Grammar – Grades 6-10

Understanding Verbs Worksheets

Printable understanding verbs worksheets and lesson plan for grades 6 through 10. Practice identifying action verbs, linking verbs, and helping verbs at the sentence level, with three exercise sets and an answer key.

What This Lesson Teaches

Students learn the three types of verbs and how to tell them apart in real sentences:

• Action verbs show what the subject does (run, jump, write, think)
• Linking verbs connect the subject to a word that describes it (is, was, seemed, became)
• Helping verbs support the main verb in forming a verb phrase (has, had, will, can, do)

The three exercise sets give isolated practice with each verb type before any mixed practice, which is the right order for students who are still building the categories.

What Students Practice

• 16 action-verb sentences – identifying the action verb in each
• 9 linking-verb sentences – identifying the linking verb and the word it links the subject to
• 9 helping-verb sentences – identifying the helping verb plus the main verb (the full verb phrase)
• Complete answer key for self-check or peer review

How Teachers Use This Worksheet

Use this resource after a basic parts-of-speech overview, or as targeted remediation when students confuse linking verbs with action verbs in their writing. The three-exercise structure makes it easy to break the lesson into a three-day rotation rather than a single sitting.

• Day 1: action verbs only
• Day 2: linking verbs only – emphasize that the verb does not show action; it just connects
• Day 3: helping verbs only – emphasize that the helping verb plus main verb is the full verb phrase
• Optional Day 4: mix items from all three sets and have students label the verb type
• Pair with the Verbs and Adverbs lesson once students can identify all three verb types

Common Student Mistakes to Watch For

• Treating is/was/were as action verbs – they describe a state of being, not an action. Use the test “does the subject do anything?”
• Marking only the main verb in a verb phrase – students underline running but skip had been. Coach them to scan backwards from the main verb for any helping words
• Missing modal helping verbs like can, should, might
• Confusing “to be” verbs as either linking or helping – is can be a linking verb (“She is happy”) or a helping verb (“She is running”). The next word is the clue

Download the Worksheet

Full Members can download the printable PDF worksheet and answer key.

Related Grammar Resources

• Verbs and Adverbs Worksheets – pairs verbs with their modifiers
• Verb Tense Worksheets
• Subject-Verb Agreement Worksheets
• Grammar worksheets hub

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