V
VAIN, VANE, VEIN
Vain means to be conceited.
Example: He’s so vain he doesn’t know when he’s being insulted.
A vane is a blade that is moved by gas or liquid.
Example: a weather van.
A vein carries blood through the body or is a long slender deposit of a mineral.
Example: a vein of gol
VERBAL PHRASE
Verbals are words that seem to mean an action or a state of being but do not function as verbs. They are sometimes called nonfinite verbs. Verbals are frequently used with other words in what is called a verbal phrase.
Example: Frequenting the shady bars in that neighborhood [verbal phrase] is not a good idea.
VERB COMPLEMENT
VERB FORMS
Verbs have four basic inflections, or endings:
Present tense—Something is happening now.
Past tense—Something happened in the past.
Example: I thought.
Present participle—Something is happening now.
Example: I am thinking.
Past participle—Something happened in the past (the verb is combined with an auxiliary).
Example: I have thought.
VERB GROUP
A verb group consists of an auxiliary or modal verb along with a verb.
Example: He wouldn’t say [modal + verb] that.
Example: We haven’t told [auxiliary + verb] her.
VERBIAGE
Verbiage is sometimes used to describe wording or text in a document; however, it is actually an insulting term that means overly wordy.
VERB MOOD
Verbs can be used in three moods:
Indicative mood—used for factual statements
Present indicative
Example: He eats at school.
Past indicative
Example: He ate at school.
Future indicative
Example: He will eat at school.
Imperative mood—used for requests or commands
Example: Notice how nice the lake looks.
Example: Email him tomorrow.
Subjunctive mood—used to express doubts, wishes, or a request
Example: He acts as if he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Auxiliary verbs could, would, and should can express the subjunctive mood.
Example: If Carl were to move to Dallas, he would be happy.
VERBOSE EXPRESSIONS
Beware of words that do not mean exactly what you want to say and of phrases that are careless, vague, or wordy.
Table 2.33 contains a list of examples of such pitfalls.
Table 2.33 Verbose Expressions
VERBS
Verbs describe an action or an idea of being in a sentence.
Example: I am [idea of being] an office worker.
Example: The manager worked [action] hard.
There are four ways to classify verbs:
Transitive—requiring an object
Example: Will you lay the report on my desk?
Intransitive—not requiring an object
Example: The project manager is sitting.
Finite—standing alone as the main verb in a sentence
Example: The layouts destroyed morale.
Nonfinite—not standing alone
Example: the devastated employee
VERB TENSE
The form of a verb helps determine its tense, which tells you when something is happening.
Happening now
Example: They’re serving dinner.
Going to happen
Example: It will be ready in the morning.
Has already happened
Example: The bus just left.
See Verb Forms and Tense.
VERSUS, VS.
The abbreviation for versus is vs. As an abbreviation vs. is always lowercase. Use the abbreviation in headings and titles; otherwise spell out versus.
VERTICAL LISTS
VISUALLY IMPAIRED, BLIND
A person with vision problems can be visually impaired; however, a person who can’t see is blind.
Many people think using visually impaired is better than saying blind, but actually it is more polite to say blind when a person can’t see.
VOICE
Voice is a relationship between the action in a sentence and the participants.
When the subject of a sentence is the agent, we use the active voice.
When the subject of a sentence undergoes the action, we use the passive voice.
See Active Voice and Passive Voice.
VOICE MAIL
Voice mail is two words and should not be abbreviated as v-mail or vmail.
VOWELS
All English words have at least one vowel. Vowels include a, e, i, o, u, and y. Y can act as a consonant when it begins a word.