Welcome to the lesson in which we will talk about how to use auxiliary verbs in English (auxiliary verbs)... Let us analyze in detail each of the auxiliary verbs, see in what tenses these or those verbs are used and be sure to consider examples of their use in English sentences... Auxiliary verbs include the following verbs: do / does, did, am / are / is, was / were, have / has.
Auxiliary verbs are used with interrogative and negative sentences to correctly indicate the time when an action will occur. Auxiliary verbs are not always needed. Below we will look at everything in order.
When are auxiliary verbs not used in English?
If you see the words will, can, be in a sentence, then auxiliary verbs are not used when posing an interrogative sentence.
I will call you day after tomorrow. - I'll call you the day after tomorrow.
Will I call you day after tomorrow? - I'll call you the day after tomorrow?
The verb will already indicates that the action will take place in the future, so no auxiliary verbs are required here.
I can help you. - I can help you.
Can I help you? - I can help you?
Here we are addressing the present tense with the verb can, so an auxiliary verb is not required.
Her address is not found. - Her address was not found.
What is her address? - What's her address?
We used the verb to be in the present tense, that is, the tense has already been determined, so in such cases the use of auxiliary verbs is not necessary.
Using auxiliary verbs in English
The auxiliary verb do (for I, you, we, they) / does (for he, she, it) are used for Present Simple tense.
Do you like New York? - Do you like New York?
Does he like Moscow? - Does he like Moscow?
The auxiliary verb did is used for the Past Simple tense.
What did she say? - What she said?
Did you ask anythng? - Did you ask something?
The auxiliary verb am (for I) / are (for they, you) / is (for he, she, it) is used for Present Continuos.
Are you coming back to home? - Are you coming home?
Is he going to the movies? - Is he going to the cinema?
The auxiliary verb was (for singular) / were (for plural) is used for Past Continuos (past continuous tense).
What was she doing? - What did she do?
What were we doing? - What did we do?
Numerous (auxiliary verbs) play important role... With the help of these words, verb tenses are formed, in addition to the simplest affirmative forms Simple Present and Past. Other language constructions, more complex, require their mandatory presence. Good exercise for foreign language learners - to restore the missing additional words.
Auxiliary verbs in English serve a double function. Sometimes they are used as basic vocabulary units: “to be”, “to do”, “to have”. English-speaking people use them much more often with a generalized designation of actions and states than Russian-speaking ones.
What are the auxiliary verbs in English?
We immediately note that auxiliary verbs in English- wrong. The standard -ed ending is not appended to them. This fact reflects wide and private use. Rarely used ones tend to go from incorrect to correct, which is fixed over time by dictionaries and official rules.
To be (am, are, is, was, were, been)
In Russian it translates as "to be", although it is rarely used in its main meaning. But as it is more common than others. It also differs in a variety of word forms. V singular present time: am - 1st person, is - 3rd person. For the first and third person in the past - was. Also used:
- are - plural of present tense;
- were - plural number of the past tense;
- being - gerund;
- been - Past Participle, or the third vocabulary form in verb tables.
To be is used in the following cases:
- for Continuous Tense education:
- for education different types Passive.
In Continuous, it is substituted before the main action, expressed by a gerund. Examples:
- I am speaking;
- She is reading;
- We are writing;
- I was listening;
- He was sitting;
- You were playing;
- They were studying.
In the passive, to be also constantly occurs. It will help you better understand how they are used auxiliary verbs in english table passive declensions:
| Tense: | Example: |
| Present indefinite | Glass is broken - glass is broken |
| Past indefinite | John was disturbed - John was disturbed |
| Future indefinite | Mary will be accepted - Mary will be accepted |
| Present continuous | We are being defeated - we are being defeated |
| Past Continuous | You were being examinated - you were examined |
| Future continuous | They will be being listened - they will be listened to |
| Present perfect | Our team has been defeated - our team has been defeated (recently) |
| Past perfect | Your class had been examinated - your class was examined (long ago) |
| Future perfect | Their voices will have been heard - their voices will be heard |
To do (do, does, did)
This auxiliary verb is used in at least 6 different senses in English.
- Interrogative or negative sentences c.
Do you visit your parents? - do you visit your parents?
Does she play guitar? - does she play guitar?
Did they study at university? - did they go to university?
We don’t know.
I didn’t drink beer.
V colloquial speech abbreviations are widely used:
- d'you - from do you;
- don’t - from do not;
- doesn’t - from does not;
- didn’t - from did not.
"Does" is used exclusively in the 3rd person Present Indefinite singular (with the pronouns He, She, It or more complex subjects). “Did” - in Past Indefinite, for any person and number. These are placed before the basic infinitives, without the to particle.
- Negative imperative.
Don’t speak, please! - please stop talking!
- Gives the phrase more meaning, expresses strong feelings, an insistent invitation or emotional request.
