--- title: Be is the most common verb in English; its forms include am, is, are… — Verbs: doing words and being words · tree and pragmatics description: Be is the most common verb in English; its forms include am, is, are, was and were; have and seem are other verbs that show little action. Who acts: Be, forms, other verbs. A sentence of the lesson «Verbs: doing words and being words» of the language course of Mova's primary school with its dependen --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words/7/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/) / [Verbs: doing words and being words](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words/) / 7 # Verbs: doing words and being words, sentence 7 Be is the most common verb in English; its forms include am, is, are, was and were; have and seem are other verbs that show little action. **Who acts:** Be, forms, other verbs · **What happens:** be, include, have, seem, show, form · **To what, where:** common verb, English, am, other verbs, little action This is a sentence of the lesson «Verbs: doing words and being words» of the language course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Be, forms, other verbs), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:language:003-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words.lesson:7 # text = Be is the most common verb in English; its forms include am, is, are, was and were; have and seem are other verbs that show little action. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = language # lesson = 003-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words.lesson # annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R6-punct-agree ×2, R7-rel-agree ×1 1 Be be NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 nsubj _ _ 2 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 cop _ _ 3 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 4 most most ADV RBS Degree=Sup 5 advmod _ _ 5 common common ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 6 amod _ _ 6 verb verb NOUN NN Number=Sing 0 root _ _ 7 in in ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 8 English English PROPN NNP Number=Sing 6 nmod _ _ 9 ; ; PUNCT , _ 12 punct _ _ 10 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 11 nmod:poss _ _ 11 forms form NOUN NNS Number=Plur 12 nsubj _ _ 12 include include VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=6:conj 13 am am NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 obj _ _ 14 , , PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=6:punct 15 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 17 cop _ _ 16 , , PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ _ 17 are be VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 12 conj _ _ 18 , , PUNCT , _ 17 punct _ _ 19 was be VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 17 ccomp _ _ 20 and and CCONJ CC _ 21 cc _ _ 21 were be VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 19 conj _ _ 22 ; ; PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 23 have have VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 17 parataxis _ _ 24 and and CCONJ CC _ 25 cc _ _ 25 seem seem VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 23 conj _ _ 26 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 28 cop _ _ 27 other other ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 28 amod _ _ 28 verbs verb NOUN NNS Number=Plur 25 obj _ _ 29 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 30 nsubj _ _ 30 show show VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 28 acl:relcl _ _ 31 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 32 amod _ _ 32 action action NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 obj _ _ 33 . . PUNCT . _ 6 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=17:punct ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is a** | present | Be | the common verb | | English | | | tree rules | | 2 | **include** | present | Be's forms | am | | | | | vn involve-107.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent am=Theme | | 3 | **is** | present | Be's forms *not said here* | | | | | be *property* | tree rules | | 4 | **be** | past | Be's forms *not said here* | | | | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 5 | **be** | past | Be's forms *not said here* | | | | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 6 | **have** | present | | | | | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | | 7 | **seem** | present | | | | | | | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme | | 8 | **is a** | present | | other verbs | | | | | tree rules | | 9 | **show** | present | other verbs | little action | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent action=Recipient | | 10 | **form** | | Be | | | | | | nom form «communication transitive»: poss=agent | One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree. **Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:language:003-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words.lesson:7`. **The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R6-punct-agree ×2, R7-rel-agree ×1. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence. See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/). - ← previous: [Verbs: doing words and being words, 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words/6/) - next →: [Verbs: doing words and being words, 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words/8/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words/)