Section 10.1 Auxiliary Verbs
Consider the difference between She eats and She has been eating. Both sentences have the same main verb, but the second tells you something the first does not: that the eating started in the past and is still ongoing. The words doing that extra work—has and been—are auxiliary verbs. You cannot understand how English verb phrases are built without understanding how auxiliaries function, because they are the building blocks that tense, aspect, voice, and modality all depend on.
Auxiliary verbs (also called helping verbs) combine with main verbs to create complex verb phrases. They add grammatical information about tense, aspect, voice, and modality.
Auxiliary vs. Main Verb.
Main verb (lexical verb): Carries the primary meaning
Auxiliary verb: Adds grammatical information
“She has eaten dinner.”
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Auxiliary: has (adds perfect aspect)
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Main verb: eaten (the action)
“The book was written by Maria.”
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Auxiliary: was (adds passive voice)
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Main verb: written (the action)
Types of Auxiliaries.
Primary auxiliaries: be, have, do
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Form progressive, perfect, and passive constructions
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Can also be main verbs
Modal auxiliaries: can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, might, must
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Add modality (possibility, necessity, permission, etc.)
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Covered in Chapter 11