We do believe you - we believe you.
I did hear it - I (nevertheless) heard it.
Do help us! - help us!
This emphasis can be replaced by the words surely, definitely, certainly, absolutely and please. To strengthen the meaning of the statement, they also use the gerund "doing" for continuous actions. She was doing playing - she (all the same) played.
- In short sentences expressing confirmation, negation or addition. Usually as an answer to a more complete question when the context is already known to the speaker.
- Yes, he did.
- No, she doesn’t.
- They like football and so do we.
- You stay in London but we don’t.
- In dividing issues (Simple Present and Past).
- He studies russian, doesn’t he?
- She didn’t works, did she?
Here one part (before the comma or after) is negative, the other is affirmative.
- Expresses satisfaction, sufficiency, or suitability. To understand what a short phrase refers to, you need to know the previous context.
- Will this do?
- That will do.
To have (have, has, had)
In addition to the main meaning "to have" and certain stable phrases, to have is used to form the perfect time. All perfect constructs contain have, has (present or future) or had (past or as Past Participle).
Below is for clarity, how are used auxiliary verbs in English, table with examples (Perfect everywhere):
Here the subject performs an active action.
In Perfect Continuous, the sentence structure changes:
Examples of passive verb declensions in perfect were given above, in the section on "to be".
"Has" is used only in the 3rd person present tense. "Had" is either Past Indefinite for all numbers and persons, or Past Participle.
Shall (should)
For the education of the future tense shall not even used in Britain anymore ... In America, this use ended much earlier. Now this auxiliary verb in English left behind fewer functions.
- When asking for advice or making an offer.
- Where shall we buy drinks?
- Shall you visit us tomorrow?
- In dividing matters (without let’s).
- I will call you, shall I?
- Indication, order, permission or prohibition.
- All students shall take places.
- Assumption or Intention.
They shall have done - differs from the neutral saying “They will have done” by the obligation to take an action.
Should apply in several other situations.
- When giving advice.
- You should come to the school.
- A reminder of duty and responsibility.
- We should send letter to our friend.
- Expectation and hope.
- I should have come later.
- In a conditional unlikely sentence.
- If you should visit London ...
Will (would)
With will, the future tense of all verb declensions is formed. Would is used in "future in the past" tense and in the subjunctive mood.
Also these auxiliary verbs in English express:
- intention or consent;
- order - You will say your friend ...;
- a polite request or question - Will you give them ...
In addition, will can express persistence (with negation).
- The pencil will not write - the pencil (in any way) does not write.
In turn, would are used to describe familiar events in the past: - She would always greet us. Also with stubborn denial: - He would not listen our advices.
Common abbreviations:
- will not - abbreviated won’t;
- would not - abbreviated wouldn't.
Outcome
The above have been considered auxiliary verbs in English... A little learning of the theory is useful for their better and correct application. With a good knowledge of a foreign speech, language constructions with them are already perceived automatically, and a person does not think exactly how he speaks.
A verb is an action part of speech. There are two kinds of verbs in English: semantic and auxiliary... Semantic ones carry a certain meaning, that is, they denote an action or state. For example: wait, love, miss, run.
What are auxiliary verbs for? What are they? When theyare used and who do they help? I’ll tell you now.
What are auxiliary verbs for?
Subsidiary verbs have no meaning and are not translated in any way. They act as pointers that help us determine:
- Time of what is happening (present, future, past),
- The number of actors (many or one).
The following auxiliary verbs exist in English: be, do, have... We'll dwell on each of them in more detail later, but for now let's figure out what an "auxiliary verb" is.
As in Russian?
It is very difficult for Russian people to understand what an "auxiliary verb" is and why it was invented at all. In fact, everything is very simple. In Russian, in order to understand at what time an action is performed and who is performing it, we change the endings.
... ghoul la- tells us that there was one person (woman) and in the past (yesterday or some time ago) she went outside and breathed air for a while.
... ghoul no- tells us that one person in the present went out into the street and breathes air for some time (now).
... ghoul eat- tells us that many people in the present have gone out and breathed air for some time (now).
As you can see, in Russian we change the word itself (ending) and thanks to this we understand who and when did the action.
How is it in English?
The English (fortunately for us) are too lazy to change words, because then their language would be very difficult. So they decided they would put extra little words front actions. These small words will show the time and the number of people who perform the action.
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In this case, we change only the small words (auxiliary verbs) before the actions, and not the verbs themselves. Let's take a look at how this happens.
Let's take a semantic verb swim(more precisely, its swimming form).
Swimming in the pool.
___ ______ swim (-y / -yu / -em / -y / -yut) in the pool
We understand WHAT a person / people do - he rakes the water with his hands in order to stay on it and not drown. But can we understand WHEN a person / people are doing this? Yesterday? Today now? Tomorrow? And can we understand how many people are doing this action? One? Or more than one? No.
