REGISTRATION NUMBER DUS/ENG/2018/0020

DEPARTMENT ENGLISH EDUCATION

COURSE CODE ENG 300
COURSE TITLE THE VERBAL GROUP IN ENGLISH.

ASSIGNMENT:

Discuss in detail the three auxiliary verbs.

INTRODUCTION

Just like nouns, verbs are an essential part of any sentence. Without either, you
cannot express a complete thought. However, there are some types of verbs whose
purpose is to “help” other verbs. These verbs are called auxiliary verbs.

Auxiliary verbs cannot exist by themselves in a sentence; they must be connected

to another verb. These “helping” verbs can connect to both action and linking
verbs in order to add tense, mood, voice, and modality to these verbs.

What is an auxiliary verb?

An auxiliary verb “helps” the main verb of the sentence by adding tense, mood,
voice, or modality to the main verb. Auxiliary verbs cannot stand alone in
sentences; they have to be connected to a main verb to make sense.

For example, a sentence that used the auxiliary verb, could, would also need a
main verb for this helping verb to make sense.

Look at the following incorrect sentence:

“She could not whether she wanted to dye her hair blue or purple.”

Something is missing, right? There is the auxiliary verb, could, and an adverb, not,
but we need the main verb, decide, for the auxiliary verb to do its job in the
sentence.

The sentence should read: “She could not decide whether she wanted to dye her
hair blue or purple.”
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The auxiliary verb helps the reader understand that the girl in the sentence was
unable to make a decision. The main verb cannot express this indecision without
the help of the auxiliary verb.

When it comes to auxiliary verbs, 23 auxiliary verbs stand out. The "Big Three"
auxiliary verbs are "be," "have" and "do" in all their forms. But, there are also a
few other auxiliary verbs called modal auxiliary verbs. Let's look at the big three
auxiliary verbs.

Big Three Auxiliary verbs

The big three auxiliary verbs are "be," "have" and "do" in all their forms.

Do as an auxiliary verb

Do is one of the most common auxiliary verbs in English and it can be difficult for
students because you often do not use this in your own language. We use do/does
to make a question or a negative except with be, will and modal verbs.

For questions:

you like Chocolate?

Does your friend like Maths?

Where did you go last night?

Did you remember to feed the dog yesterday?

Do you want to have another one?

Did he finish his homework?

Do we need to keep going straight?

For Negative sentences:

I don’t like pizza.

I didn’t watch the match.

I do not know the truth.

She doesn’t agree with me.

They didn’t arrive here yet.

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In these examples, you can see that it is easier to understand that these sentences
are not positive sentences. In other languages, we often use intonation to show that
a sentence is a question.

Have as an auxiliary verb

Have usually means possession. I have a car.

But, when we use “have” as an auxiliary, then it shows that we are using a perfect
tense

For Perfect tenses

Examples:

Present perfect simple: I have seen that movie.

Present perfect continuous: I have been going to the gym a lot recently.Past perfect
simple: I had saved money for years before I went to college

perfect continuous: I had been running all morning and that was the reason I was
tired.

You can see that in the present perfect continuous, we need the auxiliaries to be
and to have and the main verb is “to go”. This is because we use have (to show a
perfect tense) and be (to show a continuous tense)

Used in perfect sentences:

I have been following you for a mile.

We have done a lot so far.

She had been queen of the town.

Be" as an auxiliary verb

a.Used in progressive sentences:

I am taking a bath.

She is preparing dinner for us.

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They have been studying all night.

b. Used in passive sentences:

I was given a free meal.

He was seen by fans at the airport.

This song has been sung by all nations.

CONCLUSIONS

An auxiliary verb is also known as a helping verb. This means that the auxiliary
verb helps the main verb so we can write in different tenses, moods, and voices. In
English there are big three auxiliaries. Below they are and examples:

BE verbs: is, are, am, was, were

HAVE verbs: have, has, had

DO verbs: do, does, did

MODAL Verbs: will, would, shall, should, may, might, can, could, must, need,
dare and ought to!

REFERENCE

Contemporary English Grammar For Scholars And Student by J. D. Murthy

https://oneminuteenglish.org/en/auxiliary-verbs-be-do-have.

Talkenglish.com

The Farlex Grammar Book by Peter Herring.

www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/be-do-and-have-auxiliary-verbs