Questions tagged [verbs]
A verb is a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence.
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I demand that he leave or leaves?
I am confused between the two.
I demand that he leave!or I demand that he leaves!
I demand that this man leave!or I demand that this man leaves!
Which is correct with s or without and why?
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What is the difference between "wait" and "await"?
I'd like to know the difference between the two verbs since they seem to have the same meaning. When should I use await, and when wait?
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"Didn't use to get" or "Didn't used to get"?
I just made a minor grammar correction on Travel SE, and another user said the grammar correction was unnecessary.
The original text was
Another factor--sometimes life happens and you can't fly. ...
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Allow (to) + infinitive, substantive, verb+ -ing
In which way can the verb 'allow' be used? There is always some confusion and apparently it's often intuitively used wrongly. Which form corresponds to correct English, eventually depending on context ...
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"When you Frankenstein a team together..." - Is "Frankenstein" a new verb?
I did not know that "Frankenstein" can be used as a verb.
Max Kellerman, a highly reputed sports analyst working for ESPN, says
"When you Frankenstein a team together, usually it doesn't work ...
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What's the child doing in this picture? Is it called tongue twister?
In the picture the child is having fun with her tongue. Is it called a tongue twister?
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"Four is better" vs "Four are better". Which one is correct?
I want to write:
One cake is good, but 4 {is,are} better!
Which one ("are" or "is") should I use?
Looking at examples online it seems that both are acceptable.
So here are my ...
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Why should "are" be used here instead of "is"?
The sentence given in our book is as follows,
More important than winning is developing the ability to work with others and developing leadership skills
We are supposed to find where the mistake ...
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Next month, I _______ John for 20 years
Q) Next month, I _______ John for 20 years
(A) know
(B) will have known
(C) am knowing
(D) will have been knowing
Question bank says (D) is correct. Surely, (B) is the correct one, right?
Edit:
I ...
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Is 'mating' only used with males? What if I use it with females? Is it incorrect?
Google ngram shows 'lion mating' word, but not lioness mating, and so goes with most of the species of animals. Why?
Do native speakers prefer males for describing 'mating'? Will it be incorrect if ...
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Strange omission of "to be": "The ground was hard and the rime thick and crisp on the grass."
I encountered this sentence in Cambridge Dictionary:
The ground was hard and the rime thick and crisp on the grass.
I can't figure it out why there's no any verb after "the rime". It just ...
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Why say "Wait your turn" but "Wait FOR..." everything else?
Why in English is the word "for" not used in the phrase "wait your turn?" Wouldn't it make more sense to say "Wait for your turn" as for other things on which one waits?
Wait for the stop light not ...
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Should you use a plural verb if you refer to a fraction?
Should you use a plural verb if you refer to a fraction?
Nine tenths of the pillar have rotted away.
I think has should be used here, but I'm not sure.
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Can "marriage" be used as a verb?
In the movie Love, Actually there is this quote:
"Beautiful Aurelia, I've come here with a view of asking you to marriage me."
However, I've learned that 'marriage' can be used as a noun, not a ...
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"severe" as a verb: is it acceptable usage?
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word "severe" is not a verb, but an adjective.
However, the word "severe" seems to have been used as a verb in the sentence below:
She has severed contact ...
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What does "to be painted shut" mean?
We tried, but the window couldn't be opened. It was painted shut.
I am wondering what the bolded part could mean.
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Flee from vs flee
Look at the following sentences.
Many people fled the city to escape the fighting.
Refugees fled from the city.
They fled the country in 1987.
The family fled from Nazi Germany to Britain ...
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Is there a simple and clear way to explain the difference between past simple and present perfect?
I read (or do I say "have read"?) many rules for when to use the present perfect. I found them complex and hard to understand (or do I say "have found"?). I am finding it hard to apply these rules in ...
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What is the difference between "I still use" vs "I am still using" in this sentence?
What's the difference between :
It's 2018 already and I still use an iPhone 5S.
vs
It's 2018 already and I am still using an iPhone 5S.
Does the use of the word 'using' mean I am thinking of ...
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Is the word "like" a preposition or verb in "You made me like this."
Is the word "like" a preposition or verb in the sentence "You made me like this."
Any suggestions appreciated. Thank you!
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What is the antonym of "to friend"?
The verb to friend is used for making friends in social nets connecting people with similar interests. What is the antonym, the negative verb, meaning to delete somebody from your "friends"? What's ...
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"This book *reads* very well."
This book reads very well.
The usage of the verb read is unusual. Because it doesn't say here that the book reads something, but someone reads the book. Can you give me a hint what is this grammar ...
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Draw or tie in sports
This is valid for many sports, but in the context of the FIFA World Cup it makes sense to particularize it to football.
A team, say X, can win or lose. Then we say X won or X lost.
Sometimes it ...
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What is the difference between 'hear' and 'listen'?
Is there a difference between 'hear' and 'listen' in Standard English?
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Can ‘is’ and ‘are’ be used in the same sentence? ‘The conclusion is both are harmful.’
The conclusion is both are harmful.
My friends told me that you can not use 'is' and 'are' in the same sentence.
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Which is more appropriate? "I was married" OR "I have been married"?
