Finite verbs and non-finite verbs are two broad categories of verbs. Look at these two groups of sentences.
Group A Group B
I like to sing songs. We like to sing songs. You like to sing songs. He likes to sing songs. She likes to sing songs. Anita likes to sing songs. They like to sing songs.
I am fond of eating mangoes. We are fond of eating mangoes. You are fond of eating mangoes. He is fond of eating mangoes. She is fond of eating mangoes. Antony is fond of eating mangoes.
They are fond of eating mangoes.
In sentences in Group A, we have the verbs 'like' and 'sing.' The verb 'like' takes on different forms (like, likes) in the six sentences in the group. The verb 'sing' has the same unchangeable form 'to sing' in all the sentences. So, in group 1, we have one verb which changes and the other which does not change.
In the sentences in Group B, we have a similar thing. We have the verb 'be' in different forms (am, is, are) and the unchangeable verb form 'eating' of the verb 'eat.' So in group 2, we have again one changing verb and the other an unchanging verb.
What are Finite Verbs?
The verb 'like' in group A and the verb 'be' in group B are verbs which change. The reason these verbs change their forms must surely be because of the words I, we, you, he, she, Anita, they... since it is clear that all other words within the same group of sentences are the same. These verbs which change according to words (I, we, you, he, she, Anita, and they,) are called Finite Verbs. The word 'finite' means 'limited.' Since the words (I, we, you, he, etc.,) can make these verbs change, the power of these verbs must be limited indeed!
What are Non-finite Verbs?
They are verbs which do not change. In group A above, the verb 'to sing’ and in group B, the verb 'eating' are non-finite verbs of two different types. No word in a sentence can impose a change on these verbs. I suppose, that is why we call them non-finite, which means 'not limited' by other words in a sentence.
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Are Finite Verbs Necessary?
Yes. Every sentence in English needs such a verb. It is an essential part of a sentence. You may find sentences in which a noun or a pronoun is missing (because it's hidden), but you don't usually find a sentence in which a finite verb is missing.
What are their types?
They may be transitive, intransitive or linking. In a sentence you can have any one of these types.
1. Transitive 2. Intransitive 3. Linking What is there to learn about them?
About these verbs we need to understand important things like: ▪ agreement with the subject;
▪ tense; ▪ aspect; ▪ voice; and ▪ mood.
We can think of these as properties of the verb or as "rules" which finite verbs obey. They are obedient and reliable verbs! Non-finite verbs are the wayward ones. Though they are born in the verb family, the non-finites often act like nouns, and sometimes like adjectives or adverbs.
1. Transitive Verb
A transitive verb is a type of finite verb. A finite verb is considered transitive or intransitive depending upon its relationship with some other words in the sentence. Another way of saying this is that the division into transitive and intransitive is based on syntax.
What is a transitive verb?
Look at these sentences. 1. He met her yesterday. 2. She wrote a story last year. 3. Rust destroys iron.
In these sentences, the verbs are the words: met, wrote and destroys. In each sentence, you ask the question, 'met whom/what?' You will get the answers as follows:
▪ sentence 1 — question: met whom? — answer: her ▪ sentence 2 — question: wrote what? — answer: story ▪ sentence 3 — question: destroys what? — answer: iron
(Note that we use whom in the questions for human beings and what for things and also for animals.)The words her, story and iron in the sentences above are called objects in grammar.
A transitive verb is, therefore, a verb which has an object. What is an object?
An object, we may say, is the aim or purpose or destination or target of a verb's action. In our three example-sentences above, the verbs met, wrote and destroys have the words her, story and iron as their targets. These targets are called objects. With a transitive verb, we can expect these objects.
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Why do we use the word 'transitive'?
We call these verbs 'transitive' because these verbs have the property of transitivity.
What is transitivity? To transit means to pass through. Each of the verbs met, wrote and
destroys in our examples has its action conveyed (carried) to the object. We might also say that
the action begins with the subject (he, she, rust in our sentences) and passes through the verb to the object.
This property of the verb is transitivity. Hence we call these verbs transitive. Understanding these verbs in this way helps us to remember what they are.
Here's a list of transitive verbs.
eat, drink, read, write, play, see, hear, answer, buy, find, love, like, understand, catch, bring, sing, meet, give, take, get, forget, buy, sell, pay, help.
