Auxiliary Verbs in Englishcause difficulties for all students without exception. This is primarily due to the fact that the familiar structures of the native language do not work, and the imposed system is alien and incomprehensible. However, as the most successful translators say, in order to learn to speak a foreign language well, it is necessary to understand how its speakers think. We'll figure out.
What are they needed for
Auxiliary verbs, as explicitlyfollows from their name, help with the grammatical design of speech. These are “assistants”, which indicate categories such as time, number, person, voice, etc. It is important to understand that in this function they do not mean action, which, for example, is the main characteristic of the verb in Russian.
Let's consider the question as an example:"Do you like oranges?" Please note that in Russian in speech only intonation indicates that this sentence is a question. That is, if you pronounce it exactly, the interlocutor decides that this statement. What else can we say about the grammatical design of the example? The pronoun "you", the form of the verb "love" tells us that we are referring to one particular person in the present tense. The form of the verb is important for us: we do not use the main one - “to love”, but we specially choose the grammatically correct one.
In English, this question is translated as: "Do you like oranges?" And according to the first word - auxiliary verb - we can determine that:
- this is a question (in English only questions begin with a verb);
- we are interested in action in the present tense;
- we definitely do not refer to "him" or to "her", since in this case the verb would acquire the form does.
All subsequent words do not bear grammar.load, only semantic. Notice how the grammar is "spread" on the Russian sentence and is densely concentrated in one English word, which we do not even mention when translating. That is, the exact understanding of our speech directly depends on which auxiliary verbs are used in the sentence.
Verb to do
Auxiliary verbs do and does most oftenused to construct questions and denials in real simple time. The form depends on the subject of the sentence - if it is "he", "she" or "it" (to put it scientifically, 3 person, singular), then the form does (and the main verb of the action is deprived of the ending -s / -es) otherwise, the main form is do.
Did form questions and denials in simple past tense. Its form does not change depending on the subject.
In the affirmative sentences also sometimesdifferent forms of do are used as auxiliary verbs - in order to emphasize something, to emphasize action, imperativeness or adverb, etc. For example, ardently arguing your love for porridge, you can say: "I do like porridge, is so unbelievable? "
Verb to have
Verb have and its other forms - has and had - more oftenIn general, they are used as auxiliary for the expression of action in specific English temporary categories: Perfect and Perfect Continuous, expressing the "perfection" of the action. So, have and has express the present, and in combination with the will - the future; had been used if the action took place in the past.
In addition, have and its form followed by an infinitive particle to express the need to perform an action and have a similar meaning to the modal and auxiliary verb must.
Verb to be
To be is one of the most common auxiliary verbs in English times. It has a very wide range of shapes.
So, to express the present simple time(Present Simple) in questions and denials, depending on the subject of the sentence, are used am (for the first person in the singular - "I"), is (for the third person in the singular - "he", "she", "it") or "are" (second person and all persons in the plural). Do not forget that in sentences like "I am a doctor" - the verb to be (in the form of am) is semantic, not auxiliary; in this case, it can itself be used to construct questions and negatives.
If the action occurs at the moment, that is, Present Continuous time is used, the forms am / is / are also used (in all kinds of sentences), and the semantic verb acquires the ending -ing.
Questions and denials in the past simple time(Past Simple) are built using the forms was (for the singular) and were (for the plural, including you), and will be used to express actions in the future in all kinds of sentences.
Еще одна форма рассматриваемого глагола - been - is part of the auxiliary construction of the group of so-called perfect long times (Perfect Continuous Tense) and, in combination with the main verb with the ending -ing, expresses precisely this duration. This group of times has traditionally caused big problems for English learners, but the theoretical description of the grammar sounds more complicated than things really are: "I have been learning how to deal with the Tense System!" - "I study English all my life, but I still do not fully understand the system of times."
All forms of the verb to be also help to express a passive voice — the choice depends on the time at which an action takes place.
Other auxiliary verbs
Verbs must, should, can, could, may, might,ought and others are also known as modal auxiliary and are used to express the need, possibility or resolution of an action. Most of them do not change either in time or depending on the subject of the narration.
Notes by novice linguists
All famous linguists once began to learnforeign language. Success depends on many factors, including the comprehension of subtle nuances that often facilitate the understanding of a foreign system. We consider it necessary to mention the following factors:
- If the question begins with the auxiliary word(and not interrogatively, like "What ..." or "When ..."), the answer to it can be a simple monosyllabic "yes" or "no", and to observe literacy in the style of the so-called Perfect English, you can add the corresponding pronoun and the same verb that stood at the beginning. "Does Anna like porridge?" - "Yes (she does)". Pay attention to the form - perhaps it should be negative if you use no in the response.
- In order to avoid misunderstandings,it must be remembered that all auxiliary verbs in English (except modal) can be semantic. At the same time, you should not be frightened or perplexed by the double representation of any word in a sentence, such as in the question: "Do you do cleaning every day?" - "Do you clean every day?" - in the first case, the verb do is auxiliary, and in the second - a semantic one.
It is worth noting that the system auxiliaryEnglish verbs are so complex that even speakers sometimes make mistakes when using them. However, students should be diligent and deeply work through this topic in order to be able to accurately convey the necessary information and correctly understand the interlocutor.
