{"id":27067,"date":"2025-09-18T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/blog\/?p=27067"},"modified":"2025-09-15T15:18:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T13:18:20","slug":"auxiliary-verbs-what-are-they","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/blog\/auxiliary-verbs-what-are-they\/","title":{"rendered":"Auxiliary Verbs \u2014 what are they?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>What Are Auxiliary Verbs?<\/h1>\n<p><strong>Auxiliary verbs<\/strong> (also called helping verbs) are verbs we use with main verbs to show things like <strong>time (tense), voice<\/strong>, or <strong>mood<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The three main auxiliary verbs are:<\/p>\n<div class=\"lineXp\"><strong>to be<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>to do<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>to have<\/strong><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Auxiliary Verbs Show:<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Tense (time):<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"lineX\">She <strong>was waiting<\/strong> at home.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: grey;\">Past Continuous<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\">I <strong>have broken<\/strong> my leg.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: grey;\">Present Perfect<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\" style=\"margin-bottom: 30px;\">We <strong>don\u2019t go<\/strong> to the gym on Fridays.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: grey;\">Present Simple<\/span><\/div>\n<p><strong>Mood (how we feel about the action):<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"lineX\"><strong>Are<\/strong> you working now?<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: grey;\">Question<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\"><strong>Don\u2019t<\/strong> smoke here!<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: grey;\">Command<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\" style=\"margin-bottom: 30px;\">It <strong>has begun<\/strong>.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: grey;\">Statement<\/span><\/div>\n<p><strong>Voice (active or passive):<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"lineX\">The car <strong>is washed<\/strong> by John.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: grey;\">Passive<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\">The dinner <strong>has been cooked<\/strong> by Mary.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: grey;\">Passive<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\">We <strong>didn\u2019t buy<\/strong> potatoes.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: grey;\">Active<\/span><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Modal Verbs \u2014 Special Auxiliary Verbs<\/h2>\n<p>Modal verbs are also auxiliary verbs. They show ability, possibility, permission, or necessity.<\/p>\n<p>Examples:<\/p>\n<div class=\"lineXp\">will<br \/>\nwould<br \/>\ncan<br \/>\ncould<br \/>\nmust<br \/>\nshould<br \/>\nmay<br \/>\nmight<br \/>\nought to<br \/>\nshall<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>How to Tell Auxiliary Verbs from Main Verbs<\/h2>\n<div class=\"leftonedot30\">Auxiliary verbs make negatives with <strong>not<\/strong>:<\/div>\n<div class=\"righto\">I do not work here.<\/div>\n<div class=\"wrongx\" style=\"margin-bottom: 30px;\">I work not here.<\/div>\n<div class=\"leftonedot30\">Auxiliary verbs help make questions:<\/div>\n<div class=\"righto\">Do you exercise a lot?<\/div>\n<div class=\"wrongx\" style=\"margin-bottom: 30px;\">Exercise you a lot?<\/div>\n<div class=\"leftonedot30\">Auxiliary verbs never stand alone without a main verb (except in short answers):<\/div>\n<div class=\"righto\">I have lived in Paris.<\/div>\n<div class=\"righto\">I lived in Paris.<\/div>\n<div class=\"wrongx\" style=\"margin-bottom: 30px;\">I have in Paris.<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Short Answers Use Auxiliary Verbs<\/h2>\n<div class=\"lineX\">&#8211; Are you dancing?<br \/>\n&#8211; Yes, I <strong>am<\/strong> (dancing).<\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\">&#8211; Do you like coffee?<br \/>\n&#8211; \u2014 Yes, I <strong>do<\/strong> (like it)<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Auxiliary Verbs Can Add Emphasis<\/h2>\n<div class=\"lineX\">I <strong>do<\/strong> like him.<\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\" style=\"margin-bottom: 30px;\">We <strong>did<\/strong> buy too much food.<\/div>\n<p>Adding <strong>do<\/strong> or <strong>did<\/strong> in a positive sentence makes it stronger.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Auxiliary Verbs in Question Tags<\/h2>\n<div class=\"lineX\">You have lost your keys, <strong>haven\u2019t you<\/strong>?<\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\">She isn\u2019t sick, <strong>is she<\/strong>?<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Semi-Auxiliary Verbs \u2014 Verbs That Help Too<\/h2>\n<p>Some phrases act like auxiliary verbs to add extra meaning:<\/p>\n<div class=\"lineX\">I <strong>happen to know<\/strong> him well.<\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\">She <strong>used to work<\/strong> in a library.<\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\">He <strong>was supposed to<\/strong> call me yesterday.<\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\">They <strong>are going to<\/strong> sell their house.<\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\">You<strong> had better<\/strong> find your tickets.<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Auxiliary Verbs That Can Also Be Main Verbs<\/h2>\n<p>Sometimes <strong>to do, to have<\/strong>, and <strong>to be<\/strong> are main verbs.<\/p>\n<div class=\"lineX\">We <strong>do<\/strong> laundry on Mondays. \u2192 Do we <strong>do<\/strong> laundry on Mondays?<\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\">She <strong>has<\/strong> a dog. \u2192 She <strong>doesn\u2019t have<\/strong> a dog.<\/div>\n<div class=\"lineX\" style=\"margin-bottom: 30px;\">I <strong>am<\/strong> tall. \u2192 <strong>Am<\/strong> I tall?<\/div>\n<p>The verb <strong>to be<\/strong> does not need another auxiliary to form questions or negatives.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ml-embedded\" data-form=\"yvNSLY\" style=\"margin-bottom: 20px;\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Banery_reklamowe_nowe-copy-14.png\" alt=\"English? No problem\" width=\"1499\" height=\"480\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16585\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Are Auxiliary Verbs? Auxiliary verbs (also called helping verbs) are verbs we use with main verbs to show things like time (tense), voice, or mood. The three main auxiliary verbs are: to be to do to have Auxiliary Verbs Show: Tense (time): She was waiting at home. Past Continuous I have broken my leg. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":27069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14349,57],"tags":[68],"class_list":["post-27067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-englishblog","category-grammar","tag-grammar"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.0 (Yoast SEO v26.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Auxiliary Verbs \u2014 what are they? | ELLA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Understand what auxiliary verbs are in English and see examples that explain their role in forming questions, negatives, and tenses.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/blog\/auxiliary-verbs-what-are-they\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"pl_PL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Auxiliary Verbs \u2014 what are they?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Understand what auxiliary verbs are in English and see examples that explain their role in forming questions, negatives, and tenses.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/blog\/auxiliary-verbs-what-are-they\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ELLA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-18T05:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/auxiliary_verbs_blogT.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"770\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"514\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Teacher5\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Napisane przez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Teacher5\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Szacowany czas czytania\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minuty\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/blog\/auxiliary-verbs-what-are-they\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/blog\/auxiliary-verbs-what-are-they\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Teacher5\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e7420a07ca5f6ddc1469c281ebb25086\"},\"headline\":\"Auxiliary Verbs \u2014 what are they?\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-18T05:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/blog\/auxiliary-verbs-what-are-they\/\"},\"wordCount\":391,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/blog\/auxiliary-verbs-what-are-they\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/auxiliary_verbs_blogT.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"grammar\"],\"articleSection\":[\"English blog\",\"Grammar\"],\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/blog\/auxiliary-verbs-what-are-they\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ellalanguage.com\/blog\/auxiliary-verbs-what-are-they\/\",\"name\":\"Auxiliary Verbs \u2014 what are they? 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