what is verb conjugation? (with examples)

“verb conjugation“means to change a verb so that it works in your sentence. More specifically, it means changing a verb so your audience knows who is performing the action, when the action is happening, and whether the action is complete or in progress.

Let’s start by doing a verb conjugation with the verb“to paint“. The first thing to say is that“smart“is the base form of the verb“smart“. (The base form is the verb without“to“. It is the version of the verb that you would find in a dictionary.)

Let’s do a conjugation of the verb with“to paint“:

Jack has painted the fence. ✔️
(In this example, we have added“has“and“-ed“to the base form. That means we have changed, or“conjugated“as grammarians say, the verb“to paint“to fit into our sentence. That is an example of verb conjugation.)

Examinemos“has painted“a little more.

“Has“fits with“Jack.“It tells us the action was performed by one person.

The“-ed“ending tells us the action was in the past.

The“-ed“ending also tells us the action is completed.

There are many different variations. Let’s add another person:

Jack and Jill have painted the fence. ✔️
(To make this sentence work, we had to change“has“to“have“so it fits with“Jack and Jill.“The word“have“tells our audience that the action was performed by more than one person.)

Let’s make some more changes:

Jack and Jill are painting the fence. ✔️
(This time, we have added“are“and“-ing“to the base form.)

Examinemos“they are painting“a little more.

“Are“fits with“Jack and Jill.“It tells us the action was performed by more than one person.

“Are“also tells us the action is in the present.

The“-ing“ending tells the action is ongoing.

That’s it. We have covered the main idea of verb conjugation. Hopefully, what you say is to get an idea of the kind of information that the verb conjugation conveys. However, as you might have guessed, verb conjugation provides a lot more information than we’ve mentioned so far, and that’s what we’ll cover next.

The remainder of this page will provide an overview and provide links to the various topics related to verb conjugation. (I know it sounds complicated, but persevere. Learn the topics that fit under the“umbrella“of verb conjugation is the key to deciphering a language, any language).

More about Verb Conjugation

Verb conjugation can tell us six things about a verb:

Who or what is performing the action.
If the action is performed by one or more than one.
When the action is happening.
Whether the action is in progress or completed.
If the action is performed by or for the subject.
Whether the action is wishful or hypothetical, a statement or a command.

NB: In other languages, the verb conjugation can also tell us about the gender of the person or thing doing the action. In English, the gender does not affect the verb.

(1) Verb Conjugation Tells Us Who or What Is Performing the Action.

The subject of a verb tells us who or what is doing the action. In these two examples, the subjects are in bold:

I am painting the fence. ✔️
You are painting the fence. ✔️
Jack is painting the fence. ✔️

The subject governs the verb. This means that the verb must change to match the subject.

Each topic fits into one of three categories:

First Person. This is the person or people speaking (i.e.,“I“or“we“).
Second Person. This is the person or people being addressed (i.e.,“you“).
Third Person. This is everybody else. It is the person or people neither speaking nor being addressed (i.e.,“he,““she,““it,““they,“or any noun).

These are called categories of people.

Since a subject can be singular or plural, there are six categories in total. It is the category of the subject that governs the verb. This table shows the six categories and how the verb is conjugated“to be“and the verb“to paint“for each in the present tense.

Person Category	Pronoun or Noun	“to be“	“to paint“
First Person Singular	I	am	paint
Second Person Singular	you	are	paint
Third Person Singular	he / she / it dog, alien (or any other singular noun)	is	paints
First Person Plural	we	are	paint
Second Person Plural	you	are	paint
Third Person Plural	they dogs, aliens (or any other plural noun)	are	paint

(2) Verb Conjugation Tells Us Whether the Action Is Performed by One or More Than One.

Como acabamos de cubrir, el sujeto de un verbo nos dice si la acción es realizada por una persona o cosa o por más de una. En gramática, esto se llama número. En inglés, hay dos categorías de números: singular y plural.

In the last section, we said that the subject of a verb always fits into one of six categories. There are three categories of persons (first person, second person, and third person) and two categories of numbers, giving us six categories in total (first person singular, second person singular, third person singular, first person plural, second person plural and third person). plural person).

So now we can say that the person and number of a subject determine how a verb is conjugated.

(3) Verb Conjugation Tells Us When the Action Is Happening.

The tense of a verb tells us when the action is happening. An action can be in the past, present or future. As we will see in the next section on aspect, there are four more ways to describe an action. (“In progress“y“filled“are two of those four forms). This means there are 12 beats in total.

Here is the complete list of the 12 tenses in English, showing how the verbs are conjugated“to go“y“to laugh“for each time. (The table includes a link to a lesson for each tense, where there is a detailed explanation, a quiz, and an explanatory video.)

The 4 Past Tenses	Example 1	Example 2
simple past tense	I went	She laughed
past progressive tense	I was going	She was laughing
past perfect tense	I had gone	She had laughed
past perfect progressive tense	I had been going	She had been laughing
The 4 Present Tenses	Example 1	Example 2
simple present tense	I go	She laugh
present progressive tense	I am going	She is laughing
present perfect tense	I have gone	She has laughed
present perfect progressive tense	I have been going	She has been laughing
The 4 Future Tenses	Example 1	Example 2
simple future tense	I will go	She will laugh
future progressive tense	I will be going	She will be laughing
future perfect tense	I will have gone	She will have laughed
future perfect progressive tense	I will have been going	She will have been laughing

(4) Verb Conjugation Tells Us Whether the Action Is Ongoing or Completed.

El aspecto de un verbo nos dice si la acción está en curso o completa. De hecho, hay un poco más en el aspecto que eso. Hay cuatro aspectos:

Aspect	Use	Example
Simple Aspect (also called the indefinite aspect)	Expresses a fact	John fished in the sea.
Perfect Aspect (also called the complete aspect)	Expresses a completed action	John had caught two mackerel before the seals arrived.
Progressive Aspect (also called the continuing aspect)	Expresses an ongoing action	John was fishing when the seals arrived.
Perfect Progressive Aspect	Expresses the end of an ongoing action	John had been fishing successfully before the seals arrived.

El aspecto es parte del tiempo. Hay tres tiempos principales: pasado, presente y futuro. Como cada uno tiene los cuatro aspectos que se muestran arriba, hay 12 tiempos en total. Aquí hay enlaces a videos que explican los tres tiempos principales y sus cuatro aspectos:

(5) Verb Conjugation Tells Us Whether the Action Is Done by or to the Subject.

The voice of a verb tells us if the action is performed by or for the subject. There are two possibilities:

Voice	Use	Examples
The Active Voice	Shows a verb whose subject performs the action of the verb	The dog ate our turkey. I will pass the law to protect the vulnerable.
The Passive Voice	Shows a verb whose subject has the action of the verb done to it	Our turkey was eaten by the dog. The law will be passed to protect the vulnerable.

Verb Conjugation Tells Whether the Action Is a Wish or Hypothetical, a Statement, or an Order.

El modo de un verbo nos dice si la acción es un deseo o hipotético, una afirmación o pregunta, o una orden.

There are three moods in English:

Mood	Use	Examples
The Indicative Mood	States a fact or asks a question	The sky is blue. Why is the sky blue?
The Imperative Mood	Expresses an order	Make your bed. Go away!
The Subjunctive Mood	Shows a wish, a suggestion, a demand, or hypothetical situation	I wish it were true. I demand he be released.

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