Collins Dictionaries - English Verbs

HarperCollins Publishers
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First edition 2011

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HarperCollins Publishers 2011

EPUB Edition November 2011 ISBN 978-0-00-746196-7

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Editorial staff

American English consultant:
Orin Hargraves

Senior editors:
Penny Hands
Kate Woodford

Project management:
Lisa Sutherland

Contributors:
Sandra Anderson
Jennifer Baird
Katharine Coates

For the publisher:
Lucy Cooper
Kerry Ferguson
Elaine Higgleton

Computing support:
Thomas Callan

Collins Websters Easy Learning English Verbs is designed for anyone who wants to improve their knowledge of English verbs and the way they work. Whether you are preparing for exams, need a quick look-up guide to English verbs, or you simply want to browse, Collins Websters Easy Learning English Verbs offers you the information you require in a clear and accessible format.

A verb is a word that tells us about an action, an activity, a process, a state of being, or a state of mind. All grammatically complete sentences in English contain at least one verb. The form of a verb helps us to express some important ideas: the time the action is taking place, who carries it out, how likely it is that it will happen, how many people perform the action, and so on.

The first section of the book, called What is a verb?, tells you more about tenses, the different grammatical forms of the verb, and how verbs work in a sentence.

The second section of the book contains dictionary entries of the most important types of verb. Most verbs in English are main verbs; these express actions and states. A special type of verb, called an auxiliary verb, is used in combination with a main verb to express ideas such as time, certainty, doubt, and completion. Some examples of auxiliary verbs are be, do, have, can, could, and will. Auxiliary verbs are explained in detail in the key entries in the dictionary section.

Phrasal verbs are also an important feature of English. English speakers use phrasal verbs in all contexts not just in informal situations. The most common phrasal verbs are listed at the end of the entry for the verb they are related to. For example, the phrasal verbs hang on and hang up are listed under the entry for hang.

Some of the most useful English verbs are irregular. Irregular verbs are verbs that do not form the past simple tense and the past participle in the regular way. The most important irregular verbs are marked with a star in the dictionary section. There is also a list of the most common irregular verbs and their inflections on pages .

All explanations throughout the book are fully illustrated with examples of natural English taken from the Collins 4-billion-word corpus.

We hope you enjoy finding out more about this important area of the English language. For more information about Collins dictionaries, visit us at www.collinslanguage.com.

We have used the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to show how the words are pronounced. The symbols used in the International Phonetic Alphabet are shown in the table below.

IPA symbols

Vowel sounds

Consonant sounds

Notes
Primary and secondary stress are shown by marks above and below the line,
in front of the stressed syllable. For example, in the word abbreviation, /bri:ve I n/, the second syllable has secondary stress and the fourth syllable has primary stress.

A verb