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Activity 1.8
Lesson: Verbs Overview Learning Target
• Review and understand verb tense, voice, and mood.
Verbs are the engines that drive sentences. They tell you what is or what happens. Like engines, they have many features.
One of the most important features that verbs have is tense. Tense tells you when the action or state of being occurs. Here are the tenses in English:
Past: existed Present: exist Future: will exist
Past perfect: had existed
Present perfect: has/have existed
Future perfect: will have existed
Voice tells you whether the subject of the verb performs the action of the verb. If the subject performs the action, the verb is in active voice. In passive voice, the subject of the verb receives the action or is the object of the action.
Active voice: The eagle can see a mouse from hundreds of feet away. [The subject, eagle, performs the action of seeing.]
Passive voice: The mouse was seen from hundreds of feet away. [The subject, mouse, does not perform the action of seeing. It is the object of the action.]
Active voice is usually more direct and clear. In most sentences, you should use active voice. Mood shows the mode or manner in which an action or state of being is expressed.
Mood
indicative (facts and ordinary statements)
I go to baseball practice. He was there.
imperative (commands)
Go to baseball practice. Be there.
interrogative (questions)
Are you going to baseball practice? Was he there?
conditional (situations that involve certain conditions)
I should go to baseball practice. He would be there if he could.
subjunctive (statements about wishes or situations contrary to fact)
If I were going to baseball practice, I would see him. I wish I were going.
Grammar Activities • Unit 1 3
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