Now let's add the auxiliary verb be:
am swimming
float Ayu
are swimming
float ayut
were swimming
float ali
will be swimming
I will floating be
We now see that:
- In the first case, a person talks about himself, and the action takes place in the present moment, now ( am swimming)
- in the second, we are talking about several people (more than one) and in the present tense ( are swimming)
- in the third case, we have the past tense, that is, the action was yesterday or was already, and a lot of people ( were swimming)
- in the fourth, we are talking about the future tense ( will be swimming)
We do not translate the auxiliary verb, but it helps us in the correct tense and number to translate the semantic verb, paired with it.
By the way, in Russian there is still one auxiliary verb. You all know him - this word will be. When we talk about the future, we say “I will, it will be, we will be”. This is what points us to the future.
I AM I will dance all night.
We we will to swim.
What auxiliary verbs are there in English?
As I said, there are not so many auxiliary verbs in English: do, have, be. These verbs can also be semantic and have a meaning:
- do - to do,
- have - to have,
- be - to be.
Important: I will say again that we consider these verbs as auxiliary. Therefore, they are not translated. Let's compare sentences in examples.
He is a doctor.
He is an doctor. (Here be is a semantic verb. It carries the meaning “to be, to be”.)
He is going to a doctor.
He goes to the doctor. (Here be is an auxiliary verb - it helps to understand that the action (the semantic verb "go") is currently taking place)
They have a cat.
They have cat. (Here have is a semantic verb. It carries the meaning “to have, to own”.)
They have fed a cat already.
They have fed the cat already. (Here have is an auxiliary verb. It helps to understand that the action (to feed) has already been completed recently.)
I do my homework.
I AM doing my homework. (Here do is a semantic verb. It carries the meaning of "to do".)
Do you learn English?
Do you learn English? (Here do is an auxiliary verb. It helps to understand that the action (learning) is currently taking place.)
Auxiliary verb be
Now we will look at all forms of auxiliary verbs in different tenses: Present, Past and Future.
| Pronouns | Present time (Present Tense) |
Past tense (Past Tense) |
Future (Future Tense) |
| I | am | was | will |
| you, they, we | are | were | will |
| he, she, it | is | was | will |
She is sleeping.
She is sleeping.
They are dancing now.
They are dancing now.
We were watching TV, when he came.
We were watching TV when he came.
My sister will go abroad.
My sister will go abroad.
We examined this verb in a semantic form in great detail in these articles:
Auxiliary verb do
| Pronouns | Present time (Present Tense) |
Past tense (Past Tense) |
Future (Future Tense) |
| I | do | did | will |
| you, they, we | do | did | will |
| he, she, it | does | did | will |
I don’
t know it.
I don’t know this.
She doesn "t like to sing.
She doesn't like to sing.
He didn’t watch this film.
He hasn't seen this movie.
They will give up smoking.
They will quit smoking.
Auxiliary verb have
| Pronouns | Present time (Present Tense) |
Past tense (Past Tense) |
Future (Future Tense) |
| I | have | had | will have |
| you, they, we | have | had | will have |
| he, she, it | has | had | will have |
I have lived here for five years.
I have lived here for five years.
She has worked as a doctor since 2007.
She has been working as a doctor since 2007.
They had read this text.
They have finished reading this text.
We will have prepared it, before you come.
We'll prepare this before you come.
As you can see, auxiliary verbs are very important, as we use them to determine which tense is used and how many people participate in it. So don't forget about them, even though we don't translate them.
I hope you now understand what auxiliary verbs are and how and when to use them. Now let's get to practice!
Assignment task
And now, to consolidate, translate the following sentences into Russian, pay attention to our pointers - auxiliary verbs:
1. He will go to the cinema.
2. My sister is playing tennis now.
3. They have broken the window.
4. I don’t speak Spanish.
5. We will dance all night.
6. She didn’t take this pen.
7. You will not buy this dress.
As always, write your answers in the comments.
Although auxiliary verbs in English do not have their own meaning, they play a very important role. When combined with semantic (main) verbs, auxiliary verbs form almost.
In our article, you will learn how to use auxiliary verbs in English Perfect and Continuous tenses. We will also tell you what are modal verbs and modal phrases. And the comparative approach in this lesson will improve your understanding of verb tenses in general.
Let's see how exactly auxiliary verbs are involved in the formation of basic tenses.
Recent Past (Present Perfect)
Present Perfect (also known as present perfect or complete) in English describes an action that comes from the past and continues in the present, or happened in the recent past. The tense is formed as follows: the form of the auxiliary verb have / has + III form of the main verb.
- My sister has come back from school. - My sister (already) returned from school.
- Tom has studied for 6 years. - Tom studied for 6 years.
