Summary: This post is about how to group verbs into different folders so that it is easier, if not funnier, for you to learn verbs in English, Business English in special. In a word, it is also a simplified version of verb groupings from the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (p.361-364).
Verbs (3): How many verbs are there (Part II)?
Last time we talked about the amount of verbs in Business English. And to make things easy for you, we put verbs into different folders. If you still remember, there are altogether six folders, the first three being Actions, Head & Mouth (H&M), and Brain. Now we will move on to the other three.
Folder 4 includes verbs that have to do with ‘why’. Why does something happen? What makes it happen? So, it is the Folder of REASON.
Folder 4:
| Our new invention | facilitates |
the process of quality control.
|
| This new app | enables |
the exchange of information in less than one second.
|
Other examples include cause, allow, and require.
Folder 5:
|
The company
|
developed | a chain of fast food shop. |
|
The world economy
|
began | to recover from regression. |
Verbs in folder 5 are verbs of CHANGE. They are on the move all the time, like a river, and the sea that it is hard for them to stop. Other examples include increase, decrease, reduce, and become.
Verbs in folder 6 are the youngest. They have nothing to do that they have no action whatsoever. They are BABY verbs.
Folder 6:
|
The problem
|
is |
out of control.
|
|
The outlook of the UK economy
|
seems |
gloomy.
|
So, to sum up the six folders are Action, Head and Mouth, Brain, Reason, Change, Baby, as shown in the following table.
| Action | e.g. run, open, work |
| Head & Mouth (H&M) | e.g. ask, annonce, write, discuss, suggest |
| Brain | e.g. think, decide, feel (think), guess |
| Reason | e.g. cause, permit, require |
| Change | e.g. develop, change, become |
| Baby | e.g. is, am, are, was, were, seem |
