motivates
- 1Third-person singular simple present of motivate.
Fear of falling behind motivates her to prepare for every meeting.
The promise of a small reward motivates the children to finish their chores.
Note
A singular subject in the present calls for the -s ending: fear motivates and a reward motivates, but rewards motivate. The verb is transitive, so someone or something is always the one being motivated, and the clause usually goes on to name the action with a to-infinitive: it motivates them to try. The same pattern covers the sense of propelling into action: what drives a person motivates them to act.
motivates is a form of motivate
motivate, verb: To give someone a reason or incentive to act, encouraging them toward a goal. Full entry
- Forms
- motivatemotivates he/she/itmotivating -ing formmotivated past tense, past participle
- Spelling
- motivate → motivates: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /s/.
Use it in a sentence
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