- Brief description of the accidents of the verb with examples
- Verbal tense
- Verbal person and number
- Voice
- Verbal mode
- References
The accidents of the verb are the variations of form that these types of words present and that correspond to certain variations of meaning. The verb is that part of the sentence that expresses action or state. These verbal accidents are specific to each language. Its variety and specificity do not respond to a single and universal structure.
In the case of the Spanish language, the changes in the verb - expressed in its different conjugations - denote time, number, person, voice and mode. In general, these guide the listener or reader on the way in which the idea or action that is transmitted by the verb in a given sentence should be interpreted.
The accidents of the verb
It can be said that verbal accidents add different meanings that help in the interpretation of a message. The time, person and number answer the questions when ?, who? and how many carry out the action? The voice specifies whether the action is narrated from the person who executes it or who receives it. And the mode denotes the attitude of the speaker.
Note, for example, the grammatical accidents of the verb in the clause: that the children sing the hymn at that time. The infinitive of the verb is to sing. Its ending -aran indicates tense (past imperfect), person (third person, they), number (plural), voice (active) and mood (subjunctive).
Brief description of the accidents of the verb with examples
Verbal tense
One of the accidents of the verb that supposes more variations for this class of words is the verb tense. This establishes the moment in which the action, situation or state described is executed, indicating if it is before, simultaneously or after the time in which it is reported.
In this way, the idea of verb tense is based on the sequence of logical tenses along the line of temporality. And it is related to the way in which the occurrence of events is conceived.
Taking this into account, there are three basic verb tenses: past, present and future. But other intermediate times are also considered.
With respect to simple tenses, the past has two forms: past and co-past. The first is used when the action culminates in the past (ate).
For its part, the copretérito is used when it is about something habitual or an interrupted action (ate). Also, there are the present (eat), the future (will eat) and the conditional (would eat).
In addition, Spanish presents compound verb tenses. These denote the earlier of one event with respect to another on a timeline. For example, has eaten (antepresente) expresses an action completed before the present tense. The same happens with Will have eaten (antefuture), an action that will end before another future action.
Verbal person and number
In fusing languages, such as Spanish, morphemes (minimum unit of meaning) can combine multiple pieces of grammatical information. This is the case with verbal accidents, especially when it comes to number and person.
In the first instance, the number defines whether the person carrying out the action is one (singular) or more than one (plural. On the other hand, the person accident determines who or who executes it.
Thus, there are three entities: first, second and third person. These two accidents of the verb give rise to six possible combinations (note the change in the verb form):
- First person singular: I ate a big piece of pizza.
- First person plural: We ate a big piece of pizza.
- Second person singular: You ate a big slice of pizza.
- Second person plural: You ate a big slice of pizza.
- Third person singular: He ate a big slice of pizza.
- Third person plural: They ate a big slice of pizza.
It should be noted that these endings correspond to the past simple of the regular verbs that end in -ar.
It is also important to mention that, because this information is contained in the verb, in many cases the subject of the sentences can be omitted. This is not the case for other languages, such as English or French.
Voice
The voice is the one that indicates whether the subjects perform - active voice - or receive - passive voice - the action described by the verb. The latter is used when you want to emphasize the recipient of the action and not who carries it out.
In fact, the agent is many times overlooked. Note the use of the active voice in the following examples:
- The bakers bake the bread every morning.
- The company launched its first website in May 1996.
- These organizations have banned the sale of fireworks.
In general, the use of the passive voice is more frequent in formal contexts than in everyday life. Instead, it is preferred to use structures such as the passive and impersonal "I": there people tend to vote Republican. Note the following examples in the passive voice:
- The bread is baked every morning (by the bakers).
- Its first website was launched (by the company) in May 1996.
- The sale of fireworks has been banned (by those organizations).
Verbal mode
Unlike the other accidents of the verb, the mode is not directly related to the action, but to the attitude of the speaker. In Spanish, three verb modes are distinguished: indicative, subjunctive and imperative.
The indicative mood is used when narrating actions that, for the speaker, are real or likely to be carried out. The following sentences contain verbs in the indicative mood:
- The book contains material for people of all ages.
- She worked as a lecturer and television presenter for a long time.
- He will star in several films in Italian cinema.
In the case of the subjunctive verb mood, this is used to relate actions in which there is doubt or uncertainty about the possibility of their execution. The speaker regards the action as a wish, not as a certain fact. This use is observed in the following clauses:
- … (It would be ideal) that contains material for people of all ages.
- … (He wanted) me to work as a lecturer and television presenter.
- … (It was probable) that he had starred in several films in Italian cinema.
Finally, the imperative mood is used to give orders, beg, ask, suggest or reprimand. The verb has its own forms only for the second person singular and plural in affirmative sentences.
In the case of negative sentences, the subjunctive is used. Note its use in the following sentences with the verb go:
- Go there immediately.
- Go there immediately.
- Don't go there.
References
- National Institute for Adult Education. (s / f). Verb accidents. Taken from decdmx.inea.gob.mx
- Government of San Juan. Ministry of Education. (1991, August 04). Verbal accidents: number, person, time and manner. Taken from sanjuan.edu.ar.
- Crystal D. (2003). Time in language. In K. Ridderbos (editor), El tiempo, pp 97-115. Madrid: AKAL Editions.
- Liroz, F. (s / f). Morphology - The verb: 1. Structure. Taken from asmadrid.org.
- Carrasco Gutiérrez, A. (2008). Spanish compound tenses: formation, interpretation and syntax. In A.Carrasco Gutiérrez (editor), Compound tenses and verb forms, pp 13-64. Madrid: Iberoamericana Editorial
- Manker, J. (2016, February 26). Morphological Typology. Taken from linguistics.berkeley.edu.
- Royal Spanish Academy. (s / f). Infinitive for imperative. Taken from rae.es.