Auxiliary verbs are essential components in the structure of English sentences, playing a crucial role in shaping the tense, aspect, mood, and voice of the main verbs. They assist in forming various grammatical constructions and are integral to adhering to language rules. Auxiliary verbs, in combination with main verbs, convey different shades of meaning and temporal contexts, thereby enhancing the clarity of communication.
Definition: Auxiliary verbs
Auxiliary verbs, also known as helping or helper verbs, are verbs that accompany a main verb to help express its tense, mood, voice, or aspect. They are essential in forming various sentence structures, including questions, negative forms, and complex verb tenses. Auxiliary verbs fall into two main categories: primary auxiliary verbs and modal auxiliary verbs. They are both indispensable in English grammar, enabling the construction of complex verb phrases that convey precise meanings and adhere to specific language rules. The primary auxiliary verbs in their infinitive form are “to be,” “to have,” and “to do,” and are adjusted to the conjugated form, depending on the grammatical moods, tense, aspect, and voice of a sentence.
Note: The negative form of sentences that include auxiliary verbs typically follows this structure:
Auxiliary verb + “not”
Primary auxiliary verbs
- Be – Used to form continuous tenses and passive voice.
- Have – Used to form perfect tenses.
- Do – Used to form questions, negatives, and emphatic statements.
Modal auxiliary verbs
- Can – Expresses ability or possibility.
- Could – Expresses past ability or polite requests.
- May – Expresses permission or possibility.
- Might – Expresses a weaker possibility.
- Must – Expresses necessity or strong obligation.
- Shall – Expresses future intention or offers.
- Should – Expresses advice or expectation.
- Will – Expresses future intention or willingness.
- Would – Expresses polite requests or hypothetical situations.
Modal auxiliary verbs
Modal auxiliary verbs, often simply called modals or modal verbs, are a type of auxiliary verb used to express necessity, possibility, permission, ability, and other related concepts. Their main distinction from primary auxiliary verbs is that they add meaning to the infinitive verbs in a sentence without changing its form. That said, modal auxiliary verbs are always in their bare infinitive form without the “to.”
For their negative form, modal auxiliary verbs are followed by the word “not.” Modal auxiliary verbs are crucial for expressing a range of meanings and nuances in English, helping to convey the speaker’s intent and the likelihood or necessity of actions and events. Modal verbs can be further categorized into deontic modal verbs and epistemic modal verbs. Implementing these types of modality can help differentiate between necessity and certainty, which are elaborated on in the following.
Deontic modality
Deontic modality conveys necessity, obligation, permission, or prohibition using modal auxiliary verbs. These types of verb, deal with what is allowed, required, or forbidden according to rules, laws, personal duties, and social norms. In essence, deontic modality revolves around the speaker’s attitude toward the desirability or necessity of an action or condition. Common modal auxiliary verbs that are used to express deontic modality are:
- Must (obligation)
- Should (suggestion)
- Can (permission)
- May (formal permission)
- Shall (formal command)
Epistemic modality
Epistemic modality describes the use of modal auxiliary verbs to express the speaker’s judgment about the likelihood, truth, or certainty of a proposition. It deals with the speaker’s assessment of knowledge, belief, or evidence regarding a state or event. In essence, epistemic modality revolves around how certain or uncertain the speaker is about the information that is being conveyed. Common modal auxiliary verbs that are used to express epistemic modality are:
- Must (higher degree of certainty)
- Should (probability)
- Might (low degree of possibility)
- May (stronger degree of possibility)
- Could (theoretical possibility)
Negative sentences
When sentences that include auxiliary verbs are negated, the sentence structure takes on another form. Creating these negative structures generally involves placing the word “not” after auxiliary verbs. The following examples show how auxiliary verbs are used to form negative sentences, adding clarity to communication by indicating what is not the case or what is not allowed, expected, or possible.
Interrogative sentences
To form interrogative sentences with auxiliary verbs, the auxiliary verbs are placed at the initial position of the sentence, followed by the subject, main verb, and the question mark. The following examples illustrate how auxiliary verbs are used to create questions about actions, states, permissions, possibilities, obligations, etc.
Examples
Based on the list of auxiliary verbs in the definition section, the following shows examples of using these modal auxiliary verbs in different sentence structures.
Can
Could
May
Might
Must
Shall
Should
Will
Would
Verb tenses
Auxiliary verbs are essential for forming various verb tenses in English. Helping verbs are used alongside main verbs to create tenses, grammatical voice, mood, and aspect, to help convey when an action occurs, its duration, completion, and other nuances. Aspect in grammar refers to the nature of the action described by the verb, particularly in terms of its completeness, duration, or repetition. The main aspects in English are simple, continuous (progressive), perfect, and perfect continuous. The following sections present an overview of different verb tenses and aspects using auxiliary verbs, along with examples.
