Compound verbs

Compound verbs are made up of more than one word. Take this sentence for example:

The firemen who rescued the family were rewarded.

In this sentence, the verb is two words - ‘were rewarded’. The ‘rewarded’ part is a normal action verb - it’s something that can be done. The ‘were’ part is an auxiliary verb that is used together with the other verb.

Here’s another example, but in the future tense:

I wonder who out of my friends will arrive first at the movie tonight.

Once again, the verb is made up of two words. There is the auxiliary verb ‘will’, which is used together with the verb ‘arrive’, which is an ‘action’ verb. Together, they make up the compound verb ‘will arrive’.

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