Meet Donna Smith!

Today Spinning Pearls is delighted to host a stop in Donna Smith's Jazmine Montgomery tour.

Hi Donna- thanks for visiting!

Hi Sally Thank you for inviting me along today to Spinning Pearls. 

I thought today we could enjoy a chat somewhat a little different.  When am I talking to children about writing,  I am often asked about Verbs. So, today I thought I might talk about Verbs. 

Understanding Verbs:

Verbs are so exciting as they not only describe a type of action but they also tell us when things are happening in the text. These include tense (past, present and future tense). A verb is also defined as a state of being. Every sentence must have a verb. Identifying the verb will give the reader greater understanding of the sentence.

The cat ate the rat. In this example ‘ate‘ is the verb as it is the action word within the sentence. In the sentence The monkey is smart there is no action word, however there is a ‘state of being’ which is ‘is‘. Therefore ‘is‘ is the verb of this sentence. Sometimes, this can be a little tricky.  You can always ask your teacher for help if you are unsure.

Sometimes the verb can be changed by adding an ending. This occurs with Tense Verbs. Tense verbs have an ending added to the base verb to show the reader when things occur in the text. Such as past, present and future. The most common endings include:

1) ing – This is added to the verb to show the reader the text is ‘present’ tense. When using this type of tense verb, changing the base word always needs a little helper such as words like: were, was, are, is.

For example:

Timmy was kicking the ball.

Jazmine is going to music lessons.

Ben's kindy friends are reading books.

In each of these examples the base verb  has been changed to include ing (reading) and a helper has been included (are).

2) es – This is the easiest to remember. ‘es‘ is added to a base verb which ends in ‘y‘. The ‘y‘ is dropped in most cases and ‘i’ is added, then ‘es‘ becomes the new ending.

For example:

Fly becomes flies

Spy becomes spies

Cry becomes cries

Try becomes tries

3) s – is added to a base verb to show present tense IF the subject in the sentence is a single person/ thing. ‘S’ is also added when text is written in the third person.

For example:

Timmy eats pears.

Jazmine swims fast.

Benjamin likes trucks.

Sometimes the word may also change completely such as:

I teach poetry to I taught poetry. In this example teach becomes taught – the word changes completely

I hope Sally  this provides your readers some insight to what Verbs are and how they are used.   I will pop by for a visit too. 

Regards,

Donna

Thank YOU Donna! 

Donna is the author of Jazmine Montgomery: Toy Detective. For more information, visit http://jellibeanzbooks.wordpress.com/tag/jazmine-montgomery-toy-detective/

If you have missed any tour stops so far, you can catch up on the following links:

Boomerang Books – Dimity Powell
http://blog.boomerangbooks.com.au/doodles-and-drafts-searching-for-magic-with-donna-smith-and-jazmine-montgomery-the-magic-glasses-blog-tour/2013/09

Helen Ross Writes blog – Helen Ross

http://misshelenwrites.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/jazmine-montgomery-toy-detective-blog-tour/

Di Bates
http://diannedibates.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/welcome-to-literacy-ladder-by.html

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