Thursday, May 19, 2016

3.4 Verb Phrase

A verb phrase is a group of words that includes a main verb and one or more helping verbs. If the sentence is a negation, the verb phrase also includes the word not. 

In some cases, a verb phrase is the whole predicate of the sentence. 

A verb phrase can have only one modal verb, and it always comes before the main verb. In a phrase where there's more than one auxiliary verb, they must follow a particular order:

modal/helping verb + have (to indicate a perfect tense) + be (to indicate a progressive) 

We'll start with Sylvia. She wants to end things with Don, and asks him to stop calling. The verb phrase in this sentence is Don't make me hang up. It follows the formula below:

            Auxiliary verb+negation+zero infinitive+pronoun+inseparable phrasal verb



In the image below, Joan is telling Richard that she won't stop working and become a trophy wife. She uses the sentence:
I can't just turn off that part of myself

In it, the verb phrase follows the formula modal + negation + separable phrasal verb
The second part, I would never dream of making you choose, is another example. The verb phrase would never dream follows the formula modal verb + negation + zero infinitive.
The rest of that sentence, the phrase of making you choose, opens the way for our next topic, verbals



Sources:http://grammar.about.com/
              https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org        

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