In linguistics, an auxiliary (also called helping verb, helper verb, auxiliary verb, or verbal auxiliary, abbreviated AUX) is a verb functioning to give further semantic or syntactic information about the main or full verb following it. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice, progressive aspect, perfect aspect, modality, dummy, or emphasis.
In English, every clause has a finite verb which consists of a main verb (a non-auxiliary verb) and optionally one or more auxiliary verbs, each of which is a separate word. Examples of finite verbs include write (no auxiliary verb), have written (one auxiliary verb), and have been written (two auxiliary verbs). Many languages, including English, feature some verbs that can act either as auxiliary or as main verbs, such as be (“I am writing a letter” vs “I am a postman”) and have (“I have written a letter” vs “I have a letter”). In the case of be, it is sometimes ambiguous whether it is auxiliary or not; for example, “the ice cream was melted” could mean either “something melted the ice cream” (in which case melt would be the main verb) or “the ice cream was mostly liquid” (in which case be would be the main verb).
Functions of the English auxiliary verb
In English, every clause has a finite verb which consists of a main verb (a non-auxiliary verb) and optionally one or more auxiliary verbs, each of which is a separate word. Examples of finite verbs include write (no auxiliary verb), have written (one auxiliary verb), and have been written (two auxiliary verbs). Many languages, including English, feature some verbs that can act either as auxiliary or as main verbs, such as be (“I am writing a letter” vs “I am a postman”) and have (“I have written a letter” vs “I have a letter”). In the case of be, it is sometimes ambiguous whether it is auxiliary or not; for example, “the ice cream was melted” could mean either “something melted the ice cream” (in which case melt would be the main verb) or “the ice cream was mostly liquid” (in which case be would be the main verb).
Functions of the English auxiliary verb
Passive voice
The auxiliary verb be is used with a past participle to form the passive voice; for example, the clause “the door was opened” implies that someone (or something) opened it, without stating who (or what) it was. Because many past participles are also stative adjectives, the passive voice can sometimes be ambiguous; for example, “at 8:25, the window was closed” can be a passive-voice sentence meaning, “at 8:25, someone closed the window”, or a non-passive-voice sentence meaning “at 8:25, the window was not open”. Perhaps because of this ambiguity, the verb get is sometimes used colloquially instead of be in forming the passive voice, “at 8:25, the window got closed.”
Progressive aspect
The auxiliary verb be is used with a present participle to form the progressive aspect; for example, “I am riding my bicycle” describes what the subject is doing at the given (in this case present) time without indicating completion, whereas “I ride my bicycle” is a temporally broader statement referring to something that occurs habitually in the past, present, and future. Similarly, “I was riding my bicycle” refers to the ongoing nature of what I was doing in the past, without viewing it in its entirety through completion, whereas “I rode my bicycle” refers either to a single past act viewed in its entirety through completion or to a past act that occurred habitually.
Perfect aspect
The auxiliary verb have is used with a past participle to indicate perfect aspect: a current state experienced by the subject as a result of a past action or state. For example, in “I have visited Paris” the current state is one of having a Paris visit in one’s past, while the past action is visiting Paris. The past action may be ongoing, as in “I have been studying all night”. An example involving the result of a past state rather than a past action is “I have known that for a long time”, in which the past state still exists (I still know it) along with the resultant state (I am someone who knew that at some past time). An example involving the result of a past state that no longer exists is “I have felt bad in the past, but not recently”. The alternative use of had instead of have places the perspective from which the resultant state is viewed in the past: “By 1985 I had visited Paris” describes the 1985 state of having a prior Paris visit.
Modality
Modality means the attitude of the speaker to the action or state being expressed, in terms of either degree of probability (“The sun must be down already”, “The sun should be down already”, “The sun may be down already”, “The sun might be down already”), ability (“I can speak French”), or permission or obligation (“You must go now”, “You should go now”, “You may go now”). See modal verb and English modal verb
Dummy
Do, does, or did plays a dummy (place-filling) role in transforming simple (one-word) verbs into questions or negatives: “I go” → “Do I go?”, “I do not go”; “He goes” → “Does he go?”, “He does not go”; “I went” → “Did I go?”, “I did not go”.
Emphasis
The auxiliaries do, does, and did are also used for emphasis in positive declarative statements in which the verb otherwise contains only one word: “I do like this shirt!”, “He does like this shirt”, “I did like that shirt”
Negation
Auxiliaries take not (or n’t) to form the negative, e.g. cannot (can’t), will not (won’t), should not (shouldn’t), etc. In certain tenses, in questions, when a contracted auxiliary verb can be used, the position of the negative particle n’t moves from the main verb to the auxiliary: cf. Does it not work? and Doesn’t it work?.
