A word for an action, event or state — what is happening.
In precise terms
A lexical class whose members head verb phrases and typically carry inflection for categories such as tense, aspect, mood, person or number. Verbs determine how many arguments a clause requires.
An example
Kodi anapita kusukulu.
Kodi went to school.
What is going on here
In Chichewa 'anapita' is the verb. It is built from a subject prefix, a past-tense marker and the root '-pit-' ('go'). The whole clause hangs on it: change the verb and you change what the sentence asserts.
Why this matters when you are learning a language
The verb is where most languages concentrate their grammar. Tense, aspect, mood, politeness, evidentiality and agreement all commonly attach here, which is why verb tables take up more of a grammar book than any other section.
Across languages
How much a verb carries varies enormously. An English verb marks little; a Spanish verb marks person and number; a Swahili verb can carry subject, object, tense and negation in a single word. Mandarin verbs do not inflect for tense at all, and time is expressed by adverbs and aspect particles.
Related terms
- NounBeginner — A word for a thing, person, place, idea or quality.
- TenseBeginner — Grammatical marking that locates an event in time — past, present or future.
- AspectIntermediate — Grammatical marking of how an event unfolds — whether it is ongoing, completed, repeated or just beginning.
- Grammatical moodIntermediate — Verb marking showing whether something is stated as fact, wished for, commanded or hypothetical.
- Transitive and intransitive verbsIntermediate — A transitive verb takes an object; an intransitive one does not.
- Auxiliary verbIntermediate — A verb that supports a main verb, carrying grammatical information rather than the main meaning.
- CopulaBeginner — An overt grammatical element that supports some clauses with a nonverbal predicate.
Where to go next
- Language guides — See grammatical and lexical categories used in context.
- Terminology quiz — Test the terms on this page.