- Mother has cooked the whole day. - Mom spent the whole day cooking.
- Jane has just finished doing her homework. - Jane just finished her homework.
- I have slept for six hours. “I slept for six hours.
- They have worked on this project for two last weeks. “They've been working on this project for the last two weeks.
Past Perfect
(past perfect) describes an action in the past that began and ended at a certain point in the past. Past Perfect is formed as follows: auxiliary verb had + III form of the verb.
- We had left home when she arrived. - By the time of her arrival, we had already left the house.
- Jane had demonstrated no fright before the airplane took off. “Before the plane took off, Jane showed no fear.
- Max finally repaired his car that he had bought two years ago. “Max ended up fixing his car, which he bought two years ago.
- The child had broken the toy before his mother paid for that. - The child broke the toy (already) before his mother paid for it.
Continuous action in the present (Present Continuous)
(present long-term or continuous) denotes an action taking place in this moment, or, which will happen in the near future.
It is formed as follows: auxiliary verb to be (am, is, are) + main verb + ending -ing.
- The family is having breakfast now. - At the moment, the family is having breakfast.
- Jane is preparing for an important exam. - Jane is preparing for an important exam.
- I'm going to visit that museum soon. - In the near future, I'm going to go to this museum.
- We are going to build a new house soon. - We are planning to build a new house in the near future.
Past Continuous
Past Continuous refers to an action that has continued at a specific point in time in the past. It is formed as follows: forms of the auxiliary verb to be (was, were) + main verb + ending -ing.
- Tom was helping his brother with his homework the whole yesterday evening. “Tom helped his brother with his homework all evening yesterday.
- Jane was swimming in the pool for two hours yesterday. “Jane swam in the pool for two hours yesterday.
- They were trying to mend the car for two hours this morning. “They tried to fix the car for two hours this morning.
- We were having our dinner when the neighbor came. - When a neighbor came in, we had dinner.
Other auxiliary verbs (Modal verbs)
If in the construction of the auxiliary verb + the main verb the verb can, will, shall, may, could, would, should, might or must appears first, then they remain unchanged. In such cases, it is not necessary, as, for example, in Present Continuous or Past Continuous.
Let's look at some examples:
- I must study hard to pass the exams successfully. - To pass the exam successfully, I have to study with all my might.
- We should be careful when crossing the street. - When crossing the street, we must be careful.
- You will go to the trip in summer. - In the summer you will go on a trip.
- He may work harder to earn more money. - To earn more, he can work harder.
- She might win the prize. - She could have won a prize.
- They could stay in the mountains for two days more. “They could have stayed in the mountains for two more days.
Modal phrases
Such as could have, would have, must have attach a semantic verb in the III form.
Let's consider them with examples:
- She must have prepared her evening dress in advance. “She should have prepared the evening dress in advance.
- We could have left for vacations unless the car breakage. - If not for the breakdown of the car, we could already go on vacation.
- He would have reached the peak if he had started his climb two days earlier. - If he had started climbing two days earlier, he would have already reached the summit.
Modal phrases used to, have to, have got to, be able to, ought to, be supposed to form constructions with a semantic verb in the I form.
Let's look at some examples.
List of auxiliary verbs: to be, to have, to do, shall (should), will (would)
... They help in the formation of complex verb forms and take part in the formation of his tenses.
For auxiliary verbs no self-meaning, there is only grammatical. They:
2. Take part in education.
3. Used in education.
4. Change shape depending on time, number, person.
5. Used with meaningful verbs.
To be (to be), to have (to have), to do (to do) are also used as semantic verbs with an independent meaning.
Semantic.
1. Indicate a process, action, or state.
2. Used as a simple predicate.
3. Have full lexical meaning.
My sister likes classical music. - My sister loves classical music.
Auxiliary.
1. Do not carry an independent meaning.
2. Can be used with meaningful verbs.
I have already been to Russia. - I've already been to Russia.
Do you remember my friend Ann? - Do you remember my friend Anya?
Auxiliary verb to be
The verb helps to describe the state of the object, what it is, where it is now, where it was and where it will be.
I am a musician. - I am a musician. (The verb to be is not translated here). This is a sentence without a semantic verb. Its absence is made up for by the state verb to be. It is also called linking verb.
In English, a verb is an integral part of a sentence that cannot be deleted. Therefore, when there is no action, then the verb to be is used in the required form.
My brother is a very intelligent man. - My brother is a very smart man.
We are good basketball players. - We are good basketball players.
Tom is in Spain now. - Tom is in Spain now.
My husband will come tomorrow. - My husband will come tomorrow.
They will be playing football from 2 till 3 o'clock tomorrow. - They will play football from 2 to 3 o'clock tomorrow.
My friend told me he would watch this film at the weekends. - My friend said he would watch this movie on the weekend.
