The forms of the verb are its various changes in the verb that help express the time and state of an act in its several modes and tenses.

Transitive verbs may have four forms:

• the common
• the emphatic
• the progressive
• the passive

For example

The four forms of the verb to love are:
Common: I love.
Emphatic: I do love.
Progressive: I am loving
Passive: I am loved.

The emphatic form of a verb is used only with the present and past indicative and the present imperative. All of the other forms are extended through all the modes and tenses.
Intransitive verbs may have three forms:

• the common
• the emphatic
• the progressive

For example

The three forms of the verb to sit are:
Common: I sit.
Emphatic: I do sit.
Progressive: I am sitting.

The common or indefinite form represents an act indefinitely, as a custom, or as completed, without reference to its progress.

For example

I work.
I worked.
I shall work.
I have worked.

The emphatic form represents an act with emphasis.

For example

I do write.
I did write.

The emphatic form is also used in interrogative sentences and negative sentences without emphasis.

For example

Do you hear?
Did you hear?
I do not hear.

The progressive form represents the progress of an unfinished act.

For example

I am writing.

In the perfect tenses, the progressive form represents the completion of a progressive act.

For example

I have been writing.
I shall have been writing.

The passive form represents the reception of an act.

For example

I am loved.
I was loved.
I shall be loved.

The perfect tenses of the passive form are used when to represent the completion of a passive state.

For example

I have been honored.
I had been honored.
I shall have been honored.

Forms for Each Division of Time

The following table gives the form for each division of time, with a description of the state of the act: