Why Might You Need Professional Help Choosing the Correct Forms of the Verb to Use?
When writing an academic paper or a professional letter, there are a lot of rules that influence how we choose which words to include. When these rules are not followed correctly, the result is often an incoherent mix of words that barely describes the subject and makes it difficult for anyone to read. Within the English language, these rules provide a clear breakdown of various forms of the verbs which are essential in describing how and when a person, object or event takes place. As you might imagine though, this is a very complex area with many different types of verb forms that need to be understood thoroughly in order to write proficiently. Without a verb tense checker online to assist you, it is easy to get lost in the complexities of the various tenses and fancy wording like present participle when breaking down how verbs are used.
It is possibly the single hardest obstacle in perfecting your grammar and writing skills but once you have mastered the correct usage of verb forms, you will find the process less of a chore. The road to mastery, however, is a long and winding one but with plenty of practice and some professional help understanding the various forms of the verb from experts like ours, the journey can go much smoother for you.
The Types of Verb Forms You Need to Know about for Successful Writing
As with most rules that govern academic writing, they are never so straightforward as to be easily broken down. To understand what the various types of forms are, you first to need to know what a verb actually is. The Oxford online dictionary defines it as ‘a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence, such as hear, become, happen’. In other words, this helps to describe the main thought or the meat of a sentence and our choice of verbs then make it easy or more difficult to understand. A verb is then broken down into either regular or irregular forms such as:
- The simple or base verb form which includes words like play, dance, type, concentrate, pull, cut, put, and write;
- The third-person singular present tense that changes base verbs to dances, plays, types and writes;
- The present participle or gerund form that adds ‘ing’: dancing, playing, typing, pulling and writing;
- Past participle form: danced, played, typed, pulled and lived;
- Past tense form: ran, sang, drank, wrote and spoke;
- Modal auxiliary verbs which only have one form: could, should, would and must.
Incorrect Verb Forms Most Often Found in Academic Writing
Needless to say, with so many rules that govern the use of verbs and the way in which the tense is described, it’s easy to overlook a mistake. Writing verb forms correctly takes a high level of concentration to ensure that there is no mix up when trying to describe an event or a person’s involvement in it. By taking a look at the errors found in the different verb forms examples our experts have provided, you will become much more aware of the traps that will cause someone reading your work to trip over:
- You may borrow my car but ensure that you WILL not do any damage to it – incorrect future tense (do)
- For the last five hours, Phil has LISTENING to Motorhead songs – incorrect past tense (listened)
- Sarah STUDIES molecular biology and PLAYED hockey – mix of past and present tense (studies/plays)
- James BOUGHT the latest Toyota so that he SAVES on gasoline expenses – mix of past and future tense
- Peter BOUGHT a new house and he HAS been living there since July – the mix of past and present tense.
How Do You Prevent Wrong Form Usage?
It isn’t always instantly obvious when you have made a mistake with the incorrect form usage of a verb and it can be annoying when trying to determine the correct tense to use. A good piece of advice from the writing lab at the Emporia State University says that:
“Sometimes a writer has the subject and the verb so far apart that he/she has forgotten what the subject is, and so the writer uses the wrong form of the verb, sometimes the writer may not know for certain whether the subject is plural or singular, and sometimes the writer may have mistaken the subject altogether. To correct the error, the writer must first determine whether the subject of the sentence is singular or plural. Then the writer can check the correctness of the verb’s form.”
Our Professional Online Tool Can Help You Correct Errors with Forms of the Verb
It isn’t easy trying to digest all the subtle differences in verb forms or understanding what makes them regular or irregular even but one simple error on your part can have a negative result on all your hard work. By making use of our professional online tool, you give yourself the best and maybe the easiest way of understanding where you made a mistake. Our easy to use online verb checker can quickly differentiate between the verbs you have used and offer more suitable alternatives that cut out all the fluff and adds a higher level of professionalism to your writing. You will then be able to learn from these amendments and gain confidence for any future writing tasks.