash’ becomes ‘washed.’ Some words change completely such as ‘is’ becomes ‘was.’ And some of the words change their spelling such as ‘cry’ becomes ‘cried.’
Spelling rules for Past Tense Verbs
There are different rules for each spelling when converting verbs into the past tense. For most regular verbs we simply add ‘ed’ to the end of the spelling. For example, ‘wash’ becomes ‘washed’ in the past tense. If a verb already has an ‘e’ on the end, we just need to add ‘d,’ ‘bake’ becomes ‘baked.’
The next rule is that if a verb ends in a ‘y’ such as ‘try,’ we need to change the ‘y,’ to an ‘i’ and add ‘ed.’ Such as, ‘try’ becomes ‘tried.’
If a verb ends with one vowel and one consonant, we need to double the consonant and then add ‘ed’. Just a wee reminder that vowels are the letters a, e, i, o and u. Consonants are all the other letters of the alphabet. For example, with the word ‘trap’ ‘a’ is the vowel and ‘p’ is the consonant so we will double the letter ‘p’ and then add ‘ed,’ – ‘trap’ becomes ‘trapped.’
The last rule with past tense spelling is if the verb ends in the letter ‘c’ we need to add a ‘k’ and then add ‘ed.’ For example, ‘panic’ becomes ‘panicked.’
Present Tense
Present tense verbs are things that are happening right now. Things or actions that a person, place or thing are doing in the present moment. For example, ‘I am walking.’ ‘She is dancing,’ or ‘Kerry cooks.’ Most of the time, we can add ‘ing’ or the letter ‘s’ onto the verb to convert it into the present tense. Here are some verb examples ending in ing, ‘singing,’ ‘swimming,’ ‘reading,’ ‘eating’ and ‘sleeping.’ However, for some verbs, there are different rules for the spelling.
Spelling rules for Present Tense Verbs
As I said above, for most verbs we just need to add ‘s’ or ‘ing’ to make a verb present tense.
However, if the verb ends in ‘s,’ ‘ss,’ ‘sh,’ ‘ch,’ ‘z,’ ‘x,’ ‘o’ or ‘es’ we need to add the letters ‘es’ onto the end of the verb to convert it into the present tense. For example, ‘watch’ becomes ‘watches,’ ‘fix’ becomes ‘fixes’ and ‘wash’ becomes ‘washes’ in the present tense.
Another spelling rule for present tense verbs is when the verb ends in a consonant followed by the letter ‘y,’ we take away the ‘y’ and add ‘ies.’ For example, with the word ‘fly,’ we have the letter ‘l’ which is a consonant, followed by a ‘y.’ Therefore, we replace the ‘y’ with ‘ies,’ ‘fly’ becomes ‘flies.’
Future Tense
Future tense verbs are actions or things that haven’t happened yet but they will happen in the future. Most of the time, the word ‘will’ is in front of the verb for future tense. Some future tense verbs and examples are ‘dance’ becomes ‘will dance,’ ‘sing’ becomes ‘will sing’ and ‘walk’ becomes ‘will walk.’
We can also add the words ‘is,’ ‘am’ and ‘are’ before ‘going to’ or ‘not going to’ and then add the verb to convert it into future tense. For example, ‘Kerry is going to read a book tomorrow.’ ‘Kerry is not going to read tomorrow.’
There are no spelling rules with future tense verbs, they usually stay the same.
Regular Verbs and Examples
Regular verbs are just your normal, basic verbs. They aren’t rule breakers, they follow the spelling rules which you expect them to. When regular verbs are in the past tense, you simply add ‘ed’ to the end of the word. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!
Irregular Verbs and Examples
Just to make things a little bit trickier, we also have irregular verbs which are the rule breakers. This is when the spelling of the past tense verb changes completely! For example, we don’t say we ‘eated’ cake yesterday. The word ‘eat’ changes completely to ‘ate.’ These are irregular verbs, the rule breakers. Some other examples of irregular verbs are ‘drove,’ ‘broke,’ ‘found’ and ‘chose.’
Bossy Verbs
Bossy verbs, when I hear the word ‘bossy’ I immediately think of Miss Trunchbull from Matilda. These types of words are exactly like Miss Trunchbull, they are always telling people what to do! The official name for these verbs is imperative verbs, however, they are mostly referred to as bossy verbs on worksheets, textbooks etc.
Bossy verbs are verbs that are commands, they tell you what to do. They can usually be found in recipes or instruction manuals. For example, ‘Chop the onions.’ ‘Chop’ is the bossy verb in this sentence. Some other examples of imperative verbs are ‘stop,’ ‘push,’ ‘pull’ or ‘turn.’
When using bossy verbs, the placement of the verb determines whether it is just a regular verb or a bossy one. I will show you two examples of the same word being used as a bossy verb and a regular verb.
Bossy verb example – ‘Stop making that loud noise!’ When ‘stop’ is used at the beginning of the sentence it is used as a bossy verb. It is being used as a command. Think of Miss Trunchbull saying this sentence and you will definitely see how it is being used as a bossy verb.
Regular verb example – ‘Can you stop making that loud noise?’ When ‘stop’ is used in the middle of the sentence, it is much softer and less commanding. Imagine Miss Honey from Matilda asking you this question. This verb is not commanding you to stop making the noise, it is asking you a question.
What will my child’s verb homework look like?
We have discussed basic verbs and examples, ‘bossy’ verbs and the different verb tenses. So how will verbs appear in your child’s homework? Just like nouns, your child may be required to identify verbs, write sentences with verbs and also find verbs in comprehension-style tasks.
