Identifying Sentence Parts
Verbs (2)
Please read this lesson carefully before attempting the exercise.

This is the first in a two-part exercise in finding subjects and verbs. The sentences will be identical, but in this first exercise you are to find the VERBS, while in the next you will find the subjects.

In addition to knowing that verbs change form to indicate time, you need to know that English verbs can consist of more than one word and that some of the auxiliary verbs indicate ideas other than time distinctions. There can be up to four such "helping" verbs:

They BRIEFED the President.
The President WAS BRIEFED.
They MUST HAVE BRIEFED the President.
The President MUST HAVE BEEN BRIEFED.
The President MUST HAVE BEEN BEING BRIEFED about the earthquake at the very moment the tidal wave hit the port.

Some auxiliary verbs indicate ability or likelihood (can/could, may/might), obligation or certainty (must), passivity (forms of be, as in "has been eaten" or "were eaten"). Moreover, in questions one of these auxiliary verbs may come before the subject. Having a verb before the subject is the way English speakers know that a "yes/no" question is being asked. In fact, if there is no auxiliary verb, we add one to make yes-no questions.

Statement: She WENT to the dance.
Question: DID she GO to the dance?
Instructions: Copy the verb in each sentence.

Example: There in the basement, we could smell blood.
Answer: could smell