ABSTRACT
Verbs state the action, what happens or is done. They generally appear at the end of a sentence or group of words, though not always. Like nouns and adjectives, verbs are inflected. Inflexion is the modification of a word’s ending to express a particular grammatical meaning. The many functional twists of verb-endings may at first seem a handful, but there are clear patterns which will make the learning easier. The functions of verb-endings fall broadly into these categories:
a personal ending: to show who the subject is (I…, you…, he…, she…, it…, we…, they… or an external noun)
the tense, in other words the timing of the action (he loves, he loved, he will love)
the ‘mood’: statements of fact or of potential (he loves or he may/might/would/should love)
the ‘voice’, i.e. active or passive (he loves or he is loved).
