Find out what AUXILIARY VERBS are and what they are

Surely on more than one occasion you have heard about auxiliary verbs, so that you have no doubt about what what they are and the functions they fulfill within a sentence, from a PROFESSOR we want to offer you a definition complete. First of all, we will need to look at what are auxiliary verbs and what are they, in order to finish the lesson at hand by correctly identifying them with different examples that you will find very often. You are ready?

Index

1. What are auxiliary verbs: definition for children
2. Verb periphrasis and auxiliary verbs
3. Auxiliary verbs in compound tenses

Auxiliary verbs are verb forms that fulfill a specific and specialized function that is to offer grammar information related to the mode, the time, the person, the number, the voice and the tense of the main verb of the sentence. Therefore, for an auxiliary verb to always exist in a sentence there must be a main verb which will be the one that gives meaning and semantic content to the sentence in which it appears.

Because they serve to "help" the main verb to show certain specific functions, we can find it in all compound verb tenses and also in the verbal periphrasis.

Characteristics of auxiliary verbs

We can define auxiliary verbs with their two main characteristics, the first of which is that these types of words do not have a semantic load own within the sentence, therefore, they are only a support or support of the main verb. Its objective is to develop the specific grammatical or functional value, as we have already mentioned: of manner, number, person... etc.

So that you can better understand what we are talking about here we show you an example of an auxiliary verb: I have to see that good movie. In this case, the verb principal of the sentence is watch and the assistant is the verb to have, which loses its grammatical meaning and supports the principal's action.

On the other hand, another characteristic that defines them is that they are not in charge of selecting the complements of the sentence or the subject, this subcategorization is always carried out by the main verb. If you look at the example above, the direct complement it is movie and the subject it is Me, both appear subcategorized by the verb to see, which is the main verb of the sentence.

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Despite what has been explained above, on some occasions the auxiliary verb does have meaning, in this case we refer to the verbal periphrasis. In these cases there are some lexical restrictions on the part of the main verb that may condition the complements. Let's see it clearly with an example:

• Just arrived.

The sentence is made up of a verbal periphrase (Finish + de) and an infinitive. In this case, the verb to finish is the auxiliary, but in this case it cannot include another verb that indicates a quality. In some cases, you can even set some semantic type values ​​as it retains part of its meaning:

• He even told me that he did not like my food.

In this case the auxiliary obligatorily combined with the prepositionto to add meaning to the sentence.

Compound verbs as such always have an auxiliary verb, in this case the verb to have. All of them have the auxiliary in front of the participle to be able to form the different compound verb tenses:

• I've come
• Would have bought
• Had come out

Therefore, although the main verb is that it marks the action, the auxiliary verb is the one that determines its time since the main verb always appears in the participle.

Auxiliary verbs in verbal periphrasis

Although they are an essential part of compound tenses, the auxiliary verbs that we can find within verb periphrasis can be formed with different verbs. In the case seen above, only the verb haber is used. Within a periphrasis we can find different types, although there are some that are much more frequent than others. Therefore, and depending on the type of construction in which they appear, we can find:

• Infinitive helpers: can be followed by a preposition or the conjunction que. They are formed with an auxiliary verb "Get to see the movie."
• Gerund auxiliaries: made up of an auxiliary verb plus a gerund "They are coming."
• Participle helpers: using a participle "Had to have come."

Auxiliary verbs in the passive voice

Auxiliary verbs are also used to form the passive voice of any sentence. For this, the combination of the auxiliary verb with a participle will be necessary. Therefore:

• The dog caught the ball - The ball was caught by the dog
• The police arrested the thief - The thief was stopped by the police
• The man caused the death of the witness - The death of the witness was caused by the man
• We made a speech - The speech was delivered by us
• The students organized a collection - The collection was organized by the students
• My sister won the competition - The competition was won by my sister

Now that you know what auxiliary verbs are, some examples of these and what they are used for, you can continue learning new concepts in our section on Grammar and Linguistics. Surely the information that we offer you on our website is very interesting for you.

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REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA and Association of language academies (2009), New grammar of the Spanish language, Madrid, Espasa, ch. 1, 4, 23, 27, 28, 41.