When the subject of a sentence isn't doing something, the verb is passive. On the other hand, a sentence is active when the subject performs the verb (action). For example, in this sentence the ...

Columnist and author June Casagrande ponders singular vs. plural nouns, plus the nagging questions behind subject-verb ...

Modal Verb(s) Common Uses. Example Sentence. Ability. Can, Could, Be able to. Present/general ability, past ability, future ability. I can speak Spanish. I could swim when I was four.

The sentence relies on a few tricks. The first is that “buffalo” is a verb as well as a noun and the name of a place. To buffalo someone is to confuse or fluster a person.

More important, Duolingo hasn’t yet taught her how Spanish verbs are conjugated: that, for example, ... The Cherokee language is another of the kind in which sentences can be verb sandwiches.

One reference book says the use of a plural verb is 10 times more common in print. But stylebooks followed by journalists say "whereabouts" takes a singular verb. Example: ...