A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
All about words
In every sentence that we speak or write,
there are several types of word. They are
called “parts of speech.” Each of them has
its own name and its own job to do in
the sentence. In this dictionary, each wordVerbs
Verbs are sometimes called “action words” because they are
words that describe what a person or a thing is doing. Sit,
think,sleep,sing, and climb are all verbs. A sentence
must contain a verb to make sense. There are a few special
kinds of verb, such as “being” and “helping” verbs, that do
slightly different jobs in a sentence.Being verbs
Being words, such as am,
is,are,was, and were, all
come from the verb to be.
They link someone or
something with the words
that describe them.Helping verbs
Verbs such as have, be,
will, must, may, and do,
are sometimes used with
other verbs in a sentence.
They show how possible or
necessary it is that an
action takes place. Helping
verbs can also be used to
show a verb’s tense.The second line
of the entry shows how
the verb is written in
three different tenses—
the present, the
continuous present,
and the past tense.
These tenses are
used like this:They were both very angry.She runs to school
every morning.It may rain tomorrow.I do like
sandwiches!The dog often lies
on the floor.hang
hangs hanging hung
verbVerb tenses
The form of a verb shows whether the action it describes
takes place in the present, the past, or the future. This is
called the verb’s tense. When a verb, such as hang, appears
in this dictionary, the
entry looks like this:entry has its part of speech printed below it
initalic type. The parts of speech that are
labeled in the dictionary (verbs, adverbs,
adjectives, interjections, prepositions, and
nouns) are explained on these two pages.Present tense:
She hangs up her T-shirt.Continuous present tense:
She is hanging up her
T-shirt.Past tense:
She hung up her T-shirt.