What Are Examples Of Verbs? | 100+ Real Verb Examples

If a sentence feels flat, the verb is often why. Verbs carry what happens, when it happens, and how it feels to the reader. Swap one verb and the whole line can shift from dull to sharp.

This article gives you plenty of examples of verbs, grouped in ways that help with classwork, lesson planning, and daily writing. You’ll get quick tests for spotting verbs, lists you can reuse, and fixes for common verb errors.

Verb Examples At A Glance

Use this table when you want a fast sense of what kind of verb you’re dealing with.

Verb Type	What It Does	Quick Examples
Action verbs	Show a physical or mental action	run, write, lift, think, decide
Linking verbs	Connect the subject to a description or identity	be, seem, feel, become, remain
Helping verbs	Work with a main verb to form a verb phrase	am, is, are, was, were, have
Modal verbs	Add ability, permission, or likelihood	can, could, may, might, must
Transitive verbs	Take a direct object	build a shelf, read a note, paint a wall
Intransitive verbs	Do not take a direct object	sleep, arrive, laugh, vanish, wait
Stative verbs	Show a state, not an action	know, believe, own, prefer, belong
Phrasal verbs	Verb + particle that forms a new meaning	give up, turn on, find out, put off
Regular verbs	Past form often ends in -ed	walk/walked, clean/cleaned, jump/jumped
Irregular verbs	Past form changes in another way	go/went, take/took, eat/ate, see/saw
Finite verbs	Change to match the subject and time	walks, walked, will walk, is walking
Nonfinite forms	Do not change for subject	to walk, walking, walked

What Is A Verb In Plain Words

A verb is the part of a sentence that tells what happens or what is. It can show action (“The dog runs.”), a state (“The soup smells good.”), or a change (“The leaves turned brown.”). If you remove the verb, most sentences fall apart.

Many people first learn verbs as “action words.” That idea works for a lot of verbs, yet it misses verbs that link or label. Words like be, seem, and become don’t show motion, but they still act as verbs. If you want a formal definition, the Merriam-Webster definition of “verb” is a clean starting point.

How To Spot Verbs Fast

When you’re hunting for verbs, use short checks that match the line you have.

• Ask “What happened?” “The glass shattered.” The verb tells the event.
• Swap the time. “She calls” becomes “She called.” Words that change like this often act as verbs.
• Look for helpers.is, was, has, had, and will often pair with a main verb: “He hasfinished.”
• Try “not.” Many verbs take not or form a negative with a helper: “She did notagree.”

One sentence can hold more than one verb. “He ran and laughed” has two. “She willrun” has a helper plus a main verb.

What Are Examples Of Verbs? In Daily Writing

Below are verb lists you can plug into sentences right away. Scan them when you need a stronger word than do or go.

Use them in class, emails, and notes too.

Action Verbs For Movement

walk, run, sprint, crawl, climb, slide, swim, dive, stroll, march, hurry, rush, leap, hop, skip, roll, spin, twist, turn, glide

Action Verbs For Making And Fixing

build, craft, design, draw, paint, sew, stitch, carve, fix, repair, install, assemble, cook, bake, mix, measure, pack, sort, label, print

Mental Action Verbs

think, wonder, notice, learn, recall, guess, plan, choose, decide, compare, doubt, judge, expect, predict, solve, calculate, concentrate, question, notice again, reassess

Verbs For Speaking And Writing

say, tell, ask, answer, explain, reply, whisper, shout, argue, agree, promise, warn, admit, deny, write, type, draft, edit, quote, state

Verbs For Feeling And Sensing

feel, sense, hear, listen, see, watch, smell, taste, notice, enjoy, hate, love, fear, trust, worry, relax, grin, frown, sigh, laugh

When readers ask “what are examples of verbs?” they often want lists like these, plus a way to tell which verbs fit which job. The next sections sort that out.

Examples Of Verbs By Type And Meaning

Verbs aren’t one single bucket. Some verbs show action. Some link the subject to a word that describes it. Some act as helpers that shape time, voice, or mood.

Action Verbs

Action verbs show what the subject does. They can be physical (“She climbs the stairs.”) or mental (“He remembers the rule.”). Action verbs usually answer “What did the subject do?”

• Physical: lift, push, pull, carry, toss, kick, chase, grab, fold, sweep
• Mental: decide, doubt, notice, learn, weigh, prefer, guess, judge, reflect, choose

Linking Verbs

Linking verbs connect the subject to a description or identity. They don’t show the subject doing something to an object. They link the subject to a word that renames or describes it.

• Forms of be: am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being
• Other linking verbs: seem, appear, feel, look, sound, smell, taste, become, remain

A quick check: if the word after the verb describes the subject, you may have a linking verb. “The sky looks gray.” Gray describes sky.

