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Main Verb & Auxiliary Verb (Helping Verb)

The main verb and auxiliary verb are important parts of a sentence.

The main verb is a verb that expresses an action. It gives the basic meaning of an action, e.g., eat, write, buy, wash. These verbs give the major information in terms of the nature of an action. For instance, the verb ‘eat’ expresses basic meaning of an action that is chewing a food and swallowing it.

On the other hand, an auxiliary verb does not give the basic meaning of an action on its own, but it is used with a main verb in a sentence to express the time of the action (which is expressed by the main action). An auxiliary verb expresses the time of an action rather than the basic meaning of the action.

Examples: is, are, was, were, has, had, will etc.

It can be said that the main verb gives the basic meaning of an action whereas the auxiliary verb expresses the time of the action such when the action occurred, occurs or will occur.

Example.

  • He is sleeping.     (action in the present)
  • He was sleeping.  (action in the past)

In the above example, the auxiliary verb ‘is’ means that the action (sleep) is done in present time but the auxiliary verb ‘was’ means that the action (sleep) was done in past time. Such auxiliary verbs are used according to the tense (e.g., present, past, or future tense) of a sentence to specify time of an action.

Since the main verb gives the basic meaning of an action, it is also a principal verb. Similarly, as the auxiliary verb helps the main verb to complete the sense of sentence, it is also called a helping verb.

There are two types of auxiliary verbs: 1) Primary Auxiliaries, and 2) Modal Auxiliary.

  Primary Auxiliaries:

There three primary auxiliary verbs: be, do & have.

These auxiliary verbs are used according to the tense of sentence.

There are three tenses in the English language: 1) past tense, 2) present tense, and 3) future tense. Each of these tenses are further divided into four, as follows:

PRESENT TENSE
Present simple tense
Present continuous tense
Present perfect tense
Present perfect continuous tense.

PAST TENSE
Past simple tense
Past continuous tense
Past perfect tense
Past perfect continuous tense

FUTURE TENSE
Future simple tense
Future continuous tense
Future perfect tense
Future perfect continuous tense

  Be: The auxiliary ‘be’ has present forms (is, am, are) and past forms (was, were). They are used in the continuous tenses.

Examples.

  • I am drinking water. (Present continuous tense)
  • He is writing a letter. (Present continuous tense).
  • They are going to school. (Present continuous tense).
  • He was waiting for a bus. (Past continuous tense).
  • They were playing football. (Past continuous tense).

  Have: The auxiliary ‘have’ has present forms (have, has) and past form (had). They are used in perfect tenses.

  • He has passed the exam. (Present perfect tense).
  • I have bought a cameral. (Present perfect tense).
  • She had finished her work. (Past perfect tense).
  • I had received the letter. (Past perfect tense).

  Do: The auxiliary verb ‘do’ has present forms (do, does) and past form (did). They are used in question and negative sentences in simple tenses.

  • I do not eat vegetables.   (Present simple tense).
  • He does not go to school. (Present simple tense).
  • I did not win the prize.   (Past simple tense).     
  • She did not break the cup. (Past simple tense).

Note. The auxiliary ‘be’ has also a form ‘been’ which is used along with a form of have (e.g. has, have, had) in perfect continuous tenses.
Examples.

  • He has been working in a factory since 2018.    (Present perfect continuous tense).
  • They have been watching a movie since morning. (Present perfect continuous tense).
  • He had been teaching students for three years. (Past perfect continuous tense).
  • They had been running a business since 2015. (Past perfect continuous tense).

  Modal auxiliaries

Modal auxiliaries are used to show ideas like “possibility, ability, necessity, or intention.

Examples.
Could, Can, (ability)
Might, May  (possibility)
shall, will would (intention)
Should (necessity)
Ought to (necessity)
Must (necessity)

The modal auxiliary is used before the main verb as a helping verb in a sentence.

Examples
He can drive a bike.
He may come now.
A student must take his exams.
They might come today.
He must reach in time.

 



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