Copular verbs

Copular verbs

What are copular verbs? Copulas or copular verbs are a special type of verb that joins a noun complement or an adjective to the subject of the sentence. The most common copular verbs are: be, seem, appear, feel, sound, get, become, taste, look.

Example of copular verbs and explanations below (subject in bold letters):

• That man is horrible.
• The doorman seemed nice to me.
• The party appeared somewhat exhausting.
• The patient is feeling a little bit of pain.
• The alarm sounded twice.
• He‘s getting sick of this nonsense.
• My brother became a football player.
• The paella tastes amazing.
• You look really good in that suit.

Remember, we use copular verbs to connect or join the predicate or the adjective to the subject. We can’t use adverbs. Clarification below;

• He spoke amazingly. (‘amazingly’ is an adverb. It tells us HOW the person spoke. ‘Speak’ is not a copular verb.
• She looks amazing. (‘amazing’ is an adjective in predicative position. The adjective ‘amazing’ describes the subject ‘she’).

Copular verbs always connect the subject with the noun complement or adjective. 

A complete list of copular verbs in alphabetical order:

Act, appear, be, become, bleed, become, come, come out, constitute, end up, die, get, go, grow, fall, feel, freeze, keep, look, prove, remain, run, seem, shine, smell, sound, stay, taste, turn, turn up, wax. 

See also: 

• Articles in English (a/an, the)

• Pronouns (subject, object and possessive)

• Question tags

• Conditionals in English

• Interrogatives

• Determiners

• Phrasal verbs

• Affixes

• Reported speech 

• Numbers in English

• ‘Get’ all you need to know

• ‘Get’, got or gotten 

• Cleft sentences

• Subjunctive in English

• Slang and taboo English

• Ellipsis in English

• Split infinitive

• Emphasis with inversion

• When to use a ‘gerund’ 

• When to use a ‘bare infinitive’

• When to use ‘to + infinitive’

• Spelling differences between American and British English