12/11/2022
Catenative Verbs
Have you ever heard of catenative verbs? If you haven't, they're also called consecutive verbs or linked verbs. They're verbs where one verb follows the other in a single sentence, being normally the object of the first. Unlike the verbs in multiple sentence, here are two verbs that usually express two actions in a single series:
I saw her complain.
I saw her complaining.
The followings are some of the rules governing the use of catenative verbs:
1. When using catenative verbs, the second verb is either left in its base form ( uninflected, eg go, keep, come) or is in the gerund form( ie ing, eg making, going):
a. We saw her leave the room.✔️
b. We saw her leaving the room.✔️
There's no third option: I saw her left the room.❌
Note: you can only use this option if you decide to go outside catenative verbs and opt for multiple sentence:
a. I saw her, entered the room and left .
2. When you use catenative verbs, the first verb should conform to the concord ( if for instance, the subject is singular, the verb too should be in singular, and vise versa) as dictated by the sentence while the second is uninflected:
a. I asked my son clean the toilet.✔️(or I asked my son to clean the toilet).
b. I asked my son cleaned the toilet.❌
c. That day, I saw a man beat his wife, a mother injure her child, a neighbour scare his animals.✔️
3. There's an exception to this catenative rule: when you use catenative verbs with any of the conditional markers( until, when, etc) between the two verbs, the second verb can change, depending on the grammatical environment:
a. Students are to wait until the school resumes.✔️
b. Students are to wait until the school resume.❌
4. The second verb in catenative verbs can also change while forming simple present tense especially if the tense uses any of third person singulars:
a. I see her complains.✔️
b. I see her complain.❌
But ' I see her complaining✔️, is still grammatically correct.
I will bring the other rules
