VBD Past tense
Definition
Verbs in past tense form.
Detection Rules
cql[pos="VBD"]
Normalization
Per finite_verbs
Examples
Gandalf looked at Frodo and smiled.
The sun rose over the mountains and the dew glistened on the grass.
The broken window let in the cold air.
It fell and broke.
Source: le_foll_2024
I implemented it.
Source: le_foll_2024
If I were rich.
Source: le_foll_2024
Non-examples
He has written three letters today.
Sources
- biber_1988 — Biber, Douglas (1988) : Variation across Speech and Writing
- mfte — Le Foll, Elen & Shakir, Muhammad (2023/2025) : Multi-Feature Tagger of English (MFTE) — Python version
- pybiber — Brown, David West & Reinhart, Alex (2026) : pybiber — Python package for linguistic feature extraction and Multi-Dimensional Analysis
- xiao_2009 — Xiao, Richard (2009) : Multidimensional analysis and the study of world Englishes
Notes
Highest loading on D2. The core narrative marker.