Verbs 3 - State of Being and Linking

Many verbs do not convey action.  They are called state of being or linking verbs.  They link the subject to the predicate without any action.

State of Being Verbs
(these are all forms of the word "be")
am
is
are
was
were
be
being
been

Examples:

State of being verbs are considered linking when they appear in these forms:

State of Being + Noun*
The dog is a beagle.

State of Being + Pronoun
The dog is hers.

State of Being + Adjective
The dog is fast.

State of being verbs are NOT considered to be linking** when they appear in these forms:

State of Being + Adverb
The dog was here.

State of Being + Prepositional Phrase
The dog was in the yard.

*The nouns following a linking verb is NOT a direct object (DO).  It is called a predicate noun (PN).

**This point is in dispute even among grammarians.  Many texts choose to simplify and called them all linking verbs.

Besides the state of being verbs, there are other verbs that are linking.

Other Common Linking Verbs
appear
become
feel
get
grow
sit
look
prove
remain
seem
smell
sound
taste
turn

Examples:

The dog smells stinky.
The dog appears friendly.

Many of these linking verbs can also function as action verbs; be aware as you look for them!

The dog smells his bone.
The dog appeared at the door.

Teaching Ideas:

• Make a poster of State of Being Verbs
• [Game for identifying linking v action verbs]

Copywork Ideas (Older):

• Music is the universal language of mankind. (Longfellow)
• The end of government is the happiness of the people. (Macaulay)
• The true and good resemble gold. (Jacobi)

Verbs 2 - Simple Conjugation

Verbs take different forms in order to agree with their subjects.  These different forms are called conjugations.  The simplest conjugations add -s, -ing and -ed.   Other simple verbs have irregular forms that even young children should know.*
Daily Grammar Lesson 13

Example: Adding -s
The boys kick the ball.
Sally kicks it harder.

Example: Adding -ed
We like to wash the car.
We washed the car last weekend.

Example: Adding -ing**
The girls eat their tacos.
John is eating a burrito.

Example: Irregular Forms
eat, eats, ate, eaten, is eating
come, came, is coming
send, sent, is sending
see, saw, is seeing

 *Many conjugations involve changing the tense of the verb.  Don't go into that concept at this point.  Just teach your child to recognize verbs in all their different forms.

**Adding -ing technically changes the verb into a "verbal."  The particulars of this are addressed much later.  If you are curious, in the example "is eating" is a present participle.

Teaching Ideas:

• Children who read (or are read to) will pick up this concept naturally.  We have noticed that it comes up when we play Magnetic Poetry, and we have to look for that tiny "s" or "ing" piece to make the sentence sound right.

Copywork Ideas (younger):

• A big spider saw a little spider.  The little spider was spinning a web. (Treadwell)
• Toad went to the store.  He bought two big ice-cream cones. (Lobel)

Copywork Ideas (older):

Verbs 1 - Actions

Action verbs are words that describe what a person, animal, thing, or force of nature can do.
Daily Grammar Lesson 1

Examples:
kick
run
eat
blow

Teaching Ideas:

• Play verb games (Search By Topic" in sidebar) such as Verb Collection and Verb Charades.
• Start to notice verbs if doing other regular copywork.  It is important to look for copywork that has action verbs at this stage; try to avoid linking verbs until that concept is covered.

Copywork Ideas (younger):

• Make a list of verbs.
• Frog fell off the sled.  Toad rushed past trees and rocks. (Lobel)

Copywork Ideas (older):

• Great men stand like solitary towers in the city of God. (Longfellow)
• Wisdom adorns riches, and shadows poverty. (Socrates)
• Fancy and pride seek things at great expense. (Young)

We circled nouns in black pencil
and verbs in red pencil.