Chapter 7: Grammar 2

GRAMMAR 7

THE SKELETON SENTENCE: Verbs — Part 2

Verbs
	In this chapter we start with the verb, which often has the most important function in the sentence, the role of the predicate.

What are verbs good for?

Verbs are a class of words that express state or action. They tell that somebody or something is or is doing something.

state	In unserer Gesellschaft ist der Computer ein sehr wichtiges Kommunikationsmittel.	In our society the computer is a very important communication medium.
action	Nur Spezialisten kritisieren die Prinzipien seiner Konstruktion.	Only specialists criticize the principles of its construction.

Predicate

In Chapter 3 you learned that a noun or noun phrase can function as subject or object in a sentence.

Verbs can also have different functions in a sentence.

The first such function that may occur to you is that of predicate, a kind of "main" verb in the sentence.
Let's take a look at some very simple sentences:

Der Mann
The man

Die Oper
The opera

Die Aktie
The stock

lacht.
laughs/is laughing.

beginnt.
begins/is beginning.

steigt.
rises/is rising.

category

noun phrase

verb
(in English sentences, verb group)

function

subject

predicate

I notice that there's only one verb form in German. Why is that?

In English you can refer to something that occurs in the present time in various ways; in the simple present tense form ("laughs"), in the progressive form ("is laughing"), or more emphatically (does laugh).

In German, only the simple present tense form exists ("lacht"), but the progressive sense may be inferred depending on the context. That is, one German form can serve several English expressive functions!

Other functions of verbs in a sentence

Besides the predicate, a verb can also be an object or part of an object. You've already seen an example of this in Chapter 3.

In this case, the verb is part of the infinitive phrase, which is part of the object.

Don't worry about this function of the verb right now (nor about the term "infinitive phrase"!). You'll learn about all of that later. For now, just have a look at the following sample sentence:

	Paragraph	Five	guarantees	the	right	to obtain information from generally accessible sources.
category	noun	noun	verb	article	noun	infinitive phrase
	noun phrase		verb	complex noun phrase
function	subject		predicate	object

Predicate consisting of a verb group

The simplest predicate consists of a single verb. But as you've seen in the English examples above,
predicates often consist of more than a single verb form.

You'll learn about the different forms of verb groups that function as predicates later.

If you've learned another language, you might already know about these verb groups. Have you heard the term, "auxiliary verb plus predicative adjective"? (Die Kosten sind hoch.) If so, then you have worked with predicates consisting of more than a single verb!