Parsing Verbs

Let us parse the verb in the following sentence:

Robert caught a mouse in a trap.

Caught is a verb.

The principal parts are catch, caught, caught.

It is irregular, transitive, active voice, indicative mode, past tense, third person, singular number, to agree with the subject, Robert.

We see from the above that to parse a verb is to tell:

1. The principal parts.

2. Whether it is regular or irregular.

3. Whether it is transitive or intransitive.

4. The voice.

5. The mode.

6. The tense.

7. The person.

8. The number.

9. The subject with which it agrees.

Parse the verbs in the following sentences:

1. The boy sold his papers before noon.

2. The train left the station ten minutes before the party arrived.

3. Any nation, however small, fighting for freedom, should receive the sympathy of liberty loving people everywhere.

4. Laugh, and the world laughs with you;

Weep, and you weep alone; For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own.

5. We were assured that the men would return to their homes in a few days.

6. The* woman stole behind Phoebe, and peeped from the passage-way into the shop, to note how she would manage her undertaking.

7. "Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,

But spare your country's flag," she said.

8. Rejoice, and men will seek you;

Grieve, and they turn to go; They want full measure of all your pleasure, But they do not need your woe.

9. Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,

As the swift seasons roll;

Leave thy low-vaulted past; Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,

Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea.

Write sentences in which the verb changes its form to agree with its subject in person and number. Write sentences in the indicative mode; in which the verb is in the present perfect tense; in which it is in the past perfect tense; in which it is in the future perfect tense.

Write sentences showing the use of the infinitive.

Write sentences using the present participle; others using the past participle.

Write sentences in the subjunctive mode. Tell why you think this is the correct mode to use in each case.