Linking verb

A linking verb connects the subject of a sentence to a word that renames or describes it rather than expressing an action — 'the room was cold', 'the offer seemed generous'.

The room was cold. Nothing happens in that sentence. Was does not act; it equates, joining the room to cold. The other common linking verbs are seem, become, appear, remain, stay, feel, look, sound, smell and taste.

They are not errors, and the advice to delete every was is bad advice — sometimes a room is simply cold and the reader needs to know. But a paragraph in which most of the verbs are linking verbs is a paragraph of assertions, and assertion is the mode that show, don't tell warns about. The reader is being handed conclusions instead of evidence.

The repair is rarely a stronger adjective. It is a different verb.

• The room was cold.
• The cold in the room came up through the floorboards.

Some linking verbs double as action verbs, and the difference is whether the word after them describes the subject. In she felt uneasy, felt links. In she felt the door frame, it acts.

Finally, keep linking verbs apart from auxiliary verbs: was links in she was tired and merely assists in she was leaving.