Here are some of these verbs used in sentences.
Sentence verb object
(a) The teacher answered the question. answered question (b) My friend bought a house. bought house (c) The children found the money. found money (d) Most Indians love cricket. love cricket
(e) Children like football. like football
2. Intransitive Verb
What is an intransitive verb?
Simple, I suppose. It is a verb which is not transitive—a verb which does not take an object. Here are some examples along with some sentences.
walk, jump, sleep, sit, lie, stand, weep, kneel, fall, fly, flow, remain, die, belong, wait, come, go. (a) We walk to the railway station.
(b) The children jump with joy. (c) Babies sleep for many hours. (d) My brother stood there. (e) Jesus wept.
Some Exceptions
You will often find transitive verbs used intransitively, i.e. without an object. ▪ They are eating.
▪ We play in the evening. ▪ I understand.
At rare times intransitive verbs are used transitively.
▪ How did you cover all that distance? We walked it. ('walked' has the object 'it' in this sentence)
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Besides transitive and intransitive verbs, we have linking verbs in the finite verbs family.
3. Linking Verbs
Linking Verbs คือกริยารูปแบบหนึ่งในภาษาอังกฤษที่ท าหน้าที่ Link หรือว่าเชื่อมค านามหรือประธานของประโยคที่อยู่ด้านหน้าเพื่ บอก หรือขยาย ประธานที่อยู่ด้านหน้าตัวอย่างของ Linking verbs ได้แ่่ก่
Example:
1. to appear ปรากฏ 2. to get ได้รับ 3. to prove พิสูจน์ 4. to sound เสียง 5. to be เป็น อยู่ คือ 6. to go ไป 7. to remain ยังคง 8. to stay พัก 9. to become กลายเป็น 10. to grow เติบโต 11. to seem ดูเหมือน 12. to taste ชิม
13. to feel รู้สึก 14. to look ดู คล้าย 15. to smell กลิ่น 16. to turn หมุน พลิก เลี้ยว
USE การใช้
The linking verbs above are often followed by adjectives instead of adverbs. In such situations, the adjective describes the subject of the sentence rather than the verb. Study the examples below to learn the difference.
กริยา Linking verb ด้านบนมักจะตามด้วย Adjective แทนที่จะเป็น Adverb ในบางสถานการณ์ ค าคุณศัพท์ หรือว่า adjective จะ อธิบายหรือขยายประธานของประโยคมากกว่าที่จะเป็นค ากริยา ลองดูตัวอย่างประโยคเพื่อความเข้าใจ
Example:
▪ Mary seemed sad. Correct ถูกต้องเพราะ Linking verb "seemed" ตามด้วยค า Adj. คือ sad
▪ Mary seemed sadly. Not Correct ไม่ถูกต้องเพราะ Linking verb "seemed" ตามด้วยค า Adv. คือ sadly ▪ The cake tastes good. Correct ถูกต้องเพราะ Linking verb "tastes" ตามด้วยค า Adj. คือ good
▪ The cake tastes well. Not Correct ไม่ถูกต้องเพราะ Linking verb "tastes" ตามด้วยค า Adv. คือ well ▪ The train is slow. Correct เหตุผลเดียวกัน หลัง is เป็น Adj. คือ slow
▪ The train is slowly. Not Correct เหตุผลเดียวกัน คือหลัง is เป็น Adv. คือ slowly ▪ James grew tired. Correct
▪ Sarah remained calm. Correct
IMPORTANT สิ่งส าคัญ
The verbs in the list above are not always used as linking verbs. Compare the examples below. ค ากริยาด้านบนไม่ได้มีความหมายเป็น Linking verb เสมอไป จะต้องดูรูปประโยคประกอบด้วย
▪ Sally grew angry. "Angry" describes Sally. In this sentence, "to grow" is being used as a linking verb meaning "to become."
34 ▪ The plant grew
quickly.
"Quickly" does not describe the plant, it describes the manner in which it grows. In this sentence, "to grow" is not being used as a linking verb.
ส าหรับประโยคนี้ grew เป็นกริยาหลักของประโยค โดยสังเกตค าที่ตามหลังจะเป็น Adv ที่มาขยาย กริยาหลัก คือ เติบโตอย่างรวดเร็ว
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