Verb Phrases
From TEFL World Wiki
A Verb Phrase is a group of words which can replace a verb in a sentence.
All these sentences follow the same pattern:
| {noun phrase} | {verb phrase} | {noun phrase} |
| The elephant | was eating | the cake. |
| The elephant | had already eaten | the cake. |
| The elephant | would have eaten | the cake. |
| The elephant | should have been eating | the cake. |
We can make a verb phrase like this:
[auxiliary/modal verb] + [auxiliary verb] + [auxiliary verb] + {main verb}
