auxiliary verb

American  

[awg-zil-yuh-ree vurb, -zil-uh-] / ɔgˈzɪl jə ri ˌvɜrb, -ˈzɪl ə- /

noun

Grammar.

1. a verb used before and together with certain forms of other verbs, such as infinitives or participles, to express distinctions of tense, duration, possibility, obligation, etc., as in I am listening, We have spoken, They can see, Did you go?

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auxiliary verb British  

noun

1. a verb used to indicate the tense, voice, mood, etc, of another verb where this is not indicated by inflection, such as English will in he will go, was in he was eating and he was eaten, do in I do like you, etc

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auxiliary verb Cultural  

1. A “helping” verb that modifies the main verb, as in “Gail can win,” “Gail did win,” “Gail could have won.” A question often begins with an auxiliary verb: “Did Gail win?” “Could Gail lose?” The various forms of the verbs can, have, is, and does frequently act as auxiliaries.

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Etymology

Origin of auxiliary verb

First recorded in 1755–65

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

auxiliary verb

Similarly, the allegedly unsplittable verb will execute is not a verb at all but two verbs, the auxiliary verb will and the main verb execute.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

Sandoval, who wrote a grammar of the language, explains no as an auxiliary verb; but with the noun he calls it an article, as it is, and he evidently misunderstood the expression.

From The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb by Daniel Garrison Brinton

"Love, lovest, loveth, or loves," &c., have been formed by combining the root with the inflections of the auxiliary verb, to have.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 360, October 1845 by Various

A pluperfect is similarly formed with the past tense of the auxiliary verb.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 7 "Bible" to "Bisectrix" by Various

Cœpi is a sort of auxiliary verb; incepi is emphatic; hence cœpi has an infinitive, incipere a substantive, for its object.

From Döderlein's Hand-book of Latin Synonymes by Ludwig Döderlein