The Verb Active is called also Transitive, because the Action passeth over to the Object, or hath an effect upon some other thing: and the Verb Neuter is called Intransitive, because the effect is confined within the Agent, and doth not pass over to any object.
In English many Verbs are used both in an Active and a Neuter signification, the construction only determining of which kind they are.
In a Verb are to be considered the Person, the Number, the Time, and the Mode.
The Verb varies its endings to express, or agree with, the different Persons: as, “I love, Thou lovest, He loveth, or loves.”
So also to express the different Numbers of the same Person: as, “Thou lovest, ye love; He loveth, they love[18].”
So likewise to express different Times: as, “I love, I loved; I bear, I bore, I have born.”
The Mode is the Manner of representing the Action or Passion. When it is simply declared, or a question is asked concerning it, it is called the Indicative Mode; when it is bidden, it is called the Imperative; when it is subjoined as the end or design, or mentioned under a condition, a supposition, or the like, for the most part depending on some other Verb, and having a Conjunction before it, it is called the Subjunctive; when it is barely expressed without any limitation of person or number, it is called the Infinitive; and when it is expressed in a form in which it may be joined to a Noun as its quality or accident, partaking thereby of the nature of an Adjective, it is called the Participle.
But to express the Time of the Verb the English uses also the assistance of other Verbs, called therefore Auxiliaries, or Helpers; do, be, have, shall, will: as, “I do love, I did love; I am loved, I was loved; I have loved, I have been loved; I shall, or will, love, or be loved.”
The two principal auxiliaries, to have, and to be, are thus varied according to Person, Number, Time, and Mode.
Time is Present, Past, or Future.