link verbs
Some verbs are followed by either a noun or an adjective:
| She was a good friend. | = | N + V + N |
| She was very happy. | = | N + V + Adj. |
| He became headmaster. | = | N + V + N |
| He became angry. | = | N + V + Adj. |
These verbs are called link verbs. Common verbs like this are:
- be
- become
- appear
- feel
- look
- remain
- seem
- sound
She seemed an intelligent woman.
She seemed intelligent.
He looked hungry.
He looked a good player.
After appear and seem we often use to be:
She appeared to be an intelligent woman.
He seemed to be angry.
Some link verbs are followed by an adjective. Common verbs like this are:
- get
- go
- grow
- taste
- smell
He got hungry in the evening.
She grew stronger every day.
English Grammar
- Pronouns
- Determiners and quantifiers
- Possessives
- Adjectives
- Adverbials
- Nouns
- Verbs
- irregular verbs
- question forms
- verb phrases
- present tense
- past tense
- perfective aspect
- continuous aspect
- active and passive voice
- to + infinitive
- -ing forms
- talking about the present
- talking about the past
- talking about the future
- verbs in time clauses and if clauses
- wishes and hypotheses
- the verb be
- link verbs
- delexical verbs like have, take, make and give
- Modal verbs
- double object verbs
- phrasal verbs
- reflexive and ergative verbs
- verbs followed by to + infinitive
- verbs followed by -ing clauses
- verbs followed by that clause
- Clause, phrase and sentence
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Comments
Hi. i am a new one here.i wish everybody good luck and me also/
i am very happy join British council ,so , i wish i could improve more my English, because i am studying in India and its hard learn here..... they don't speak English usually, i'd like to know more people and try to help each other........i fond of learning english.....Thanks B.C
Dear Admin,
I am a bit confused with this example- "She grew stronger every day."
In this sentence why don't we use present simple as it continues.
plz reply
Thanks.
team
Hello rashed1234!
This sentence is talking about the past, a period before now. One use of the past simple is to show a continuing state, like the present simple, but in the past. Have a look at our page on talking about the past for more information.
Hope that helps!
Jeremy Bee
The Learnenglish Team
please help me in what way i should start.
team
Hello ajayparshi!
Welcome to LearnEnglish! you should see this website as a library – just borrow whatever interests you! A good place to start is our Elementary Podcasts. These are short radio shows about different topics. To help your listening, vocabulary and grammar, you can listen to them, read the transcripts, and do the exercises. You can talk to other learners in the comments, too. There is lots of other material in our Listen and Watch section as well. If you want to work on grammar, take a look at our grammar section.
Don't forget that we also have a search box. Put a topic you're interested in into the box – like 'meeting people' or 'the present simple' - and you'll get a list of pages about that topic.
We have a lot of different levels on the site, so don't worry if something is too hard – find something easier, and come back to it later. Just try to look at something every day!
Hope that helps,
Jeremy Bee
The LearnEnglish Team
First of all I would like to thank for the people who are doing all of these kind of exercises to provide some useful information for all the beginner's like me. Actually I'm only a secondary graduated but now I have a little bit confidence through this useful and educational websites. In spite of I am not very good at grammar and pronunciation by practicing in a couple of weeks now I have an idea. Even though by using of these helpful websites now I have time to express my opinion in a logical manner and build up my confidence to release my knowledge in appropriate thoughts. I just want to express my greatest gratitude to the English team who are providing these kind of educational websites. Now I am ready for the IELTS test proximity this coming in November 17. More power to all of you and God bless you.
Hi
I am glad to have made mistakes in this exercise, it means; I learn. Thanks
Yeah same here,it is good to learn from mistakes :-)
Thank you so much dear Mr. Stephen.