VERBS.
+Introductory Hints+.--We told you in Lesson 8 how, by noticing the
essential likenesses in things and grouping the things thus alike, we could
throw the countless objects around us into comparatively few classes.
We began to classify words according to their use, or office, in the
sentence; we found one class of words that name things, and we called them
_nouns_.
But in all the sentences given you, we have had to use another class of
words. These words, you notice, tell what the things do, or assert that
they are, or exist.
When we say _Clocks tick_, _tick_ is not the name of anything; it tells
what clocks do: it asserts action.
When we say _Clocks are_, or _There are clocks_, _are_ is not the name of.
anything, nor does it tell what clocks do; it simply asserts existence, or
being.
When we say _Clocks hang, stand, last, lie_, or _remain_, these words
_hang, stand, last_, etc., do not name anything, nor do they tell that
clocks act or simply exist; they tell the condition, or state, in which
clocks are, or exist; that is, they assert state of being.
All words that assert action, being, or state of being, we call +Verbs+
(+Lat+. _verbum_, a word). The name was given to this class because it was
thought that they were the most important words in the sentence.
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