Verbs

A verb is a word that conveys ACTION, OCCURRENCE, or STATE OF BEING. Verbs are needed to form complete sentences or questions. In a sentence, a verb works as the main component of the predicate, the part of a sentence that indicates what the subject (person or thing) is or does. The three main types of verbs are action verbs, helping verbs, and linking verbs. Unlike most of the other parts of speech, verbs change their form. Pair our lists of verbs for kids with our fun verb online games for engaging practice!

Everything on Verbs
Verbs Tenses	show when the action in the sentence takes place
Irregular Verbs	are verbs that do not follow the rules for changing tenses
Action Verbs	describe something that a person, animal, thing, or force of nature can do
Linking Verbs	do not describe an action, but tell about the state or condition of subjects
Helping Verbs	are a set of two or three consonant letters that when pronounced, retain their sound

Verbs Tenses

A verb tense shows when the action in the sentence takes place. In English, there are a total of 12 verb tenses, as well as conditional tenses that indicate when an action may or may not happen.

The three main tenses on lists of verbs for kids are:

• Past – an action has already happened
• Present – an action is currently happening
• Future – an action will happen at a later time

Verbs are conjugated to communicate details, such as person, number, gender, tense or mood. The following table shows the verb “walk” conjugated to the three main verb forms with the subject being “I”.

Verb Tenses List
Past	Yesterday, I walked to the park.
Present	I walk to the park.
Future	Next week, I will walk to the park.

A verb like “walk” is a regular verb because it follows set rules when conjugated (adding -ed to indicate past tense, for example). Irregular verbs, however, are verbs that do not follow the rules for changing tense. For instance,the verb “sing” is an irregular verb. It does not follow the rule for past tense verbs as “sanged,” but rather as the irregular conjugation “sang.”

Irregular Verbs List
Verb	Past Tense
break	broke
buy	bought
do	did
drive	drove
eat	ate
feel	felt
find	found
grow	grew
have	had
ring	rang

Types of Verbs

Not all verbs serve the same function. Verbs fall into three basic categories: action, linking, and helping.

Action Verbs

Action verbs describe something that a person, animal, thing, or force of nature can do. Verbs like run or jump are examples of action verbs.

Action Verbs Lists
K-2 Verbs	3-5 Verbs	6-8 Verbs	9-12 Verbs
eat	climb	compose	negotiate
run	grasp	emphasize	fluctuate
jump	borrow	interrupt	modify
drink	laugh	persuade	extinguish
walk	paint	investigate	thrive
chop	observe	erupt	eavesdrop
sing	rescue	adjust	acquire
act	search	vibrate	abolish
kick	travel	pursue	confiscate
mix	celebrate	verify	plunder

Linking Verbs

Linking verbs do not describe an action, but tell about the state or condition of subjects. They link the subject with either a noun that renames it or an adjective that describes it. For example, the word “am” in the sentence “I am tall” describes the subject. There are some action verbs that function as linking verbs, such as grow. In the sentence “He grows tired,” the verb describes the subject rather than an action, so it works as a linking verb. Below are a list of other linking verbs.

Linking Verbs List
Forms of be	be, am, is, are, was, were, been, being
Other linking verbs	appear, become, feel, grow, look, seem, remain, smell, sound, stay, taste, turn

Helping Verbs

Helping verbs do not express action, and they cannot stand alone in a sentence without another verb present. They are part of verb phrases that “help” the main verb. Helping verbs define the tense (past, present, future) or change the meaning of the main verb. The verb “will” functions as a linking verb in the sentence “He will eat” because it helps the main verb “eat” and indicated a future tense. Some common helping verbs:

Helping Verbs List
will	must	must	had
had	do	shall	may
was	am	did	did
have	were	is	does
should	has	been	are
being	could	might	having

The following table shows 50 common English verbs conjugated in the past, present, and future tense using the subject “I.” These are commonly found on lists of verbs for kids.

Common English Verb Lists
Verb (base form, infinitive)	Past Tense	Present Tense	Future Tense
to ask	asked	ask	will ask
to be	was	am	will be
to become	became	become	will become
to bring	brought	bring	will bring
to build	built	build	will build
to buy	bought	buy	will buy
to call	called	call	will call
to change	changed	change	will change
to come	came	come	will come
to cut	cut	cut	will cut
to do	did	do	will do
to draw	drew	draw	will draw
to eat	ate	eat	will eat
to fall	fell	fall	will fall
to feel	felt	feel	will feel
to find	found	find	will find
to get	got	get	will get
to give	gave	give	will give
to go	went	go	will go
to have	had	have	will have
to hear	heard	hear	will hear
to help	helped	help	will help
to hope	hoped	hope	will hope
to keep	kept	keep	will keep
to know	knew	know	will know
to learn	learned	learn	will learn
to let	let	let	will let
to live	lived	live	will live
to make	made	make	will make
to move	moved	move	will move
to need	needed	need	will need
to play	played	play	will play
to put	put	put	will put
to read	read	read	will read
to run	ran	run	will run
to say	said	say	will say
to sell	sold	sell	will sell
to show	showed	show	will show
to stop	stopped	stop	will stop
to take	took	take	will take
to talk	talked	talk	will talk
to tell	told	tell	will tell
to think	thought	think	will think
to try	tried	try	will try
to turn	turned	turn	will turn
to use	used	use	will use
to walk	walked	walk	will walk
to want	wanted	want	will want
to work	worked	work	will work
to write	wrote	write	will write