Suppose, we're (I and my wife) asked by people how long our marriage is since we got married. Which tense should I use? Past tense or perfect tense or else?
We were married for 15 years.
We've been ...
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Why is the verb form "am been" always grammatically incorrect?
As I understand it, "I am been" is a sentence similar to "I am mistaken". How can one of the sentences in the two sentences of similar structure be incorrect? Doesn't "I am been" mean that someone is ...
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Double 'in' in one sentence
Is the sentence below correct? I want to use the phrasal verb to stay in and the adverbs in the evening. I know how to write the sentence in different forms but I ask you if the form below is correct. ...
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Difference between "assist in" and "assist with"
He assisted in the editing of the movie.
He assisted with the editing of the movie.
He assisted at the editing of the movie.
Is "assist in" the same as "assist with"? Can I always ...
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How do I express दिल लगाना in English? It literally means 'attaching heart.'
I am Indian, not a native English speaker.
I can't figure out the English expression. We Indians use दिल लगाना literal translation 'to attach heart' which implies to be in love with someone in Hindi....
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Is it correct to change the verb to "being" in "Despite no one was hurt in this incident…"?
I was doing a grammar practice where we are to correct the grammatical error without changing the meaning when I came across this sentence:
Despite no one was hurt in this incident, about 70 shark ...
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What does "I don't do dogs" mean?
Left Ear (who is an explosives expert, but deaf in his right ear) : Okay, party people,
here's the status. It's an anti-scaling fence. It's hardened,
electro-plated steel. Yeah, I'm gonna have to ...
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Does the verb 'Christianize' require the capital 'C'? Why?
I have never come across any verb that takes its first letter in capital. It generally happens in nouns. I have read many books and in our schools also, the rules of making letter capitals is quite ...
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Show Showed Shown?
I have been using 'showed' as past simple form of the verb 'show' and 'shown' as past participle.
But recently, I read somewhere that it is used as 'show' 'showed' and 'showed' in UK English and 'show'...
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What verb goes with "coup"?
The coup was ______ in this country by the United States.
It was indeed United States that ______ the coup in this country.
If the problems take a turn to the worse, then the army would ...
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Why can’t one use the verb 'to stay' in “Two yoghurts stayed in the fridge”?
"After he finished eating, only two yoghurts stayed in the fridge".
Why should I use 'were left' instead of 'stayed' in this sentence?
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What's the difference between "found" and "establish"?
Google was established in 1998.
Google was founded in 1998.
In Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary, both establish (2a) and found (1) share the definition below:
to begin or create (...
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Distinction between “bend” and “bow”
The nursery rhyme “London Bridge is Falling Down” includes a line
Iron and steel will bend and bow
To me as a non-native speaker, both “bend” and “bow” evoke essentially the same kind of mental ...
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Can two or more third person conjugated verbs be chained together?
Recently I wrote a sentence and came to realize I've chained two third person conjugated verbs like this:
The area of the screen where the expanded toolbar appears occludes a
significant part of ...
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"Teach someone something" or "teach something to someone"
Daisy was teaching Taekwondo to a group of children.
Daisy was teaching a group of children Taekwondo.
Which is the correct usage of "teach"?
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How would people use "cherry-pick"?
I found an example using the word, "cherry-pick":
In this era of post-truth politics, it's easy to cherry-pick data and come to whatever conclusion you desire.
Is it a positive term? Is it ...
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Do the brave deserve the fair?
The sentence is:
None but the brave _________ the fair.
Where the blank is to filled with deserve or deserves. My understanding is that it should be filled with deserve since the sentence here ...
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"to find" or "finding" after the verb "help"
I want to say this sentence:
Could you help me to find a financial support please?
Would it be more correct to say to find or to say finding? Is there a general rule to determine whether to verb ...
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Verb for how much space a file takes up?
When I was a kid my dad used to say (in Norwegian):
This file weighs four megabytes.
Or maybe one could say
This file consumes four megabytes.
Or simply
This file is four megabytes.
But ...
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What happened to the verb in the sentence "she literally out here just flexing..."? [closed]
she literally out here just flexing and proving to everybody how versatile and amazing she is
This sentence is what I saw in "youtube" comments.
As far as I know, any sentence should have ...
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What does "ain't" mean in "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it"?
This question is a follow up question of my previous question Meaning of "ain't" in: "...we ain't know what it meant"
According to the Oxford Dictionary, ain't is used ...
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What is the difference between the verbs "put on" and "wear"?
I ... my new shoes at the party.
Which option is appropriate to complete that sentence:
wore
put on
was wearing
was putting on
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Intensifying "is" using "do"
A strange question: is the form 'do is' correct? For example:
HTML is not a programming language. On the other hand, JavaScript, that can be used in a HTML document, do is a programming language.
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Are archaic third person singular forms of verbs useful to English learners?
I just noticed a song of P.J.Harvey: "The Words That Maketh Murder". "Maketh" seemed very interesting; so I've searched for it, and found this Wikipedia entry.
Maketh: (archaic)
Third-person ...
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"give to someone" vs. "give someone"
Tell me please which of the following sentences is correct.
The best advice parents give their children is to be kind to others.
The best advice parents give to their children is to be kind to ...
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