Inversion
Auxiliaries invert to form questions:
• “You will come.”
• “Will you come?”
Ellipsis
Auxiliaries can appear alone where a main verb has been omitted, but is understood:
• “I will go, but she will not.”
The verb do can act as a pro-VP (or occasionally a pro-verb) to avoid repetition:
• “John never sings in the kitchen, but Mary does.”
• “John never sings in the kitchen, but Mary does in the shower.”
Tag questions
Auxiliaries can be repeated at the end of a sentence, with negation added or removed, to form a tag question. In the event that the sentence did not use an auxiliary verb, a dummy auxiliary (a form of do) is used instead:
• “You will come, won’t you?”
• “You ate, didn’t you?”
• “You won’t (will not) come, will you?”
• “You didn’t (did not) eat, did you?”
• “You (do) know how to dance, don’t you?”
Other languages
In Indo-European languages, the verb to be is the most common auxiliary verb used for the perfect. All Slavic (e.g., Bulgarian, Serbian, Czech, etc.), Iranian (Persian, Tajik, etc.), Indic (Hindi, Urdu etc.) languages as well as Armenian use to be for the perfect forms of all verbs. In some Romance languages (Italian, French) and Germanic languages (German, Dutch) both to be and to have are used. The verb to be is usually used with the verbs denoting motion or change of state and the verb to have with the rest of the verbs. The use of the two auxiliary verbs to have and to be is also found in Albanian. Among Germanic languages, modern English, Afrikaans and Scandinavian languages such as Swedish, Danish and Norwegian have completely switched to forming the perfect of any verbs with the verb to have. Among Romance languages Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Romanian form the perfect only with the verb to have.
Finnish, a Uralic language, uses olla (to be) for all verbs: Sillä niin on Jumala maailmaa rakastanut (Because so is God the world loved); it lacks an equivalent of the verb to have. Finnish also has a negative auxiliary verb ei, which conjugates like all Finnish verbs; thus:
• “I understand” is Ymmärrän
• and “I do not (don’t) understand” is En ymmärrä
o where the action verb is non-finite
Similar negative auxiliary verbs are found in Nivkh and the Salish and Chimakuan languages formerly spoken in northwestern North America. Salish and Chimakuan languages also have interrogative auxiliary verbs that form questions in the same manner as negative verbs do negated statements.
In many non-Indo-European languages, the functions of auxiliary verbs are largely or entirely replaced by suffixes on the main verb. This is especially true of epistemic possibility and necessity verbs, but extends to situational possibility and necessity verbs in many indigenous languages of North America, indigenous Australian languages and Papuan languages of New Guinea.
In Hawaiian Creole English,[3] a creole language based on a vocabulary drawn largely from English, auxiliaries are used for any of tense, aspect, and modality expression. The preverbal auxiliary wen indicates past tense (Ai wen see om “I saw him”). The future marker is the preverbal auxiliary gon or goin “am/is/are going to”: gon bai “is going to buy”. These tense markers indicate relative tense: that is, past or future time relative to some benchmark that may or may not be the speaker’s present (e.g., Da gai sed hi gon fiks mi ap “the guy said he [was] gonna fix me up”. There are various preverbal modal auxiliaries: kaen “can”, laik “want to”, gata “have got to”, haeftu “have to”, baeta “had better”, sapostu “am/is/are supposed to”. Waz “was” can indicate past tense before the the future marker gon and the modal sapostu: Ai waz gon lift weits “I was gonna lift weights”; Ai waz sapostu go “I was supposed to go”. There is a preverbal auxiliary yustu for past tense habitual aspect : yustu tink so “used to think so”. The progressive aspect can be marked with the auxiliary ste in place of or in addition to the verbal suffix -in: Wat yu ste it? = Wat yu itin? “What are you eating?” Ste can alternatively indicate perfective aspect: Ai ste kuk da stu awredi “I cooked the stew already”. Stat is an auxiliary for inchoative aspect when combined with the verbal suffix -in: gon stat plein “gonna start playing”. The auxiliary pau without the verbal suffix indicates completion: pau tich “finish(ed) teaching”. Aspect auxiliaries can co-occur with tense-marking auxiliaries: gon ste plei “gonna be playing”; wen ste it “was eating”.
Hawaiian[4]:ch.6;[5] is an isolating language, so its verbal grammar exclusively relies on unconjugated auxiliary verbs. It has indicative and imperative moods, the imperative indicated by e + verb (or in the negative by mai + verb). In the indicative its verbs can optionally be marked by ua + verb (perfective aspect, but frequently replaced by the unmarked form); ke + verb + nei (present tense progressive aspect; very frequently used); and e + verb + ana (imperfective aspect, especially for non-present time).
