What is a Verb?

Simply put, a verb is an ‘action word’, meaning it is a part of speech that signifies an action, or things that are done or indicate a state of being. Some samples of verbs are ‘eat’, ‘run’, ‘play’, ‘talk’, and ‘read’. In the sentence ‘Mary swims to get fit’, the action word is ‘swim’, and therefore it is the verb. All sentences contain verbs.
As with other parts of speech, there are different types of verbs used for different situations. One is an action verb, which as the name implies, indicates something that expresses something that can be done. Examples of these words include the abovementioned words, as well as ‘pray’, ‘love’, ‘lose’ and ‘go’.
Linking verbs on the other hand, expresses a state of being, which connects the subject to more information about it. Linking verbs can be the words ‘is’, ‘are’, ‘become’, ‘seem’, ‘be’.
A verb can be defined as intransitive verb or transitive verb. Intransitive verb is when the verb only has a subject, examples of this are ‘they went’, the subject being ‘they’, and the verb being ‘went’. Transitive verbs on the other hand have both a subject as well as a direct object. For example in the sentence ‘Jill ate the banana’, the subject is ‘Jill’, the verb is ‘ate’ and the direct object is ‘the banana’.