Synonyms and antonyms of Describing types and forms of verbs in British Thesaurus

active (adjective)

linguistics in active verbs or clauses, the subject is the person or thing that does or is responsible for the action of the verb. For example in the sentence ‘The crowd was making a bit of noise throughout the game’, the verb group ‘was making’ is active, and the clause is in the active voice.

causative (adjective)

linguistics used for describing verbs, forms, and structures that show that something causes something to happen. For example, in the sentence ‘She makes me laugh’, ‘makes’ is a causative verb.

continuous (adjective)

linguistics

ditransitive (adjective)

a ditransitive verb has both a direct object and an indirect object. In the sentence ‘Pour him some tea’, ‘pour’ is ditransitive.

dynamic (adjective)

linguistics used for describing verbs like ‘listen’, ‘talk’, or ‘go’ that deal with actions as opposed to verbs like ‘know’ or ‘own’ that deal with states

ergative (adjective)

an ergative verb, such as 'close’, 'change’, ‘cook’, ‘worry’, and ‘calm down’, is both transitive and intransitive. When it is transitive, its object can be the same as its subject when it is intransitive. For example in the sentence ‘Jack thought the money would change his life’, the verb ‘change’ is transitive, and in the sentence ‘When he was eleven, his whole life changed’, the verb ‘change’ is intransitive and there is no mention of anything that has caused ‘his life’ to change. The definition of an ergative verb in this dictionary often takes a special form, for example ‘if you close something or it closes, it moves to cover an open area’.

finite (adjective)

linguistics a finite clause has a verb that shows a particular tense and agrees with the subject in number. For example ‘she plays the guitar’ is a finite clause. The verb ‘plays’ indicates present tense and a singular subject.

future (adjective)

linguistics relating to the future tense of a verb

imperative (adjective)

linguistics the imperative form of a verb expresses an order to do something

impersonal (adjective)

linguistics an impersonal verb or sentence usually has the word ‘it’ as its subject

intransitive (adjective)

an intransitive verb has no direct object, for example ‘arrive’, ‘escape’, ‘occur’, ‘fall’, and ‘scream’. In the sentence ‘She grew up in Bristol’, the verb ‘grow up’ is intransitive.

non-finite (adjective)

a non-finite clause has a verb that is either a participle or an infinitive with ‘to’, and does not show tense or number. For example in the sentence ‘Turning left, we came to a large entrance’, the clause ‘turning left’ is non-finite.

perfect (adjective)

linguistics

progressive (adjective)

linguistics the progressive aspect indicates that an action, situation, or event is seen as continuing during a particular period of time. The progressive verb group consists of a form of ‘be’ and a present participle (‘-ing’ form). For example in the sentence ‘The forests are dying and the fish are disappearing’, ‘dying’ and ‘disappearing’ are seen as happening now. In the sentence ‘In the 1990s the company was losing £200 million a year’, ‘losing’ was going on during a period in the past.

sing. (abbreviation)

singular

singular (adjective)

a singular verb, or the singular form of a verb, is used for talking about actions taken by one person or thing

stative (adjective)

used for describing verbs like ‘know’ or ‘own’ that deal with states, as opposed to verbs like ‘listen’, ‘talk’, or ‘go’ that deal with actions

transitive (adjective)

a transitive verb has a direct object, and is not normally used without one, for example ‘appoint’, ‘injure’, ‘own’, ‘blame’, and ‘bring up’ (a child). In the sentence ‘Our educational toys support and encourage creative learning’, ‘support’ and ‘encourage’ are transitive verbs. Many transitive verbs are often used without objects, and are labelled ‘intransitive/transitive’ in this dictionary. For example in the sentence ‘We’re looking for teachers who can really teach’, ‘teach’ is intransitive, and in ‘Alex teaches history and politics’, ‘teach’ is transitive.

transitivity (noun)

the fact of a verb being transitive, or the question of whether a verb is transitive or intransitive

weak (adjective)

a weak verb forms the past tenses in a regular way. Weak verbs in English do this by adding ‘-ed’, ‘-d’, or ‘-t’ to the infinitive.