Attributes of the Verb

Attributes of the Verb. The conjugated verb has six grammatical attributes: person, number, tense, mood, voice, aspect.

Aspect. Verbal aspect refers to how the action (condition, etc.) is to be viewed as an action (condition, etc.), i.e., whether it is to be regarded as a simple act, an ongoing act or a completed act. In English “I see” (simple aspect) expresses the act of seeing as a simple fact; “I am seeing” (progressive aspect) represents the action as continuous and ongoing; “I have seen” (perfect aspect) represents the present situation as the result of past action. Aspect is to be distinguished from tense. “I see” is the simple aspect of the present tense; “I am seeing” is the progressive aspect of the present tense; “I saw” is the simple aspect of the past tense; “I was seeing” is the progressive aspect of the past tense; “I have seen” is the perfect aspect of the present tense; “I have been seeing” is the present in the perfect and progressive aspect; “I had seen” is the past in the perfect aspect, the progressive aspect of which would be “I had been seeing”. Note also that English uses an emphatic form of the verb – as in “I did see it!” – though this form has been appropriated also for the expression of negation and interrogation: “I do not see” and “Do you see?”

Mood. The mood of the verb expresses the mode or manner of expression, i.e., how the author of the statement intends the statement to be taken. (Mood is from Latin modus, “manner”, and is not the same word as Teutonic ‘mood’, as in “She’s in a bad mood”.) The verb has three moods – indicative, imperative and subjunctive.

Imperative. The imperative indicates that the author of the statement intends the statement to be understood as a command. In English the imperative consists of the bare present stem of the verb placed first in the sentence, without a pronoun subject. The subject of the imperative is the second grammatical person (i.e. “you, understood”): “Do it now!” The force of the imperative for the first or third persons may be expressed periphrastically by the use of “let” with a complementary infinitive: “Let’s go”; “Let them eat cake”. Note that the object form of the pronoun is used as the “subject” of the complementary infinitive (i.e., “Let’s” = “Let us”).

Indicative. The indicative mood is the form of the verb most often in use. It represents the statement as uncolored by the subjective attitude of the author; it is meant to be taken as an objective statement (or inquiry) of fact. “Birds fly”; “Girls dance”; “Why is the sky blue?”, etc.

Subjunctive. The subjunctive is used to express something that exists as a wish, hope or opinion (or doubt) in the mind of the author. The English subjunctive is distinctive as a unique form only in certain set expressions and idioms, although it is not as moribund as it is often made out to be. Wish: “If only it were raining!”; “The Devil take him!”. Hope: “Long live the king!” Opinion: “Be that as it may … ”; “Come next Sunday …” (= “When next Sunday has come …”). More generally, the subjunctive is used in contrary-to-fact conditions: “If I were you, I would …” (present contrary to fact); “If I had been there I would have …” (past contrary to fact).

Number. Grammatical number refers to whether the subject of the verb is singular or plural: “He is a boy; they are girls”.

Person. Grammatical person refers to whether the subject is first person (“I” or “we”), second person (“you”) or third person (“he”, “she”, “it”, “they”). (Refer to Personal Pronouns, under Fābula 11 above.) In English, the conjugation of the verb requires the presence of a personal pronoun almost always for the first and second persons, and also for the third person whenever the subject is not otherwise expressed by a noun or substantive.

Tense denotes the place in time of the action (condition, state of being, etc.) represented by the verb. English has three tenses: present, past and future. Tense is to be distinguished from aspect – e.g., “I have tasted this” is present tense, but of perfect aspect.

Voice denotes whether the subject of the statement is the author of the action or whether he has the action done to him. When the subject acts, the voice is said to be active; when acted upon, it is said to be passive: “The boy hits the ball” (active); “The ball is hit by the boy” (passive). Note that only transitive verbs may be said to have voice, since intransitives may not generally be passive.