Action Verbs
As their name implies, action verbs show action. Keep in mind that action doesn’t always mean movement. ‘Tanya thought about bears.’
In that example, the verb thought doesn’t show movement, but it is still an action verb. There are many, many action verbs. Here’s a small list of verbs that show action.
| clean | cut | drive | eat |
| fly | go | live | make |
| play | read | run | shower |
| sleep | smile | stop | sweep |
| swim | think | throw | trip |
| walk | wash | work | write |
Let’s look at the different kinds of action verbs!
Certain action verbs called transitive active verbs transfer action to something called a direct object.
Joe kicked the ball. Jim ate the cake.
Kicked and ate are transitive active verbs. Ball and cake are direct objects.
This type of action verb transfers its action to the subject. Isn’t that crazy?
My car was stolen. The house was demolished.
I screamed. The dog barked.
This type of action verb does not transfer action to anyone or anything.
List of Linking Verbs
You can call these either linking verbs or intransitive linking verbs.
They link the subject of a sentence with a noun or adjective. If you count all of the forms of to be as one word, there are 13 linking verbs. Memorise these!
| Forms of be | be, am, is, are, was, were, been, being | |
| Other Linking Verbs | appear, become, feel, grow, look, seem, remain, smell, sound, stay, taste, turn |
Pele became a famous footballer.
Became is a linking verb. It is linking the subject Pele with the noun footballer.
For further detailed information about action verbs click the links below:
Home I Verbs I 3 Types of Action verbs I Grammar lessons
AGH / Jan 2020