Action, Linking & Helping Verbs: Fifth Grade English Student Guide

Verbs power every sentence in the English language, serving either as dynamic engines of action, bridges connecting subjects to descriptive states, or supportive partners that establish time and nuance.

The Dynamic World of Action Verbs

An action verb describes a physical or mental action performed by the subject. Action verbs bring vitality, rhythm, and clarity to your writing by showing readers exactly what is happening in the scene.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|                     ACTION VERB TYPES                        |
+------------------------------+-------------------------------+
| PHYSICAL ACTION              | MENTAL ACTION                 |
+------------------------------+-------------------------------+
| The falcon plummeted.        | The scientist pondered.       |
| Lightning fractured the oak. | She remembered the melody.    |
| The river carved the canyon. | They considered the options.  |
+------------------------------+-------------------------------+

Physical Action Verbs

Physical actions are visible movements or audible events that can be detected through sensory observation: sprint, gallop, shatter, whisper, erupt, and collide. Choosing strong, specific physical verbs eliminates the need for weak adverbs (for example, "plummeted" instead of "fell very quickly").

Mental Action Verbs

Mental actions occur entirely within the mind, expressing thought, belief, memory, or imagination: contemplate, deduce, hypothesize, dream, recollect, and desire. In analytical and fictional writing, mental action verbs allow you to illustrate a character's internal decision-making process.

Linking Verbs: Building Bridges of Being

Unlike action verbs, a linking verb does not show movement. Instead, it links the subject of the sentence to a predicate noun (which renames the subject) or a predicate adjective (which describes the subject).

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|               THE LINKING VERB EQUATION                      |
|                                                              |
|   [ Subject ]  ====== [ Linking Verb ] =====> [ Predicate ]  |
|                                                              |
|   Marcus                 is                   a botanist.    |
|   (Subject)              (=)                  (Pred. Noun)   |
|                                                              |
|   The stew               smells               savory.        |
|   (Subject)              (=)                  (Pred. Adj.)   |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

The "Equal Sign" Test for Linking Verbs

The most common linking verbs are forms of "to be" (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been). Sensory verbs can also act as linking verbs: smell, taste, feel, look, sound, appear, seem, and remain. To test whether a verb is acting as a linking verb, replace it with a form of "to be" or an equal sign (=). If the sentence still makes logical sense, the verb is linking: "The bread tasted stale" becomes "The bread was stale" (makes sense = linking). In contrast, "The chef tasted the soup" becomes "The chef was the soup" (makes no sense = action verb).

Helping (Auxiliary) Verbs: Constructing Verb Phrases

A helping verb accompanies a main verb to create a complete verb phrase. Helping verbs provide vital information about verb tense, possibility, obligation, or permission.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|                 THE 23 HELPING VERBS                         |
+--------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Forms of BE        | am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been |
| Forms of HAVE      | have, has, had                          |
| Forms of DO        | do, does, did                           |
| Modals             | can, could, may, might, must,           |
|                    | shall, should, will, would              |
+--------------------+-----------------------------------------+

Anatomy of a Verb Phrase

A complete verb phrase consists of one or more helping verbs followed by one main verb (which expresses the primary action or state). In the sentence, "The telescope has been tracking the comet," "has" and "been" are helping verbs, and "tracking" is the main action verb.

Exercises and Solutions

Exercise 1: Classifying Verbs. In each of the following sentences, identify the verb or verb phrase and determine whether the primary verb functions as an action verb, a linking verb, or part of a verb phrase with helping verbs: Sentence A: "The ancient spruce trees swayed violently during the gale." Sentence B: "After the long expedition, the travelers appeared exhausted." Sentence C: "The research team will have collected all temperature samples by dusk."

Solution 1: In Sentence A, the verb is "swayed," which is an action verb describing physical movement. In Sentence B, the verb is "appeared," which functions as a linking verb connecting the subject "travelers" to the predicate adjective "exhausted" (tested by: "the travelers were exhausted"). In Sentence C, the verb phrase is "will have collected," where "will" and "have" are helping verbs and "collected" is the main action verb.

Exercise 2: Action vs. Linking Determination. Write two original sentences using the sensory verb "grew"—one where it functions as an action verb and one where it functions as a linking verb. Explain the difference between your two sentences.

Solution 2: For the action verb example: "The gardener grew sweet tomatoes in her greenhouse." In this sentence, "grew" describes the physical activity of cultivating plants. For the linking verb example: "As twilight approached, the mountain forest grew quiet." In this sentence, "grew" means "became," functioning as a linking verb that connects the subject "forest" to the predicate adjective "quiet."