ABSTRACT
Verbs are such a large and complex word class that I have decided to give them a section to themselves. Of all the words in a sentence, the nouns and the verbs are the most vital parts. Let us go back for a moment to Ashok and his friends in their cave, threatened by that lion. It would be helpful to know whether the lion was coming quickly or slowly; it might be reassuring to know that it was an old lion or a toothless lion; it would be interesting to know if it was morning or evening when the lion came. When all is said and done, however, the two vital bits of information are a) that there was a lion and b) that it was coming towards the cave, particularly as I saw this text as a speech being addressed to Ashok himself, and not as part of a sad tale told round the camp fire to frighten the little ones for years afterwards.
