15 separate word. Examples of finite verbs include write no auxiliary verb, have
written one auxiliary verb, and have been written two auxiliary verbs. In linguistics, an auxiliary also called helping verb, helper verb, auxiliary
verb, or verbal auxiliary is a verb functioning to give further semantic or syntactic information about the main or full verb following it. In English, the extra
meaning of an auxiliary verb impartsalters the basic form of the main verb to have one or more of the following functions: passive, progressive, perfect, modal,
or dummy.
2.2 Forms and Divisions of Auxiliary Verbs
As a word class, verb can be divided into three categories according to their function within the verb phrase. The open class of full verbs and the very small
closed class of primary verbs and modal auxiliary verbs. Since the primary verbs and the modal auxiliary verbs are closed classes, we can list them in full.
Full verbs
: believe, follow, like, see...
Primary auxiliary verbs : To be, to have, to do.
Modal auxiliaries
: can, may, shall, will, must, could, might, should, would.
If there is only one verb in the verb phrase, it is the main verb. If there is more than one verb the final one is the main verb, and the one or more verbs that
come before it is auxiliary. Examples:
She might be leaving class
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He must be missed the bus Leaving and missed in both sentences are the main verbs and might, must and be
are auxiliaries. There is a syntactic difference between an auxiliary verb and a full verb;
that is, each has a different grammatical function within the sentence. In English, and in many other languages, some verbs can act either as auxiliary or as full
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 Someonesomething 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.
Auxiliary words are formed by conjugation into the different forms: am, is, are, shall, should, be, being, been, was, were, will, would, has, have, having,
had, do, does, did, can, could, may, might, must, oughtto, get, got, gotten.
2.3 The Functions of Auxiliary Verbs
The operator is functional term given to the finite element of a verb group. Auxiliary verbs become the operator when they occur as the first verb in a finite
verb group. See the examples bellow.
The girl has been playing net ball : time
The girl must have shot a goal
: probability
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The girl must shoot a goal : obligation
Generally, the function of auxiliary verb can be divided into two groups, they are as follows.
A. Primary helping verbs
It is used mainly to change the tense or voice of the main verb and in making questions and negative sentence. In other words, auxiliary verbs
determine the tense of verb forms and how the verb as a whole reveals the time or relative time of the action.
B. Modal helping verbs
These verbs are used to show mood change of the main verb. Therefore, it gives more information about the function of the main verb that follows it.
There are some characteristic of how auxiliary is used in a phrase so that we know what is the auxiliary exactly. Primary verbs work as auxiliary also has same
characteristic with modals.
1. Auxiliary verbs sometimes known as helping verbs are verbs that are used
to assist the verb. 2.
Auxiliary verbs can not be used without a main verb. 3.
Auxiliary verbs can not be used with a main verb. 4.
Auxiliary verbs are used to make sentences negative. 5.
Auxiliary verbs are used to ask questions. 6.
Auxiliary verbs are used in the sentence structure of the verb sentence.
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CHAPTER III
PRIMARY HELPING VERBS
To be
Generally, as an auxiliary verbs, be has two distinct grammatical functions. 1.
As an aspect auxiliary for the progressive Examples:
• Ann is learning English.
• The schedule has been changing
• The last light was fading by the time he entered the town.
2. As an passive auxiliary
Examples: •
That competition was won by Farida. •
He has been come a group of his students from USU. •
The system of government is called presidential. Both of these auxiliary uses of be can occur together in the same clause the
progressive passive. Examples:
• A mutual investment fund for eastern is being launched to day with the
backing of continental grain. •
A piece of bread is being made for me. •
All the rubbish is being thrown out from the window.
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19 Be is the most common verb in the English language. It has its other forms:
Be, IsAmAre, WasWere, Being, Been. Each of the form has a rule of usage. Specifically, see the table bellow.
Table I Form of To Be
Subject Present Past
Perfect Form Continuous Form
I Am
Was Havehad been Amwas being
She, He, It Is
Was Hashad been
IsWas being You, We,
They Are
Were Havehad been Arewere being
There are some usages of to be verb in sentence and show the specific meaning which appear.
