The verb General Characteristic

Verbs denoting actions or states are called notional verbs (actional, statal or relational). There are other groups of verbs:

• modal;

• auxiliary;

• link verbs.

Notional verbs present a system of finite and non-finite forms. The latter (the Infinitive, the Gerund and the Participle) are not conjugated. The former possess the morphological categories of person and number (in present tenses), tense, aspect, perfect, voice and mood. Its syntactical function is that of the predicate.

The category of number shows whether the action is performed by one or more than one persons or non-persons.

The category of tense expresses the relationships between the time of the action and the time of speaking. It is constituted by the opposition of the present tense, the future tense and the past tense.

The category of aspect shows the manner in which an action is performed. It is constituted by the opposition of the continuous aspect and the common aspect.

The category of perfect is constituted by the opposition of the perfect and the non-perfect. The perfect forms denote actions preceding certain moments of time in the present, past or future.

The category of voice denotes the relationship between the action expressed by the verb and the person or a non-person denoted by the subject of the sentence.

The category of mood expresses the nature of relations of things and their properties, as well as states, events and conditions in which they occur in objective reality. The modes of relations between the thing and the property are those of necessity, possibility, contingency and impossibility.

Present tenses

All the present tenses refer the actions they denote to the present, i.e. to the time of speaking. The difference between them lies in the way they treat the categories of aspect and correlation.

The Present Indefinite (Simple)

I. The Formation:

The Present Indefinite is formed from the Infinitive without the particle 'to'. In the third person singular the ending '-s' is added.

In interrogative sentences (questions) the auxiliary verb 'do' is placed before the subject.

In negative sentences the auxiliary verb and the negative particle 'not' are placed between the subject and the notional verb.

• I work.

• He works.

• Do you work?

• Does he work?

• I do not work.

• He does not work.

II. Spelling of the third person singular forms.

Most verbs add –s to the infinitive:	work – works, sit – sits, stay – stays, ets.
Verbs ending in consonant +y change y into i and add –es:	cry-cries, hurry – hurries, reply – replies, etc.
Verbs ending in vowel +y add just –s:	enjoy – enjoys, etc.
Verbs ending in –s, -z, -ch, -sh or –x add –es to the infinitive:	miss – misses, buzz – buzzes, watch – watches, push – pushes, fix – fixes, etc.
Exceptions:	have – has, go – goes, do - does