Emily Milanowski's List: Writing & Grammar Resources

"Verbs also use special rules for telling when something happened - in the past, the present, or the future. Here is a list of examples for each verb tense using the verb break. Try putting other verbs in the place of break.

Present tense – I/you/we/they break, he/she/it breaks

Past Tense – I/you/he/she/it/we/they broke

Future Tense - I/you/he/she/it/we/they will break

Present Perfect Tense – I/you/he/she/it/we/they have broken

Past Perfect Tense – I/you/he/she/it/we/they had broken

Future Perfect Tense – I/you/he/she/it/we/they will have broken

Being Verbs tell about something in a state of being. A noun or pronoun does not always take action. Sometime, it just is. For that purpose, you use a being verb. Here are the being verbs in all the past, present, and future tenses.

Present tense - I am, you are, he/she/it is, we are, they are
Past Tense - I was, you were, he/she/it, was, we were, they were
Future Tense - I will be, you will be, he/she/it will be, we will be, they will be
Present Perfect Tense - I have been, you have been, he/she/it has been, we have been, they have been
Past Perfect Tense -I had been, you had been, he/she/it had been, we had been, they had been
Future Perfect Tense - I will have been, you will have been, he/she/it will have been, we will have been, they will have been

Helping verbs do not stand alone or express action. 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. Consider these examples:

Do you need a tissue?
We are helping the third-grade class.
Hank might have been driving the wrong way.

This list has commonly-used helping verbs:

may
might
must
be being
been
am
are
is
was
were
do does
did
should
could would
have
had
has
will
can
shall

Linking verbs do not show action. Instead, they connect nouns and pronouns to other information in the sentence. Here are some examples:

My sister is smart.
The picture appeared blurry.
Your supper smells delicious.

The most common linking verbs are listed here:

am
are
are
being
appear be
become
feel
get
grow have/has been
is
lie
look
might be might have been
prove
remain
seem
sit
smell
sound
stay
taste
turn
were

Irregular Verbs are verbs that don't follow the rules for changing tense. The best way to understand irregular verbs is to practice and memorize them.

Here are some common examples shown in the present/past/past participle:

The dog wants to bite me.
The dog bit me.
The dog has bitten me.

My arm hurts.
I hurt my arm yesterday.
I have hurt my arm before.

bite/bit/bitten
choose/chose/chosen
eat/ate/eaten
fall/fell/fallen
hurt/hurt/hurt
go/went/gone
lay/laid/laid
ring/rang/rung
send/sent/sent
teach/taught/taught
write/wrote/written

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