03 · Frame
Find the main verb
The main verb organizes the predicate and carries its present-or-past choice. That makes it the predicate’s head. A word may name an activity without doing either job.
the test
Move the sentence through time
Say the same claim about today and yesterday while keeping the people and activity the same. The predicate word that carries the change is the main verb.
Today the daily walk tires Maya.
Yesterday the daily walk tired Maya.
Walk stays put. Tires becomes tired, so tire is the verb. The time contrast identifies the word; it does not require a name for the tense.
Use the tense test
- Say the sentence as true today.
- Say the same sentence as true yesterday.
- Find the predicate word whose form carries that contrast. That word is the main verb here.
This works for the simple predicates in this lesson. Some verb forms keep the same spelling in present and past, and later helping verbs and untensed verb forms require a fuller analysis.
the shortcut
An action word is not always the verb
A word can name an activity without being the verb in its sentence. A verb can also have a past form without an -ed ending.
The two examples separate the meaning of an activity from the grammar of a verb. The main verb heads this kind of predicate because it carries the predicate’s time contrast. Later lessons add the parts that can accompany it.
Ten sentences from this lesson, one decision at a time.