auxiliary verb

[ awg-zil-yuh-ree vurb, -zil-uh- ]

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?

auxiliary verb

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

auxiliary verb

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of auxiliary verb¹

First recorded in 1755–65

Example Sentences

Whenever a sentence has a not and a because, and the not remains stuck to the auxiliary verb, readers may be left in the dark about the scope of the negation and hence about what the sentence means.

From Literature

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 Literature

For example, did you know that the present continuous tense is formed with the help of the auxiliary verb “to be”?

From New York Times

It has had a prosperous career since the commencement of the 19th century, but some writers, especially those of Lucknow, have so overloaded it with Persian and Arabic that little of the original Indo-Aryan character remains, except, perhaps, an occasional pronoun or auxiliary verb.

From Project Gutenberg

A verb which helps to form the voices, modes, and tenses of other verbs; Ð called, also, an auxiliary verb; as, have, be, may, can, do, must, shall, and will, in English; ˆtre and avoir, in French; avere and essere, in Italian; estar and haber, in Spanish.

From Project Gutenberg