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Need some help on "Verb of Being"

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by gmattarget700 » Sun Jan 24, 2010 4:23 pm
friends,

I dont think I quite get around "verb of being"...seems I am struggling here with very basic...

was reading Manhattan which said few things:
The most common verb of being is the verb [b]to be[/b] (forms: is, am, are, was, were, been, being). Other common verbs of being - appear, seem, smell, sound, remain etc)

why those called "to be" verbs??

Example given was:
The new toy WAS young mother's trying to appease her sobbing child. (WRONG)
The new toy WAS young mother's attempt to appease her sobbing child. (Correct)


not sure why its called "making parallel" here... i know "trying" doesn't go smooth in first sentence, but how and what we are making parallel by replacing "trying" with "attempt" ??

experts, appreciate your patience with basic questions....pls explain or at least, provide some pointers where I can get more clarity around this...
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Sun Jan 24, 2010 5:40 pm
You can't make a simple gerund "trying" parallel with a noun. The verb "to be" along with appear, become, grow, look, feel, represent, remain, resemble, seem, smell, sound, stay, taste, turn are all linking verbs. Whenever you see a linking verb look for parallelism. There won't always be parallelism issues but it is worth looking for.
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Mon Jan 25, 2010 6:40 am
upping to make sure he sees it
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