Ooh! Grammar! Can I, pleaaaase?
Okay, types of verbs:
Transitive:
These are verbs that are done to something or someone else. The often connote action, but that's not a requirement.
Example: "I love you."
Love is the verb. The subject is I, and the object receiving the action of the verb is you. This works for a lot of verbs: I smack you. I hate you. I eat real pizza.
Intransitive: These are verbs that do not take objects. They make sense all by themselves. If I were to say "I smacked," you would want to know who or what I smacked. That's because smack is transitive. But "I slept" is different. You don't sleep something. You just sleep. That's an intransitive verbs.
Some verbs can be transitive or intransitive. Love, for example. The mark of a true Christian is that he loves. Loves what? If you answer that question, the verb is transitive. If you don't, it's intransitive.
Then we have...
Linking verbs: These are verbs that, by definition, don't connote action. In elementary school, you probably heard these referred to as "state of being" verbs, which is handy but not always applicable. For example: You smell funny. This is referring to the stench you give off, and is a linking verb. You're not really doing anything. You're just sitting there, stinking.
The interesting thing is, linking verbs are ALWAYS followed either by nouns or adjectives. If it's a noun, it's always to be expressed as a subject (I, he, she), not an object (me, him, her). Which is why the correct question to ask when someone knocks at your door is "WHO is it?" You don't say "WHOM is it?" because whom is an object, not a subject. And the correct answer to the question is, "It is I," even though most of us say, incorrectly, "It is me." Saying "It is I" would be grammatically correct, but it may also subject you to physical abuse once you come through the door, as no human being really talks like that.
There's no such thing as a passive verb: passive is a matter of sentence construction.
For example, if someone grabs a gun, points it out the window and shoots someone in the street, you'd say "A sniper shot a man on Main Street." In this case, the action denoted by the verb is performed by the subject.
However, let's say the person who is shot is someone important. Then you'd switch to the passive voice:
The president was shot by a sniper at Dealy Plaza.
What's the verb? "was shot." By fidgeting with the construction, we have made it so that the person who performed the shooting is no longer the subject of the sentence.
This paragraph is for the experts: "was shot" is neither transitive nor intransitive. "Was" is a linking verb. Sometimes you'll hear the terms "main verb" and "auxiliary verb." This happens when you take a linking verb and attach it to a participle, a verb acting as an adjective (in this case, "shot"). Remember, linking verbs are always followed by a noun or an adjective. "Main verbs" are usually participles that require a linking verb to make sense. You wouldn't say "I walking to the store." You need an auxiliary verb: "I was walking to the store."
Blah blah blah.
Where does love fall?
As a verb, it is either transitive, meaning you love something or someone, or intransitive, meaning you're just a loving guy or gal.
In short: Verbs connote action? Often. Not always. Interesting choice of words, though. It would be flagrantly incorrect to say verbs denote action, because a denotation is a literal meaning. But connotation is different: connotation is what you sort of read into it, reasonably. So to say "believe is a verb, and a verb connotes action" is correct as far as "believe" is concerned. But it's not as right if you say "Is is a verb, and a verb connotes action," although you could have a terrific discussion about what it means "to be." It's more correct to say "believe is a verb that connotes action."
Was that more than anyone wanted to know?