Helping Verbs And Verb Phrases

Helping verbs work with a main verb. Together they form a verb phrase: “She hasfinished,” “They arewaiting,” “I willcall.”

Common helpers include forms of be, have, and do. Helpers also show up in negatives and questions: “Do you agree?” “I did not agree.”

Modal Verbs

Modal verbs are a small set of helpers that add meaning like ability, permission, or obligation. They stay the same form for each subject, and they pair with the base verb.

• Ability: can, could
• Permission: may, can
• Obligation: must, should
• Likelihood: might, may

Modal verbs don’t take -s endings. You write “She can swim,” not “She cans swim.”

Verb Forms You See Most Often

English verbs change form for time and grammar. Knowing the forms helps you spot verbs, pick the right one, and avoid tense slips.

Base Form

The base form is the dictionary form: walk, write, eat, be. You use it after modals and after to in an infinitive: “They will walk,” “They want to walk.”

-S Form

The -s form shows third-person singular in the present: “He walks,” “She writes,” “It fits.” Watch spelling: go becomes goes; try becomes tries.

-ING Form

The -ing form shows an ongoing action when paired with be: “She is writing.” It also works as a noun-like form in some roles: “Writing takes time.”

Past Form

Regular verbs often add -ed: walked, cleaned, played. Irregular verbs change in other ways: went, wrote, made, took. A quick practice trick is to keep a short list of irregular verbs you use a lot and review it now and then.

Past Participle

The past participle often pairs with have: “She has written,” “They had gone.” Many past participles match the past form for regular verbs (walked), while irregular verbs vary (gone, written, taken).

Time And Aspect Without The Jargon

You don’t need heavy grammar terms to use verb time well. You just need to match the verb form to what you mean: a routine, a completed event, an action in progress, or an action that happened before another.

The table below uses the verb walk so you can see patterns clearly.

Meaning	Form Pattern	Sample Sentence
Habit or routine	base / -s	I walk home after class.
Event in the past	past form	We walked to the library yesterday.
Action in progress now	am/is/are + -ing	She is walking to the bus stop.
Action in progress then	was/were + -ing	They were walking when it started to rain.
Finished before now	have/has + past participle	I have walked that route before.
Finished before then	had + past participle	We had walked two miles before the break.
Later-time plan	will + base	He will walk with us next week.
Planned intention	am/is/are going to + base	I am going to walk after dinner.
Ongoing up to now	have/has been + -ing	She has been walking since 6 a.m.
Ongoing up to then	had been + -ing	They had been walking for an hour.

Subject Verb Agreement That Sounds Natural

Subject-verb agreement means your verb matches your subject in number. The place where people trip most is the present tense with third-person singular: “He runs,” “She writes,” “It works.”

If you want a clear school-friendly rundown, Purdue’s Subject-Verb Agreement page lays out common patterns and tricky cases.

Agreement Quick Fixes

• Words between subject and verb do not change the verb. “The list of chores is long.”
• Collective nouns vary by meaning. “The team is winning” treats the group as one. “The team are arguing” treats members as separate (more common in British English).

Common Verb Mix Ups And Clean Fixes

Some verb pairs look alike but work in different ways. Learn the pattern once and you’ll stop second-guessing your sentences.

Lie And Lay

Lie does not take a direct object: “I lie down.” Lay takes an object: “I lay the book down.” Past forms add to the confusion: lie/lay/lain, lay/laid/laid.

Rise And Raise

Rise happens without an object: “Prices rise.” Raise takes an object: “They raise prices.”

Stronger Verb Choices In One Pass

Weak verbs aren’t wrong, but they can blur meaning. If your draft leans too hard on do, get, make, or go, try swapping in a verb that shows the action more clearly.

Swap “Get” With A Clearer Verb

• get better → heal, improve
• get ready → prepare, dress, pack
• get help → ask, call, request

Swap “Make” With A Clearer Verb

• make a decision → decide, choose
• make a plan → plan, map, schedule
• make a point → argue, claim, state

Editing Checklist For Verbs

When you revise, run this quick verb check. It takes a minute and catches a lot.

• Circle the verbs in each sentence. If a sentence has no verb, it’s a fragment.
• Check the main verb in each sentence. Ask if it says what you mean or if it feels vague.
• Check time consistency in a paragraph. If you start in past, stay there unless the meaning changes.
• Check agreement in present tense, especially with he/she/it.
• Scan for repeated weak verbs. Replace a few with sharper verbs, not all of them.

If you’re still stuck, ask yourself the core question again: what are examples of verbs? Then pick the verb type you need—action, linking, or helping—and choose a word that matches your sentence.