In Mandarin Chinese, another isolating language, auxiliary verbs are distinguished from adverbs[6]:pp.181-2 in that (1) yes-no questions can be answered with subject + auxiliary (e.g., Nǐ néng lái ma? Wǒ néng “Can you come? I can” is correct) but not with subject + adverb (e.g., Nǐ yídìng lái ma? Wǒ yídìng “Will you definitely come? I definitely” is incorrect), and (2) an auxiliary but not an adverb can be used in the yes-or-no construction verb + “not” + verb (as in Nǐ néng bu néng lái? “you can not can come?”). The auxiliary verbs in Mandarin[6]:pp.182-3 include three meaning “should”, four meaning “be able to”, two meaning “have permission to”, one meaning “dare”, one meaning “be willing to”, four meaning “have to”, and one meaning either “will” or “know how”.
The auxiliary verb be is used with a past participle to form the passive voice; for example, the clause “the door was opened” implies that someone (or something) opened it, without stating who (or what) it was. Because many past participles are also stative adjectives, the passive voice can sometimes be ambiguous; for example, “at 8:25, the window was closed” can be a passive-voice sentence meaning, “at 8:25, someone closed the window”, or a non-passive-voice sentence meaning “at 8:25, the window was not open”. Perhaps because of this ambiguity, the verb get is sometimes used colloquially instead of be in forming the passive voice, “at 8:25, the window got closed.”
Progressive aspect
The auxiliary verb be is used with a present participle to form the progressive aspect; for example, “I am riding my bicycle” describes what the subject is doing at the given (in this case present) time without indicating completion, whereas “I ride my bicycle” is a temporally broader statement referring to something that occurs habitually in the past, present, and future. Similarly, “I was riding my bicycle” refers to the ongoing nature of what I was doing in the past, without viewing it in its entirety through completion, whereas “I rode my bicycle” refers either to a single past act viewed in its entirety through completion or to a past act that occurred habitually.
Perfect aspect
The auxiliary verb have is used with a past participle to indicate perfect aspect: a current state experienced by the subject as a result of a past action or state. For example, in “I have visited Paris” the current state is one of having a Paris visit in one’s past, while the past action is visiting Paris. The past action may be ongoing, as in “I have been studying all night”. An example involving the result of a past state rather than a past action is “I have known that for a long time”, in which the past state still exists (I still know it) along with the resultant state (I am someone who knew that at some past time). An example involving the result of a past state that no longer exists is “I have felt bad in the past, but not recently”. The alternative use of had instead of have places the perspective from which the resultant state is viewed in the past: “By 1985 I had visited Paris” describes the 1985 state of having a prior Paris visit.
Modality
Modality means the attitude of the speaker to the action or state being expressed, in terms of either degree of probability (“The sun must be down already”, “The sun should be down already”, “The sun may be down already”, “The sun might be down already”), ability (“I can speak French”), or permission or obligation (“You must go now”, “You should go now”, “You may go now”). See modal verb and English modal verb
Dummy
Do, does, or did plays a dummy (place-filling) role in transforming simple (one-word) verbs into questions or negatives: “I go” → “Do I go?”, “I do not go”; “He goes” → “Does he go?”, “He does not go”; “I went” → “Did I go?”, “I did not go”.
Emphasis
The auxiliaries do, does, and did are also used for emphasis in positive declarative statements in which the verb otherwise contains only one word: “I do like this shirt!”, “He does like this shirt”, “I did like that shirt”
Negation
Auxiliaries take not (or n’t) to form the negative, e.g. cannot (can’t), will not (won’t), should not (shouldn’t), etc. In certain tenses, in questions, when a contracted auxiliary verb can be used, the position of the negative particle n’t moves from the main verb to the auxiliary: cf. Does it not work? and Doesn’t it work?.
Inversion
Auxiliaries invert to form questions:
• “You will come.”
• “Will you come?”
Ellipsis
Auxiliaries can appear alone where a main verb has been omitted, but is understood:
• “I will go, but she will not.”
The verb do can act as a pro-VP (or occasionally a pro-verb) to avoid repetition:
• “John never sings in the kitchen, but Mary does.”
• “John never sings in the kitchen, but Mary does in the shower.”
Tag questions
Auxiliaries can be repeated at the end of a sentence, with negation added or removed, to form a tag question. In the event that the sentence did not use an auxiliary verb, a dummy auxiliary (a form of do) is used instead:
• “You will come, won’t you?”
• “You ate, didn’t you?”
• “You won’t (will not) come, will you?”
• “You didn’t (did not) eat, did you?”
• “You (do) know how to dance, don’t you?”