Present tenses
Present tenses in English typically entail action verbs that are currently happening, generally true, or habitual states. These tenses include the present simple, present continuous, present perfect, and present perfect continuous. Understanding auxiliary verb constructions in forming these tenses is crucial for mastering English grammar and accurately expressing various time frames and actions.
The present simple tense does not use auxiliary verb constructions for affirmative sentences. However, for the negative from and interrogative mood, it uses the auxiliary verb “to do.”
The present continuous is a progressive tense used to describe ongoing actions that are currently happening or to refer to temporary actions. It is formed with the auxiliary verb “to be” followed by the present participle form of the main verb.
The present perfect tense is implemented to describe actions that happened at an unspecified time in the past or an ongoing action that started before now. The auxiliary verb constructions for this tense include “to have” and the past participle form of the main verb.
As the name already says, the present perfect continuous is also a progressive tense, referring to ongoing actions that started in the past and are still continuing or have recently been completed. This tense is often used to emphasize on the duration of an action. This progressive tense of the present perfect is typically constructed with the auxiliary verb “to have,” followed by “been,” and the present participle of the main verb (verb + -ing).
Past tenses
Past tenses refer to states or actions that happened at some point in the past. There are various types of past tenses with varying auxiliary verb constructions, each with its usage to convey different nuances of past actions. These tenses are crucial for accurately expressing the timing and sequence of past events for effective communication. The main past tenses are the past simple, past continuous (progressive), past perfect, and past perfect continuous.
The past simple is used to describe completed actions or conditions that occurred at a specific time in the past. Affirmative sentences with the past simple do not include an auxiliary verb, but the main verb is in the past tense, while the negative and interrogative forms include the auxiliary verb “to do” in its past tense (did) followed by the infinitive form of the main verb.
The past continuous is a progressive tense that describes ongoing actions that were in progress at a specific time in the past. It is formed with the auxiliary verb “to be” in its conjugated form “was/were,” plus the present participle of the main verb.
The past perfect tense refers to actions that were completed before another action or time in the past. It is constructed with the auxiliary verb “to have” in the past tense, “had,” and the past participle form of the main verb.
The past perfect continuous tense describes ongoing actions that were in progress up to a certain point in the past, or actions that were ongoing before another past action. It is formed with the auxiliary verb “to have” inflected as “had been” and the present participle of the main verb (+ “-ing”).
Future tenses
Future tenses play a vital role in indicating actions or conditions that will happen at some point in the future. The modal auxiliary verb “will” is an essential part of constructing future tenses. There are four main future tenses, each conveying different nuances about the timing, duration, and nature of future actions.
The future simple tense is used to convey actions that will happen at a specific point in the future or express a spontaneous prediction or decision. It is formed with the modal auxiliary verb “will” followed by the base form of the main verb.
The continuous form of the future tense describes actions that will be in progress at a specific time in the future. Its structure is formed with the auxiliary verb construction “will be” and the present participle, or “-ing” form, of the main verb, representing the action.
The future perfect tense expresses actions that will have already been completed by a specific point in the future. This tense includes the auxiliary verb construction “will have” in combination with the main verb in its past participle form.
The future perfect continuous is also a progressive tense, conveying actions that will have been in progress for a certain duration by a specific point in the future. It is formed by the auxiliary verb construction “will have been” and the present participle of the main verb, describing the action.
Conditional tenses
Conditional tenses are used to describe actions that are dependent on certain conditions. They express hypothetical situations, potential outcomes, and their consequences. There are various types of conditional sentences, each serving different purposes and including different types of verbs and auxiliary verbs.
Present conditional
The present conditional tense, also known as the first conditional, is used to refer to realistic or possible future events that are likely to occur if the condition is met. The structure consists of the word “if,” the modal auxiliary verb “will,” and the base form of the main verb.
Past conditional
The past conditional tense, also known as the second conditional, is used to reflect on past events that did not occur and to imagine different outcomes that could have resulted if those events had occurred differently. This type of conditional tense typically expresses hypothetical alternatives, regret, or critical thinking about past decisions and their outcomes. It is formed with the auxiliary verb construction “would have” and the past participle of the main verb.
