AUXILIARY VERBS , grammar

Department of English , Grammar II

Lecturer Dr. M. Mustafa

AUXILIARY VERBS

Rule I  , Auxilary Verbs have two types:

1- Functional or grammatical auxiliaries which change the main lexical verbs . These include

a. verb ( to be) [is , are , am , was , were ] .

b. Verb (to have) [have , has , had ].

2. Modal auxiliaries which  do not change the main verb. Unlike the ordinary auxiliaries, the modals are not purely grammatical or ‘functional’ , but they contribute to the meaning of the verb. [do , will , would, shall, should, can , could, may, might, must, had to , have to, dare to, need to , ought to ] .

Rule 2  , Use ‘is’ to express facts in  present with  :

1. Sam is a good friend of mine . [singular noun]
2. Education  is important for every one.  [  abstract noun ]
3. Oil is the main product of Yemen. [mass noun]
4. He , she , it  > is here.  [singular pronoun]

Rule 3 , Use ‘is’ to express continuous present (is+ verb ‘ing’ ) 

1. Sam is coming now.
2. She is working as a nurse.

Rule 4  , Use ‘are ’ to express facts in  present with  :

1. Yemen , Saudia , and Oman are neighboring countries. [series of nouns]
2. The children are in the bus .[plural noun]
3. You are Sam , aren’t you ?  [ with pronoun ‘you’ ]
4. We , they > are students in the department of English . [plural pronoun]

Rule 5 , Use ‘are’ to express continuous present (are+ verb ‘ing’ ) with plural subject. 

1. The boys are playing outside.
2. We are going to the stadium.

Rule 6  , Use ‘am’ only with pronoun ‘I’  . Mark that “ I am “ are two words .

1. I  am  rather sick today.

2. I  am looking for a used car to buy.

3. I am waiting for you.  

Rule 7 , ‘Was’ is the past of  ‘is’ and ‘am’  / ‘were’ is the past of  ‘are’ 

1. Sam , he, she, it > was in the market .
2. I was a teacher in a private school .

Rule 8  , Use “was ” and “were” with verb ‘ ing’   in a compound  sentence (Continuous past) .

  

1. Not preferable : he was watching TV.
2. Correct : he watched TV.
3. Correct : He was watching TV when  some one knocked the door.

Rule 9 , ‘is’ ‘are’ ‘am’ ‘was’ and ‘were’ can be followed by a past participle verb , but only when the sentence is passive

1. I am very amazed by such news.
2. The picture is painted by Sam.
3. These poems are  written for children.
4. Nabila’s bag was  stolen.
5. Some lessons were dropped.

Rule 10 , Use ‘have’ with these pronouns and nouns  :

1. I have two classes today.
2. You , we , they > have written the assignments.
3. The teachers have a meeting. [plural noun]

Rule 11 , Use ‘has’ with singular noun or pronoun

1. He , she, it > has gone. ( perfect present]
2. He  , she, it  > has money.

Rule 12  , ‘had’ is the past of both ‘have ’ and  ‘has’ and can be used with singular and plural equally

1. I , we, you , he , she, it , they > had money.

Rule 13 , The verb comes after ‘have’ , ‘has’ , and ‘had’ is  always past participle :

1. Sam has eaten the cakes.
2. We have cleaned our room.
3. They had finished the work before I joined them.

Rule 14 , ‘has , have , and ‘had’ can take ‘been + verb ’ing’ in perfect continuous tenses

1.He has been coming from the college.

2. You have been sleeping during the lecture.

3. I had been staying in hospital  just before I went to Jordan for the operation .

Rule 15 ,  ‘has , have , and ‘had’ can take ‘been + past participle if the sentence is passive .

1. The  lunch has been prepared .
2. You have been excluded from the group.
3. This  dam had been built before the revolution.

Rule 16 , Verb (to have ) is a lexical verb (not an auxiliary) if followed by a noun, and it indicates passiveness  .

1. I have a bicycle /  My father has a shop. [ simple present ]
2. I had a bicycle /  My father had a shop. [ simple past ]
3. I have had a bicycle /  My father has had a shop. [ perfect present ]
4. I had had  a bicycle before I got this motorcycle  /  My father had had  a shop before we came to live in the city.  [ perfect past  ]
5. Do you have dialing units to call Sam.
6. She doesn’t have any relatives in the city to stay with.
7.  I did not have time to visit you yesterday.

Rule 17  , “ having had’ can also be used as  gerund possessiveness

1. People having had smallpox are immuned against catching the disease again.
2. If having had the opportunity to study abroad , I would study economics.

Rule 18 , Verb (to have ) is a  modal of obligation if followed by ‘to+ verb’

1. She has to study hard. ( present )
2. You have to stop smoking.  ( present)
3. You had to stop smoking . ( unfulfilled obligation in past)
4. You were obliged to stop smoking. (fulfilled obligation in past, passive )
5. You are obliged to stop smoking.  (present obligation likely to be fulfilled, passive )

Rule 19 , Verb (to have ) is a  modal of possessiveness obligation if followed by a noun .

1. He has to have a mobile telephone. (present obligation of possessiveness)
2. I have to have a bank account .  (present obligation of possessiveness)
3. You had to have a notebook when you came to class. 

Rule 20  , ‘has’ is changed into have if accompanied by a modal , and  it can be followed by a noun or a verb .

1. She has a beautiful bag. (simple present , possessiveness)
2. She will have a beautiful bag. ( simple future , possessiveness)
3. She will have taken her bag. ( future Perfect )
4. She has bought a beautiful bag. (perfect present)
5. She will have been looking for   a beautiful bag. (future perfect continuous)

Rule 21, Use apostrophes to put auxiliaries in contraction forms, e.g.  

1. I’ve (I have) .
2. s/he’s (s/he is / s/he has).
3. It’s (it is / it was,  it has).
4. I’m ( I am).
5. I’d , we’d . he’d , it’d , you’d, they’d ( I , we, he, it, you, they > had /would).
6. I’ll (I will) you’ll (you will ).
7. isn’t (is not ) aren’t (are not ) haven’t  (have not ) hasn’t (has not) .hadn’t (had not )

shan’t   (shall not) won’t (will not) don’t (do not ) didn’t (did not) can’t (can not) …etc.