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Auxiliary (Helping) Verbs
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Auxiliary verbs are used together with other
verbs to help them express particular
grammatical functions or meanings
(e.g. to make questions, or to form tenses)
In English, a lot of important meanings are
expressed by changes in the verb, e.g.
questioning, negation, time, completion,
continuation, repetition, willingness, possibility,
obligation.
But in English verbs do not have many different
forms. The maximum (except for BE) is 5. So
express these meanings, a number of auxiliary
verbs are used. There are 2 groups:
1. Do, Be and Have
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DO is used to make questions and
negative forms of simple tenses, and for
other purposes.
BE is used with participles (-ing & -ed
forms) to make progressive and passive
verb-forms.
HAVE is used to make perfect verb-forms
Do, Be & Have also have other “nonauxiliary” uses. (They carry literal
meanings)
2. The “Model Auxiliary”
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Can, Could, May, Might, Must, Will, Would,
Shall, Should, Ought and Need.
They have special grammatical features
(e.g. they have no infinitive, and the third
person singular has no –s)
Most model verbs have not only a
grammatical function, but also a
“dictionary meaning”:
e.g. Must can mean “be obliged to”
Note:
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Do, Be and Have do not really have
“meanings” of this kind when they are
used as auxiliary verbs
When Will and Would are used to make
future and conditional verb-forms, they
do the same kind of job as BE and HAVE.
However, grammatically speaking, will
and would belong with the “models”.
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In general, auxiliary verbs form questions
and negatives without “do”
If they are followed by an infinitive, “to”
is not used.
(Ought to is an exception)
Ordinary verbs like want, hope, except,
like, practice, like, practice, which are
followed by the to-infinitive or –ing form
of other verbs, are not often considered
as auxiliary verbs.