Verb groups

Okay, we now know we have single-verb actions and 'being' type verbs.

Now let's get into the complicated stuff: verb groups.

For example, what's the verb in this snippet? Is there more than one? 

To answer these questions, ask yourself: which word or words are communicating the entire action or process in this snippet?

In a verb group, words work together to describe an action with special precision.

Just like in our simplest possible situation (where one verb describes a single process), a sentence can have one or more verb groups.

See if you can spot the verb groups in these snippets:

You can see that verb groups have very particular shades of meaning. We use them all the time in ordinary speech.