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'{{About|the part of speech|the physical activity program|VERB (program)|English usage of verbs|English verbs}} {{Expert-subject|Linguistics|date=November 2008}} {{ExamplesSidebar|35%| * I '''washed''' the car yesterday. * The dog '''ate''' the homework. * John '''studies''' English and French. }} A '''verb''', from the Latin ''verbum'' meaning ''word'', is a [[word]] ([[part of speech]]) that in [[syntax]] conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of [[English language|English]], the basic form, with or without the [[Grammatical particle|particle]] ''to'', is the [[infinitive]]. In many [[language]]s, verbs are [[Inflection|inflected]] (modified in form) to encode [[grammatical tense|tense]], [[grammatical aspect|aspect]], [[grammatical mood|mood]] and [[voice (grammar)|voice]]. A verb may also agree with the [[grammatical person|person]], [[grammatical gender|gender]], and/or [[grammatical number|number]] of some of its arguments, such as its [[subject (grammar)|subject]], or [[object (grammar)|object]]. == Agreement == {{main|Grammatical conjugation}} In languages where the verb is inflected, it often agrees with its primary argument (the subject) in person, number and/or gender. With the exception of the verb ''to be'', English shows distinctive agreement only in the third person singular, present tense form of verbs, which is marked by adding "-s" (''I&nbsp;walk'', ''he&nbsp;walk'''s''''') or "-es" (''he fish'''es'''''). The rest of the persons are not distinguished in the verb (''I&nbsp;walk'', ''you&nbsp;walk'', ''they&nbsp;walk'', etc.). [[Latin]] and the [[Romance languages]] inflect verbs for [[tense–aspect–mood]] and they agree in person and number (but not in gender, as for example in [[Polish language|Polish]]) with the subject. [[Japanese language|Japanese]], like many languages with [[subject–object–verb|SOV]] word order, inflects verbs for tense/mood/aspect as well as other categories such as negation, but shows absolutely no agreement with the subject - it is a strictly [[dependent-marking language]]. On the other hand, [[Basque language|Basque]], [[Georgian language|Georgian]], and some other languages, have ''[[polypersonal agreement]]'': the verb agrees with the subject, the direct object and even the secondary object if present, a greater degree of [[head-marking language|head-marking]] than is found in [[Standard Average European|most European]] languages. == Valency == {{main|Valency (linguistics)}} The number of arguments that a verb takes is called its ''valency'' or ''valence''. Verbs can be classified according to their valency: * '''[[avalency|Avalent]]''' (valency = 0): the verb has neither a subject nor an object. Zero valency does not occur in English; in some languages such as [[Mandarin Chinese]], weather verbs like ''snow(s)'' take no subject or object. * '''[[Intransitive verb|Intransitive]]''' (valency = 1, monovalent): the verb only has a [[subject (grammar)|subject]]. For example: "he runs", "it falls". * '''[[transitive verb|Transitive]]''' (valency = 2, divalent): the verb has a subject and a [[direct object]]. For example: "she eats fish", "we hunt nothing". *'''[[Ditransitive verb|Ditransitive]]''' (valency = 3, trivalent): the verb has a subject, a direct object, and an indirect object. For example: "He gives her a flower." [[Weather verb]]s are often [[impersonal verb|impersonal]] (subjectless, or avalent) in [[null-subject language]]s like [[Spanish language|Spanish]], where the verb ''llueve'' means "It rains". In English, they require a [[dummy pronoun]], and therefore formally have a valency of 1.{{Dubious|date=March 2008}} Intransitive and transitive verbs are the most common, but the impersonal and '''[[Impersonal verb|objective verbs]]''' are somewhat different from the norm. In the objective the verb takes an object but no subject; the nonreferent subject in some uses may be marked in the verb by an incorporated dummy pronoun similar to that used with the English weather verbs. Impersonal verbs in null subject languages take neither subject nor object, as is true of other verbs, but again the verb may show incorporated dummy pronouns despite the lack of subject and object phrases. [[Tlingit language|Tlingit]] lacks a ditransitive, so the indirect object is described by a separate, extraposed clause.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} English verbs are often flexible with regard to valency. A transitive verb can often drop its object and become intransitive; or an intransitive verb can take an object and become transitive. For example, the verb ''move'' has no grammatical object in ''he moves'' (though in this case, the subject itself may be an implied object, also expressible explicitly as in ''he moves himself''); but in ''he moves the car'', the subject and object are distinct and the verb has a different valency. In many languages other than English, such valency changes are not possible; the verb must instead be inflected in order to change the valency.