Verb

Verbs are the actions done by nouns. All languages have verbs and nouns, so verbs are said to be a universal word classes.

Identifying a Verb
You can find the verb in a sentence by asking, "What was [the subject] doing?"

Here are some examples:

Verb Forms
Swim, swims, swimming, swam and swum are three forms of the same word, swim. (These different forms are called lexemes.)

In English there can be five verb forms. They are:

Grammar
Verbs are associated with the following grammatical dimensions:
 * Aspect
 * Tense

Verb Valence
Verbs can be grouped in many ways. For more details on this topic, see the main article on Valence.
 * Sometimes a verb doesn't require an object after the verb: e.g. He slept.
 * Sometimes a verb requires an object after the verb: e.g. He told me. Here the sentence "He told" doesn't make sense; information is missing.
 * Sometimes a verb can choose to have an object or not: e.g. He left. He left home. Both these sentences are natural, but only one example has an object.

Action vs State Verbs
Another way of grouping verbs is by asking, "Is the verb an action, or a state?"