Normally, we use the verb to be to show the status or characteristic of something or someone. It says what I am, what you are or what something is.
Examples: •
They are friends. Present simple •
She was a doctor. Past simple •
It will be nice later. Future simple •
They will be students. Future simple When used with the present participle of other verbs it describes actions that are
or were still continuing. Examples:
• Jack is repairing his car in the garage. present continuous
• They are still working in the office to day. Present continuous
• I was going to the market. past continues
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He was having a meeting when he called me last night.Past continuous
The verb to be IsAmAre, WasWere is used to create simple “yesno” questions by simply inverting the order of subject and the “to be”
Examples: •
Am I disturbing you? Yes you are No you are not. •
Is this your coat? Yes it is No it is not. •
Is he killing that animal? Yes he was No he was not. •
Were they talking in the class? Yes they were No they were not The verb to be is also used to form the passive voice.
Examples: •
The car is being repaired by Jack in the garage. •
My mother is often helped by John. •
My paper was being corrected in the room.
To do
The verb do is one of the most common verbs in English. Do also can act either as an auxiliary and main verb. As an auxiliary, do have no nonfinite forms,
but only present and past form. These form are: do, does, did. It also has a rule of usage as seen in the table bellow.
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Table II Form of To Do
Subject Present
Past Present
Participle Past
Participle He, She, It
Does Did
Doing Done
I, You, We, They Do
Did Doing
Done There are some functions of verb to do:
Do support in negatives and interrogatives. Do function as auxiliary verb when lexical main verbs are made negatives or used in interrogatives.
Examples: a
Negatives •
He doesn’t smoke or drink. •
They don’t take this examination. •
I didn’t care what he told to me. •
It didn’t work well yesterday. b
Interrogatives •
Do you think that you’re the best? •
Does he go to school? •
Did they do it well? •
What did she take for? •
Where does she study? This use of do is known as to support the construction of the negative or
interrogative. The do does not contribute to any independent meaning. In the constructions, present and past tense is marked on the verb do, not on the main
verb.
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22 Let us compare the sentence bellow.
• I realized it was from smoking. Positive clause
• I didn’t realize it was from smoking. Negative clause
• Did you see Andy to day? Interrogative clause
• You saw Andy to day. Declarative.
Emphatic do occurs as an auxiliary verb in a clause that is not negated and is not a question. It is used to emphasize the meaning of the main verb or the rest of the
clause in positive, in contrast with what one might expect. In speech, emphatic do is usually stressed. It most commonly occurs in conversation and fiction.
Examples: •
I did have a protractor, but it broke. •
I really did go to see him •
But in the final hours he did deliver the goods Emphatic do cannot be combined with another auxiliary.
• it does might help
• they do can careful
Emphatic do usually marks a state of affairs that contrasts with an expected state of affairs. The contrast is sometimes explicitly marked by connectives such as but,
however, nevertheless, though and although. Examples:
• Nevertheless, great changes do occur and have been well documented.
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23 A special use of emphatic do is in commands or suggestion invitations that use
the imperative form. Although this use sounds controversial, it occurs more commonly in fictional dialog than in actual conversation.
Examples: •
Oh do shut up •
Do come and see me sometime. •
Do get on with your work, John. •
I do beg you to consider seriously the points I’ve put to you. Auxiliary do as a pro-verb. Like main verb do, auxiliary do can act as a pro-verb,
standing in for the whole verb phrase + complement. It is used in both positive and negative clauses:
Examples: •
A: He does not event know you. B: He does does= does know me
• I think his mom wants him to come back but his dad doesn’t.
Auxiliary do in question tags. Do function as auxiliary in question tags. Examples:
• This delay solves nothing, does it?
• You hit him, don’t you?
• They went to Berastagi, didn’t they?
With “yesno” questions, the form of do goes in front of the subject and the main verb comes after subject. Do also work as a short answer in this question.
