Practice
Read the following sentences. In each sentence, identify the active, linking, and helping verbs.
- Guilherme should arrive in the next three minutes.
- Raymond is a fantastic boss.
- Gina had smelled like chrysanthemums and mystery.
- Damian can’t work tonight. Do you want his shift?
- Tim exercises a lot. His standard work out has three different circuits.
Show Answer
- Guilherme should arrive in the next three minutes.
- Should is a helping verb. It expresses likelihood.
- Arrive is the active (main) verb in this sentence. It is intransitive.
- Raymond is a fantastic boss.
- Is is a linking verb in this sentence: Raymond = a fantastic boss.
- Gina smelled like chrysanthemums and mystery.
- Smelled is a linking verb in this sentence. There is no active action occurring in the sentence; the sentence is simply stating the way Gina smells.
- Damian can’t work tonight. Do you want his shift?
- Can’t accompanies work. In this sentence it is used to express ability (in this case, the not turns it into a lack of ability).
- Work is an active verb. It is intransitive.
- Do accompanies want. In this sentence, it is used to make a question.
- Want is an active verb. It is transitive: its object is “his shift.”
- Tim exercises a lot. His standard work out has three different circuits.
- Exercises is an active verb. It is also intransitive.
- Has is an active verb. It is transitive: its object is “three different circuits.”