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Okay, my kid goes to school part-time in the morning. Part of his homework tonight is to memorize the "state of being verbs." We've been through all of FLLs and so he knows that they are "am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been." Apparently this is wrong. The list is much larger and "being" and "been" are not state of being verbs after all but part of verb phrases "are being" and "would have been." Also, turns out verbs like "smell, touch, feel" are also state of being verbs.

 

Now, please note that most of what I just wrote was me being sarcastic. I know that there are only 8 state of being verbs (others are helping and linking verbs and others are simply action verbs), right??????? I'm not sure how to address this because I don't particularly want him memorizing a list of verbs that purport to be state of being verbs (oh, and did I mention the hand-out also explains that these state of being verbs are also sometimes known as linking verbs, aurgh!), but I also don't want him to get a bad grade.

 

Can anyone tell me if there are in fact more than 8 state of being verbs (and if not, what about "become") and I'd love to know what the hive would do about this situation.

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I'm so outta my league with this question but I thought the To Be verb was a linking verb and state of being verbs were called copular verbs?

A copula (also spelled copular) verb is a verb that connects the subject to the complement. They are sometimes called linking verbs.

 

EG: That food smells nice.

 

Someone will come along and state for sure. :D

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Okay, my kid goes to school part-time in the morning. Part of his homework tonight is to memorize the "state of being verbs." We've been through all of FLLs and so he knows that they are "am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been." Apparently this is wrong. The list is much larger and "being" and "been" are not state of being verbs after all but part of verb phrases "are being" and "would have been." Also, turns out verbs like "smell, touch, feel" are also state of being verbs.

 

Now, please note that most of what I just wrote was me being sarcastic. I know that there are only 8 state of being verbs (others are helping and linking verbs and others are simply action verbs), right??????? I'm not sure how to address this because I don't particularly want him memorizing a list of verbs that purport to be state of being verbs (oh, and did I mention the hand-out also explains that these state of being verbs are also sometimes known as linking verbs, aurgh!), but I also don't want him to get a bad grade.

 

Can anyone tell me if there are in fact more than 8 state of being verbs (and if not, what about "become") and I'd love to know what the hive would do about this situation.

 

What Snickerdoodle posted is interesting to me. I remember reading about the term "copula" in Traditional Logic and thinking, "Oh, that just means a state of being or linking verb." The idea is that it connects the subject to a predicate adjective or predicate noun/pronoun. It's showing what condition of "being" the subject is in. So, I can see how those other words would be considered "being" verbs.

 

My son has been through R&S grammar 8 so far, and R&S does add to the list: taste, feel, smell, sound, look, appear, grow, seem, stay, become, remain, turn, prove. To me, those words can be used to show being. Consider the following:

 

I feel the kitten. (subject, action verb, direct object)

I feel tired. (subject, being verb, predicate adjective) My "state of being" in this sentence is tiredness.

 

Try those other verbs with the two sentence patterns I laid out.

 

Touch? I'm trying to figure out why that would be considered a state of being verb...

 

Can you post the entire list he is to memorize? I am curious now.

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Being verbs:

am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being

 

Common helping verbs:

am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being

have, has, had

do, does, did

may, might, must

can, could, shall, should, will would

 

Linking Verbs

am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being

look, feel, taste, smell, sound, seem, appear, grow, become, remain, stay

 

However, if you were to conjugate the verb "to be" you get this:

 

(Present Tense)

Singular:

I am

You are

He, she, it is

 

Plural:

We are

You are

They are

 

(Past Tense)

Singular

I was

You were

He, she, it was

 

Plural

We were

You were

They were

 

As you can see, there is no use of been or being in this list. Maybe that's what they're talking about?

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However, if you were to conjugate the verb "to be" you get this:

 

(Present Tense)

Singular:

I am

You are

He, she, it is

 

Plural:

We are

You are

They are

 

(Past Tense)

Singular

I was

You were

He, she, it was

 

Plural

We were

You were

They were

 

As you can see, there is no use of been or being in this list. Maybe that's what they're talking about?

 

If they are, they would be wrong, I think. The verb "to be" does use "been" and "being" in different tenses (although at this late-hour moment I forget what they are called).

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R&S does add to the list: taste, feel, smell, sound, look, appear, grow, seem, stay, become, remain, turn, prove. To me, those words can be used to show being.

 

:iagree: R&S explains that you can test to see if those words (taste, feel, etc.) are used as state of being verbs in a sentence by replacing them with a form of the verb "to be."

 

For example,

 

"The cake tastes delicious." => "The cake is delicious." Tastes in that sentence is a state of being verb.

 

"The mouse tastes the cheese." ≠ "The mouse is cheese." Tastes in that sentence is not a state of being verb.

 

"Be," "been" and "being" are used when the verb "to be" is conjugated in the future tense (I will be, you will be, he will be,...), perfect tenses (I have been, you have been, he has been,...), and progressive forms (I am being silly, you are being, ...) "Will be," "have/has been," "am being," etc. are verb phrases, but "be," "been," and "being" are the main verbs in those verb phrases, so I would think they would be included in any list of state of being verbs. The helping verbs "will," "have," etc would not be included in a list of state of being verbs because they are just helping verbs.

Edited by yvonne
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This.

 

:iagree: R&S explains that you can test to see if those words (taste, feel, etc.) are used as state of being verbs in a sentence by replacing them with a form of the verb "to be."

 

For example,

 

"The cake tastes delicious." => "The cake is delicious." Tastes in that sentence is a state of being verb.

 

"The mouse tastes the cheese." ≠ "The mouse is cheese." Tastes in that sentence is not a state of being verb.

 

"Be," "been" and "being" are used when the verb "to be" is conjugated in the future tense (I will be, you will be, he will be,...), perfect tenses (I have been, you have been, he has been,...), and progressive forms (I am being silly, you are being, ...) "Will be," "have/has been," "am being," etc. are verb phrases, but "be," "been," and "being" are the main verbs in those verb phrases, so I would think they would be included in any list of state of being verbs. The helping verbs "will," "have," etc would not be included in a list of state of being verbs because they are just helping verbs.

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