Auxiliary verbs in English cause difficulties for all students without exception. This is primarily due to the fact that the structures of our native language that are familiar to us do not work, and the imposed system is alien and incomprehensible. However, as the most successful translators say, in order to learn how to speak a foreign language well, you need to understand how native speakers think. We'll figure it out.
Why are they needed
Auxiliary verbs, as their name clearly implies, help with the grammatical formation of speech. These are "assistants" that indicate categories - such as tense, number, person, voice, etc. It is important to understand that in this function they do not denote action, which, for example, in Russian is the main characteristic of the verb.
Let's take as an example the question: "Do you like oranges?" Please note that in Russian only intonation is used in speech.indicates that the sentence is a question. That is, if you pronounce it evenly, the interlocutor will decide that this is a statement. What else can we say about the grammatical design of the example? The pronoun "you", the form of the verb "love" tells us that we are referring to one particular person in the present tense. The form of the verb is important for us: we do not use the main one - "to love", but specially select the grammatically correct one.
This question is translated into English as: "Do you like oranges?" And by the first word - the auxiliary verb - we can determine that:
- this is a question (in English only questions begin with a verb);
- we are interested in the action in the present tense;
- we're definitely not referring to "him" or "her" because that would make the verb do.
All subsequent words do not carry a grammatical load, only semantic. Pay attention to how the grammar is "smeared" over the Russian sentence and densely concentrated in one English word, which we don't even mention in the translation. That is, the exact understanding of our speech directly depends on which auxiliary verbs are used in the sentence.
Verb to do
The auxiliary verbs do and does are most often used to construct questions and negatives in the present simple tense. The form depends on the subject of the sentence - if it is "he", "she" or "it"(scientifically speaking, 3rd person, singular), then the form does is used (and the main verb of the action loses the ending -s / -es), in all other cases the main form do is used.
Did forms questions and negatives in the simple past tense. Its shape does not change depending on the subject.
In affirmative sentences, different forms of do are also sometimes used as auxiliary verbs - in order to emphasize something, to emphasize an action, imperative or adverb, etc. For example, when ardently proving your love for porridge, you can say: "I do like porridge, is it so unbelievable?"
Verb to have
The verb have and its other forms - has and had - are most often used as auxiliary to express an action in specific English tense categories: Perfect and Perfect Continuous, expressing the "perfection" of an action. So, have and has express the present, and in combination with will - the future; had is used if the action happened in the past.
In addition, have and its forms followed by the infinitive particle to express the need to perform an action and have a similar meaning to the modal and auxiliary verb must.
Verb to be
To be is one of the most common English auxiliary tenses. It has a very wide range of shapes.
So, to express the present simple tense (Present Simple) in questions and negations, depending on the subject of the sentence,am (for the first person singular - "I"), is (for the third person singular - "he", "she", "it") or "are" (the second person and all persons in the plural). Do not forget that in sentences like "I am a doctor" - the verb to be (in the form am) is semantic, not auxiliary; in this case, it can be used on its own to construct questions and negatives.
If the action is happening at the moment, that is, the Present Continuous is used, the am/is/are forms are also used (in all types of sentences), and the semantic verb takes on the ending -ing.
Questions and negatives in the past simple tense (Past Simple) are built using the forms was (for the singular) and were (for the plural, including you), and will is used to express action in the future in all types of sentences.
Another form of the verb in question - been - is part of an auxiliary construction of the group of so-called Perfect Continuous Tense and, in combination with the main verb with the ending -ing, expresses just this duration. This group of tenses traditionally causes great problems for English learners, but the theoretical description of grammar sounds more complicated than it actually is: "I have been learning English my whole life and still have no clue on how to deal with Tense System!" - "I've been studying English all my life, but I still don't fully understand the system of tenses."
All forms of the verb to be also help to express the passive voice - the choice depends on the time in which this or that action occurs.
Other auxiliary verbs
The verbs must, should, can, could, may, might, ought and others are also known as modal auxiliaries and are used to express the need, possibility or permission of some action. For the most part, they do not change either over time or depending on the subject of the narrative.
Notes from beginner linguists
All famous linguists once started learning a foreign language. Success depends on many factors, including understanding the subtle nuances that often make it easier to understand a foreign system. We consider it necessary to mention the following factors:
- If a question begins with an auxiliary word (rather than an interrogative word like "What…" or "When…"), the answer to it can be a simple one-syllable "yes" or "no", and for literacy in style so-called Perfect English, you can add the appropriate pronoun and the same verb that was at the beginning. "Does Anna like porridge?" - "Yes (she does)". Pay attention to the shape - perhaps it should be negative if you use no. in your answer
- In order to avoid misunderstanding, it must be remembered that all auxiliary verbs in English (except modal ones) can also be semantic. Whereinyou should not be scared or puzzled by the double representation of a word in a sentence, as, for example, in the question: "Do you do cleaning every day?" - "Do you clean every day?" - in the first case, the verb do is auxiliary, and in the second - semantic.
It is worth noting that the system of auxiliary verbs in English is so complex that even native speakers sometimes make mistakes when using them. However, students should be diligent and work deeply on the topic in order to be able to accurately convey the necessary information and correctly understand the interlocutor.
