Thanksgiving verb phrases

By:Christian M. Santiago

Elizabeth Rodríguez

Verb phrases

Aunt Ivy is trying to destroy dinner.

Can someone pass the corn?

The Pilgrims and Indians have brought food.

What are verb phrases?A verb phrase consists of a main verb alone, or a main verb plus any modal and/or auxiliary verbs. The main verb always comes last in the verb phrase.

The pilgrims have waited enough.

Helping verb Main verb

Could the pilgrims wait any longer?

Helping verb Main verb

A verb phrase can have more than one helping verb, but only one main verb.

They have been keeping acres of corn.

Helping verb Main verb

Could the pilgrims wait any longer?

Helping verb Main verb

Have they been cooking the turkey?When are they cooking the turkey?Did he cook the turkey?

Verb phrases can be divided when making questions.

They can also be divided by adverbsSince a verb phrase might use up to four helping verbs, a short

adverb –such as also, never, or not– might try to sneak in between the parts. Remember: when you find an adverb in a verb phrase, it still is an adverb, not a verb nor part of the verb phrase.

The feast was successfully planned.

Helping verb Main verb

They have been cautiously hunting animals.

Helping verbs Main verb

Helping verbsHelping verbs to consider:be, been, am, is, are, was, were, will, have, had, can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would.

Helping verbs are always used in conjunction with a main verb. Since the main verb expresses a condition of its own, helping verbs shape the tense or mode of the verb phrase.

Some helping verbs can also have shortened forms, called contractions. They have positive and negative forms.

I’m arriving early. (I + am) I’m not arriving early. (I + am not)He’s cooking the turkey. (He + is) He isn’t cooking the turkey They’ve been fishing. (They + have) is + not= isn’t

RememberSome helping verbs change form to indicate tense. Modal verbs can’t change form to indicate tense, but do have contractions.

Forms of have, do, and be:

have, has, haddo, does, didbe, am, is, are, was, were, being, been

Modal verbs: can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would

Contractions to consider:cannot - can'tcould have - could'vecould not - couldn'tshould have -should'veshould not - shouldn'twould have - would'vewould not - wouldn't

What does a main verb do?

The main verb expresses the main idea in the verb phrase. The other verbs in the verb phrase are used to help the main verb.

There can only be one main verb in a verb phrase.

Main verbs can be:-Simple verbs (including irregular

verbs) in present tense, past tense, or future tense.

-Present participle or past participle verbs.

ExamplesI could watch the turkey.Modal verb + simple present verb

They are cooking food.Auxiliary (be) + present participle verb

The Pilgrims have arrived.Auxiliary verb + past participle verb

They had finished the hunting. Auxiliary verb + past participle verb

Everyone has been enjoying the feast.Have + been + present participle verb

The Indians had been keeping corn.Had + been + present participle verb

The turkey might have escaped.Modal verb + auxiliary verb + past participle

Creating verb phrasesModal + base form

After the modals can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would, use the base form of the verb.

Example: I can walk.

Do, does, or did + base formAfter helping verbs that are a form of do, use the base form of the verb.The helping verbs do, does, and did are used in three ways:

(1) to express a negative meaning with the adverb not or never, (2) to ask a question, and(3) to emphasize a main verb used in a positive sense.

Example:I do want to cook the turkey. / I don’t want to cook the turkey.Mary does want to cook the turkey. / Mary doesn’t want to cook the turkey. (He) (She)

Didn’t you cook the turkey? Yes, I did.

Creating verb phrasesHave, has, or had + past participle (perfect tenses)After the helping verb have, has, or had, use the past participle to form one of the

perfect tenses. Past participles usually end in -ed, -d, -en, -n, or -t.

Example: I have cooked the turkey. / They have cooked the turkey.

Form of be + present participle (progressive forms)After the helping verb be, am, is, are, was, were, or been, use the present participle

to express a continuing action.

Example: They are cleaning their house.

Form of be + past participle (passive voice)To form the passive voice, use be, am, is, are, was, were, being, or been followed by

a past participle (usually ending in -ed, -d, -en, -n, or -t).

Example: The house was cleaned by them. The turkey was cooked by my father. The letter is composed by Winslow.

Verb phrase formsName of tense/aspect

Example:

(simple) present tense Garfield runs.

(simple) past tense The turkey escaped.

future tense We will try.

present progressive or present continuous 

Edward is writing a letter.

past progressive / past continuous

Edward was writing a letter.

future progressive / future continuous

Edward will be writing a letter.

present perfect  The Indians have arrived / The Indian has arrived.

past perfect We had walked. / I had walked.

future perfect  We will have eaten too much turkey.

present perfect progressive  The Pilgrims have been hunting. / He has been hunting.

past perfect progressive The Pilgrims had been hunting/ He had been hunting.

future perfect progressive The Pilgrims will have been hunting.

Identify the verb phrases in the following sentences

1- Throughout the United States and Canada, Thanksgiving Day is celebrated annually.

2- Thanksgiving was created as a harvest festivity.3- The American holiday did commemorate a harvest celebration held by the

Pilgrims of Plymouth colony in 1621.4- The Pilgrims had supposedly come ashore from the Mayflower on December 21,

1620.5- The winter had been heartbreaking.6- Only about half the original group had survived.7- When Governor William Bradford was sending four men to hunt for fowl, he had

obtained 20 acres of Indian corn, barley and plenty of meat.8- They would successfully find enough waterfowl and wild turkeys to last a week.9- Fishermen were bringing cod and bass, and Indian hunters contributed five deer.10- Chief Massasoit and ninety Indians had feasted with the colonists for three days.11- The date of the feast is not known.

Identify the verb phrases in the following sentences

12- It is known that the harvest was gathered after the Pilgrims returned.13- However, the feast must have occurred before December 11, 1621, as it was

described in a letter written on that date by Edward Winslow.14- There is also no record that the feast was called a “thanksgiving”.15- But, the first record of such a day was in 1623, when the Pilgrims “had set apart a

day of thanksgiving” for rain that ended a terrible drought.16- Sarah Josepha Hale believed that Thanksgiving should be considered a national

patriotic holiday.17- On October 3, 1863, Thanksgiving day was proclaimed as a national day by

President Abraham Lincoln.18- In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was attempting to change the

celebration for the third Thursday of November.19- A joint resolution of congress was held on December 1941.20- It specified that Thanksgiving will still be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of

November.