Yes folks, there are six primary verbs from which all
other verbs can be constructed.  Viz:

The primary verbs can be found by reducing verbs to
simpler verbs along with whatever extra verbage is
necessary to convey the same idea.  When those verbs
are found which cannot be further reduced then those
are the primaries.

There are varying degrees of reduction from slight to
extreme.  In most cases some noun is put to work to
express the verbal idea, as in replacing "I eat" with
"I take in food", where the noun "food" is necessary
because "eat" sort of implies food while "take in"
does not.  (The obvious exception is when someone says
"When I was a kid I ate worms and mud."  More
correctly, "eat" implies ingest solid or semi-solid
material by mouth, and by injecting the word "food" we
sort of imply "take by mouth" without having to resort
to the more verbose "I take in solid material by
mouth".)

In other noun-replacement cases we can put paint on X
instead of painting X, or say to make a drawing
instead of to draw.

In other cases a preposition fills the gap left by
generalizing the verb.  Thus we replace "ascend" with
"go up" and descend" with "go down".  "Enter" becomes
"go in" and "leave" becomes "go out" or "go away"
depending on which sense is meant.

Some verbs differ only by intentionality.  Thus to
listen is to hear intentionially, and to look at is to
see intentionally.

The degree of reduction depends on how many extra
words we want to have to use.  We can say "I hear
music" or we can say "music goes into my ears".  But
if we replace "hear" then "I listened to music"
becomes "I intentionally caused music to go into my
ears" which is bordering on being too long and
cumbersome.

On the other hand, if intentionality and causality are
indicated with prefixes (eg: "in-" and "ca-") and
prepositions indicated with suffixes (eg: -to) then
the single verb (eg: go) can express all those and
still have a primary verb stem (eg: incagoto, as in
"music incagoto my ears" = "I intentionally caused
music to go into my ears")

Ogden's Basic English claims that these 16 verbs are
the primary ones, and that all other verbs can be made
from these plus some nouns, adverbs, adjectives, or
whatever.

come, get, give, go, keep, let, make, put, seem, take,
be, do, have, say, see, send

But this list can be reduced even further, even though
I would disagree with Ogden and include "hear" instead
of his preferred "comes to my ear".  It just seems
like hearing is pretty primary, conceptually.

Also, I would replace "make" with "cause" because I
think "cause" is more versatile, and "make" can be
made out of "cause to be".

"let" seems less primary that "permit", since
"ne-permit" can be "forbid".

"give" would be better served with "relinquish" which,
with appropriate prefixes, could be voluntary (to give
X) or involuntary (to have X stolen), which gives it
more versatility.

Even relinquish can be thought of as un-have, and get
would be cause to have.  If we had another set of
prefixes to indicate the beginning of a condition,
sustaining a condition, and the end of a condition
then "begin-have" is aquire/get/take and "end-have" is
relinquish/give/lose.

"go" and "come" specify direction of motion.  Only one
motion verb "move" is necessary since we can specify
direction with a preposition.

I would ad a prefix for causative tense, eliminating
the need for "cause" as a seperate verb.

come = move toward
go = move away
take = volitional or intentional begin-have or
cause-begin-have
send = to cause to go somewhere
put = the act of moving something from one location to
another and could be expressed that way: I moved the
book to the table instead of I put the book on the
table.
be -- Ogden meant for this to be both the copula and
the verb to exist.  I would argue that they should be
two seperate verbs.
say -- could be cause words with mouth, so it is not
primary, but it is convenient.
seem coud be replaced with "the appearance is
that...", but it is very convenient.

So my list of six primary verbs and four convenient
but not primary verbs would be:

move, permit, exist, be, do, have + seem, say, see,
hear

with the prefixes for intentional/unintentional,
voluntary/involuntary, begin/sustain/end the state,
causative, un- and ne-, we can redefine Ogden's
primary verbs in this way:

come = move toward
get = begin-have
give = end-have-intentional
go = move away
keep = sustain-have
let = permit
make = cause to exist
put = move to
seem = the appearance is that ...
take = begin-have-intentional
be = exist or be if copula
do = do
have = have
say = say
see = see
send = cause-move

And since Ogden has shown that virtually every other
verb can be made from his set it follows that every
other verb can be made from this set of six verbs.