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A verbum dicendi may theoretically take any form, provided that it introduces a quote or Paraphrase . In some forms of informal English , it may even take the form of an action verb like "go", as in a sentence like ''So John goes "This sandwich is too big!"''

In languages making use of Ideophone s, a verbum dicendi is often used to introduce the ideophone in narrative contexts. For example, in the following Ewe sentence, ''bé'' functions as a verbum dicendi:
  • ''É-ƒú así nu bé bóbóbó''   (3SG-strike hand mouth like IDEOPHONE)   ‘s/he raised an alarm and went “bóbóbó”.’


Agglutinative languages may decline the expression as usual, for example, Finnish ''tursk-'' "gush, burst" is agglutinated to ''turskahtaa'' "to burst once", ''turskahdella'' "to burst repeatedly" using regular Frequentative - Momentane derivation. (The noun ''turska'' "cod" is unrelated.)
  • ''Vettä turskahteli hanasta'' "Water came from the tap, going ''tursk'', ''tursk''."