Auxiliary verb

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An auxiliary verb (abbreviated ) is a

verb that adds functional or grammatical
meaning to the clause in which it appears,
such as to express tense, aspect, modality,
voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs
usually accompany a main verb. The main
verb provides the main semantic content
of the clause.[1] An example is the verb
have in the sentence I have finished my
dinner. Here, the main verb is finish, and
the auxiliary have helps to express the
perfect aspect. Some sentences contain a
chain of two or more auxiliary verbs.
Auxiliary verbs are also called helping
verbs, helper verbs, or (verbal) auxiliaries.

Basic examples
Below are some sentences that contain
representative auxiliary verbs from English,
Spanish, German, and French, with the
auxiliary verb marked in bold:

a. Do you want tea? – do is an

auxiliary accompanying the main verb
want, used here to form a question –
see do-support.
b. He has given his all. – has is an
auxiliary used in expressing the
perfect aspect of give.
c. He cogido tu lápiz. – he is an
auxiliary accompanying the main verb
coger, used here to form a compound
verb, the perfect present of the verb
coger.[2]
(I) have grabbed your pencil = 'I
have taken your pencil.'
d. Das wurde mehrmals gesagt. –
wurde 'became' is an auxiliary used to
build the passive voice in German.[3]
 That became many times said =
'That was said many times.'
e. Sie ist nach Hause gegangen. – ist
'is' is an auxiliary used with movement
verbs to build the perfect
tense/aspect in German.[4]
She is to home gone = 'She went
home/She has gone home.'
f. J'ai vu le soleil. – ai 'have' is an
auxiliary used to build the perfect
tense/aspect in French.[5]
I have seen the sun = 'I have seen
the sun/I saw the sun.'
f. Nous sommes hébergés par un ami.
– sommes 'are' is an auxiliary used to
build the passive voice in French.[6]
 We are hosted by a friend.

These auxiliaries help express a question,

show tense/aspect, or form passive voice.
Auxiliaries like these typically appear with
a full verb that carries the main semantic
content of the clause.

Traits across languages

Auxiliary verbs typically help express
grammatical tense, aspect, mood, and
voice. They generally appear together with
a main verb. The auxiliary is said to "help"
the main verb. The auxiliary verbs of a
language form a closed class, i.e., there is
a fixed, relatively small number of them.[7]
They are often among the most frequently
occurring verbs in a language.

Widely acknowledged verbs that can serve

as auxiliaries in English and many related
languages are the equivalents of be to
express passive voice, and have (and
sometimes be) to express perfect aspect
or past time reference.[8]

In some treatments, the copula be is

classed as an auxiliary even though it does
not "help" another verb, e.g.,

The bird is in the tree. – is serves as a

copula with a predicative expression
not containing any other verb.
Definitions of auxiliary verbs are not
always consistent across languages, or
even among authors discussing the same
language. Modal verbs may or may not be
classified as auxiliaries, depending on the
language. In the case of English, verbs are
often identified as auxiliaries based on
their grammatical behavior, as described
below. In some cases, verbs that function
similarly to auxiliaries, but are not
considered full members of that class
(perhaps because they carry some
independent lexical information), are
called semi-auxiliaries. In French, for
example, verbs such as devoir (have to),
pouvoir (be able to), aller (be going to),
vouloir (want), faire (make), and laisser
(let), when used together with the infinitive
of another verb, can be called semi-
auxiliaries.[9]

In English
The following sections consider auxiliary
verbs in English. They list auxiliary verbs,
then present the diagnostics that motivate
this special class (subject-auxiliary
inversion and negation with not). The
modal verbs are included in this class, due
to their behavior with respect to these
diagnostics.

