‘ve. An apostrophe and “ve” can be added to pronouns to create contractions of past tense constructions using “have”: “I’ve been an editor for twenty years.” Ordinarily such contractions are not used in formal standard English writing.
Verb. Words that convey action, condition, and similar aspects of statements are called “verbs”: “There are many verbs in English, ranging from vivid words like ‘cannonball’ to blander verbs like ‘appear.’ All verbs depict action or status, rendered into varying forms.” In the example, all the verbs are underlined. The rest of this entry characterizes the common properties of verbs and basic rules and suggestions for their use. Consult entries on specific verbs as well as those for tense, voice, mood, intransitive, transitive, passive, active voice, imperative, subjunctive, linking verbs, agreement, and so on for further explanations and examples.
Verbs change forms to reflect the person doing the acting (I, you, we, he, she, it, they), how many things or people are acting (number), and when something happens (tense). The changes in form can mean the addition of letters to the basic form of the verb or its root (the core letters that contain its meaning, such as “-vis-” in “envision,” a root that conveys the sense of seeing or being seen); such changes are called inflection, and the patterns of changes are called conjugations. Verb changes of this kind can produce different person, number, or tense: “I talk, he or she talks, they talked, we talked.” Some verbs make the main tenses in different patterns (adding “es” rather than “S” in the present tense) or are altogether irregular verbs.
Other words are also combined with verbs or forms of them to produce different tenses: “I talk, you will talk, he has talked, we will have talked, you had talked, they are talking.” See the entries on tenses for further information. The added verbs are called “auxiliary verbs.”
Some of the forms that combine to make new tenses are specially inflected forms of verbs: the present participle (“ing” form: “talking”) and the past participle (“ed” or “d” form, usually the same as the past tense form). The participles can function outside verbal constructions, becoming gerunds, adjectives, and even nouns: “Swimming is enjoying a revival, predicated on raised expectations.” All the underlined words in the example are participles.
Verbs also have a property called “voice” that indicates where action is directed. Active voice verbs convey action directly to objects or indirect objects: “I hand the book to the librarian.” Passive voice verbs depict action that does not pass to an object but is reflected back on the subject of a sentence: “The book was handed to the librarian by me.” The passive voice is usually disdained in standard English because it often omits agents and doesn’t make causation clear: “It will be done.” But this flaw of obscurity is sometimes prized by writers who want to deflect attention from the agent of an action for whatever reason. Voice is a property of transitive verbs, those able to transmit action to an object. Intransitive verbs do not convey action to an object but usually express condition: “It happens, one becomes used to something and simply vegetates.” All the verbs (underlined) in the example are intransitive.
Verbs convey the writer’s or speaker’s attitude or stance by changing “mood” as reflected in differing verb forms. The indicative mood is the common form that states facts or presumed facts: “That is so; the lions are eating the antelope.” The imperative mood issues commands or requests: “Pick up your room!” The subjunctive mood is used to make statements that are contrary to fact or are wishes, requests, and demands: “If your younger brother were taller, I’d ask that he help put up the decorations with us.”
A major category of verbs is called “Unking verbs”: “be,” “become,” “appear,” and the like do not convey action so much as condition or status. They take no objects but can be followed by nouns or adjectives that are called predicate nominatives or subject complements: “Jan is an executive and is creative as well as insightful.” See predicate.
Words that modify verbs or add to their meaning are called “adverbs”: “The dancer quickly exited the stage.” Most adverbs end in “-ly,” as does “quickly” in the example. But some do not: “The cat almost ate the canary.” See modifier.
It is critical that verbs agree with their subjects in person and number. WRONG: “Kim are right, and I is wrong.” RIGHT: “Kim is right, and I am wrong.” In a simple example like this one, the error seems obvious. But in longer, more complex sentences, it is easy to lose sight of the original subject or its number or person, particularly if phrases or clauses in a different number or person come between the subject and verb. WRONG: “The lion, having eaten many chimpanzees, which are common on the plains of the area and often live in enormous troops in the trees, are hungry.” There is only one lion, and it is hungry. Positioning of verbs near their subjects and objects helps keep sentences clear and makes it easier to be sure subjects and verbs agree.
