27. After the primitive man had invented names for the things about him, probably his next step was to invent words of action. He very naturally wanted to tell what all of these various things did. So the words that tell what things do, the words of action, the words that assert, came into the language. A child follows much the same development. As you can readily observe, it first names the objects about it, then learns the words that tell what these objects do.
So the words that tell what things do, become the second class of words. These words we call verbs. The word verb, like the word noun, is taken into our language from the Latin. In Latin, the word verbum means the word; and the verb is practically the word in a sentence, for we cannot have a sentence without a verb. You may string a number of words together, but if you do not have an asserting word, you will not have a sentence.
Notice the following sentences:
- Men work.
- Flowers fade.
- Snow flies.
- Winds blow.
In these sentences, the words work, fade, flies and blow, are the words used to assert or say something of the subject, hence they are the verbs in these sentences.
28. Sometimes it takes more than one word to express the action or make the assertion. Notice the following sentences:
- The men are working.
- The boy has been studying.
In the first sentence it takes two words, are working, to make the assertion; in the second, three are required, has been studying. These groups of words are called verb phrases.
29. A verb is a word that asserts.
A verb phrase is a group of words used as a single verb.