List of auxiliaries in English

A list of verbs that (can) function as
auxiliaries in English is as follows:[10]

be (am, are, is, was, were, being, been),

can, could, dare, do (does, did), have
(has, had, having), may, might, must,
need, ought, shall, should, will, would

The status of dare, need (not), and ought

(to) is debatable[11] and the use of these
verbs as auxiliaries can vary across
dialects of English. If the negative forms
can't, don't, won't, etc. are viewed as
separate verbs (and not as contractions),
then the number of auxiliaries increases.
The verbs do and have can also function
as full verbs or as light verbs, which can be
a source of confusion about their status.
The modal verbs (can, could, may, might,
must, shall, should, will, would, and dare,
need and ought when included) form a
subclass of auxiliary verbs. Modal verbs
are defective insofar as they cannot be
inflected, nor do they appear as gerunds,
infinitives, or participles.

The following table summarizes the

auxiliary verbs in standard English and the
meaning contribution to the clauses in
which they appear. Many auxiliary verbs
are listed more than once in the table
based upon discernible differences in use.
Auxiliary Meaning
Example
verb contribution

copula (= linking
be1 She is the boss.
verb)

progressive
be2 He is sleeping.
aspect

be3 passive voice They were seen.

can1 deontic modality I can swim.

epistemic
can2 Such things can help.
modality

could1 deontic modality I could swim.

epistemic
could2 That could help.
modality

dare deontic modality I dare not attempt it.

do-
do1 You did not understand.
support/emphasis

do2 question Do you like it?

have perfect aspect They have understood.

may1 deontic modality May I stay?

epistemic
may2 That may take place.
modality

epistemic
might We might give it a try.
modality

must1 deontic modality You must not mock me.

epistemic
must2 It must have rained.
modality

You need not water the

need deontic modality
grass.

ought deontic modality You ought to play well.

shall deontic modality You shall not pass.

should1 deontic modality You should listen.

 should2 epistemic That should help.
modality

epistemic
will1 We will eat pie.
modality

The sun will rise tomorrow

will2 future tense
at 6:03.

He will make that mistake

will3 habitual aspect
every time.

epistemic Nothing would accomplish

would1
modality that.

future-in-the-past After 1990, we would do

would2
tense that again.

Back then we would always

would3 habitual aspect
go there.

Deontic modality expresses an ability,

necessity, or obligation that is associated
with an agent subject. Epistemic modality
expresses the speaker's assessment of
reality or likelihood of reality.
Distinguishing between the two types of
modality can be difficult, since many
sentences contain a modal verb that
allows both interpretations.

Diagnostics for identifying

auxiliary verbs in English

The verbs listed in the previous section

can be classified as auxiliaries based upon
two diagnostics: they allow subject–
auxiliary inversion (the type of inversion
used to form questions etc.) and
(equivalently) they can take not as a
postdependent (a dependent that follows
its head). The following examples
illustrate the extent to which subject–
auxiliary inversion can occur with an
auxiliary verb but not with a full verb:[12]

a. He was working today.

b. Was he working today? - Auxiliary
verb was allows subject–auxiliary
inversion.
a. He worked today.
b. *Worked he today? - Full verb
worked does not allow subject–
auxiliary inversion.
a. She can see it.
b. Can she see it? - Auxiliary verb can
allows subject–auxiliary inversion.
a. She sees it.
 b. *Sees she it? - Full verb sees does
not allow subject–auxiliary inversion.

(The asterisk * is the means commonly

used in linguistics to indicate that the
example is grammatically unacceptable or
that a particular construction has never
been attested in use.) The following
examples illustrate that the negation not
can appear as a postdependent of a finite
auxiliary verb, but not as a postdependent
of a finite full verb:[13]

a. Sam would try that.

b. Sam would not try that. - The
negation not appears as a
postdependent of the finite auxiliary
would.
a. Sam tried that.
b. *Sam tried not that. - The negation
not cannot appear as a
postdependent of the finite full verb
tried.
a. Tom could help.
b. Tom could not help. - The negation
not appears as a postdependent of
the finite auxiliary could.
a. Tom helped.
b. *Tom helped not. - The negation not
cannot appear as a postdependent of
the finite full verb helped.
A third diagnostic that can be used for
identifying auxiliary verbs is verb phrase
ellipsis. Auxiliary verbs can introduce verb
phrase ellipsis, but main verbs cannot. See
the article on verb phrase ellipsis for
examples.

