Auxiliary Verbs

for beginners

Auxiliary verbs help the main verb to express tense or voice or help make questions and negative sentences. That's why they're also called 'helping verbs'.

What Are Auxiliary Verbs?

Auxiliary verbs are helping verbs. They do not have separate meanings and are only used with other verbs to form questions, negation, different tenses, etc. The auxiliary verbs in English are:

using the auxiliary verb 'be'

Be

Be can be both a main verb and auxiliary verb and it is an irregular verb in both roles. As a main verb, 'be' is used to describe the state or condition of a subject. It can show existence and location. As an auxiliary verb, it is used to form continuous tenses and refer to ongoing actions. It has several forms:

Subject	Present
I	am
He/She/It	is
We/You/They	are

You are a lawyer. (main verb)

He is singing. (auxiliary verb)

Subject	Past
I/He/She/It	was
We/You/They	were

He was sad.

Be Question Forms

If 'to be' is the main verb of the sentence, it moves to the beginning of the sentence to form a question:

Statement	Question
I am Adam.	Am I Adam?
He is a doctor.	Is he a doctor?

If the sentence has a main verb and 'to be' is the auxiliary verb, it moves to the beginning of the sentence, and then subject + the main verb follow to form the question:

Statement	Question
We are staying at the hotel.	Are we staying at the hotel?
He is watching television.	Is he watching television?

Be Negative Form

To make a negative sentence with 'to be' as the auxiliary verb, just ass 'not' after it.

Statement	Negative	Short Form
I am studying.	I am not studying.	-
He is running.	He is not running.	He isn't running.

Do

'Do' as an auxiliary verb helps form questions and negatives in the present simple and simple past tense. It is used with the base form of the main verb.

Subject	Present	Past
I/We/You/They	do/don't	did/didn't
He/She/It	does/doesn't	did/didn't

Do you like coffee?

In questions, 'do' is used at the beginning of the sentence and subject and the main verb come after it.

I do not play soccer.

To form negatives, 'not' is added to 'do' and the main verb comes after them.

Have

'Have' as an auxiliary verb is used to form perfect tenses and show that an action is completed.

Subject	Present	Past
I/We/You/They	have/haven't	had/hadn't
He/She/It	has/hasn't	had/hadn't

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What Are Auxiliary Verbs?
- Be Question Forms
- Be Negative Form
Do
Have

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