Finite verb

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Finite verb

A finite verb is a verb

Verb

In syntax, a verb is a word that usually denotes an action , an occurrence , or a state of being . Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical mood and grammatical voice....
that is inflected

Inflection

In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as grammatical tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, grammatical aspect, grammatical person, grammatical number, grammatical gender, grammatical case....
for person

Grammatical person

Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deixis reference to a participant in an event, such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns....
and for tense

Grammatical tense

Grammatical tense is a temporal language quality expressing the time at, during, or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs.Tense is one of at least five qualities, along with grammatical mood, grammatical voice, grammatical aspect, and grammatical person, which verb forms may express....
according to the rules and categories of the languages in which it occurs. Finite verbs can form independent clause

Independent clause

An independent clause is a clause that can stand by itself as a grammatically viable simple sentence. Independent clauses express a complete thought and contain a Subject and a Predicate ....
s, which can stand by their own as complete sentence

Sentence (linguistics)

In linguistics, a sentence is a grammatical unit of one or more words, bearing minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it, often preceded and followed in speech by pauses, having one of a small number of characteristic intonation patterns, and typically expressing an independent statement, question, request, command, et...
s.

The finite forms of a verb are the forms where the verb shows tense, person or singular plural. Non-finite verb forms have no person, tense or number.

I go, she goes, he went - These verb forms are finite.

To go, going, gone - These verb forms are non-finite.

In most Indo-European languages, every grammatically complete sentence or clause

Clause

In grammar, a clause is a pair of words or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate , although in some languages and some types of clauses, the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase....
must contain a finite verb; sentence fragments not containing finite verbs are described as phrase

Phrase

In grammar, a phrase is a group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a Sentence .For example the house at the end of the street is a phrase....
s or minor sentences.

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Encyclopedia

A finite verb is a verb

Verb

Inflection

Grammatical person

Grammatical tense

Independent clause

Sentence (linguistics)

Clause

Phrase

In grammar, a phrase is a group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a Sentence .For example the house at the end of the street is a phrase....
s or minor sentences. In Latin and some Romance languages

Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages comprising all the languages that descend from Latin language, the language of ancient Rome....
, however, there are a few words that can be used to form sentences without verbs, such as Latin ecce, Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
eis, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
voici and voilà, and Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
ecco, all of these translatable as here ... is or here ... are. Some interjection

Interjection

An interjection is a part of speech that usually has no grammatical connection with the rest of the Sentence and simply expresses emotion on the part of the speaker, although most interjections have clear definitions....
s can play the same role. Even in English, a sentence like Thanks for your help! has an interjection where it could have a subject

Subject (grammar)

The subject is one of the two main constituent every sentence can be divided into, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle....
and a finite verb form (compare I appreciate your help!).

In English, as in most related languages, only verbs in certain moods are finite. These include:

the indicative mood (expressing a state of affairs); e.g., "The bulldozer demolished the restaurant," "The leaves were yellow and stiff."
the imperative
Imperative

Imperative can mean:*Imperative mood, a grammatical mood expressing commands, direct requests, and prohibitions*Imperative programming, a programming paradigm in computer science...
mood (giving a command).
the subjunctive mood (expressing something that might or might not be the state of affairs, depending on some other part of the sentence).

Verb forms that are not finite

Non-finite verb

In linguistics, a non-finite verb is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflection by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical mood, grammatical number, grammatical gender, and grammatical person....
include:

the infinitive
Infinitive

In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English language, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the grammatical particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives....
participle
Participle

In linguistics, a participle is a derivative of a non-finite verb verb, which can be used in compound Grammatical tense or Grammatical voice, or as a Grammatical modifier....
s (e.g., "The broken window...", "The wheezing gentleman...")
gerund
Gerund

In linguistics, ?gerund? is a term used to refer to various non-finite verb in various languages:* As applied to English language, it refers to what might be called a verb's action noun, which is one of the uses of the -ing form....
s and gerundive
Gerundive

In linguistics, a gerundive is a particular verb form. The term is applied very differently to different languages; depending on the language, gerundives may be verbal adjectives, verbal adverbs, or finite verbs....
s

Finite verb

See also