Tips for Teaching Grammar

Verbs: Finding Verbs by Changing Tense

Students think of verbs as the words that show action or state of being, but the definition doesn't always guide them to the right place in a sentence when they have to find a verb.

Suggest to students that something else that verbs show is time. Verbs are our main guide to whether the subject under discussion pertains to the time before someone is speaking or writing, or will pertain at a later time, or whether it is true now.

So one way students can find the verb or verb phrase is to shift the sentence around in the past, the present, or the future and then see which word or phrase changes or has words added to it. To do this, they can put such words as "last year," "tomorrow," or "right now" in front of the sentence. ("Right now" works better than "today." As an indicator of present time, "today" is not reliable since it easily fits with the past tense when events happened "earlier today.")

Remind students that the changed sentence doesn't have to make complete sense; they are just looking for the part of the original sentence that must make the switch to a new time frame.

1. The rain forests hold many beautiful and rare animals, insects, and plants.

Last year, the rain forests held many beautiful and rare animals, insects, and plants.

Tomorrow, the rain forests will hold many beautiful and rare animals, insects, and plants.

2. She wanted to see the world and make the most of every day of her life.

Right now, she wants to see the world and make the most of every day of her life.

Tomorrow, she will want to see the world and make the most of every day of her life.

3. He should have been more careful.

Right now, he should be more careful.

Brock Haussamen