auxiliary verb
1
2.9
- noun
- /ɔɡˈzɪljəri vɜrb/
- Specialized
:
verbo auxiliar
- Emergence of negation with auxiliary verb ("daddy is not playing") = 33%
Examples
-
To create a question in the past tense, you need to add the auxiliary verb did before the main verb.
-
-- Auxiliary verb + present progressive "-ing" appears.
Academic text (2004) -
My dictionary says that modals are verb or auxiliary verb forms used to express a distinction of mood, such as that between possibility and actuality.
Blog text (31) -
There are two types of auxiliary verbs: the primary auxiliaries used to form tenses and modals to add modality.
Blog text (31) -
In addition, Sylvia uses the completive done instead of had as an auxiliary verb in sentences like "Sugar done swiped her mama's lipstick, so we ready" (89).
Academic text (2003) -
An auxiliary verb like have is essential for forming perfect tenses in English.
-
In the sentence 'She is studying,' the word is functions as an auxiliary verb.
Synonyms
2
4.0
A verb that helps the main verb show time or make a sentence passive
How Supporting
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound meaning is directly compositional: 'auxiliary' (helping, supplementary) + 'verb' yields 'a helping verb used with another verb,' which matches the provided definition. This construction is cross-linguistically common (e.g. Spanish 'verbo auxiliar', French 'verbe auxiliaire') and would be immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Auxiliary verb comes from an old Latin word for 'help', so it literally means an auxiliary or 'helping' verb. That's why an auxiliary verb is a verb that helps a main verb show time such as past or future, mood like possibility, or the passive form.