Without verbs, English would be just a great big pile of stuff — a heap of nouns, noun phrases, and connecting parts unable to move, change, affect one another, or do anything else, because doing is the province of verbs. We may lose sight of that fact after reading one too many verbs like incentivize, prioritize, and signify — verbs that merely suggest abstract concepts. The best verbs show some life. They conquer and comfort, praise and disparage, live and breathe.