How do you find the verb phrase in any sentence?

Answer 1

You need to know words that are verbs and be able to recognise basic verbs and the various forms they have.

Verbs have present tense forms -- run, walk, look, see, take, give, eat, have.

Sometime the present tense form ends in -s -- runs, walks, looks, gives, has.

Verbs have past tense forms too, most past tense verbs end in -ed -- listened, worried, married, created

Some past tense verbs don't end in -ed -- took, gave, had, cut, built, ate.

Verbs have an -ing form -- giving, listening, completing, arguing, talking.

There is a group of verbs called be verbs. -- am, is, are, was, were.

Verb phrases are often made with be verbs or haveor verbs that end in -ing. So you need to look for words in the sentence that you think might be verbs.eg

They are having lunch now. The verb phrase = are having. It consists of are, a be verb and having, a form of have.

Jack has had his lunch. The verb phrase = has had. Has and had are both forms of have.

The teachers were given a standing ovation. The verb phrase = were given. Were is a be verb and given is a form of give.

In more complex sentences it is harder to recognise the verb phrase. Look at this example

The Hong Kong Federation of Students and Scholarism began protesting outside the government headquarters on 22 September 2014.

In this sentence there is only one verb, began, a form of begin. You might think prostesting is a verb because it ends in -ing but it is not. It is a verb form, but it is acting as a noun in this sentence.

There are many patterns of verb phrases:

After a several hour standoff, police attempted to disperse crowds with pepper spray and tear gas.

The verb phrase in this sentence has this pattern -verb + to + verb - = attemped to disperse.

Answer 2

To find the verb phrase in a sentence, look for the main verb and any auxiliary verbs that come before or after it. The verb phrase can consist of multiple words, such as "is playing" or "have been reading."