Use
Apart from tenses and aspects, auxiliary verbs are also an important component in constructing grammatical mood and voice. The mood in grammar conveys the attitude between the narrator and the action verb. In English, there are three main moods:
- Indicative
- Imperative
- Subjunctive
Grammatical voice implies whether the subject of the sentence is performing the action or receiving the action. There are two types of voices in English grammar:
- Active voice
- Passive voice
The upcoming sections delve into how auxiliary verbs contribute to mood and voice in context.
Mood
As mentioned above, the grammatical mood indicates the attitude of the speaker towards the action of the verb. The mood in sentence structures can be distinguished between the indicative mood, imperative mood, and subjunctive mood.
Indicative mood
The indicative mood is used for factual statements, questions, or opinions. It is the most commonly applied mood in English and includes past, present, and future tenses.
Imperative mood
The imperative mood indicates commands, requests, and instructions. It commonly uses the infinitive form of the main verb and omits the subject in the sentence structure; however, auxiliary verbs are involved in instructions or polite requests.
Subjunctive mood
To express wishes, hypothetical situations, demands, suggestions, or conditions contrary to fact or not necessarily real, the subjunctive mood is applied. It is typically used in formal contexts and can be quite subtle in its use.
Voice
In active voice vs. passive voice, auxiliary verbs are integral in English grammar. The choice of voice can change the focus of a sentence from the subject performing the action to the action being executed on the subject.
Active voice
When the subject of the context in a sentence executes the action described by the main verb, the active voice is used. This is the most direct and common way to construct sentences. Here are several examples of the active voice in various verb tenses.
The active voice in combination with the present continuous typically includes the auxiliary verb “to be” in its respective conjugated form.
An active voice sentence in the present perfect tense is constructed with the primary auxiliary verb “to have” and the main verb in the past participle.
Similar to the present continuous, the past continuous in the active voice is formed with the auxiliary “to be” in the past tense and respective conjugated form.
The active voice in a past perfect sentence, is built with the auxiliary verb “to have” in the past tense and the past participle of the main verb.
For the simple future tense in the active voice, the auxiliary verbs “will,” “shall,” and “going to” are generally used followed by the infinitive of the main verb to indicate actions that will take place in the future.
The active voice in sentences in the future continuous tense is constructed with the auxiliary verb “will,” followed by the word “be,” and the present participle of the main verb.
Passive voice
In the passive voice, the focus shifts from the subject to the action itself or the recipient of the action. In this grammatical voice, the subject is oftentimes left out or added at the end of the sentence, preceded by the word “by.” Below are examples of the passive voice in different tenses.
In the active voice, the simple present does not involve any auxiliary verbs; however, in the passive voice, the auxiliary “to be” is used before the main verb of the action.
For the present continuous, the passive voice entails the auxiliary “to be” in the conjugated form “is/are being,” preceding the main action verb.
A passive voice sentence in the present perfect tense is constructed with the primary auxiliary verb “to have” with the verb “to be” in the past tense before the main verb in the past participle.
Unlike in the active voice, the passive voice in the simple past tense, uses the auxiliary “to be” in the past tense before the main verb.
The passive voice in the past continuous tense uses the auxiliary verb constructions “was being” and “were being” followed by the action verb in the past participle.
For the past perfect in the passive voice, the auxiliary verb construction “had been” followed by the action verb in the past participle, is used.
Overview
For a better overview, the following table compares the active voice and passive voice in the various tenses with example sentences.
Emphasis
Auxiliary verbs also have the special role of adding emphasis to a statement, particularly with the verb “to do” and its conjugated forms. This type of emphasis can be used to affirm something strongly, correct a misconception, or express surprise or insistence. The auxiliary verb “do/does/did” is placed before the main verb for emphasis, making statements more forceful and clearer. For the third-person singular, you use the conjugated form “does,” while the first and second-person singular, as well as the plural forms, use “do.” In sentences with the past tenses, you used the conjugated form “did.” Here is how to use auxiliary verbs for emphasis.
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FAQs
Auxiliary verbs are helping verbs that are used alongside main verbs to construct different tenses, aspects, moods, and voices, and to add emphasis. Therefore, auxiliary verbs are essential for forming accurate and meaningful sentences.
The main auxiliary verbs, also called primary auxiliary verbs, are “to do,” “to have,” and “to be,” in their respective conjugated form.
Here is a list of verbs that indicate modality:
- Can
- Could
- May
- Might
- Must
- Shall
- Should
- Will
- Would
Here are examples sentences for each auxiliary verb:
- I was running a lot faster yesterday.
- He has finished his assignment.
- They did not come to the party.
- I will call you when I arrive at the airport.
In an auxiliary verb construction, we typically find an auxiliary verb in combination with a main verb in various conjugated forms, depending on tense, mood, voice, aspect, and modality.