Page 80 - Just Enough English Grammar Illustrated Book

Every sentence must have a subject and a verb.

Verbs can take many different forms. In English grammar,
there is a system for all the different verb forms you might want
to use when building sentences: The Four Principal Parts of
a Verb. It is a framework that will help you to correctly make or
identify the different forms of verbs you might need to express
your ideas.

All English verbs have four principal parts.

The following example shows the four principal parts of the verb
to go.
Examples:

Maria goes to the pool.
Maria went to the pool.
Maria is going to the pool.
Maria has gone to the pool.

The word principal in the term principal parts tells you that
these verb forms represent main forms common to all verbs.

We will first explain the form of each principal part. Once
you know their names and understand the form of each of the
principal parts here, it will be much easier to understand how
to use them with verb tenses in Part Two.

4.6 The First Principal Part: Base Form

Before we start, keep in mind what verbs can do. How do you
identify a verb? The following will help you remember the job
verbs perform in a sentence.

A verb is one or more words answering the question
“What is happening?” or “What did happen?”

Now, these are base forms of the verbs to write, to eat,
to swim, and to love.

write eat swim love

67