There’s no reason behind listing parts of speech in any particular order. In prose, every part of speech has an important role. After considering that verbs are the soul of good writing, our choice was inevitable.
What’s a verb?
A verb is the part of speech indicating thoughts and actions.
Eat, sleep, jog and write are verbs.
How do verbs work?
Complete sentences don’t exist without verbs (sentence fragments do, and that’s why we call them “fragments”). Just as we use nouns to name things, we need verbs to express what those things do. Even the shortest of sentences use verbs: I am; Jesus wept; She froze; Beer flowed.
In syntax, the verb teams with the subject—and shares its form—to tell us who, when, and (sometimes) how.
A word about the infinitive. The infinitive is the name of the verb, not a verb form or tense. To eat, to sleep, to jog, and to write are infinitives. Infinitives don’t add information. They don’t tell us who or how or when. You will recognize them when the preposition “to” precedes the name of the verb.
Person and Number
To work with a verb, we use a number form matching that of the subject to determine who the verb is attached to. We classify a subject by its person—first, second, or third—and by its number—singular or plural.
Singular
First person I write silly lines.
Second person You write silly lines
Third person He/she/it writes silly lines
Plural
First person We write silly lines
Second person You write silly lines
Third person They write silly lines
The first person names the person speaking, whether it’s a single person (singular I) or a group including that person (plural we).
The second person names the person spoken to, whether it’s a single person (singular you) or a group including that person (plural you).
The third person indicates the person spoken about, whether it’s a single person (singular he, she, it) or a group including that person (plural they).
Tense
To determine the when of a verb, we use tense. Verbs describe actions or states of being which must take place in time, and the only three stages of time are past, present, and future.
"She wrote" signifies that the action of writing took place in the past. "She writes" grounds the action taken in the present. "She will write" points to an action that will take place in the future.
With tense, verbs can also give us information about how, or the quality of an action.
Is the action in progress? The progressive or continuous forms, such as she is writing show that the action takes place over a period of time.
Is the action completed? Past forms such as she wrote or past perfect forms like she has written show that the action is complete.
Other Verb Elements
There are other aspects of verbs, such as active and passive voice, class, mood, modal auxiliaries, and verbals. While prose can be improved through knowing these aspects and how to manipulate them, these more advanced details need explanations fit for a grammar book. In the resources pages of Writer's Companion we’ve listed a number of grammar manuals for those in search of deeper knowledge.
There’s no reason behind listing parts of speech in any particular order. In prose, every part of speech has an important role. After considering that verbs are the soul of good writing, our choice was inevitable.
How do verbs work?
Complete sentences don’t exist without verbs (sentence fragments do, and that’s why we call them “fragments”). Just as we use nouns to name things, we need verbs to express what those things do. Even the shortest of sentences use verbs: I am; Jesus wept; She froze; Beer flowed.
To work with a verb, we use a number form matching that of the subject to determine who the verb is attached to. We classify a subject by its person—first, second, or third—and by its number—singular or plural.
First person I write silly lines.
Second person You write silly lines
Third person He/she/it writes silly lines
There are other aspects of verbs, such as active and passive voice, class, mood, modal auxiliaries, and verbals. While prose can be improved through knowing these aspects and how to manipulate them, these more advanced details need explanations fit for a grammar book. In the resources pages of Writer's Companion we’ve listed a number of grammar manuals for those in search of deeper knowledge.