Verbs Tenses and Agreement
ICSE Class 6 · English · Chapter 4
What this chapter covers
- Kinds of verbs
- Simple tenses
- Continuous tenses
- Perfect tenses
- Consistent tense across a paragraph
- Subject-verb agreement
Key points
- A verb tells what a person or thing does or is.
- A main verb carries the meaning; an auxiliary verb (be, have, do, will, shall) helps it.
- A transitive verb has an object; an intransitive verb does not. Ask "what?" or "whom?" to check.
- The simple tenses show habits and facts (present), finished actions (past) and later actions (future, with will or shall).
- The "going to" form shows a plan already made, or something you can see is about to happen.
- Continuous tenses use a form of be with the -ing form to show an action going on at a certain time.
- Perfect tenses use has, have or had with the past participle. They show time, the order of events and states that are still true.
- Keep one tense in a paragraph unless the time really changes.
- A verb agrees with its real subject, not with the words in a phrase or clause that come between them.
Questions answered
Pick out the auxiliary verb and the main verb in "Grandpa is watering the plants."
The auxiliary verb is is. The main verb is watering.
Is the verb transitive or intransitive in "The baby cried all night"? Give a reason.
Intransitive. You cannot ask "cried what?", so there is no object. All night only tells you how long.
Name the tense of the verb in "The monsoon will reach Mumbai soon."
Simple future tense.
Rewrite in the present continuous tense: "Ria paints a picture."
Ria is painting a picture.
Fill in the blank with since or for: "We have known Mrs Rao ______ five years."
for, because five years is a length of time.
Join the two actions with the past perfect: "The film started. Then we reached the hall."
When we reached the hall, the film had started.
Correct the tense shift: "Yesterday I went to the market and buy some bananas."
Yesterday I went to the market and bought some bananas.
Choose the correct verb: "The packet of biscuits (is / are) on the shelf."
is, because the subject is packet, which is singular.