Verbs in Combination
In English, verbs frequently appear in combinations containing one or more auxiliary verbs and a non-finite form (infinitive or participle) of a main (lexical) verb. For example:
-
- The dog was barking very loudly.
- My hat has been cleaned.
- Jane does not really like us.
The first verb in such a combination is the finite verb, the remainder are non-finite (although constructions in which even the leading verb is non-finite are also possible – see Perfect and progressive non-finite constructions below). Such combinations are sometimes called compound verbs; more technically they may be called verb catenae, since they are not generally strict grammatical constituents of the clause. As the last example shows, the words making up these combinations do not always remain consecutive.
For details of the formation of such constructions, see English clause syntax. The uses of the various types of combination are described in the detailed sections of the present article. (For another type of combination involving verbs – items such as go on, slip away and break off – see Phrasal verb.)
Read more about this topic: Pluperfect Progressive
Famous quotes containing the words verbs in, verbs and/or combination:
“He crafted his writing and loved listening to those tiny explosions when the active brutality of verbs in revolution raced into sweet established nouns to send marching across the page a newly commissioned army of words-on-maneuvers, all decorated in loops, frets, and arrowlike flourishes.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)
“He crafted his writing and loved listening to those tiny explosions when the active brutality of verbs in revolution raced into sweet established nouns to send marching across the page a newly commissioned army of words-on-maneuvers, all decorated in loops, frets, and arrowlike flourishes.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)
“[The pleasures of writing] correspond exactly to the pleasures of reading, the bliss, the felicity of a phrase is shared by writer and reader: by the satisfied writer and the grateful reader, or—which is the same thing—by the artist grateful to the unknown force in his mind that has suggested a combination of images and by the artistic reader whom his combination satisfies.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)