Auxiliaries (helping) have little or no lexical meaning. They are ‘helper’ verbs, in the sense that they help to form complex verb forms. They are needed to make the sentence grammatically correct. In doing so they express either a grammatical notion (like ‘passive’, ‘progressive’ or ‘tense’) or one or more modal ideas. The Primary Auxiliary verbs: BE, DO,HAVE Modals: can, may, shall, will, could, might

They have certain characteristics which they, and they only, possess and which distinguish them from all other verbs. Auxiliary verbs help other verbs to form interrogative, negative and emphatic forms of speech and to form tenses, mood and voice.

FORMATION OF THE NEGATIVE The negative of these verbs is formed by placing “not” immediately after them. AffirmativeNegative She has just come. She has not come yet. They are working. They are not working. He can speak English. He cannot speak English.

FORMATION OF THE INTERROGATIVE The interrogative of these verbs is made by inversion, i.e. by putting the verb before its subject. AffirmativeInterrogative He can speak English. Can he speak English? She will come to the party. Will she come to the party? He speaks English. Does he speak English? She came to the party. Did she come to the party?

QUESTION TAGS A question tag is a short question that follows a statement. Auxiliaries used in the statement are repeated at the end followed by the subject (always a pronoun): John was annoyed, wasn’t he? (affirmative-negative) John wasn’t annoyed, was he? (negative-affirmative) You like fish, don’t you? You don’t like fish, do you? She ate it all, didn’t she? She didn’t eat it all, did she?

ECHO TAGS An echo tag is a response, in tag form to an affirmative or negative statement by which we may or may not request further information depending on the intonation we use. He has resigned. – Has he? He is resigning. – Is he?/He is? He hasn’t resigned. – Hasn’t he? He isn’t resigning. Isn’t he?/He isn’t?

SHORT ANSWERS Auxiliaries are used for “short answers” to avoid repetition of the verb. Can you speak Russian? Full answer: Yes, I can speak Russian. No, I can’t speak Russian. Short answer: Yes, I can. / No, I can’t.

These short answers may be of several types: a) “Yes/No” answer: Will he help us? – Yes, he will./ No, he won’t. b) Answer to a question introduced by an interrogative, e.g. Who can answer the question? - I can. Who was here first, Henry or Richard? - Henry was.

c) Short answers expressing agreement, e.g. I think John is working well. – Yes, he is. Mary has done well in her examination. – Yes, she has. d) Short answers expressing disagreement. E.g. It will take hours to this work. – No, it won’t. Richard works hard. –I’m afraid he doesn’t.

e) Additions and responses to sentences. 1) With SO meaning “also”: I have written a letter to Jean. –So have I. John will help and so will Margaret. Lucille speaks French and so does Anna. Henry must come and so must Charles. 2) The negative construction parallel to (1): Peter hasn’t given the right answer, neither (nor) has Mary? Nick can’t speak Russian. Neither can Olaf. Alice didn’t answer the question. Neither did Jane.