The verb is the engine that drives the sentence. Nouns name what we are talking about. Verbs enable us to say something about the noun.
There are three kinds of verb: transitive, intransitive, and incomplete.
An intransitive verb is complete in itself: I live in Texas. He smiled.
A transitive verb requires an object to complete its meaning: He hit the ball. We built a house.
An incomplete verb requires some word that is NOT an object to complete its sense.
There are three kinds of incomplete verbs:
a. copulative or being verbs:
He became king. She is sympathetic. He seems tired.NOTE: Writers are advised not to overuse copulative verbs since they do not express actions. In revising a manuscript, it’s a good idea to devote one pass through to the forms of to be(is, am, are, was, were, been) with the idea of replacing them with transitive or intransitive verbs.
b. auxiliary or helping verbs:
be (and its various forms), have, shall, will, do, may
NOTE: Auxiliary verbs are needed to form tenses, voices, and moods.c. semi-auxiliary verbs or modals:
must, can, ought, dare, need
NOTE: Modals are tricky words that can convey assumptions that we may not really mean to make. Some writers use them deliberately to manipulate readers.