Verb Forms and Verb Tenses (#4)

Verb Forms and Verb Tenses (#4):

Spelling the - S Form

English verbs have five basic forms: the base form, the - S form, the - ing form, the past form, and the past participle form. The - S form is very commonly used for main verbs and auxiliary verbs in the simple present tense when the subject is or means he, she, or it. The - S form is also very commonly used as a full (has) or contracted ('s) auxiliary verb in the present perfect tense when the subject is or means he, she, or it. For be, the - S form is is. For have, it is has. For other verbs, there are three different spellings: - s, - es, and - ies: 1. Add - s to the base form. This is the most common spelling for the -S form and is the spelling used for most verbs. Notice, especially, that - s is added when the base form ends in one or more consonants + e: aches, bakes, breathes, cares, caches, dives, edges, fiddles, files, glares, hates, hopes, jokes, lives, makes, notes, pastes, races, spares, surprises, tastes, types, writes Notice that - s is also added when the base form ends in one or more consonants (but without e): adds, bets, beats, calls, claps, cheats, cleans, digs, drops, eats, fills, finds, fits, gets, grabs, hops, kills, knits, links, lists, means, needs, opens, puts, quits, robs, rings, rips, sends, stops, tells, trusts, voids, wants, works, zips In addition, notice this spelling is used with the small number of verbs ending in two vowels (including - ie): agrees, argues, boos, coos, flees, glues, moos, sees, shoos, shoes, tees, woos dies, lies, ties, vies 2. Add - es to the base form. This happens in two situations: a. when the base form ends in the vowel o: does, goes, soloes b. when the base form ends in ss, sh, (t)ch, zz, and x: assesses, blesses, caresses, fusses, kisses, misses, passes, tosses; blushes, dashes, flashes, gnashes, hushes, lashes, mashes, pushes, rushes, splashes, stashes, washes, wishes; catches, ditches, etches, flinches, hitches, itches, marches, mooches, patches, reaches, searches, scratches, teaches, touches, watches; buzzes, fizzes; boxes, coaxes, faxes, fixes, relaxes, vexes, waxes. 3. Change y to i and add - es. This happens when a verb ends in a consonant + y: apply / applies; bury / buries; carry / carries; copy / copies; cry / cries; dry / dries; fly / flies; fry / fries; hurry / hurries; marry / marries; pity / pities; ply / plies; pry / pries; tidy / tidies; try / tries; worry / worries. Verbs that end in a vowel + y do not change the y to i and then add - es, however: buy / buys; employs / employs; enjoy / enjoys; flay / flays; lay / lays; pay / pays; play / plays; say / says; slay / slays; spray / sprays; stay / stays; sway / sways; Important: Compare flay / flays, play / plays, and pray / prays with fly / flies, ply / plies, and pry / pries to see how these spelling rules work for verbs ending in s.