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Auxiliary verbs

This grammar article aims to clear some basic concepts of helping verbs or auxiliary verbs which are used along with the main verb. When used with main verb, auxiliary verbs are also used in questions, passive voice sentences and negatives. There are 3 auxiliary verbs – be, have and do.  Let’s talk about each of them one by one –


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  Ramya Shankar  —  Grammar Tips
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BE

‘To be’ means to exist. ‘Be’ can be used in many ways.

·    To form continuous tenses – present, past, future – be takes the form of am, is, are, was, were, will be –

o   I am going to the park.

o   This machine is not working.

o   We were waiting for your call.

o   She will be moving to Nevada next month

Note that in all the sentences, the main verb is the action verb – going, working, waiting, moving. The forms of ‘be’ give the support to indicate correct tense.

·    To introduce a person

o   Moni is a doctor.

o   They are famous players.

o   Tom was an IT professional before he became a teacher.

 

The present participle of be is being and the past participle is been. These are used as following -

 

·    Perfect tenses

o   I have been trying to reach her since morning.

·    Main verb (been)

o   I had been away for over 6 months.

o   Looks like someone had been here, when we were away.

·    Passive voice

o   She was being taken to the hospital in a car.

·    Here are some more examples of usage of ‘be’

o   For the time being, let’s only focus on one aspect.

o   It has to be done in a different way.

o   Human beings are very selfish, that’s why they are cutting down trees to build more enterprises.

HAVE

Have means to own something. For example, I have a washing machine means I own one. The past tense of has/have is had. Have is also commonly used as a replacement for eat or drink. For example, I have had my dinner in place of I have eaten my dinner.

‘Have’ as an auxiliary verb supports the main verb and indicates the tense and voice of the sentence.

·    I have taken all the documents from them.

·   We had gone to the bank today.

·   Tom could have come here for group study.

In all the above examples, have/had/has is used as an auxiliary verb. Remember whenever have/has/had is seen with another action verb, this means have is an auxiliary verb in that sentence.

‘Have/has/had toindicates obligation. He has to take a train to come here.

 

DO

Do, when used as an auxiliary
verb, is accompanied a main action verb. Do can be used to

·    Add emphasis to a statement. For example, I do have some cookies.

·   Form negatives and interrogatives – He did not (didn’t) complete the assignment. Did he not (Didn’t he) complete the assignment?

·   To avoid repetition – Do you know him? Yes, I do (in place of saying yes, I know him.

More examples

·    Do you have a pen? – note that here the main verb is ‘have’ (which means to own) and the auxiliary verb is do.

·    I don’t like her attitude. – Like is the main verb.

·    Sam is doing his homework. (Note that in this sentence, ‘do’ is the main action verb and ‘be’ in the form of ‘is’ depicts the helping verb.)

·    I have done all the exercises. – here ‘have’ is the auxiliary verb and ‘done’ is the main verb.

 

Thanks for reading. Hope you found this article useful.


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