Working verbs - Please a Manhattan GMAT instructor

Hey metallicafan,

Did you check the glossary in the back of the SC book? The entries for "working verb" and "verbal" are quite good, and read as follows:

WORKING VERB
A verb that could be the main verb of a grammatical sentence. A working verb shows tense, mood, and voice, as well as number and person in some circumstances. The use of this term helps to distinguish working verb from verbals, which cannot by themselves be the main verb of a sentence.

VERBAL
A word or phrase that is derived from a verb and that funcitons as a different part of speech in the sentence: as a noun, as an adjective (noun modifier), or as an adverb (verb modifier).
Ex:
Infinitive: He likes to walk to the store.
Gerund: I enjoy walking.
Present Participle: She is on a walking tour.
Past Participle: The facts given in the case are clear.

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the main thing to remember is that a working verb "works"--it DOES what a verb is supposed to do--express the action of the sentence. A verbal, by contrast, does NOT "work" as a verb--it's moonlighting as something else, even though it may bear a superficial resemblance to a working verb.

In practice, the test-writers may try to slip in a distractor that only contains a verbal, not a working verb-- a sentence MUST have a verb to be a complete sentence. Another way of thinking about it is that a sentence MUST have a WORKING VERB to WORK--accept no imitation (verbals).
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A working verb is an essential part of any sentence. If something does not have a working verb, then it can not be called a sentence.

All the working verbs in this comment are marked. A working verb always has a subject and a tense.

Here are some examples, as requested:
- I truly appreciate it.
- He likes to walk to the store.
- I enjoy walking.
- She is on a walking tour.
- The facts given in the case are clear.
- I have a question.
- The crop was damaged by the storm.
- The storm uprooted many trees.
- The children are playing football.
- We have lived in this house for twenty years.

Hope this helps!
(The implicit subject in this last example is "I": I hope ...)
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Thank you Parker!, kudos for you.

Actually, I didn't notice that the description of the working verbs was in the glosary. :s
But your explanation is very helpful, thank you!

Sorry for digging up an old thread, but I had a question regarding the correct example given for 'working verb' in the MGMAT SC book:

'The electron was named in 1894.'

Isn't this sentence still missing a subject? The subject is the noun that performs the action. In this sentence however, the electron is the noun that is receiving the action, therefore making it an object. Right? What am I missing here?

Thanks!
Oz

Hi

Its not always necessary that subject is something who does an action. A subject is also defined as: about which the sentence is, about which we are talking in the sentence.

I can give a counter argument: Notice how in passive voice it is not necessary to list the doers of the action (ie. the "by <doers>" part is not compulsory). That means the working verb can exist WITHOUT its doer. That does not mean the sentence is lacking a subject. Also note, in passive voice, the subject has an action performed ON it. The sentence you quote is, indeed, in passive voice. Applying the aforementioned logic, it is error-free.

Can an expert please share a few sentences with examples of working verbs? I truly appreciate it.