Consists of a main verb, alone or preceded by one or more auxiliary or modal verbs as modifiers.

Verb groups/phrases:

• create tense, as in ‘He [was happy]’, ‘She [is working] at home’, ‘I [have seen] him before’

• express modality using modal verbs such as ‘can’, ‘may’, ‘must’, ‘will’, ‘shall’ and so on, as in ‘You [must be] mad’, ‘He [will have arrived] by now’, ‘She [may know] them’

• create passive voice, as in ‘A photo [was taken]’