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  • Adjectives Versus Verbs: Participial Adjectives
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    Adjectives Versus Verbs: Participial Adjectives

    As I have written many times before, the line between grammatical forms is blurry at best, especially among lexical categories like adjectives and verbs. Adjectives are “words that describe nouns.” Verbs are “words that denote actions, occurrences, and states.” Participles are nonfinite verbs that share characteristics and functions of verbs, adjectives, and nouns. A present […] More

  • Using Verbs and Verb Phrases as Noun Phrase Modifiers
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    Using Verbs and Verb Phrases as Noun Phrase Modifiers

    Traditional grammars define verbs as “words that denote actions and states of being.” A verb phrase consists of a verb plus any auxiliary verbs, particles, modifiers, complements, and objects. In grammar, a noun phrase modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that modifies or describes a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase. Verb phrases in the […] More

  • Common English Verbs
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    Common English Verbs

    The English verb system is often considered the most complex system of the English language. The following sections list the five conjugations — base, simple present, simple past, present participle, past participle — of the three auxiliary and twenty most common verbs in English and list the nine full modal verbs and five quasi-modal verbs. […] More

  • Spanish Verbs: Forming Past Participles in Spanish
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    Spanish Verbs: Forming Past Participles in Spanish

    The past participle in Spanish is primarily used with the verb haber ‘to have’ to form the present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect of Spanish verbs. Similar to the past participle in English, the Spanish past participle is formed by affixing a suffix to the stem of a verb. The following sections explain the […] More

  • English Irregular Verbs: Simple Past and Past Participles
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    English Irregular Verbs: Simple Past and Past Participles

    Irregular English verbs are verbs whose conjugations differ from the conjugation patterns of regular verbs. Many common English verbs are irregular in the simple past and the past participle. Irregular verbs are verbs in Germanic languages that express the simple past tense by means of changes to the stem vowel (ablaut). Irregular verbs are also referred […] More

  • Past Participles of Irregular English Verbs
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    Past Participles of Irregular English Verbs

    Past participles, or -en participles, are a nonfinite verb form in English that perform verbal and adjectival functions. The following sections explain how to form past participles of irregular English verbs including anomalous and how to use past participles in English and include examples to illustrate form and function. Past participles are also referred to […] More

  • Past Participles of Regular English Verbs
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    Past Participles of Regular English Verbs

    Past participles, or -en participles, are a nonfinite verb form in English that perform verbal and adjectival functions. The following sections explain how to form past participles of regular English verbs and how to use past participles in English and include examples to illustrate form and function. Past participles are also referred to as -en […] More