Verbs: Recognizing And Using Them (1960)

[Music] is there a special place where a person can look to find verbs of course in sentences and is there a special way to recognize verbs that's what this film is about we know that a complete sentence has two main parts the complete subject which tells what the sentence is about and the complete predicate which tells something about the subject now let's meet joe and nancy and nancy's dog princess and now let's look for complete subjects and predicates in sentences let's try a sentence joe showed his skill as a driver this sentence is about joe so that word is the complete subject the rest of the sentence tells something about the subject joe so the words showed his skill as a driver are the complete predicate complete predicate and complete subject let's try another sentence joe's car developed engine trouble [Applause] what is the sentence about so this is the complete subject and what is it that tells us something about the complete subject so this is the complete predicate and together we have a sentence finding the complete subject and predicate in a sentence is the first step in learning to recognize verbs nancy enjoys the game of croquet ball hit princess on the nose it's easy to separate the words of this sentence into the complete subject and predicate now while the predicate as a whole tells us something in general about the subject one word in the predicate tells us something in particular about the subject hit tells us what the ball did it tells us about an action of the subject of the sentence let's look at another sentence princess return the ball in the predicate of this sentence a word that tells us about an action of the subject is returned nancy smiled at her pet's playfulness is there a word in this sentence that tells us about an action of the subject yes so in each of these three sentences there has been a word in the complete predicate which told what the subject of each sentence did involving an action hit returned smiled these words were used as verbs in these sentences looking for the words in the predicate that show some action by the subject is one way to recognize verbs or we might put it this way a verb is a word in the predicate that tells what the subject does let's use this definition to find the verbs in certain sentences about joe in his chemistry class joe held two beakers in his hands which word in the predicate tells what the subject did that's the verb he poured liquid from one beaker into the other where's the verb the mixture bubbled the verb joe placed the beaker on the table the second beaker was placed beside the first where is the verb in this sentence the second beaker is the complete subject is there a word in the complete predicate that tells what the subject did no but the two words was placed tell what was done to the subject what happened to the second beaker it was placed beside the first the word was is a helping word look at the two words was placed they are used as a verb in the sentence so now we must add to the chart we began before the statement that a verb is also a word that tells what is done to the subject when a verb tells what is done to a subject it is made of more than one word let's see more examples of this kind of verb an election is scheduled at school an election is the complete subject what is done to it it is scheduled so is scheduled is used as a verb in this sentence now as we change tenses we'll find that the helping words also change nancy has been nominated for room treasurer what is the complete subject and what is the verb in the complete predicate the election will be held today what is the verb nancy has not been elected what is the verb in this sentence is it has not been elected no not is not a part of this verb it is a word that changes the meaning of the verb the verb is has been elected from this example you can see that the parts of a verb do not always stand together in a sentence so far we've seen that a verb tells what the subject does or tells what is done to the subject but let's look at this sentence about princess princess is a pedigreed dog let's separate the complete subject from the complete predicate now in the complete predicate is there a word that either tells what the subject princess does or something that is done to the subject no but there is a verb here and the verb is the word is is does not indicate any kind of action then what sort of information does the word is give us about princess it tells us something about what is called the state of being of princess what is the state of being of princess princess is and the rest of the predicate tells us what princess is let's try another state of being verb princess seems gentle which word in the complete predicate indicates the subject's state of being seems is the verb in this sentence appearances are deceiving [Applause] the subject is the word appearances what is the verb here r indicates state of being so now to our chart we can add a verb is a word that also indicates the state of being of the subject a verb in any sentence will do one of these three jobs so we can recognize the verbs in sentences by looking for those words which tell what the subject does tell what is done to the subject or indicate the state of being of the subject now let's test our knowledge we're at an amusement park with nancy and joe let's look for verbs the parachute rose slowly which does the verb rose tell what the complete subject did or what was done to it nancy and joe were carried to the top here what does the verb were carried tell about the complete subject nancy seemed frightened does scene show action or state of being why is this place called an amusement park where is the verb in this sentence you can find it if you remember what a verb does by learning this definition you can learn to recognize and use verbs [Music] effectively you