In linguistics, an auxiliary (also called helping verb, helper verb, auxiliary verb, or verbal auxiliary, abbreviated AUX) is a verb

functioning to give further semantic or syntactic information about the main or full verb following it. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice, progressive aspect, perfect aspect, modality, dummy, or emphasis. In English, every clause has a finite verb which consists of a main verb (a non auxiliary verb) and optionally one or more auxiliary verbs, each of which is a separate word. Examples of finite verbs include write (no auxiliary verb), have written (one auxiliary verb), and have been written (two auxiliary verbs). !any languages, including English, feature some verbs that can act either as auxiliary or as main verbs, such as be ("I am writing a letter" vs "I am a postman") and have ("I have written a letter" vs "I have a letter"). In the case of be, it is sometimes ambiguous whether it is auxiliary or not# for example, "the ice cream was melted" could mean either "something melted the ice cream" (in which case melt would be the main verb) or "the ice cream was mostly li$uid" (in which case be would be the main verb). %he primary auxiliary verbs in English are to be and to have# other ma&or ones include shall, will, may and can.

Functions of the English auxiliary verb

Passive voice
%he auxiliary verb be is used with a past participle to form the passive voice# for example, the clause "the door was opened" implies that someone (or something) opened it, without stating who (or what) it was. 'ecause many past participles are also stative ad&ectives, the passive voice can sometimes be ambiguous# for example, "at (:)*, the window was closed" can be a passive voice sentence meaning, "at (:)*, someone closed the window", or a non passive voice sentence meaning "at (:)*, the window was not open". +erhaps because of this ambiguity, the verb get is sometimes used collo$uially instead of be in forming the passive voice, "at (:)*, the window got closed."

Progressive aspect
%he auxiliary verb be is used with a present participle to form the progressive aspect# for example, "I am riding my bicycle" describes what the sub&ect is doing at the given (in this case present) time without indicating completion, whereas "I ride my bicycle" is a temporally broader statement referring to something that occurs habitually in the past, present, and future. ,imilarly, "I was riding my bicycle" refers to the ongoing nature of what I was doing in the past, without viewing it in its entirety through completion, whereas "I rode my bicycle" refers either to a single past act viewed in its entirety through completion or to a past act that occurred habitually.

Perfect aspect
%he auxiliary verb have is used with a past participle to indicate perfect aspect: a current state experienced by the sub&ect as a result of a past action or state. -or example, in "I have visited +aris" the current state is one of having a +aris visit in one.s past, while the past action is visiting +aris. %he past action may be ongoing, as in "I have been studying all night". /n example involving the result of a past state rather than a past action is "I have known that for a long time", in which the past state still exists (I still know it) along with the resultant state (I am someone who knew that at some past time). /n example involving the result of a past state that no longer exists is "I have felt bad in the past, but not recently". %he alternative use of had instead of have places the perspective from which the resultant state is viewed in the past: "'y 01(* I had visited +aris" describes the 01(* state of having a prior +aris visit.

Modality
!odality means the attitude of the speaker to the action or state being expressed, in terms of either degree of probability ("%he sun must be down already", "%he sun should be down already", "%he sun may be down already", "%he sun might be down already"), ability ("I can speak -rench"), or permission or obligation ("2ou must go now", "2ou should go now", "2ou may go now"). ,ee modal verb and English modal verb.

Dummy
Do, does, or did plays a dummy (place filling) role in transforming simple (one word) verbs into $uestions or negatives: "I go" 3 "4o I go5", "I do not go"# "6e goes" 3 "4oes he go5", "6e does not go"# "I went" 3 "4id I go5", "I did not go".

Emphasis
%he auxiliaries do, does, and did are also used for emphasis in positive declarative statements in which the verb otherwise contains only one word: "I do like this shirt7", "6e does like this shirt", "I did like that shirt".