Verbs are what you do, but some verbs do not describe an action. Certain verbs connect one part of a sentence to another. These are helping verbs (verbs that help to clarify a main verb) and linking verbs. Discover the meaning of linking verbs and use them here.
Function
Imagine a chain necklace made up of many links. If you remove just one link, it will no longer be a necklace; it will just be a chain. Now think of a sentence as a necklace. Each part of the sentence can be considered a link that, when put together well, makes one complete sentence. A sentence does not need an action verb to become a complete sentence. A linking verb completes a sentence when an action verb is not used.
Significance
Linking verbs connect the subject to information about the subject. Consider a banana. If I ask you to tell me the the color of a banana, you may respond with, "yellow." The color yellow gives information about the banana. Now if I ask you to respond to the same question in a complete sentence, you would probably say,
"A banana is yellow." The linking verb "is" remains vital to this sentence, because without the verb, the sentence would be incomplete:
"A banana yellow."
Types
Certain verbs are always linking verbs. These are:
Forms of TO BE: (am, is, are, was, were, have been, has been, is being, was being)
Forms of TO BECOME: (become, becomes, became, has become, had become)
Forms of TO SEEM: (seem, seemed, seems, is seeming, are seeming, had seemed)
Some verbs can be either action or linking verbs, such as look, smell, taste, sound, feel, remain, prove, grow and appear.
Identification
It is so easy to recognize when a verb is action or linking. First, ask yourself if the subject could really do what the verb suggests. Consider this sentence: "The car smells new." Simply ask yourself if the subject of the sentence (car) can actually "smell." It cannot perform the action of smelling.
Of course, this test can be confusing. If the subject actually can perform the suggested action of the verb, then you must determine the true intention of the sentence. "That man smells funny." This is an example of one of those confusing sentences, because a man can perform the action of smelling, but the true purpose of this sentence is to link "that man" to more information about him. In this case, it is how he smells.
Considerations
The most vivid writing possesses fewer linking verbs and more action verbs. Linking verbs simply tell readers about a person, place, thing or idea. Action verbs show readers what a subject does, therefore, the sentences are vivid and descriptive, painting a picture in the reader's mind.
Tags: linking verbs, action verb, complete sentence, information about, this sentence, action linking, action smelling