Questions tagged [auxiliary-verbs]
An auxiliary verb modifies the main verb to give more information about the main verb.
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"Do you or she like this elephant?"
Or should the question in the title be "Do you or does she like this elephant?"
In addition, assuming the following ambiguities are independent from the distinction in above phrasings...
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, which have helped to feed [closed]
Satellites track weather patterns and measure the effectiveness of
farming methods and innovations in agriculture, which have helped to
feed millions more than we could have dreamed possible before ...
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Now what the heck does "would" mean in these "why would" phrases? [migrated]
Why would you do this to me?
Why would a word for red come into being before a word for blue?
What the heck is "would's" role in this sentence? Is this some kind of broken conditional? I've ...
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Is it acceptable to consider the use of the progressive form in R-usage as one of the polite expressions？
I have a question about the progressive form in modal and periphrastic modal verbs.
Modal verbs: can (could), may (might), must, should
Periphrastic modal verbs: have to, ought to
Regarding the ...
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Adverbs in the mid-position when there is more than one verb
I am doing a worksheet about adverbs. For adverbs of certainty like 'probably' and 'definitely', it says that they go in the mid-position and it gives this rule: "mid: before main verb; if the ...
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Do auxiliary verbs have a meaning / an intrinsic meaning?
Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_auxiliary_verbs):
English auxiliary verbs are a small set of English verbs, which
include the English modal auxiliary verbs and a few others. Although
...
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Is "used" an auxiliary verb in this sentence?
She used to be a varsity athlete.
In a grammar book, the above sentence was listed among sentences containing at least one auxiliary verb. If "used" is indeed the auxiliary verb, can an ...
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Is "don't" a particle of its own?
I noticed an oddity in the sentence Why don't you just do it?: Although I always thought of don't simply as of a short form of do not it seems to me as if this is not the case in this sentence. ...
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...can you say that you won’t and haven’t sold Pegasus to [ellipsis]
Is this kind of elliptical construction used widely?
SHALEV: I’m not gonna talk about specific customer.
LESLEY: But can you say that you won’t and haven’t sold Pegasus to a country that is known to ...
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Why isn't "I had to" contracted to "I'd to" unlike other auxiliary usage of the verb "had"?
We say "I had to leave," but not "I'd to leave." Why? This is also unlike other auxiliary usage of the verb "had" (e.g. in past perfect tense), so the difference is more ...
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Can the second auxiliary be omitted in sentences like "...but she may (have)"?
a. I don’t think she has seen it, but she may (have).
b. This one needs to be repaired; the other already has (been).
Can you omit the second auxiliary? If so, is it more natural to omit it?
These ...
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Static have or dynamic have in "I had the staff do a thorough search" [duplicate]
I need to know if "had" is static or dynamic in the following clause.
I had the staff do a thorough search.
I know that if the verb have is marking possession or obligation, some speakers ...
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When the verb dare is an auxiliary, can it take the preterite form dared?
I need to distinguish the auxiliary dare and the lexical dare. I know that as semi-modals need and dare act similarly. As a modal the verb need can only have present tense forms without the 3rd person ...
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Why isn't this an auxiliary verb? [closed]
THE EXERCISE:
"I told my mother that my thoughts were bent upon seeing the world that I should never settle to
anything with resolution enough to go through with it, and my father should be ...
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Omission of Auxiliaries [closed]
I have heard this sentence, said by somebody:
Okay, let's check your homework. Sentence 1... correct, sentence 2... also correct, sentence 3 correct as well, and sentence 4... correct, too.
Now, I'...
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Who I've sold your cats *are/is* those people [closed]
I have already posted questions about wh-cleft verb agreement, but after having watched all the links you'd graciously provided, I was able to find no answer that'd explain which verb to use in this ...
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What we sold yesterday was/were a cat and oxen [duplicate]
Which is correct in my sentence? No-one really seems to have ever posted such a sophisticated question.
What we sold yesterday was/were a cat and three oxen.
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Sentence start with auxiliary-verb
Only after the journal transaction has been committed in this fashion can the kernel do the real metadata writes at its leisure; should the system crash in the middle, the information needed to safely ...
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Can "may have" be used in a past-tense narrative?
In a narrative written in third person past tense, such as you'd find in most published books, can the phrase "may have" be used after verbs like "thought" or "said"? As ...
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Which verb to use with "pair of X" [duplicate]
Which of the following is correct:
Every pair of two different people are of different countries.
Every pair of two different people is of different countries.
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"I'll have take contact you two about the details later" [closed]
"I'll have take contact you two about the details later"
I read this sentence in a manga and I was baffled as to what kind of grammatical function have is playing here. Is it an aspectual ...
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Is there a term for, and what is the correctness of, splitting a verb with a nonrestrictive clause?
This is a question about splitting a verb with a clause, not a word. Thus, it's similar to but different from usual verb splitting. Or, rather, I'm wondering if it's different enough to have its own ...
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Wouldst thou like or likest?
The phrase "wouldst thou like" seems more appropriate to me, for the following reason:
As far as I know, "thou wilt like" is correct, and "thou wilt likest" is not, ...
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Omitting auxiliary verbs
Native speakers often tend to simplify their language, for example they shorten phrases ("I would like to" becomes "I'd like to", etc.).
Taking this into account, do native English ...
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Are causative verbs auxiliary verbs?
I can't seem to find any definitive information on this topic, as most sources simply say "these are called causative verbs" and leave it at that. To my mind, they act like auxiliary verbs ...
