Level: elementary
Some verbs are followed by either a noun or an adjective:
| She was a good friend. She was very happy. |
V + N V + Adj |
| He became headmaster. He became angry. |
V + N V + Adj |
These verbs are called link verbs. Common verbs like this are:
| be become |
appear feel |
look remain |
seem sound |
He looked hungry.
He looked a good player.
She seemed an intelligent woman.
She seemed intelligent.
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 but not a noun. Common verbs like this are:
| get | go | grow | taste | smell |
He got hungry in the evening.
The dog went crazy.
She grew stronger every day.
The soup tasted wonderful.
This milk smells bad.
- Link verbs 1
- Link verbs 2
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Hello, dear teachers and team!
Could you please help me with the following:
Can I use "get" in the following situations:
1. If I help my daughter get ready for the kindergarten (that is, get dressed, get brushed and so on), can I say "I get my daughter ready for the kindergarten"?
2. In the same way, can I say "I get my daughter dressed for a walk"? Or is it just "I dress my daughter for a walk"?
I'm very very grateful to you for your precious help and thank you very much for answering this post beforehand!
Hello howtosay_,
1 and 2 are both grammatically correct.
For 1 I would suggest 'I get her ready for school', because 'get her ready for kindergarten' could be interpreted to imply things more specific to the kind of learning they do in kindergarten than the general idea it seems you mean. In other words, people might think you're referring to learning the alphabet or how to count to 50, etc., than to being dressed and clean, etc.
In 2 both are fine, though I'd probably say the second one. But both are fine.
All the best,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello, Kirk!
Many many thanks for you answer!
May I ask you to clarify if I have understood right:
1. If I say "I get her ready for kindergarten", it refers to preparing her for learning.
2. If I say "I get her ready for school", it means that I dress her, brush her and help her gather all the necessary things for kindergarten.
Hello howtosay_,
Yes, that is how I understand the two sentences, though 2 could be used for any school-age child (not just kindergarteners, who are normally 5 years old).
It's possible that other people would have different interpretations compared to me, as this sort of usage does sometimes vary from country to country, but I'm afraid I don't know enough about them to say any more!
All the best,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello, Kirk!
I see. Thanks a lot for your explanations!!!
Hello sir ,
I have been noticing that "be" can be auxiliary verb and link verb and the way to recognise them that auxiliary verb it’s not main verb in clause like link verb and after auxiliary verb might come noun , adjective , adverb , preposition. help me teacher is it seems right .
Hello g-ssan,
It's a little difficult to follow your summary but I think I agree. When 'be' is used as a link verb it is the main verb in the sentence, so is followed by a complement (noun, adjective etc). When 'be' is an auxiliary it is followed by the main verb. Of course, sometimes you have both: She is being very annoying today.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Is it incorrect to say "This plant grows rapidly"?Isn't here the verb "grow" a linking verb ?
Hi Faii,
No, it's correct. The verb "grow" can also be intransitive, as in this example. As a linking verb, it would be "This plant grows tall", for example.
I hope that helps to understand it!
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team