THE VERB
Expresses an Action Occurrence State of Being
Reveal when something occurs The present The past The future
Linking Verbs
Main verbs indicate State of being Condition
Link subject with One or more words that rename or describe
the subject (subject complement). Is like an equal sign between a subject
and its complement. Quick Reference 15.2-15.3/page 312-
313
VerbsPage 315
Regular Past tense and past participle Adding –ed or –d
Irregular Don’t consistently add –ed or –d Sing, sang, sung Cost, cost, cost Grow, grew, grown Quick Reference 15.4/pages 316-318
Auxiliary Verbsi.e.
Helping Verbs
Combine with main verbs to make verb phrases. Quick Reference 15.5/page 319
Main Auxiliary (helping) verbs Be Do Have Quick Reference 15.6-7/pages 320-321
The Verb
More than any other part of speech, it is the verb that determines whether a writer is a wimp or a wizard.
The Active Voice
Emphasizes the DOER of an action, active constructions are more direct and dramatic.
Require fewer words than passive constructions.
Page 333 – S&S HB
The Passive Voice
Another way to tone up prose is to eliminate what’s known as “the passive voice,”
in which the subject of a sentence is being acted upon-by an agent named elsewhere in the sentence or left ambiguous--rather than taking the action directly.
Proper Uses When the does is unknown. When the action is more important than the
doer. (page 334)
IS and ARE
Deleting IS and ARE does not suffice. Don’t replace versions of “to be” with
just any verbs. Be inventive! “She walks through the house” wins
points over “she is inside,” But why “walks” when the choices
include paces, skips, and skedaddles? Why settle for a verb like says when wail,
whisper, and insist are waiting to be heard?
Examples of Participles
onrushing water
punishing waves
shifting mountains of water twenty-foot splitting tubes
a rocky, waterfall-threaded scree
a long, tapering, darkening wall
the glassy, rumbling, pea-green wall
the first wall of sandy, grumbling white-water pulverizing force
a swift, swooping, surefooted ride
a vicious, ledging wave
the final, jacking section
a maelstrom of dredging, midsized waves
the thick, pouring, silver-beaded curtain
WHAT “IS” IS - AND ISN'T
In speaking and informal writing, We naturally gravitate to “to be” in all its
incarnations-present tense and past, active voice and passive.
A reliance on “to be” is a sure sign of a novice
“IS”
A dependence on IS and its family screams "rough draft”
The best writers, during the many revisions they put every piece through, go back and scrub out every unnecessary IS and ARE.
THAT BAD, BAD “BEING”
A first-cousin sin of IS is BEING.
Nine times out of ten, when BEING appears, it makes for an error; the remaining time, it's probably extraneous.
Use the Active Verb
Almost any sentence can be made active. Take this passive line: The hair dresser was being ogled by the
guy whose hair was being snipped. See how easy it is to straighten out this tangle of attentions:
The guy getting a haircut couldn't take his eyes off his hair dresser.
The Passive Voice
The passive voice often crops up intentionally,
When the writer or speaker wants to blur the relationship between the person committing an action (the "agent") and the action.
Politicians and bureaucrats love the passive voice
It gets them off the hook. "mistakes were made" President Reagan Later when in real trouble - "serious
mistakes were made."
The Great Communicator never did say who made the mistakes or whether his policy was flawed.
Such intentional dodges are harder to make active because the agent (the person who took the action) is AWOL.
HYPERACTIVE EDITING.
The passive voice does exist for a reason. Sometimes its the best way to say
something Headlines - "1-580 killer convicted" is
passive but better than its active rewrite "Jury
convicts 1-580 killer” What do you think? Did the public care
about-the jury's role, or the fact that a notorious slaughterer got the slammer?
Out of Necessity
If you want to keep the focus on a particular subject, you may want to keep that person the subject of the sentence, using the passive voice if necessary to do so.
Miscellaneous Wimps
Does, get, go, has, put, are (technically) dynamic verbs, They add almost nothing to a sentence.
Look out for verbs that convey less action than other words in the sentence,
and avoid them:
Turn "he has a plan to" into "he plans to.” Turn "the team had ten losses" into "the
team lost ten games. Turn "an accident occurred that damaged
my car" into "that teenager bashed my Ferrari.”
Turn "her speech caused me to blush" into "Hearing so many compliments, I blushed."
AIRHEAD ACTION.
Have you ever pondered those verbs that everyone uses but that make no sense?
Revolve around, for example, and its cousin center around usually mark desperate attempts by unimaginative reporters to sound good.
False Limbs
Don't pass over strong single words, such as
break, stop, spoil, kill, In favor of phrases made of a noun or
adjective tacked on to some general-purpose verb:
Possible Verb Phrases
make contact with - use call, fax, or email
exhibit a tendency to - tend to come to an agreement on - agree to cause an investigation to be made with
a view to ascertaining - find out will take steps - will does not see his way to - will not is not in a position to - cannot is prepared to inform you - will tell you
Rather than to access - try to view to author; to write to finalize; to finish to impact; to touch to input; to enter to interface; to talk to prioritize; to reorganize to obsolete; to outpace or to
supersede
IF THE VERB DOESN'T FIT, YOU MUST ATTRIT
Verbs also enter the language through back-formation, the process that gave us
“to rob” from “robber;” “to beg” from “beggar” “to diagnose” from “diagnosis” “to babysit” from “babysitter.”
Beware of Back-Formations
They can range from the ugly (burgle, from burglar) to the awkward (televise, from television) to the downright dastardly, like enthuse, liaise, and attrit ("our air strike will attrit their armor").
Just because a verb descends from a legitimate noun does not give it a proper pedigree.