auxiliary verb
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 Iamlistening, Wehavespoken,Theycansee,Didyou go?
Origin of auxiliary verb
1- Also called helping verb.
Words Nearby auxiliary verb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use auxiliary verb in a sentence
From the difficulty of retaining a right discrimination of tense seems to have proceeded the active auxiliary verb.
Cpi is a sort of auxiliary verb; incepi is emphatic; hence cpi has an infinitive, incipere a substantive, for its object.
Dderlein's Hand-book of Latin Synonymes | Ludwig DderleinSudah is classed as an adverb, but its most common use is to serve as a kind of auxiliary verb in forming the past tenses.
A Manual of the Malay language | William Edward MaxwellA pluperfect is similarly formed with the past tense of the auxiliary verb.
When two co-ordinate verbs are of the same tense and mood the auxiliary verb should apply to both.
Milton's Comus | John Milton
British Dictionary definitions for auxiliary verb
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
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for auxiliary verb
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.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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