Verb Phrases

Serenity Bear · Feb 26, 2015

Are there any easy ways to recognise verb phrases? I did the first 5 lessons on verbs on the daily grammar site and got 2 As and a B for the first 3 lessons but crashed out with a D and F for the last two. The later being lessons on verb prhases. Weep weep.

I'm going to do the Quiz tomorrow and want to score an A, so I'd appreciate any help you can give.

Here's the website just in case you want to go see what I mean:
http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.html

guttersquid · Feb 26, 2015

Serenity Bear said:
Are there any easy ways to recognise verb phrases?

Yes. They are phrases consisting of more than one verb (and verbs only).

I is the subject in the following. All other words are verbs.

I go. (verb)
I went. (verb)
I have gone. (phrase)
I will go. (phrase)
I am going. (phrase)
I will have gone. (phrase)
I will be going. (phrase)
I will have been going. (phrase)

Of course, there are many more: must go, must be going, must have gone, should have gone, should be going, etc.

Chase · Feb 26, 2015

Dr. Squid taught a good class. It was fun to audit.

slhuang · Feb 26, 2015

Seconding Chase. Well-exampled, Dr. Squid!

blacbird · Feb 26, 2015

Serenity Bear said:
Are there any easy ways to recognise verb phrases? l[/url]

The basis is knowing your parts of speech. Know what a verb is, what a noun is, what a preposition is, what an adjective is, what an adverb is. And know what functions they serve in a sentence. There is just no shortcut for that knowledge, but it isn't exactly cosmological physics. Its doable.

caw

Serenity Bear · Feb 26, 2015

Thanks or your wonderful replies. I'm going to have to get the brain back into learning after 3 years off.

Guttersquid - it was the end o the verb I got wrong, I mostly added part of the phrase that wasn't there, so included the verb when the question only asked for the auxilary and got confused with to (ie to wasnt the verb, but the to be verbs were)

Blacbird - I did wonder if knowing the rest of the parts of speech would help. There are 3 other sections I need to do (adjectives, preps and nouns) I know the others.

Hopefully it will all come together in time.

Thanks for all your help, I'm so going to need it.
Purdy.

Serenity Bear · Feb 27, 2015

Ps to last post.

I did the quiz and dropped 2 points out of 17, so I guess that gives me a B, then the 5 lessons I did today, I got 3 As, 2 B+. The first problem I had was missing the main verb out of the verb phrase, and the second problem was not recognising a verb as a state of being and not an action (will be).

I'm going to take the weekend to revise and then sit the next quiz, hopefully I can ace it.

ArtsyAmy · Feb 27, 2015

Serenity Bear said:
I did wonder if knowing the rest of the parts of speech would help. There are 3 other sections I need to do (adjectives, preps and nouns) I know the others.

Would it work for you to jump ahead to the section on prepositions, then come back to verbs? The grammar program I used with my kids (homeschooled until college) started with prepositions. (The program is called Easy Grammar, by Wanda C. Phillips.) Once you can cross out the prepositional phrases from sentences, identifying the verbs and other parts of speech becomes much easier.

ETA: Didn't see your last post before sending mine. Seems you're doing great!

Serenity Bear · Mar 2, 2015

Thanks Artsy, I may still need to do that.

Today I was gutted. I took 5 tests after doing the class, scored A's for the first 4 then an F for the last, giving me a gpa of B. Sob Sob and bashing hand to head in Duh action.

The last test was recognising an auxiliary verb, which I got right, the phrase which I didn't and then the type of verbs (action, linking, state of being). I'm looking for any games to help me with them. I'm going to take the 15 Quiz tomorrow to see what that comes out at.

PS I've just found this website for games, it looks pretty good:
http://www.turtlediary.com/kids-games/ela/verbs.html

PPS This web article discusses linking/state of being verbs and gives a cheat method of identification
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/45961/are-there-only-so-many-state-of-being-verbs

Edwardian · Mar 7, 2015

I describe most multi-verb phrases as compound verbs (have done, will go, should be writing, etc).

tiddlywinks · Mar 7, 2015

Serenity, have you ever tried diagramming sentences? Some might find it old-fashioned, but if you are having trouble recognizing different parts of speech, it might help (especially if you are a visual learner).

There are plenty of resources out there on the subject; I used to have a very nice grammar book that ran through such exercises as well, but the name eludes me at the moment (unfortunately, someone ran off with my copy a few years ago

)

Verb Phrases

Serenity Bear

guttersquid

I agree with Roxxsmom.

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

slhuang

Inappropriately math-oriented.

blacbird

Serenity Bear

Serenity Bear

ArtsyAmy

Serenity Bear

Edwardian

tiddlywinks

Chaser of Shineyyyy Plot Bunnies