These criteria lead to the copula be and

non-copular use of be as an existential
verb being considered an auxiliary (it
undergoes inversion and takes
postdependent not, e.g., Is she the boss?,
She is not the boss, Is there a God?, There is
a God). However, if one defines auxiliary
verb as a verb that somehow "helps"
another verb, then the copula be is not an
auxiliary, because it appears without
another verb. The literature on auxiliary
verbs is somewhat inconsistent in this
area.[14]

There are also some properties that some

but not all auxiliary verbs have. Their
presence can be used to conclude that the
verb is an auxiliary, but their absence does
not guarantee the converse. One such
property is to have the same form in the
present tense, also for the first and the
third person singular. This in particular is
typical for modal auxiliary verbs, such as
will and must. (Examples: He will come
tomorrow, she must do it at once, not he
wills or she musts.)

Vs. light verbs

Some syntacticians distinguish between
auxiliary verbs and light verbs.[15][16] The
two are similar insofar as both verb types
contribute mainly just functional
information to the clauses in which they
appear. Hence both do not qualify as
separate predicates, but rather they form
part of a predicate with another
expression - usually with a full verb in the
case of auxiliary verbs and usually with a
noun in the case of light verbs.
In English, light verbs differ from auxiliary
verbs in that they cannot undergo
inversion and they cannot take not as a
postdependent. The verbs have and do can
function as auxiliary verbs or as light verbs
(or as full verbs). When they are light
verbs, they fail the inversion and negation
diagnostics for auxiliaries, e.g.

a. They had a long meeting.

b. *Had they a long meeting? - Light
verb had fails the inversion test.
c. *They had not a long meeting. -
Light verb had fails the negation test.
a. She did a report on pandering
politicians.
 b. *Did she a report on pandering
politicians? - Light verb did fails the
inversion test.
c. *She did not a report on pandering
politicians. - Light verb did fails the
negation test.

(In some cases, though, have may undergo

auxiliary-type inversion and negation even
when it is not used as an auxiliary verb –
see Subject–auxiliary inversion § Inversion
with other types of verb.)

Sometimes the distinction between

auxiliary verbs and light verbs is
overlooked or confused. Certain verbs
(e.g., used to, have to, etc.) may be judged
as light verbs by some authors, but as
auxiliaries by others.[17]

Multiple auxiliaries
Most clauses contain at least one main
verb, and they can contain zero, one, two,
three, or perhaps even more auxiliary
verbs.[18] The following example contains
three auxiliary verbs and one main verb:

The paper will have been scrutinized

by Fred.

The auxiliary verbs are in bold and the

main verb is underlined. Together these
verbs form a verb catena (chain of verbs),
i.e., they are linked together in the
hierarchy of structure and thus form a
single syntactic unit. The main verb
scrutinized provides the semantic core of
sentence meaning, whereby each of the
auxiliary verbs contributes some
functional meaning. A single finite clause
can contain more than three auxiliary
verbs, e.g.

Fred may be being judged to have

been deceived by the explanation.

Viewing this sentence as consisting of a

single finite clause, there are five auxiliary
verbs and two main verbs present. From
the point of view of predicates, each of the
main verbs constitutes the core of a
predicate, and the auxiliary verbs
contribute functional meaning to these
predicates. These verb catenae are
periphrastic forms of English, English
being a relatively analytic language. Other
languages, such as Latin, are synthetic,
which means they tend to express
functional meaning with affixes, not with
auxiliary verbs.

The periphrastic verb combinations in the

example just given are represented now
using the dependency grammar tree of the
sentence; the verb catena is in green:[19]
  

The particle to is included in the verb

catena because its use is often required
with certain infinitives. The hierarchy of
functional categories is always the same.
The verbs expressing modality appear
immediately above the verbs expressing
aspect, and the verbs expressing aspect
appear immediately above the verbs
expressing voice. The verb forms for each
combination are as follows:

Functional
Verb combination Example
meaning

Modality finite modal verb + infinitive may be

Perfect form of auxiliary verb have + have

aspect perfect active participle been

Progressive form of auxiliary verb be +

be being
aspect progressive active participle

Passive form of auxiliary verb be + passive been

voice participle deceived

English allows clauses with both perfect

and progressive aspect. When this occurs,
perfect aspect is superior to progressive
aspect, e.g.
  

