A linking or an auxillary verb?

[Mwita Chacha]

In the sentence ''The machine was damaged'' and other similarly constructed sentences, what is the type of service offered by 'was?' Is it acting as a linking verb connecting the noun 'machine' to its corresponding subject complement, in this case the participle predicative adjective 'damaged?' Or is it acting as a primary auxillary verb, which, in the given sentence, combines with the lexical verb 'damaged' to form the verb phrase 'was damaged?' I come across such constructions in many pieces of writing, and I invariably end up totally confused when I attempt to dissect them. Indeed, I have decided to use 'was' in my sentence as representative, but other verb forms of to be--am, is, are and were--pose virtually related addling.

[Joe Carillo]

In the sentence “The machine was damaged,” is the verb “was” a linking verb or an auxiliary verb? This is indeed an intriguing question, but the answer should become clear once we have reviewed the distinction between linking verbs and auxiliary verbs.

As we know, a linking verb is one that doesn’t express an action but implies a state of being or condition of the subject. Functionally, all by its lonesome, it just connects—”links”—the verb’s subject to additional information about it. Linking verbs are, of course, either verbs of sensation (“feel,” “look,” “smell,” “sound,” “taste”) or verbs of existence (“be,” “act,” “appear,” “become,” “continue,” “grow,” “prove,”). Examples of how a linking verb works in a sentence: “Amelia feels lonely.” “Roberto is happy.” “Your explanation appears misleading.” “She grew tired of the computer game.”)

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Is “was” in “The machine was damaged” a linking verb or an auxillary verb?

On the other hand, auxiliary or helping verbs work in conjunction with main verbs to express shades of time and mood. The most common auxiliary verbs are “will,” “shall,” “may,” “might,” “can,” “could,” “must,” “ought to,” “should,” “would,” “used to,” and “need.” Examples of how an auxiliary or helping verb works in a sentence: “She will sleep early tonight.” “We ought to leave now but it’s raining very hard.” “They need to finish the project next week or forfeit their bonuses.”

Now, as we know, the verb “be”—and, of course, its forms “am,” “is,” “are,” and “were”—can work either as the main verb or as an auxiliary or helping verb in a sentence. It is a main verb in the sentence “We are united as a people,” where it functions as a linking verb; but it is an auxiliary verb in “They are being led by a clueless team leader,” where it “helps” to form the verb phrase “are being led,” which is in the passive form of the present progressive tense of the verb “lead.”

But, you ask, what is “was” doing in the sentence “The machine was damaged”? Is it functioning as a linking verb or as an auxiliary verb?

The answer will depend on the intended sense or meaning of the sentence. It would be a linking verb if “damaged” is meant to be an adjective being used to denote a condition of the machine; recall that in English, the past participle of a verb usually becomes an adjective (such as “broken” or “cracked” in “The glass pane is broken/cracked.”). On the other hand, it would be an auxiliary or helping verb if “damaged” is meant to be a transitive verb (instead of an adjective) in the verb phrase “was damaged” to indicate an evolving action, as in “The machine was damaged while being installed.”

We must take note, though, that whether “be” functions as a linking verb or as an auxiliary verb is strongly sensitive to the tense of the verb. In the present-tense sentence “The machine is damaged,” it’s obvious that “is” functions as a linking verb because it’s clear that “damaged” is an adjective. When the verb is in the past tense, “The machine was damaged,” the function of the verb “was” becomes rather equivocal—it could either be a linking verb or an auxiliary verb depending on how the reader interprets the sentence. The sense of “was” as an auxiliary verb becomes unmistakable only when the sentence is qualified as, say, ““The machine was damaged while the workers were installing it.” In contrast, when that sentence is in the present tense “The machine is damaged,” the only valid sense is that “is” is a linking verb and that “damaged” could only be an adjective.