2.4 Questions, negation, inversion and emphasis.2.1 Expressing tenses, aspects and moods.1.7 Copular, auxiliary and defective verbs.For certain other specific topics, see the articles listed in the adjacent box. The copula verb be has a larger number of different inflected forms, and is highly irregular.įor details of the uses of particular verb tenses and other forms, see the article Uses of English verb forms. Most verbs inflect in a simple regular fashion, although there are about 200 irregular verbs the irregularity in nearly all cases concerns the past tense and past participle forms. Generally, the only inflected forms of an English verb are a third person singular present tense form ending in -s, a past tense (also called preterite), a past participle (which may be the same as the past tense), and a form ending in -ing that serves as a present participle and gerund. Most combinations of tense, aspect, mood and voice are expressed periphrastically, using constructions with auxiliary verbs. Like other types of words in the language, English verbs are not heavily inflected. Verbs constitute one of the main parts of speech (word classes) in the English language.
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