singular verb and plural verb

[kite]

Hi,
I have been confused about singular verbs and plural verbs. Would you please help me to understand it correctly?
Eg: have, has, is, are, cut, cuts etc. From these verbs, which are single verbs and which are plural verbs called?

Thanks.

 

[Barb_D]

kite, this is very basic English.
You need to know the forms of "to be" "to have" and "to do" thoroughly.
I am
You are
He is
We are
You are
They are

I have
You have
She has
We have
You have
They have

I do
You do
It does
We do
You do
They do

With regular verbs, the third person singular has an S. The rest do not.

I, you, we, they cut
He cuts

I, you, we, they sneeze
She sneeze

I, you, we, they yell
He yells

And so on.

Don't try to learn any more about tenses until you understand this backwards and forwards.

 

[kite]

Thanks Barb. Sorry for being late. I know every part you wrote here. I actually wanted to know just their names. I mean names of the verbs or how they should be called. Let's take it easily. If a verb that takes "s", is it called singular verb; eg: leaves, goes, eats? and if a verb that does not take "s", is it called plural verb; leave, go, eat? This is how I have understood in this case.

Thanks.

 

[MikeNewYork]

It all depends on "person". Verbs that tale an "s" are third person singular (he, she it). Other verbs that don't take an "s" are also singular (I, singular "you". Plural "person" verbs do not take an "s" (we, plural you, they".

 

[Barb_D]

You will cause yourself a lot of confusion if you call all the other forms "the plural form."

As Mike says, it's the "third-person singular" form that has the S. You MUST includes person as well. Just calling it "singular" is not accurate.

First person: I (singular) We (plural)
Second person: You (singular or plural)
Third person: He, she, it (singular) They (plural)

 

[kite]

Lets see if I got it. I (singular) eat (singular verb) banana. She (singular) sings (singular verb) songs. They (plural) play (plural verb) football. Do you (singular) support (singular verb) them? Do you (plural) guys like (plural verb) beer? How about now? Did I understand the case properly? It depends on the person, right? If the person singular, the verb is also named as singular verb, right? and if the person is plural, the verb is plural too, right?

 

[Barb_D]

As I said above, you must include person for this to be meaningful.

Lets see if I got it.
I (first-person singular) eat (first-person singular verb) [a] banana.
She (third-person singular) sings (third-person singular verb) songs.
They (third-person plural) play (third-personplural verb) football.

All okay until here.


Here the verb that changes is "to do," not the main verb, which is in the bare infinitive form (which means the "to X" without the "to")

Do (second-person singular) you (second-person singular) support (bare infinitive) them?
Do (second-person plural) you (second-person plural) guys like (bare infinitive) beer?

Does (third-person singular) he (third-person singular) understand this?

Except for our irregular verbs, the third-person singular is the only one that will look different, with the S.

 

[Raymott]

It depends on the person, right? If the person singular, the verb is also named as singular verb, right? and if the person is plural, the verb is plural too, right?

Yes, if you want to define verbs that way. In English we don't. When I went to school, there was no such thing as singular or plural verbs. I'm not sure whether that has changed in places. A verb form corresponds to the subject in both number and person. "Cut" is neither a singular nor a plural verb. "I (singular) cut", "We (plural) cut". It's the same. You might choose to call 'cut' singular when it's used with 'I' and plural when it's used with 'We'. But that's tautologial - it adds nothing, and that's probably why native speakers are not taught to use the terms "singular verb" and "plural verb". Verb forms don't have number: some forms are always singular ('am, cuts'), but none (that I can think of) are always plural. I agree with the others that you'd do better not trying to look at verbs this way.
What you've written is true: if a subject is singular you use a "singular verb form", but that doesn't tell you what that form is. You need to learn the (relatively simple in English) conjugations.
In Hindi, you can say that 'hai' is singular and 'hain' is plural, but in English, 'are, have' can be either singular or plural depending on the subject - it's different.
http://www.geocities.ws/lordvaruna/

(Crossed with BarbD)