Finite Verb

Finite verb

Is a Verb that is inflected for person and for tense according to the rules and categories of the languages in which it occurs. Finite verbs can form independent clauses, which can stand by their own as complete sentences.


Every grammatically correct sentence or clause must contain a finite verb; sentence fragments not containing finite verbs are described as phrases.


Some interjections can play the same role. Even in English, a sentence like Thanks for your help! has an interjection where it could have a subject and a finite verb form.


In English, as in most related languages, only verbs in certain moods are finite. These include:

* the indicative mood (expressing a state of affairs); e.g., "The bulldozer
demolished the restaurant," "The leaves were yellow and stiff."
* the imperative mood (giving a command).
* the subjunctive mood (expressing something that might or might not be the
state of affairs, depending on some other part of the sentence); nearly
extinct in English.

A verb is a word that expresses an occurrence, act, or mode of being. Finite verbs, sometimes called main verbs, are limited by time (see tense), person, and number.