The term noncount means that we cannot count these nouns with number words or make them plural. For example, the abstract noun luck cannot be counted: we cannot say X one luck, X two lucks, X three lucks. Also we cannot use the noun as a plural. | 8 Basic Verb Forms This chapter deals with the six basic verb forms that are used as the raw material to make up the tense system of English. The six basic verb forms are the base the present tense the past tense the infinitive the present participle and the past participle. The next chapter covers the formation and meaning of the tenses created from these six verb forms and from the modal auxiliary verbs. All verbs with the important exceptions of be and the modal auxiliary verbs can may must shall and will have all six of the forms mentioned above. The six forms are illustrated below by the regular verb walk and the irregular verb run VERB FORMS Base Present Past Infinitive Present Past form tense tense participle participle walk walk walks walked to walk walking walked run run runs ran to run running run We will now look at each of these six forms in detail seeing how each is formed. Base form The base form is the form of the verb that is entered into the dictionary. For example if you were to look up ran in the dictionary it would refer you to the base form run. Since the base form is identical in nearly all cases to the present tense it is difficult at first to see how one could tell the base form and present tense apart. Fortunately there is one verb in which the base form and present-tense forms are different the verb be 111 112 Verb Phrases BE Person I Present-tense form am you singular he she it are is we you plural they are are are We can use the fact that the base form of be is different from all its present-tense forms to determine when base forms are used. There are four places in which the base form is used 1 to form infinitives 2 after helping verbs when we talk about the future 3 in imperative sentences commands and 4 as part of the complement of some verbs. Infinitives All infinitives are formed by putting to in front of the base form. For example to have to go to talk to sing We can show that these verbs are indeed in the base forms by using the .
