Exercise 76. Development

1. The boys are gathering nuts.

2. She has been sick.

3. You may have forgotten the request.

4. They have been working patiently.

5. I shall soon be journeying homeward.

6. She may have become too tired to go.

7. John will be a doctor.

8. I may have the book at home.

9. The note was lost by the messenger.

10. He has owed the money for a long time.

11. Do you need the money?

12. She has been resting for an hour.

(a) What words in these sentences are forms of verbs? Of what verb is each a form? Decide whether each is a verb or a verbal. (When it takes two or more words to make a copula, as in Sentences 2 and 6, we call the first one a verb, and each of the others a verbal. See § 54, Exception 2).

The italicized expressions are called verb phrases. What is one thing you have discovered about each?

(b) Analyze each sentence and decide what part or parts of the sentence are found in each verb phrase. What part of speech contains sometimes the copula alone, and sometimes both copula and predicate attribute? What, then, are verb phrases used like? What should you think we might call a verb phrase that contains the copula only? One that contains both copula and predicate attribute?