1. Verbs: Action, Linking, Main, and
Helping
Ms. Ghio’s 3rd grade

2. Types of Verbs
• Action verbs
• Linking verbs
• Main verbs
• Helping verbs

3. Action Verbs
• An action verb tells what people or things can do.
• These are some action verbs:
• play
• write
• scream
• dance
• Pick
• Can you think of any?

4. Linking Verbs
• A linking verb connects (links) the subject to
words in the predicate.
• These are some linking verbs:
• am
• is
• was
• were
• seem

5. Verb Phrases: Main Verbs
• A phrase is a group of words.
• A verb phrase has more than one verb in it.
• The Main Verb shows the action.
helping verb + main verb = verb phrase
has + jumped = has jumped
Has jumped is the verb phrase.
Jumped is the main verb in the phrase.

6. Verb Phrases: Helping Verbs
• Helping verbs show the time of the action.
– Past (was, were, has, have, had), present (am, is, are), and
future (will)
• It comes before the main verb in a verb phrase.
• These are some helping verbs (in a verb phrase):
• have skied
• has studied
• will make
• am cooking
• Can you think of some verb phrases? Which verb is the
helping and which is the main verb?

7. Verb Phrases: Main Verbs
• Main verbs tell what the action is
• It comes after the helping verb in a verb phrase.
• These are some main verbs (in a verb phrase):
• have skied
• has studied
• will make
• am cooking
• Can you think of some verb phrases? Which verb
is the helping and which is the main verb?

8. Which type of verb is it?
Action, Linking, Verb Phrase (Helping,
Main)
Which type of verb is in each sentence?
1. The dog has a purple collar.
2. She is going to school on Monday.
3. My uncle will sing at mass.
4. The boy ran faster than anyone else.
5. We have played soccer for three
years.
6. The race car driver drove slowly.