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24 Examples:
• Did your mother know me? Yes she did.
• Do wildflowers grow in your back yard? Yes it does.
• Does your classmates are solid in an organization? No, they do not.
Forms of do are useful in expressing similarity and differences in conjunction with so and neither. It is also helpful because we do not have to repeat the verb.
Examples: •
My sister hates vegetables and so does my brother. •
I do not enjoy my holiday; neither do them. •
Raisya excelled in language English; so did I. •
Keisya studies as hard as her brother does. Do also can be used with be to make imperative sentences.
Examples: •
Don’t be silly •
Do be quite •
Do be a good girl.
To have
Have also is one of the most common verbs in the English language. it functions in various ways. To have also has its other forms. They consist of: to
have, to has, to had. As other primary helping verbs, to have also has a rule in usage as seen in the table bellow:
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Table III Form of To Have
Subject Present
Past Continuous
I, You, We, They Have Had
Having She, He, It
Has Had
Having
Forms of the verb to have are used to create tenses known as the present perfect and past perfect. The present perfect tense indicates that something has
happened. The present perfect continuous indicates that something happens and might be continuing to happen. The past perfect indicates that something
happened prior to something else happening. Examples:
• They have gone to Bandung.Present perfect
• She has made a decision for that affair. Present perfect
• We had married in this city. Past perfect
• He had come here.Past perfect
• It had been bursting since a year ago. Future perfect continuous
• I have been enjoying my holiday for three days. Future Perfect
continuous To have is also used in questions and negatives without do.
Examples: •
Has he gone to the market? •
He has not gone to the market. •
Have you seen him before?
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No, I have not seen him before. There are no progressive having forms of the auxiliary verb have.
Examples: •
He has gone to school.Not he is having gone to the school •
She has made many accessories. Not they are having made many accessories.
To have sometimes combined with to get is used to express a logical inference. Examples:
• It is been raining all week; the street has to be flooded by now.
• He hit his head on the door. He has got to be sick.
Have is often combined with an infinitive to form an auxiliary whose meaning is similar to must.
Examples: •
I have to have a phone like that. •
He has to pay his fee school tomorrow. •
She has to have been the first student to try that. To have is also combination with other modal auxiliary verbs to express
probability and possibility in the past. As an affirmative statement and in negatives statement, to have can express how
certain you are that something happened. Examples:
• Georgia must have left already.
• Clinton might have known about the gifts.
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They might have voted already. •
I may not have been there at the time of party started. To ask about possibility or probability in the past.
Examples: •
Could Clinton have known about the gifts? •
Would they have understood about this problem? •
Might they have started the competition? For short answer, a modal is combined with have.
Examples: •
Did Clinton know about this? I do not know. He might have. •
The evidence is positive. He must have.
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CHAPTER IV
THE MODALS IN ENGLISH
We also include among the kinds of auxiliary verb, those auxiliary verbs are called Modal Auxiliaries or Modals. They differ from the other auxiliaries
both in that they are defective verbs and in that, they can never function as main verb. There are ten modal Verbs; can, could, may, might, ought, shall, should,
will, would, and must. It do not change form for differ subjects. Modal auxiliary verbs give more information about the function of the main
verb that follows it. There is also a separate section on the modal auxiliaries or
modals, which divides these verbs into their various meanings of possibility and necessity in terms of freedom to act including ability, permission and duty,
and the other shall not included concerns it self with the theoretical possibility of propositions being true or not true including likelihood and certainty. These
verbs provide sample sentences in various tenses. The shades of meaning among modal auxiliaries are multifarious and complex.
4.1 Will and Would
Modal verb will and would have various meaning in sentence according to situation and feel of the speaker at that time. Generally, both of them has means as
certainty. Willingness, polite request, promise. Meanwhile to express past time habit, preference, conditional and future in the past use would.
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29 There are some sentence how this modal verbs used in sentence and what is
the specific meaning which appeared from each sentence.
Will and would used to make polite request. Examples:
• Will you open the door please?