Below are some examples of how verbs may pop up during homework time. As I said in my last blog post about nouns, your child may be asked different questions, these are just some guidelines and examples that I use when tutoring my students.
Identify Verbs
Your child may be given a series of questions or a piece of text and be asked to underline, highlight or colour the verbs. Here is an example:
Underline the verbs in the following sentences.
Each morning, Mark wakes up and cooks some eggs and bacon for breakfast. He eats his breakfast in the garden then gets dressed and goes for a long walk. After his walk, Mark plans what he will do tomorrow. “I think I will go swimming tomorrow,” says Mark.
In these sentences, Mark is doing a lot of things so there are lots of verbs. The verbs in these sentences are ‘wakes up,’ ‘cooks,’ ‘eats,’ ‘gets dressed,’ ‘goes,’ ‘walk,’ ‘plans’ ‘will go swimming.’ These sentences include present tense and future tense nouns.
Write sentences
The second example of what your child’s verb homework may look like is creating their own sentences using verbs. An example could be, ‘Write a sentence using past tense verbs.’
I baked a cake for my mum’s birthday. I baked it in the oven for one hour and when it had cooled down, I added icing using my mum’s favourite colours and sprinkles.
Your child may also be asked just to write a sentence using any type of verb or they may be asked to write the sentence in the past, present or future tense.
Verb Tense Sorting
This is one of my favourite activities when teaching my students the different verb tenses. I will give them cards or pieces of paper with various verbs on them. They have to sort the verbs into the correct category of past, present or future tense.
Another way to do this is to provide students with a sentence and they have to identify which tense the sentence is written in or add verbs to the sentence using a given tense. For example, ‘The horse ________ over the fence.’ Add a past tense verb to this sentence.
Writing Recipes or Instructions
A way in which your child’s teacher might assess their understanding of bossy verbs is by getting them to write out instructions to do certain tasks or by writing out recipes. This will help them to learn the difference between regular verbs and bossy verbs.
Comprehensions
As I mentioned in my blog post about nouns, the comprehension questions that your child will be asked change as they progress through primary school. A popular question involving verbs is identifying a word from the text which is a verb or the question gives you a word from the text and your child must identify if the word is a noun, verb, adjective or adverb. Let’s take a look at an example.
‘The cow is walking across the large, green field.’ Which word in the following sentence is a verb?
The verb in this sentence is, ‘walking.’ Your child will either be required to select this answer from multiple choices, circle the word or write the word which is a verb.
How to teach your child verbs
If your child is struggling with verbs or needs some extra revision of them, there are fun ways which you can use to help develop their understanding. I will show you some ways that I love teaching verbs. If you have any other ideas get in touch with me and share your fab ideas on Instagram, Facebook or email me at [email protected].
Verb Charades
A fun way to teach your child verbs is verb charades. You can play this game in groups of two or during family game night! You can take it in turns to read the card and act out the verb. The other players must guess what verb each player is acting out. This game will also develop your child’s reading skills as well as their understanding of verbs. Here is a link to a free verb charades game to get you started!
Hobbies
I’m sure your child has a favourite after-school club or hobby that they take part in outside of school. Well, guess what? All of their favourite activities or clubs are VERBS! Yep, that’s right! When talking about your child’s after-school club or hobby, highlight that what they are doing is verbs. Make a list of all your child’s favourite things to do and keep reinforcing that these words are verbs.
Get Creative!
To deepen your child’s knowledge of verbs further, encourage them to make their own verb charade cards or posters about verbs. As they are drawing, creating and colouring, the activity will further instil what verbs are in your child’s head. When they are asked to work with verbs in school or for homework, they will hopefully remember the activity of creating posters or cards. Even better, they can use the cards and posters as a guide during their homework activity.
Have a chat
On the drive to or from school, while dinner is cooking, and before bedtime, there are lots of times during the day when you can highlight the use of verbs in the conversations that you have with your child. For example, if you are talking about what happened in school that particular day, that is an example of past tense verbs. If you are talking about what you are having for dinner, that is an example of present tense verbs. And if you are talking about what you are doing at the weekend, that is an example of future tense verbs. Just like nouns, verbs are happening all around us, every minute of every day so get chatting!
Online Games
We may not always agree with computers, tablets or iPads but online games are an excellent way for your child to learn lots of topics in a fun way. I have linked some of my favourite free online verb games you can use with your child to further develop their understanding of verbs.
You can join in and play these games too with your child. Have some fun learning together.
Verb Worksheets
After completing the fun verb activities from above and your child has a good understanding of verbs, it’s time to solidify that knowledge and complete some worksheets. Chances are that your child’s verb homework will be in a textbook or a worksheet so it is great for them to have extra practice completing verb worksheets. There are lots of fun, interactive worksheets out there such as verb word searches, verb cut and stick, colouring the verbs and themed verb worksheets for particular holidays or events.
More Information on Verbs
Past, Present, Future – Teaching the Verb Tense System
Learn About What Makes a Verb “Regular” or “Irregular”
And that’s it, you are now a verb master! I hope that I have made verbs a little less tricky for you and your child. Don’t forget to check out this blog post for a refresher course on nouns. If you would like a FREE SEAG Transfer Test Paper, sign up here! And remember, verbs are doing words. We act out verbs every single day. If you ever need a wee reminder of verbs and examples, this blog post will always be here for you.
