How to IDENTIFY the main VERB in a sentence STEP BY STEP

Verbs are an essential part of any sentence. Through them we can express actions carried out by a subject. Verbs can be divided into different types taking into account their characteristics. In this case, in this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to focus on how to identify the main verb in a sentence. Knowing which is the verb that performs this function within any sentence will be essential to be able to carry out a complete analysis of it.

First of all, and to know how to identify a main verb in a sentence, it will be necessary to know what a verb is. So we can point out that verbs are words. These words are meant to express an action performed by the subject.

They are also used when you want to explain a process or state of the agent of the sentence. The verb always functions as the nucleus of the verbal predicate and must necessarily agree with the subject in number and person. On the other hand also may have add-ons that will help us to add more information about the action carried out and how it is being carried out.

There are different types of verbs in Spanish that is worth knowing to be able to correctly analyze a sentence.

Once we have defined what the verbs are, we can know what the main verbs and the auxiliaries. This will help us to easily recognize them in a sentence. In this way we can identify them clearly within a statement.

In the first place we must define what a main verb is, as we have already pointed out previously, a verb is the nucleus of a verbal predicate. If the sentence only contains one, it is very easy to identify since it will always be the one that performs the action of the subject. Thus, let's see a few examples in which the verb is identified as the core of the phrase and therefore, as the main one.

• On Monday we went to the beach.
• The dog she has hunger.
• Television this spoiled.
• U.S We travel always by bus.
• Angela known well that area of ​​the city.

Marked in bold you will see the main verbs of these simple sentences. As you can see, it is easy to know what they are and quickly identify them as the nucleus of the verb phrase. The main problem to know which is the main verb is when in the same sentence we find two or more verbs. How will we know here which of the verbs is the main one?

The first thing we should know is that the main verb will be the one that provides meaning to the sentence, that is, what the subject does. For its part, the auxiliary verb will always provide additional information to the sentence that will have to do with the tense of the verb.

In other words, the main verb serves to provide content to the action and meaning to the sentence. Because this is its main characteristic, it will be able to appear alone or accompanied by an auxiliary. In the event that the verb appears alone, it must always be conjugating and agreed in time and person with the subject.

How to identify a compound verb

In the event that we have a Compound time, we will see that this always appears made up of a main verb that always appears in participleFor its part, the verb that appears conjugated will be the auxiliary. In order to better understand how a verb is distinguished between main and auxiliary, we are going to see a few examples:

• Today I've gone to see your father at the hospital.
• Mary has eaten pasta and steak.
• Not his father has come still.
• Boat has arrived very late.

In these cases we can see how the auxiliary verb of the sentence is conjugated and agrees in time and person with the subject who performs the action. For its part, the main verb, as we have already pointed out, always appears as a participle. Taking into account the phrases indicated above:

• The ship has been late: the subject of this sentence is Boat, he will be the one who performs the action, therefore we see that the phrase has a compound verb has arrived. This has two verbs, the verb to have conjugated with the subject in tense and person and the verb to get in participle. Therefore, ha will be the auxiliary verb and arrived will be the main one in this sentence.

We already know that the main verbs are those that indicate which is the main action performed by the subject. Let's see it with an example to be able to understand it better with this sentence:

Maria eats every day at her mother's house.

First of all we must find where you are the verb of the sentence. Thus we see that in the prayer that we have in front of us this will be eat Why do we know? because it is an action. Now we must check if this verb is the main one or not. To do this we must look at the subject of it, which in this case is Mary.

As in this case we find a simple verb we must check that this agrees on gender and number with Mary which is the subject. In this case the verb appears in the third person of the sigular, therefore it agrees with María. Thus we can point out that eat is he core of the verb phrase made up of eats every day at her mother's house and therefore the main verb of prayer.

In the event that we find a compound sentence we must pay attention to verbs that we are in them. So we are going to pay attention to the following cases:

• Verb in personal form and verb in impersonal form: when the sentence is composed of a personal verb and another impersonal, the main verb will always be the one found personally.
• Both verbs are in personal form: in these cases we must look at which of the two verbs that appears in indicative.
• If we find two verbs in personal form in the indicative and one of them preceded by a nexus: this situation can also occur when we are analyzing a sentence. In this case, the main verb will be the one that is not preceded by any nexus.

Let's see some examples of each of the cases that we have indicated above:

• Wishdrink a cup of chocolate, thank you. In this case we find two verbs, the first of them is To wish and the second drink, in this case we find that the main verb will be wish.
• Not me surprise what paint as well. Here we see that the personal form is surprise since it is a personal form in the indicative.
• I prefer that you do your homework. In this case we find that the main verb is prefer, that is, the verb that appears in a personal way not preceded by any particle.

To identify in a sentence which is the main verb and the auxiliary verb, it will only be necessary to see which of the appears is the one who performs the action of the verb and how rope in person and time with the subject, as long as it is a verb simple. In the event that this is compound, you should note that the auxiliary will always be the one that will agree with the subject and the main will appear in the participle.