List Of Helping Verbs Pdf Rating: 4,3/5 1307 votes

Auxiliary verbs, also known as helping verbs, add functional or grammatical meaning to the clauses in which they appear. They perform their functions in several different ways: • By expressing tense ( providing a time reference, i.e. Past, present, or future) • Grammatical aspect (expresses how verb relates to the flow of time) • Modality (quantifies verbs) • Voice (describes the relationship between the action expressed by the verb and the participants identified by the verb’s subject, object, etc.) • Adds emphasis to a sentence Auxiliary verbs almost always appear together with a main verb, and though there are only a few of them, they are among the most frequently occurring verbs in the English language.

How to Identify an Auxiliary Verb You probably know that every sentence has at least one verb in it. There are two main types of verbs. Action verbs are used to depict activities that are doable, and linking verbs are used to describe conditions.

List Of Helping Verbs

Both action verbs and linking verbs can accompany auxiliary verbs including the three main ones: do, be, and have. Sometimes actions or conditions occur only one time and then they’re over.

It’s at times like these that some of the same verbs that are used as auxiliary verbs are instead used as action or linking verbs. In this example, we see the word “is”.

Use main and helping verbs in your writing. Lily, Frank, and I joining a neighborhood swimming team. Weighed had 6. Surprise will 11. Forgetting was 2. Expected have 7. Urging are 12. Cheering were 3. Becoming is 8. Flying is 13. Linking Verbs is seems be am becomes been are feels being was appears were. Helping Verbs is has does can could must be are have do will would may been.

This is one of the most common auxiliary verbs, but because it stands alone here, it is not functioning as an auxiliary verb. Jerry slammed the car door on his thumb. He is in horrible pain.

Verbs

“Is” is a linking verb in this sentence. Because it stands alone, it is not an auxiliary verb. At other times, an action or condition is ongoing, happening predictably, or occurring in relationship to another event or set of events. In these cases, single-word verbs like is are not accurately capable of describing what happened, so phrases that include auxiliary verbs are used instead. These can be made up of anywhere from two to four words. A main verb, also known as a base verb, indicates the kind of action or condition taking place.

An auxiliary or helping verb accompanies the main verb and conveys other nuances that help the reader gain specific insight into the event that is taking place. Read the following sentences and explanations to gain greater insight into how auxiliary verbs work.

• Jerry caught his thumb in the car door as coffee spilled from his cup onto his favorite shirt. • Jerry is always spilling things. • Since Jerry is also accident prone, he should have been drinking coffee from a mug with a lid, which would not have spilled on his favorite shirt.

List of helping verbs pdf

In sentence one, caught and spilled, single-word verbs, describe quick, one-time actions of both Jerry and his messy coffee. This sentence does not contain an auxiliary verb. Since Jerry often has unfortunate accidents, is spilling communicates the frequency of his clumsy actions in sentence two. In sentence three, the auxiliary verbs that make up should have been drinking and would have stained express time relationships as well as an evaluation of Jerry’s actions. Three Common Auxiliary Verbs There are just three common auxiliary verbs: • Have • • Be In this section, we’ll take a closer look at how these common verbs work, plus you’ll see some examples. Have “Have” is a very important verb that can stand alone in all its tenses, including has, have, having, had, and hadn’t or had not. It is usually used to denote ownership, and it can also be used to discuss ability or describe appearance.

List Of Helping Verbs Sentence Main Verb

“Have” is also a very popular substitute for the verbs “eat” and “drink.” For example: “Let’s have dinner.” When used as an auxiliary verb, have is always teamed up with another verb to create a complete verb phrase, making it easy to differentiate between uses. You can see the difference in the sentences below: • Jerry has a large coffee stain on his shirt. → Has = action verb • Jerry has bought a new shirt to replace the one that was ruined earlier.