A verb is sometimes called a ‘doing’ word, e.g. go, run, jump, fly, sit, eat, write, do, want, give, love, hit, hug.
Each verb comes in lots of different forms: to run > run, runs, am running, is running, ran, had run, will run, could run, Run!
*also: is running, are running, were running, had been running, had run, ran, have been running and more.
The most common verbs endings are: -s -ing, -ed.
Some verbs change in the middle*:
sit > sat, write > wrote
*these are called ‘irregular verbs’
Other verbs completely are completely irregular:
> be, is, am, are, was, were, has been, is being, etc.
> go, goes, going, has gone, went, etc.
> do, does, doing, done
Ways to talk about this with your child
Look at a book they’re reading, or a magazine. Ask them if they can pick out any verbs. If they’re feeling competitive, ask how many they can find. Can they find them all? Talk about how the verbs end, and what are the other forms of these verbs.
Collect verbs from the text into groups: regular, ‘change in the middle’, irregular.
What would you do if you could do anything you liked? Talk about which were the ‘doing words’ or verbs.