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WERE-WORDS: Verbs can change when the moon is full... or when we have to do it to make sense.

Unfortunately, the title of this blog entry makes it sound a lot more exciting than it actually is, doesn't it? You were all thinking, "Whoopee! It's just like Twilight!" but it's not entirely. In some cases it is, though. Just like Jacob can transform into a wolf, but remain the same lovable Jacob on the inside, so can verbs. They can change, but still have the same kernel of meaning.

Verbs change in two major ways.
  1. Tense. Tense deals with when the action happens. The most basic tenses we use are past, present, and future, but there are many more tenses that we use every day orally that we may not necessarily know the name of when it comes to grammar class. That's okay. The most common way to make something past tense is to add an -ed to the end. To make it future, tack on "will." Some verbs make it more difficult than that though, so you always have to pay attention!
  2. Conjugation. The other way verbs change is to take into account the subject of the sentence and what kind of noun that is. It also takes into account who is talking. Conjugation changes the verb to singular or plural subject, and to first, second, or third person perspective.
Tense and verb conjugation come together in verb grids. Remember that the main components of a grid are always the same, shown below:

SingularPlural
FirstIWe
SecondYouYou all
ThirdHe, She, ItThey

This should be memorized. After that, the verb with the correct tense and conjugation should be added. For instance, "to shop" in future tense would look like this:


Singular
Plural
First
I will shop
We will shop
Second
You will shop
You all will shop
Third
He, She, It will shop
They will shop

Notice the word remains the same here. Again, this isn't always the case, so always pay attention.

There you have conjugation and tense. Not all that difficult. You can go ahead and read some Stephanie Meyers now. You know you want to.

Go Team Jacob!


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