Verbs for kids: action verbs, linking verbs and helping verbs

What is a verb?

A verb tells you what someone or something does or is. Run, laugh, think and build are verbs. So are is, seem and become. Every complete sentence needs a verb: "The puppy" is not a sentence, but "The puppy slept" is.

A quick test is to change the time. A verb changes its form: jump becomes jumped for yesterday and will jump for tomorrow. Nouns and adjectives don't change like that. You can also try putting "to" in front: "to jump" makes sense, "to happy" does not.

Action verbs

Action verbs show something happening. Some actions you can see: swim, throw, climb. Others happen in your head: think, remember, decide, wish. Both kinds are action verbs, because the subject is doing something.

Strong action verbs make writing clearer. "The fox went into the garden" is fine, but "The fox crept into the garden" tells you how it moved without adding another word. Swapping a plain verb for a precise one is one of the quickest ways to improve a child's writing.

Linking verbs

A linking verb does not show an action. It joins the subject to a word that describes or renames it. The most common linking verb is be, in all its forms: am, is, are, was, were. Others include seem, become, feel, look, smell, taste and sound.

Some verbs can do both jobs. In "The chef tasted the soup," tasted is an action, because the chef did something. In "The soup tasted salty," tasted is a linking verb, because it joins soup to salty. A handy check is to swap in is or was. "The soup was salty" makes sense, so tasted is a linking verb in that sentence.

Helping verbs

A helping verb, also called an auxiliary verb, comes before the main verb and adds information about time, possibility or need. The main verb carries the meaning, and the helper supports it.

• Forms of be: am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been. "She is reading."
• Forms of have: have, has, had. "We have finished."
• Forms of do: do, does, did. "Do you like olives?"
• Modal verbs: can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would. "You should rest."

A sentence can have more than one helping verb. In "The bridge will have been repaired by May," the words will, have and been all help repaired. Be, have and do can also be main verbs on their own: in "I have a cold," have is the main verb.

Verbs and tense

Verbs change to show when something happens. Regular verbs add -ed for the past: walk, walked. Irregular verbs change in other ways: go, went; swim, swam; catch, caught. The future uses will: will walk. Helping verbs build the other tenses, such as "is walking" and "has walked".

Verbs examples at different levels

• Grade 1: "The baby giggled." The verb is giggled, an action verb.
• Grade 2: "Grandpa wrote a long letter." The verb is wrote, the irregular past tense of write.
• Grade 3: "Owls seem wise." The verb is seem, a linking verb that joins owls to wise.
• Grade 4: "The team must leave before noon." Must is the helping verb and leave is the main verb.
• Grade 5: "They had been waiting for an hour." Had and been are helping verbs, and waiting is the main verb.

How verbs are taught in school

In the US, Common Core starts with frequently occurring nouns and verbs in kindergarten (L.K.1b). In grade 1 children use verbs to show past, present and future and match verbs to singular and plural nouns, as in "He hops; we hop" (L.1.1c, L.1.1e). Grade 2 covers the past tense of common irregular verbs (L.2.1d), grade 3 regular and irregular verbs and the simple tenses (L.3.1d, L.3.1e), and grade 4 the progressive tenses and modal auxiliaries such as can, may and must (L.4.1b, L.4.1c).

In England, "verb" joins the grammar terms in Year 2, when pupils also learn the progressive form and keep to the present or past tense. Year 3 introduces the present perfect ("has walked"), Year 4 covers Standard English forms such as "we were" rather than "we was", and Year 5 uses modal verbs to show how likely something is. British teachers tend to say auxiliary verb or modal verb where American teachers often say helping verb. Verbs are one of the word classes on the KS2 grammar, punctuation and spelling test at the end of Year 6.

Verbs practice at home

• Play verb charades: act out a verb and let your child guess it, then swap.
• Change the time together: say "Today I swim" and ask for yesterday and tomorrow. Irregular verbs stick best when they are said aloud.
• When your child writes, circle one plain verb such as went or said and think of stronger ones together.
• Try the practice set below. It asks your child to find the verb in a sentence, pick out helping and main verbs, choose a modal verb that fits the meaning, decide whether a verb is action or linking, and write irregular past tenses. Then print a fresh verbs worksheet with an answer key.