auxiliary verb
Sign in to saveAlso known as AUX
verb not bearing a meaning but instead serving a grammatical purpose
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- verb
Show 7 more facts
- Commons category
- Auxiliary verbs
- opposite of
- lexical verb
- different from
- modal verb
- equivalent class
- www.lexinfo.net/ontology/3.0/lexinfo#Auxiliary
- short name
- AUX
- topic's main category
- Category:Auxiliary verbs
Sources (8)
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Encyclopedic overview
An auxiliary verb (abbreviated aux) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a participle, which respectively provide the main semantic content of the clause. An example is the verb have in the sentence I have finished my lunch. Here, the auxiliary have helps to express the perfect aspect along with the participle, finished. Some sentences contain a chain of two or more auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary verbs are also called helping verbs, helper verbs, or (verbal) auxiliaries. Research has been conducted into split inflection in auxiliary verbs.
Basic examples
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “auxiliary verb” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.