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Can the auxiliary verb do/does/did replace a transitive verb?
In Ariana Grande's song off the table there's the verse:
Will I ever love somebody like the way I did you?
Can we use the auxiliary verb to replace a transitive verb like "love"? For ...
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Does this sentence sound weird and unnatural? If so, what do you think is a better/correct sentence structure? [closed]
It seems this would be the last time we will talk about this.
I don't get the auxiliary verbs (would, will) used in the sentence above. Isn't it better to say, "It seems this would be the last ...
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"Have you?" vs "do you?" in awkward sentence
This question arises from a debate between friends about what is "technically" more correct in this sentence:
"You don't happen to have read <book name>, do you?"
Should ...
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Use of ‘had’ in Indian English
Soon after she encountered the experience while proceeding to New Delhi, the Thoothukudi MP had tweeted, “Today at the airport a CISF officer asked me if I am an Indian, when I asked her to speak to ...
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What should be the correct auxiliary verb, did or do? [duplicate]
Which one is correct, “if you ever did it again?” or “if you ever do it again?”
The act has already been done once by a character A, much to character B’s dislike. Now, if B warns A not to repeat the ...
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Placement of the auxiliary verb within a sentence
When using do as auxiliary verb for emphasis, could one swap it around in a sentence or not?
For example:
Do please check the details beforehand.
Please do check the details beforehand.
Are both ...
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Will vs Would? Can both of them be used for future [closed]
I doubt she will do anything.
I doubt she would do anything.
Which one is grammatically correct?
Please also mention if there is any grammatical error in the following sentence:
"The lady ...
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How many auxiliary verbs does the sentence below have?
I had a disagreement with someone about the sentence below.
"The homework has been completed".
A friend said there aren't two auxiliaries but as I see it, there are three verbs: has, been, ...
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Are there terms to distinguish the auxiliary verbs in a multi-auxiliary verb phrase?
In phrase constructions that include multiple auxiliary verbs, as in "he has been sleeping all day", is there terminology commonly used to distinguish them? For example, might you call the ...
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In the phrase, "it better be good", what part of speech is ”better”?
Clearly the verb in the sentence in "it better be good" is "be", but what is "better"? Is it an auxiliary or an adverb?
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dare I say (it) [duplicate]
used when you are saying something that you think other people may not
like
This famous novel is a little, dare I say it, dull. https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/dare-i-say-it
Is ...
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Inversion without auxiliary verb? [duplicate]
It's pretty normal when people use inversion in a sentence like this one (with the aux verb at the front):
"In no way do I agree with what you're saying."
But I'm not sure if these belong to ...
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The Auxiliary “Be” in the King James Bible
The King James Bible has Job 30:2 as “Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?” which I understood to mean, “What use are their hands to me, men whose ...
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the auxiliary “need” (in affirmative sentences?)
I remember being told the modal “need” is used only in interrogative and negative sentences and was for quite a long time more idiomatic than the normal forms, but is there anything wrong with the ...
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Auxiliary verb reduction in not only - but also structure
I was wondering if it is correct to reduce the auxiliary verb of a not only - but also sentence that has multiple clauses sharing that same auxiliary verb, for example:
Not only did I finish my ...
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Can an auxiliary verb (i.e. "has") be used outside a verb phrase, with the same meaning?
Lets use the word "has" as an example. We can say "he has done his work", where "has" is an auxililary verb for the main verb "done". There is also another way ...
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Which one would be correct to use in a poetic way?
Can I make an interrogative sentence without using any Helping Verb?
For instance:
Blood is sticking onto the attire on my body; now what my pocket needs for darning?
I want to say my pocket ...
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NICE Properties of Auxiliary Verbs
BACKGROUND
According to this ThoughtCo. article titled "NICE Properties of Auxiliary Verbs":
NICE is an acronym for the four syntactic characteristics that distinguish auxiliary verbs from ...
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"These children were abducted by a member of their own family." vs. "These children were abducted by members of their own families."
I'm having trouble figuring out which sentence is the most acceptable. The subject and object are both plural, but it sounds more natural using a singular object. Also, I can't figure out if the ...
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Is there an alternative grammar term for 'auxiliary (verb)'?
The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language consistently uses the term "auxiliary (verb)" to refer to be, have, do, will/can/may/must, etc., but CGEL doesn't treat auxiliaries as mere assistants (i....
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Is this "dare" an auxiliary verb or a lexical one?
I am studying auxiliary verbs, and I saw that "to dare" is a modal auxiliary. However, this sentence is somehow confusing:
He does not dare to interrupt.
My question is: Is "to dare&...
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Confusion in the selection of Verb/Auxiliary Verb
Below are the sentences 1) from scientific Journal 2) from a book. Since both are published text, however, my confined knowledge makes me ask this question. In 1) sentence two things are mentioned "...
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Is “are just can't” correct?
Some curves are just can't be flattened.
Shouldn't it just be "Some curves just can't be flattened"?
Asking for corrections and suggestions. Thanks in advance.
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Distribution of auxiliary verb over infinitives
I have a doubt regarding the use of auxiliary verb. When we use an auxiliary verb in a sentence , and suppose it does two tasks and we join them using ,say, 'and' , Is there a need for us to repeat ...
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What is the history of "may" being used to mean "must"?
According to (online) Merriam-Webster, "may" has the following two distinct definitions, among others
1 b: have permission to
4: SHALL, MUST —used in law where the sense, purpose, or policy ...
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