Linking Verbs: Complete List with Examples

The Job of a Linking Verb

Some verbs do the heavy lifting of doing something. Others just hold two ideas together. A linking verb belongs to the second group: it ties a subject to a word or phrase that renames or describes it. Grammarians also call this kind of verb a copula or copular verb, but the nickname doesn't change the job.

Take the sentence "My coffee is cold." Nothing is actually happening. The verb "is" simply bridges the subject, "my coffee," and the adjective that describes it, "cold." That bridging role is the entire purpose of a linking verb.

These verbs pop up constantly in everyday speech and writing, which makes them one of the building blocks of English grammar. Once you can spot them, a lot of other rules start to make sense—pronoun choice, subject-complement agreement, and the tricky question of when to use an adjective versus an adverb.

Linking Verbs Compared to Action Verbs

Telling these two families apart matters because each one shapes the rest of the sentence differently:

This split has a real payoff when you're writing. After a linking verb, the word that follows should be an adjective because it describes the subject. That's why "The bread smells wonderful" works and "The bread smells wonderfully" does not—unless, oddly enough, you mean the loaf itself is gifted at sniffing things out.

What Comes After: Subject Complements

The piece that follows a linking verb and finishes the thought is called a subject complement. It comes in two flavors.

Predicate Adjective

This type gives you a quality of the subject:

• My hands are freezing.
• The hallway feels drafty.
• Your idea sounds promising.
• The director's notes were blunt but fair.

Predicate Nominative

This type renames the subject with another noun:

• My cousin is a paramedic.
• The champion turned out to be Priya.
• That song became an instant hit.
• She stayed my closest confidant for decades.

The Many Shapes of "Be"

If linking verbs had a royal family, "be" would sit on the throne. It's the most common, and it also has the longest lineup of conjugated forms of any English verb.

Whenever "be" ties the subject to a description or an identity, it is working as a linking verb. Watch out, though: the same forms can also serve as auxiliary verbs in progressive tenses ("She is jogging") and in passive constructions ("The window was broken"). Those uses are structural helpers, not linking.

Become, Seem, and Appear

Right behind "be," three verbs do linking work almost exclusively: become, seem, and appear. They almost never show up as action verbs in everyday writing.

Become

"Become" signals a shift—either in condition or in identity:

• After the third cup, the meeting became unbearable.
• She became a paramedic before she turned twenty-three.
• The puddle became a sheet of ice overnight.

Seem

"Seem" reports a perception rather than a fact:

• Your roommate seems friendly enough.
• The deadline seemed generous at the time.
• Nothing seems out of place here.

Appear

In its linking role, "appear" is almost interchangeable with "seem":

• The bridge appears stable from this angle.
• Her argument appears reasonable on paper.
• The dog appeared unharmed after the storm.

Verbs Tied to the Five Senses

Five sensory verbs—look, sound, smell, taste, and feel—swing between action and linking duty. When they report on what the subject is like, they are linking verbs:

• You look exhausted. (the subject, "you," is being described)
• That plan sounds risky. (the subject, "that plan," is being described)
• The kitchen smells like cinnamon. (describing "the kitchen")
• This espresso tastes burnt. (describing "this espresso")
• The sheets feel crisp. (describing "the sheets")

Here's the hinge point: because these are linking verbs, the word that follows must be an adjective, never an adverb. "The chili tastes spicy" is right; "The chili tastes spicily" only works if the chili has somehow taken a taste-tasting class.

Staying the Same or Changing

A second tier of linking verbs describes whether the subject holds its condition or shifts into a new one.

Holding Steady

• Remain: The interviewer remained polite throughout.
• Stay: Try to stay calm in the dentist's chair.
• Keep: The class kept silent until the bell.
• Continue: The drought continued severe into November.

Shifting Gears

• Become: The documentary became popular almost overnight.
• Grow: The crowd grew impatient as the delay stretched on.
• Turn: The hillside turned amber by late October.
• Get: The soup is getting lukewarm.
• Go: The battery went flat overnight.
• Come: Her warning came true within a week.
• Fall: The room fell quiet when he walked in.
• Run: The creek ran dry by August.
• Prove: The rumor proved false.

Every Linking Verb in One Place

Here is a master inventory of English verbs that can do linking work:

Verbs That Wear Two Hats

Most of the verbs above can just as easily show up as action verbs. Context—not the verb itself—decides the role:

A Quick Swap Test

When you cannot tell whether a verb is linking or acting, try swapping it for a form of "be"—am, is, are, was, or were. If the sentence still reads sensibly, you're looking at a linking verb:

"The soup smells delicious." → "The soup is delicious." ✓ Still works → linking verb.

"The chef smelled the soup." → "The chef was the soup." ✗ Nonsense → action verb.

That swap is the fastest shortcut for sorting one from the other, and it handles the vast majority of sentences you'll meet in the wild.

Mistakes Writers Keep Making

Slipping an Adverb in When an Adjective Belongs

Wrong: "The violin sounds beautifully."

Right: "The violin sounds beautiful."

The descriptor after a linking verb is aimed at the subject—a noun—so the word has to be an adjective. An adverb would be modifying the verb, which isn't what you mean.

Choosing Between "Good" and "Well"

"I feel good." (fine — "good" describes "I")

"I feel well." (also fine — but only if you mean "in good health")

"Good" is the default adjective after a linking verb. "Well" only counts as an adjective when you're talking about physical health, so most everyday contexts call for "good."

Missing the Switch Between Linking and Action

Not spotting when a verb flips roles causes most of the errors above. If "look" is doing something ("She looked carefully at the map"), you need an adverb. If "look" is describing something ("She looks radiant tonight"), an adjective is the right fit.

Takeaways

Linking verbs don't report actions—they connect a subject to whatever describes or renames it. "Be" leads the pack, with "become," "seem," and the five sensory verbs (look, sound, smell, taste, feel) close behind. A long tail of state and change-of-state verbs rounds out the group, and most of them can also act as regular action verbs depending on the sentence.

The one rule worth memorizing: the word after a linking verb should be an adjective, because it's describing the subject. When you're stuck deciding whether a verb is linking at all, swap in a form of "be" and see if the sentence still holds up. Get comfortable with these patterns and your grammar will sharpen across the board.