The Verb Story

Chapter 2: Linking Verbs

The next day, little Sammy went up to Johnny and told him about another new type of verb he’d learned. “A linking verb is a verb that connects a subject with a word that describes or identifies,” he flawlessly enunciated.

“Hmm, very interesting,” Johnny said in a sarcastic mocking tone. Unfortunately, Sammy didn’t pick up on this.

“I know! The world of verbs is amazing! But there is still more on linking verbs,” Sammy nearly screamed at Johnny with delight.

“Here we go,” Johnny said under his breath so that Sammy wouldn’t hear, even though he doubted Sammy would notice with all the ranting he was doing about his complex with verbs.

“The most common linking verb is ‘to be,’” Sammy said, he then began listing every linking verb he knew “ Am, are, is, was, were, am being, are being, is being,” He took a large breath, “Was being, were being, can be, could be, may be, might be, must be, shall be…” He continued until he listed all 30 linking ‘be verbs’ he knew, and was completely out of breath.

Meanwhile, Johnny pulled out his Nintendo Gameboy and turned it on “Die, die, die!” Johnny said as he shot at the aliens in his game.

“Now for an example,” Sammy continued, “We were unhappy with the service. ‘We’ is the subject of the sentence, and the predicate nominative describing the subject is ‘unhappy.’ ‘Were’ is the linking verb because it connects these to words.

“Yes!” Johnny yelled in triumph as the screen of his game flashed YOU WIN!

“Great! You finally understand this!” Sammy said, still obviously not picking up on his friend’s social signals, “Well, I guess I’ll be leaving to spread knowledge elsewhere,” Sammy said and then left.