See also
Compound verb
English verbs
Irregular verb
Tense–aspect–mood

Notes
1. The Oxford English Dictionary, Second
Edition, defines an auxiliary verb as "a verb
used to form the tenses, [grammatical
mood/moods], [grammatical voice/voices],
etc. of other verbs." OED Second Edition,
1989. Entry for auxiliary.
2. Concerning the use of coger as an
auxiliary in Spanish, see for instance
https://chimichurris1ba.files.wordpress.co
m/2013/09/manual-sintaxis-1c2ba-
bachillerato.pdf .
3. Concerning the use of werden as an
auxiliary in German, see for instance Engel
(1994:114).
4. Concerning sein as an auxiliary in
German used to form perfect tense/aspect,
see Eroms (2000:138f.)
5. Concerning the selection of avoir or être
as the auxiliary verb to form perfect
tense/aspect in French, see Rowlett
(2007:40f.).
6. Concerning être as the auxiliary used to
build the passive voice in French, see
Rowlett (2007:44f.).
7. Concerning auxiliaries forming a closed
class, see Kroeger (2004:251).
8. That the equivalents of have and be are
perhaps the most widely acknowledged
auxiliaries across languages (related to
English) can be verified by glancing at the
literature on auxiliaries, e.g., Engel
(1994:104ff.), Eroms (2000:137ff.), Rowlett
(2007:24ff.).
9. Concerning the term semi-auxiliaries for
French, see Warnant (1982:279).
10. For lists of the auxiliary verbs like the
one produced here but with minor
discrepancies, see for instance Radford
(2004:324), Crystal (1997:35), and Jurafsky
and Martin (2000:322).
11. For some discussion of the status of
dare as a "marginal modal", see Fowler's
Modern English Usage, p. 195f.
12. For examples of the inversion
diagnostic used to identify auxiliaries, see
for instance Radford (1997:50f., 494), Sag
and Wasow (1999:308f.), and Kroeger
(2004:253).
13. The negation diagnostic for identifying
auxiliary verbs is employed for instance by
Radford (1997:51), Adgar (2003:176f.), and
Culicover (2009:177f.).
14. Jurafsky and Martin (2000:320) state
clearly that copula be is an auxiliary verb.
Bresnan (2001:18f.) produces and
discusses examples of subject-auxiliary
inversion using the copula. Tesnière (1959)
repeatedly refers to the copula être in
French as an auxiliary verb, and Eroms
(2000:138f.) discusses the copula sein in
German as a Hilfsverb 'helping verb'. Crystal
(1997:35) lists be as an auxiliary verb
without distinguishing between its various
uses (e.g., as a copula or not). Other
definitions are less clear; Radford
(2004:324) suggests that copula be is not
an auxiliary, but he does not address why it
behaves like an auxiliary with respect to the
criteria he employs (e.g., inversion) for
identifying auxiliaries.
15. Concerning light verbs in English, see
Allterton (2006:176).
16. Light verbs are called Funktionsverben
'function verbs' in German - see Engel
(1994:105f.) and Eroms (2000:162ff.).
17. Jurafsky and Martin (2000:22), for
instance, lists have as a modal auxiliary
when it appears as have to and Fowler's
Modern English Usage (1996:195) lists
used to as a "marginal modal".
18. See Finch (2000:13) concerning the
necessity that a given auxiliary verb should
accompany a main verb.
19. Dependency trees like the ones here can
be found, for instance, in Osborne and Groß
(2012).

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related
 
to Auxiliary verbs tree.
Allerton, D. 2006. Verbs and their
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Radford, A. 2004. English syntax: An
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Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
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