Study and learn General English Grammar MCQ Questions and Answers on Verb Correction of Sentences to attend Entrance Exams and School/College exams. Students should identify and correct the errors if any to prove their Verbal Ability

What is a Verb –

A verb is that word in a sentence that talks about an action.

For Example

• He talks.
• I sit.
• We do.

In these sentences, the words “talks, sit, do, eat” mention what actions are done by the people. These are called “main verbs” as they take all or most of the responsibility of telling us about the actions.

Important

A main verb uses “s” at the end when written after nouns of the pronouns — “he, she, it”.

• I love to play.
• He loves to play.
• I like football.
• Rahul likes football.
• I hate cherries.
• The boy hates cherries.

Regular Verbs and Irregular Verbs

Regular Verbs

Similarly, main verbs also change from the present form to the past form, mostly by using “ed” after the verb. These verbs are called “regular verbs”.

For Example

• Use – Used
• Call – called
• Soil – Soiled

Important

When regular verbs ending with ‘y’ change to the past form, they replace the y with ‘ied’.

For Example

• Cry – cried
• Try – tried
• Dry – dried

Irregular Verbs

Many verbs don’t follow the ‘-ed’ or ‘-ied’ rule when changing to past form. These are called irregular verbs. The following is a list of some of the most commonly used irregular verbs −

Irregular Verb (Present Form)	Irregular Verb (Past Form)	Irregular Verb (when used with “have, has, had)
awake	awoke	awoken
be	was, were	been
beat	beat	beaten
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
bend	bent	bent
bet	bet	bet
bid	bid	bid
bite	bit	bitten
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
bring	brought	brought
broadcast	broadcast	broadcast
build	built	built
burn	burned or burnt	burned or burnt
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
cut	cut	cut
dig	dug	dug
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
dream	dreamed or dreamt	dreamed or dreamt
drive	drove	driven
drink	drank	drunk
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
feel	felt	felt
fight	fought	fought
find	found	found
fly	flew	flown
forget	forgot	forgotten
forgive	forgave	forgiven
freeze	froze	frozen
get	got	got (sometimes gotten)
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
hang	hung	hung
have	had	had
hear	heard	heard
hide	hid	hidden
hit	hit	hit
hold	held	held
hurt	hurt	hurt
keep	kept	kept
know	knew	known
lay	laid	laid
lead	led	led
learn	learned or learnt	learned or learnt
leave	left	left
lend	lent	lent
let	let	let
lie	lay	lain
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
mean	meant	meant
meet	met	met
pay	paid	paid
put	put	put
read	read	read
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
show	showed	showed or shown
shut	shut	shut
sing	sang	sung
sit	sat	sat
sleep	slept	slept
speak	spoke	spoken
spend	spent	spent
stand	stood	stood
swim	swam	swum
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
tear	tore	torn
tell	told	told
think	thought	thought
throw	threw	thrown
understand	understood	understood
wake	woke	woken
wear	wore	worn
win	won	won
write	wrote	written

Auxiliary Verbs (Be-form)

Verbs are also those actions that include a state of being, mood, existence and status. Let us discuss these cases in the following examples −

• I am in a train.
• He is busy.
• They are late.

In these sentences, the action of being in a train, being busy and being late are explained using words like “is, am, and are” respectively. These verbs are called supporting verbs.

Important

“Am, is, are, was, were” are collectively called the “Be-form” auxiliary verbs. When an action happens on a regular basis, we use the be-forms — “am, is, are”. When an action happened in the past, we use the be-forms — “was, were”.

List of auxiliary verbs and usage

• Am − used with ‘I’ (when talking of a regular action)
• Is − used with ‘he, she, it’ (when talking of a regular action)
• Are − used with ‘you, we, they’ (when talking of a regular action)
• Was − used with ‘he, she, it’ (when talking of past action)
• Were − used with ‘we, you, they’ (when talking of past action)

Subject vs. Object

There are two ways in which nouns are used in sentences. The ones who are doing the action are the most important and powerful ones, according to grammatical structure, and they are called “subjects”.

For Example

• I run.
• He sits.
• They talk.

Here, ‘I, he, they’ are responsible for the actions happening, hence we call them subjects.

The nouns that are not responsible for the action but simply participate in that are “objects”. They are normally used by the subjects to carry out an action.

For Example

• I talk to Sriya.
• He knows Richa.
• She doesn’t want to see Raghav.

In these sentences, “Sriya, Richa, Raghav” are not responsible for the action of talking, knowing or not wanting to see, but they are being used by the subjects to do these actions.

Every subject can also be used as objects in other sentences. So let’s discuss the object form of these subjects −

Subject FormObject Form

IMe

WeUs

YouYou

HeHim

SheHer

ItIt

TheyThem

• Sentence1 − I told her to go
• Sentence2 − She told me to keep quiet.

If we add these two sentences using the word ‘but’, we can find out that in the first sentence, ‘I’ was the subject, but it became an object in the second case. The opposite happened with ‘her’ which was an object but became a subject in the second sentence ‘she’. For example, I told her to go but she told me to keep quiet.

What is a Verb

The Two Kinds of Verbs

Transitive verbs − These verbs need an object to carry on an action.

For Example

• She talked to me.
• I met him.
• She taught them.

In these three sentences, “me, him, them” were used to carry out the action as the actions “talked, met, taught” are impossible to do alone, without involving someone else.

Intransitive verbs − These verbs don’t need an object to carry an action.

For Example

• Vina wept.
• Zina cried.
• The cat ran.

In these sentences, the actions “wept, cried, ran” don’t need the presence of any other person to be carried out, hence they are intransitive verbs.

Important

Many people are often confused with the usage of the following pair of words −

• Lay/Lie
• Raise/Rise

Lay vs. Lie:

Lay − This means to place something and is most often used in the context of spreading something on a surface. ‘Lay’ becomes ‘laid’ in the past and remains ‘laid’ when used with “had, has, have”.

For Example

• I lay this carpet on the floor before I sleep.
• and I laid this carpet before some time.
• I have laid this carpet in this place for many months.

Lie − This means to recline and is usually used in the context of sleeping or resting. This also means giving a false statement. The word ‘lie’, when used as resting/sleeping, becomes ‘lay’ in past and becomes ‘lain’ when used with “had, has, have”.

For Example

• I lie on this bed after work.
• and I lay on this bed yesterday.
• I have lain on this bed for many months now.

The word ‘lie’, when used as a false statement, becomes ‘lied’ in the past. It remains ‘lied’ when used with “has, have, had”.

For Example

• He lies a lot.
• and He lied a lot earlier.
• He has lied to me a lot.

Raise vs. Rise:

Rise − Rise means to get up on your own. Its past tense is “rose” and becomes “risen” when used with “have, has, had”.

For Example

• I rise at 4 every morning.
• He rose early today.
• He has risen already.

Raise − Raise means to lift something up using someone else’s strength. It is used as “raised” in past and also with “has, have, had”.

For Example

• I raised the ball from the floor.
• He raised the bar very high.
• They have raised this question many times already.

Verb online test

[WpProQuiz 89]