INCORRECT VERB FORMS
A verb is defined as a word indicating actions or state. It can also be defined as a word used to show that an action is taking or to indicate the existence presence of a state or condition or the part of a speech to which such a word belongs. There are 5 ways through which verbs can be formed and they are the following:
1. The form of a verb given in the dictionary is also known as the INFINITIVE, and also the IMPERATIVE, used to express a command: e.g., dictionary form and INFINITIVE, go; IMPERATIVE, Go!
2. The same form serves as the Present Simple Tense for all persons except the third person singular: e.g., I go, you go, we go, they go. The third person singular has an added s or es: he goes, she goes, and it goes.
3. The endings ing and d or -ed are added to the dictionary form to produce participles: e.g. loving [present], loved [past]
4. Most verbs are REGULAR: that is, the Past Tense and Past Participle are formed by adding d or -ed to the dictionary form. But there are also a number of irregular verbs, which change in other ways. A list of common irregular verbs shall be treated later insha Allaah.
5. Various AUXILLIARIES [be, am, is, are, was, were, being, been, have, has, had, having, do, does, did] combine with the participles according to certain rules to produce many other verb forms. In general, these are known as TENSES. Failure to observe these rules account for many common errors in verb formation. Most of these are regarded as elementary errors and therefore be avoided when speaking or writing.
Verbs are found in statement form, or question from, or imperative form, and for each of these there is a negative form lnsha Allaah as from next edition we shall be looking at some of the errors that people commit as far as verbs are concerned and also the correct way they are to be used.
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited