Verb

Maist fowk'll tell ye that a verb is 'a daein wird', like rin, lowp, speak, think. That works weel, maist o the time, but there are ither verbs that dinnae quite fit this description, like be, can, micht. Whit we need is some tests. Whit wey dae verbs wark in sentences? In an ordinary sentence, ye need a noun or a pronoun at the stert tae 'dae' the verb. The subject of the sentence is whatever 'daes' the verb. Whiles, but nae a the time, ye need anither noun or pronoun that gets the verb 'done' til it. That is the object o the sentence.

We can yaise this sentence tae test for verbs. For example, if we look at pick, bake, window, cat and sunbathe, we can see that pick, bake and sunbathe are verbs. Window and cat are definitely not verbs.

• Ma brithers pick thair favourite book.
• Ma brithers bake (a cake).
• Ma brithers sunbathe.

• Pick wants an object (like their favourite book or thair noses).
• Bake is happy eneuch athoot an object, but ye cud pit ane there (like a cake).
• Sunbathe cannae hae an object.

Test thir wirds for yersel.

Sing, mairry, hedgehog, grow, happy, quickly, sleep.

Click here for the answers.

No every verb fits this sentence, hooiver. Verbs tak different ending tae agree wi the subject. Ma brithers is a plural subject. If yae jist had the yin, ye wad need tae pit a -s ending on thae verbs tae agree wi the singular subject:

• Ma brither sings.
• Ma brither mairries.

Anither thing ye can dae wi verbs is tae make them intae the past tense.