Editing English language (section)

=== Verbs and verb phrases ===

English verbs are inflected for tense and aspect and marked for agreement with present-tense third-person singular subject. Only the copula verb ''to be'' is still inflected for agreement with the plural and first and second person subjects.{{sfn|König|1994|page=540}} Auxiliary verbs such as ''have'' and ''be'' are paired with verbs in the infinitive, past, or progressive forms. They form [[periphrasis|complex]] tenses, aspects, and moods. Auxiliary verbs differ from other verbs in that they can be followed by the negation, and in that they can occur as the first constituent in a question sentence.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=51}}{{sfn|König|1994|page=541}}

Most verbs have six inflectional forms. The primary forms are a plain present, a third-person singular present, and a preterite (past) form. The secondary forms are a plain form used for the infinitive, a gerund-participle and a past participle.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=50}} The copula verb ''to be'' is the only verb to retain some of its original conjugation, and takes different inflectional forms depending on the subject. The first-person present-tense form is ''am'', the third person singular form is ''is'', and the form ''are'' is used in the second-person singular and all three plurals. The only verb past participle is ''been'' and its gerund-participle is ''being''.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ English inflectional forms
|-
! scope="col" | Inflection
! scope="col" | Strong
! scope="col" | Regular
|-
! scope="row" | Plain present
| ''take'' || ''love''
|-
! scope="row" | 3rd person sg.<br/>present
| ''takes'' || ''loves''
|-
! scope="row" | Preterite
| ''took'' || ''loved''
|-
! scope="row" | Plain (infinitive)
| ''take'' || ''love''
|-
! scope="row" | Gerund–participle
| ''taking'' || ''loving''
|-
! scope="row" | Past participle
| ''taken'' || ''loved''
|}

==== Tense, aspect and mood ====

English has two primary tenses, past (preterite) and non-past. The preterite is inflected by using the preterite form of the verb, which for the regular verbs includes the suffix ''-ed'', and for the strong verbs either the suffix ''-t'' or a change in the stem vowel. The non-past form is unmarked except in the third person singular, which takes the suffix ''-s''.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=51}}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+
|-
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" | Present
! scope="col" | Preterite
|-
! scope="row" | First person
| ''I run'' || ''I ran''
|-
! scope="row" | Second person
| ''You run'' || ''You ran''
|-
! scope="row" | Third person
| ''John runs'' || ''John ran''
|}

English does not have future verb forms.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|pages=208–210}} The future tense is expressed periphrastically with one of the auxiliary verbs ''will'' or ''shall''.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=51–52}} Many varieties also use a [[near future tense|near future]] constructed with the [[phrasal verb]] ''be going to'' ("[[going-to future]]").{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|pages=210–11}}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+
|-
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" |Future
|-
! scope="row" | First person
| ''I will run''
|-
! scope="row" | Second person
| ''You will run''
|-
! scope="row" | Third person
| ''John will run''
|}

Further aspectual distinctions are shown by auxiliary verbs, primarily ''have'' and ''be'', which show the contrast between a perfect and non-perfect past tense (''I have run'' vs. ''I was running''), and compound tenses such as preterite perfect (''I had been running'') and present perfect (''I have been running'').{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=50–51}}

For the expression of mood, English uses a number of modal auxiliaries, such as ''can'', ''may'', ''will'', ''shall'' and the past tense forms ''could'', ''might'', ''would'', ''should''. There are also subjunctive and [[imperative mood]]s, both based on the plain form of the verb (i.e. without the third person singular ''-s''), for use in subordinate clauses (e.g. subjunctive: ''It is important that he run every day''; imperative ''Run!'').{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=51–52}}

An infinitive form, that uses the plain form of the verb and the preposition ''to'', is used for verbal clauses that are syntactically subordinate to a finite verbal clause. Finite verbal clauses are those that are formed around a verb in the present or preterite form. In clauses with auxiliary verbs, they are the finite verbs and the main verb is treated as a subordinate clause.<ref name="meg">{{cite web |title=Finite and Nonfinite Clauses |url=https://myenglishgrammar.com/lesson-17-clauses/6-finite-and-nonfinite-clauses.html |website=MyEnglishGrammar.com |access-date=7 December 2019 |archive-date=7 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207091436/http://myenglishgrammar.com/lesson-17-clauses/6-finite-and-nonfinite-clauses.html |url-status=live }}</ref> For example, ''he has to go'' where only the auxiliary verb ''have'' is inflected for time and the main verb ''to go'' is in the infinitive, or in a complement clause such as ''I saw him leave'', where the main verb is ''to see'', which is in a preterite form, and ''leave'' is in the infinitive.

==== Phrasal verbs ====

English also makes frequent use of constructions traditionally called [[phrasal verb]]s, verb phrases that are made up of a verb root and a preposition or particle that follows the verb. The phrase then functions as a single predicate. In terms of intonation the preposition is fused to the verb, but in writing it is written as a separate word. Examples of phrasal verbs are ''to get up'', ''to ask out'', ''to back up'', ''to give up'', ''to get together'', ''to hang out'', ''to put up with'', etc. The phrasal verb frequently has a highly [[English-language idioms|idiomatic]] meaning that is more specialised and restricted than what can be simply extrapolated from the combination of verb and preposition complement (e.g. ''lay off'' meaning ''terminate someone's employment'').{{sfn|Dixon|1982}} In spite of the idiomatic meaning, some grammarians, including {{harvcoltxt|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=274}}, do not consider this type of construction to form a syntactic constituent and hence refrain from using the term "phrasal verb". Instead, they consider the construction simply to be a verb with a prepositional phrase as its syntactic complement, i.e. ''he woke up in the morning'' and ''he ran up in the mountains'' are syntactically equivalent.

==== Adverbs ====

The function of adverbs is to modify the action or event described by the verb by providing additional information about the manner in which it occurs.<ref name="EGT" /> Many adverbs are derived from adjectives by appending the suffix ''-ly''. For example, in the phrase ''the woman walked quickly'', the adverb ''quickly'' is derived in this way from the adjective ''quick''. Some commonly used adjectives have irregular adverbial forms, such as ''good'', which has the adverbial form ''well''.