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} ==Tense, aspect, and modality== ==Voice== The [[Voice (grammar)|voice]]<ref>Klaiman, M. H., ''Grammatical Voice (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics)'', Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991.</ref> of a verb expresses whether the subject of the verb is performing the action of the verb or whether the action is being performed on the subject. The two most common voices are the [[active voice]] (as in "I saw the car") and the [[passive voice]] (as in "The car was seen by me" or simply "The car was seen"). {{main|Non-finite verb}} Most languages have a number of [[verbal noun]]s that describe the action of the verb. In the Indo-European languages, verbal adjectives are generally called [[participle]]s. English has an [[active voice|active]] participle, also called a present participle; and a [[passive voice|passive]] participle, also called a past participle. The active participle of ''break'' is ''breaking'', and the passive participle is ''broken''. Other languages have [[attributive verb]] forms with tense and aspect. This is especially common among [[SOV language|verb-final languages]], where attributive verb phrases act as [[relative clause]]s. == See also == {{Col-begin}} {{Col-2}} * [[Linguistics]] ===Verbs in various languages=== * [[Ancient Greek verbs]] * [[Basque verbs]] * [[Bulgarian verbs]] * [[Chinese verbs]] * [[English verbs]] * [[Finnish verb conjugation]] * [[French verbs]] * [[German verbs]] * [[Germanic verb]]s * [[Hebrew verb conjugation]] * [[Hungarian verbs]] * [[Ilokano verb]]s * [[Irish verbs]] * [[Italian verbs]] * [[Japanese consonant and vowel verbs]] * [[Japanese verb conjugations and adjective declensions|Japanese verb conjugations]] * [[Korean verbs]] * [[Latin verbs]] * [[Persian verbs]] * [[Portuguese verb conjugation]] * [[Proto-Indo-European verb]] * [[Romance verbs]] * [[Romanian verbs]] * [[Sanskrit verbs]] * [[Sesotho verbs]] * [[Slovene verbs]] * [[Spanish verbs]] * [[Tigrinya verbs]] {{Col-2}} ===Grammar=== * [[Auxiliary verb]] * [[Grammar]] * [[Grammatical aspect]] * [[Grammatical mood]] * [[Grammatical tense]] * [[Grammatical voice]] * [[Performative utterance]] * [[Phrasal verb]] * [[Phrase structure rules]] * [[Sentence (linguistics)]] * [[Syntax]] * [[Tense–aspect–mood]] * [[Transitivity (grammatical category)]] * [[Verb argument]] * [[Verb framing]] * [[Verbification]] * [[Verb phrase]] ===Other=== * ''[[Le Train de Nulle Part]]'': A 233-page book without a single verb. * [[Oh, with the verbing!]] {{Col-end}} {{lexical categories|state=collapsed}} == References == {{reflist}} * Gideon Goldenberg, "On Verbal Structure and the Hebrew Verb", in: idem, ''Studies in Semitic Linguistics'', Jerusalem: Magnes Press 1998, pp.&nbsp;148–196 [English translation; originally published in Hebrew in 1985]. == External links == {{Wiktionary|verb}} *[http://www.conjugation.com conjugation.com] English Verb Conjugation. *[http://www.archivium.biz/index_EN.php Italian Verbs Coniugator and Analyzer] Conjugation and Analysis of Regular and Irregular Verbs, and also of Neologisms, like ''googlare'' for ''to google''. *[http://www.molinodeideas.es/descargas/el_verbo_espaniol.pdf El verbo en español] Downloadable handbook to learn the Spanish verb paradigm in an easy ruled-based method. It also supplies the guidelines to know whenever a Spanish verb is regular or irregular [[Category:Parts of speech]] [[Category:Verb types| ]] [[Category:Verbs| ]] <!-- interwiki --> [[af:Werkwoord]] [[als:Verb]] [[ar:فعل]] [[an:Verbo]] [[ast:Verbu]] [[ay:Parliri]] [[az:Feil]] [[ba:Ҡылым]] [[be:Дзеяслоў]] [[be-x-old:Дзеяслоў]] [[bg:Глагол]] [[bs:Glagoli]] [[br:Verb]] [[ca:Verb]] [[cv:Глагол]] [[cs:Sloveso]] [[cy:Berf]] [[da:Udsagnsord]] [[de:Verb]] [[dsb:Werb]] [[et:Tegusõna]] [[el:Ρήμα]] [[es:Verbo]] [[eo:Verbo]] [[eu:Aditz]] [[fa:فعل]] [[hif:Verb]] [[fo:Sagnorð]] [[fr:Verbe]] [[fy:Tiidwurd]] [[gv:Breear]] [[gd:Gnìomhair]] [[gl:Verbo]] [[ko:동사 (품사)]] [[hi:क्रिया (व्याकरण)]] [[hsb:Werb]] [[hr:Glagoli]] [[id:Verba]] [[ia:Verbo]] [[os:Мивдисæг]] [[is:Sagnorð]] [[it:Verbo]] [[he:פועל (בלשנות)]] [[jv:Tembung kriya]] [[ka:ზმნა]] [[kk:Етістік]] [[sw:Kitenzi]] [[ltg:Laikvuords]] [[la:Verbum (grammatica Latina)]] [[lv:Darbības vārds]] [[lt:Veiksmažodis]] [[li:Wèrkwaord]] [[ln:Likelelo]] [[hu:Ige]] [[mk:Глагол]] [[ml:ക്രിയ (വ്യാകരണം)]] [[ms:Kata kerja]] [[mn:Үйл үг]] [[nl:Werkwoord]] [[nds-nl:Waarkwoord]] [[ja:動詞]] [[no:Verb]] [[nn:Verb]] [[oc:Vèrbe]] [[mhr:Койыш мут]] [[pnb:کرپا (گریمر)]] [[km:កិរិយាសព្ទ]] [[nds:Verb]] [[pl:Czasownik]] [[pnt:Ρήμαν]] [[pt:Verbo]] [[ro:Verb]] [[qu:Ruray rimana]] [[rue:Часослова]] [[ru:Глагол]] [[sah:Туохтуур]] [[se:Vearba]] [[stq:Tiedwoud]] [[sq:Folja]] [[simple:Verb]] [[sk:Sloveso]] [[sl:Glagol]] [[sr:Глаголи]] [[sh:Glagol]] [[fi:Verbi]] [[sv:Verb]] [[tl:Pandiwa]] [[ta:வினைச்சொல்]] [[tt:Фигыль]] [[th:คำกริยา]] [[tg:Феъл]] [[tr:Fiil]] [[uk:Дієслово]] [[vi:Động từ]] [[wa:Viebe]] [[war:Pan-unod]] [[yi:צייטווארט]] [[zh-yue:動字]] [[bat-smg:Veikruodis]] [[zh:动词]]'