• Will you speak louder, please?
• Would you mind helping me please?
• Would you sit down
Will and would can be express willingness. Examples:
• We’re going to the movies. Will you join us?
• I will wash the dishes if you dry.
• Wait I will help you to carry out the luggage.
• Would you please take off your hat?
• I can wait if you would pick me up.
Will and would also used to express futurity. Will use for act in the future meanwhile would used to express act in the future past and in the second form
conjunctive sentence. Examples:
• I will go home to Sidikalang next week.
• I will come here tomorrow.
• She would send you the form.
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They would come to see you tomorrow.
Modal verb will and would are virtually interchangeable, but there are differences. In modal verbs will, it can also express intention especially for the first person:
Examples: •
I will do my exercises later on. •
I will get the best point in this semester. Meanwhile in form of modal would express insistence; rather rare and with a
strong stress on the word would, characteristic activity, a sense of probability and express hypothetical meaning.
Examples: •
Now you have ruined everything. You would act that way. insistence •
Customary; after work, he would walk to his home in West Hartford. characteristic activity
• Typical casual; She would cause the whole family to be late every
time. characteristic activity •
I hear a whistle. It would be the five o’clock train.sense of probability •
My cocker spaniel would weigh a ton if I let her eat what she wants. hypothetical meaning
4.2 Shall and Should
Shall is used in many of the same senses as will, though not all dialects use shall productively and use of shall generally draw a distinction. In standard,
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31 perhaps in old fashioned English, shall in the first person, singular and plural,
indicates mere futurity. However in other person shows an order, command or prophecy; “Cinderella, you shall go to the ball” Therefore , it is impossible to
make shall questions in this person. Shall we? Makes sense, shall you? Does not. Shall is also used in legal and engineering language to write firm laws and
specifications as in these samples; “Those convicted of violating this law shall be imprisoned for a term of not less
than three years,” and “The electronics assembly shall be able to operate with in its specifications over a temperature range of 0 degrees Celsius to 70 degree
Celsius”. Meanwhile should is commonly used, even in dialect where shall is not.
The negation is should not or the contraction shouldn’t. Should can describe an ideal behavior or occurrence and imparts a normative
meaning to the sentence; for example, “you should never lie” means roughly, “ If you always behaved perfectly, you would never lie”; and “ if this works, you
should not feel a thing” means roughly, “ I hope this will work. If it does, you will not feel a thing” in dialects that use shall commonly, however, this restriction
does not apply; for example, a speaker of such a dialect might say, “ If I failed that test, I think I should cry”, meaning the same thing as, “ if I failed that test, I think
I would cry”. In some dialects, it is common to form the subjunctive mood by using
should: “it is important that the law should be passed” where other dialects would say, “ it is important that the law be passed”or “ If it should happen, we are
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32 prepared for it” or “ Should it happen, we are prepared for it” ; when early modern
English would say, “if it happen, we are prepared for it”, and many dialects of would say , “ if it happens, we are prepared for it”.
There are some examples of shall and should in sentences bellow. It shows how it use and various meaning which appeared.
Shall is often used in formal situations legal or legalistic documents, minutes to meeting, etc to express obligation, even in third person and second person
constructions. Examples:
• The college president shall report financial shortfalls to executive
director each semester. •
The board of directors shall be responsible for payments to stockholders.
• The contract states that tenant shall pay landlord a monthly rental of
Rp.500.000 Shall seldom use for anything other than polite questions suggesting an element
of permission in the first person. Examples:
• Shall we go now?
• Shall I call a doctor for you?
• Shall I bring you a glass of warm milk?
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33 Should is usually replaced, nowadays by would. It is still used however to means
ought to. Examples:
• You really shouldn’t do that.
• If you think that was amazing, you should have seen it last night.
Should with the first person pronouns in expressions of liking such as “I should prefer iced tea” and in tentative expression of opinion
Examples: •
I should imagine they’ll vote conservative. •
I should have thought so.
4.3 Can and Could