Large, involved collections of words can contain several verbs, subjects, objects, and so on but still not be sentences at all. If the main subject has no verb (or vice versa), even the longest collection of words remains an incomprehensible fragment: “The tiger, having eaten many chimpanzees, which are common on the plains of the area and often live in enormous troops in the trees, deciduous and palmlike depending on the microclimate, which can vary enormously and cause severe fluctuations in the tiger population.” The example is not a sentence, despite all the verbs, subjects, and so on, and even in spite of the double appearance of the tiger. The first tiger does nothing, so there is no sentence here.
Although there is no formal grammatical rule that calls for consistency or parallelism in verb use, it is generally beneficial to writing to maintain the same or similar tenses, moods, voices, and so on from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph, and beyond. Of course, monotony is not a goal of writing, and variety can come from all sorts of changes in tense or any other verb property. Just be certain that such shifts leave an understandable, easily followed statement for the reader.
Verbs are important parts of sentences, and there are many entries in this book that discuss various aspects of how they are formed, function, and are best used. Be sure to consult all the italicized topics if you have more questions about any aspect of verbs that is outlined in this entry.
Vocabulary. The choice of words in statements is all-important. The storehouse of words you command is called your “vocabulary.” The bigger it is, the more choices you have when you are searching for the right word. See, for example, style, colloquial, dialect, audience, scientific language, and standard English for more information about how to chose the right vocabulary for your needs.
Voice. Transitive verbs normally suggest action directed to or carried out on something or someone, which is their object: ‘The batter hit the ball.’ In this form verbs are said to be in the “active voice.” But transitive verbs can be made to reflect action back on their subject and convey no action to their object; this is called the “passive voice” of transitive verbs: “The ball was hit by the batter.”
Passive voice forms usually add a linking verb element to distinguish them from the active forms in corresponding tenses or moods: “The child watches. The child is/was/will be/would have been watched.”
Generally, writing today favors the use of the active voice, since it is more conversational, more lively, and clearer. Its clarity comes from the fact that the active voice states the subject and object more directly and explicitly than does the passive—we know from an active sentence who did what to whom. Passive sentences are more obscure: “Pollution has not been cleaned up.” The sentence points to a condition but does not indicate who caused the pollution, who should be cleaning it up, or who should be concerned. Most writing should avoid this sort of fuzzing of cause and effect or responsibility when possible.
Some styles, however, rely on the passive’s veiling of subjects and objects to produce a specific effect. Scientific language, for instance, has often favored the passive in the belief that the absence of personal agents (subjects) makes information more objective, more verifiable. Some critics of science and scientific style argue that the predominance of the passive voice merely hides the role of the scientist. These critics believe it is important to keep in mind that a scientist may have brought assumptions, preconceptions, prejudices, or other distorting attitudes or opinions to work that cannot be considered objective or verifiable just because it is reported in the passive voice.
Other observers of language and style have frequently pointed out that government documents commonly use the passive voice to obscure responsibility for unpopular decisions: “Taxes are being raised.” Who raised them? It is sometimes in the interests of politicians or bureaucrats to mask the source of policies or practices by using the passive voice.
The general guideline suggesting avoidance of the passive is a good one to follow. However, when circumstances call for the disappearance or masking of a subject, the passive can be a handy tool. That is, choice of voice can be a stylistic or rhetorical option of great value in gaining emphasis, variety, or other effects. The passive should be used sparingly in most situations, but at times it can be very effective.
Vowel. The letters “a,” “e,” “i,” “o,” and “u” are called “vowels” and are differentiated from consonants because of the way we produce their sounds when we speak. Recognizing which letters are which can be important when dividing a word into syllables in order to hyphenate it.