Other languages
In Indo-European languages, the verb to be is the most common auxiliary verb used for the perfect. All Slavic (e.g., Bulgarian, Serbian, Czech, etc.), Iranian (Persian, Tajik, etc.), Indic (Hindi, Urdu etc.) languages as well as Armenian use to be for the perfect forms of all verbs. In some Romance languages (Italian, French) and Germanic languages (German, Dutch) both to be and to have are used. The verb to be is usually used with the verbs denoting motion or change of state and the verb to have with the rest of the verbs. The use of the two auxiliary verbs to have and to be is also found in Albanian. Among Germanic languages, modern English, Afrikaans and Scandinavian languages such as Swedish, Danish and Norwegian have completely switched to forming the perfect of any verbs with the verb to have. Among Romance languages Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Romanian form the perfect only with the verb to have.
Finnish, a Uralic language, uses olla (to be) for all verbs: Sillä niin on Jumala maailmaa rakastanut (Because so is God the world loved); it lacks an equivalent of the verb to have. Finnish also has a negative auxiliary verb ei, which conjugates like all Finnish verbs; thus:
• “I understand” is Ymmärrän
• and “I do not (don’t) understand” is En ymmärrä
o where the action verb is non-finite
Similar negative auxiliary verbs are found in Nivkh and the Salish and Chimakuan languages formerly spoken in northwestern North America. Salish and Chimakuan languages also have interrogative auxiliary verbs that form questions in the same manner as negative verbs do negated statements.
In many non-Indo-European languages, the functions of auxiliary verbs are largely or entirely replaced by suffixes on the main verb. This is especially true of epistemic possibility and necessity verbs, but extends to situational possibility and necessity verbs in many indigenous languages of North America, indigenous Australian languages and Papuan languages of New Guinea.
In Hawaiian Creole English,[3] a creole language based on a vocabulary drawn largely from English, auxiliaries are used for any of tense, aspect, and modality expression. The preverbal auxiliary wen indicates past tense (Ai wen see om “I saw him”). The future marker is the preverbal auxiliary gon or goin “am/is/are going to”: gon bai “is going to buy”. These tense markers indicate relative tense: that is, past or future time relative to some benchmark that may or may not be the speaker’s present (e.g., Da gai sed hi gon fiks mi ap “the guy said he [was] gonna fix me up”. There are various preverbal modal auxiliaries: kaen “can”, laik “want to”, gata “have got to”, haeftu “have to”, baeta “had better”, sapostu “am/is/are supposed to”. Waz “was” can indicate past tense before the the future marker gon and the modal sapostu: Ai waz gon lift weits “I was gonna lift weights”; Ai waz sapostu go “I was supposed to go”. There is a preverbal auxiliary yustu for past tense habitual aspect : yustu tink so “used to think so”. The progressive aspect can be marked with the auxiliary ste in place of or in addition to the verbal suffix -in: Wat yu ste it? = Wat yu itin? “What are you eating?” Ste can alternatively indicate perfective aspect: Ai ste kuk da stu awredi “I cooked the stew already”. Stat is an auxiliary for inchoative aspect when combined with the verbal suffix -in: gon stat plein “gonna start playing”. The auxiliary pau without the verbal suffix indicates completion: pau tich “finish(ed) teaching”. Aspect auxiliaries can co-occur with tense-marking auxiliaries: gon ste plei “gonna be playing”; wen ste it “was eating”.
Hawaiian[4]:ch.6;[5] is an isolating language, so its verbal grammar exclusively relies on unconjugated auxiliary verbs. It has indicative and imperative moods, the imperative indicated by e + verb (or in the negative by mai + verb). In the indicative its verbs can optionally be marked by ua + verb (perfective aspect, but frequently replaced by the unmarked form); ke + verb + nei (present tense progressive aspect; very frequently used); and e + verb + ana (imperfective aspect, especially for non-present time).
In Mandarin Chinese, another isolating language, auxiliary verbs are distinguished from adverbs[6]:pp.181-2 in that (1) yes-no questions can be answered with subject + auxiliary (e.g., Nǐ néng lái ma? Wǒ néng “Can you come? I can” is correct) but not with subject + adverb (e.g., Nǐ yídìng lái ma? Wǒ yídìng “Will you definitely come? I definitely” is incorrect), and (2) an auxiliary but not an adverb can be used in the yes-or-no construction verb + “not” + verb (as in Nǐ néng bu néng lái? “you can not can come?”). The auxiliary verbs in Mandarin[6]:pp.182-3 include three meaning “should”, four meaning “be able to”, two meaning “have permission to”, one meaning “dare”, one meaning “be willing to”, four meaning “have to”, and one meaning either “will” or “know how”.
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