When Bad Grammar Happens to Good People

CHAPTER 2

Vexing Verbs

Verbs don’t always play fair. They’re a huge, complicated pack of words, most of which conform to a set of rules and principles governing the different forms they take. But these rules aren’t always obvious, and—wouldn’t you know it—there are also lots of outliers, irregular verbs of one sort or another that require special handling and are slippery enough to cause problems for even the most careful speakers. In this chapter, we’ll study three topics at the root of most of the common errors made with verbs: transitive vs. intransitive verbs, tenses of certain notorious irregular verbs, and the subjunctive mood.

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

Here’s the low-down: Transitive verbs are verbs that take a direct object ...