Find the verb

Let’s look at the following sentence:

Taking risks seems to frighten people given the high inflation.

Which is the verb in the sentence?
It has to do with some action, right?
So then maybe „taking“… „frighten“… „given“…?

To find a verb in a sentence, we can follow these steps:

Choose time words for the past and future, such as „Last year,“ „In the past,“ „Next year,“ or „In the future.“
Place that time phrase in front of the sentence and see which word changes to make sense.

Last year, taking dangerous risks seems to frighten most hardworking people.

For this to make sense, “seems” would have to change to “seemed.”
That means that seems is the verb in the sentence because it’s the word that changes with the time.

🔓Keep in mind:

Participles (-ing words) look like verbs, they smell like verbs, they sound like verbs, but they are NOT verbs.
🗝️verb+ing is never a complete verb in a sentence all by itself.
running, sleeping, being, reading… aren’t complete verbs without a helper like “is, are, was, were.”
If there is no helping BE along with a word like this it could turn out to be a noun (Running is great.), an adjective (There is no running water.)

Often (but not always) you can replace a “verby” noun with a regular noun, such as “chocolate” or „idea“:

Running makes me happy.> Chocolate makes me happy.
Everyone hates my singing. > Everyone hates my idea.

🗝️ to + verb is never the functional verb in the sentence.
to study, to win, to love, to buy

Infinitives (to +verb) can play different roles in a sentence. These are just two examples:

Subject: To win was his biggest desire.
Object: He hoped to win.